My finshed product all cheaked x

MEDIA LANGUAGES
By Chloe Taylor 10C

In this essay I will be analysing two different magazines. They are both very different the first one is ‘Heat’- a British entertainment magazine the other ‘Hairstyles’- a British information magazine on hairstyles. I will be using basic techniques like connotation and denotation to compare these two magazines. When writing this essay I will be thinking about the genre, analysing the look, colours, visual codes, text, will help me to pull the magazine apart and do a good structured essay. This essay will be aimed at women’s magazines and the way they affect the target audience and how different and similar two magazines can really be.

I know that ‘Heat’ is aimed at women and teenagers because on the cover there is a text saying ‘Our men prefer us curvy’(www.heatworld.com 2008)this is aimed at peoples appearance and body type this is also aimed at women because it is from a women’s point of view. There is also a visual code of a man he looks quiet hunky and the text is about modelling that will make women want to read it and find out what other visual codes there will be inside because on the front you only see his face. The colours of the front page are also very girly there are colours like bright pink, baby blue, black and yellow.
‘Hairstyles’ is a magazine for women who might be in the beauty and hair industry or enjoy looking at new hairstyles. I can tell that this magazine is for women and maybe older teenagers because the type of text is bold and girly and is filled in with colours like hot pinks, gold’s, whites and some blacks. All the visual code are of women with lots of nice makeup done and there hair really nice.

Heat is a British entertainment magazine published by Bauer Consumer Media. As of 2004 it is one of the biggest selling magazines in the UK, with a regular circulation over half a million. Its mix of celebrity news, gossip and fashion is primarily aimed at women, although not as directly as in other women's magazines. It also features movie and music reviews, TV listings and major celebrity interviews. Heat was launched in February 1999 as a general interest entertainment magazine, at a cost of more than £4m. However, unlike other Emap launches before and after, it was not an immediate success, with a circulation below 100,000. A series of revamps quickly repositioned the magazine as a less serious, more gossip-oriented magazine aimed at women, and circulation quickly grew. It has a lot of competition like ‘Reveal’ and ‘OK’.







‘Heat’ magazine is a fashion, celebrity news, and gossip magazine. You can tell it is this genre because the colors and visual code and text show this through them. There are visual codes of well known celebrities and they are very well clothed. The text stands out and you know what you are going to see inside the magazine or what it is about. We also know the genre because there are a lot of quotations either aimed at women or written by them.
‘Hairstyles’ is a magazine about hair and the new styles hence the name. There are a lot of celebrities and models looking really nice with really nice hair. The texts are in pink, and black and that looks really good to show a girls magazine, men would think pink would be very odd on a men’s magazine and camp. Women would by this magazine more because generally they take more care in there appearance. This is a good market to aim for because women would buy more magazines like this.

The Denotation of ‘Heat’ magazine is that you see the word ‘Heat’ in a hot red color, women in bikinis, a man in a sailor’s hat and a women looking stressed out. The connotation of the ‘heat’ magazine makes women feel good about themselves, ‘Our men prefer us curvy’ (www.heatworld.com 2008) has pictures of celebrities. The stereotypical view of celebrities is up to fashion and very glamorous not like normal people. When reading this magazine the target audience (women and teenagers) will feel good about themselves because celebrities are saying ‘Our men prefer us curvy’ (www.heatworld.com) 2008 and it will make them feel a lot better. I think that every women/teenager would read this the same because the writer has obviously just thought about how women and teenagers would read because no-one else would buy it.
The denotation of ‘Hairstyles’ magazine is lots of girls with loads of makeup and very nice hair looking glamorous. The connotation of the ‘Hairstyles’ magazine is to lure people in and make them really focus on the hair which is what the magazine is selling. The magazine can apparently tell you what the sexiest colour is for you. Women will be intrigued to find out what they could look like and look just like the people on the magazine. I think the magazine would be read the same by all people, just like ‘Heat’ the editor wants a greater percentage of people to buy the magazine so it will be more popular.

In ‘Heat’ there is such content as articles about fashion, interviews of celebrities and celebrity news. In magazines like this there are
opportunities to get vouchers, freebies and to subscribe. Fashion is a big part to this magazine and you can see where clothes are from and what they look like and the cost, so magazines like ‘Heat’ will give you information on where to buy stuff from. In the magazine they add opportunities to be able to enter magazine competitions and have the opportunities to win stuff and meet celebrities.
In ‘Hairstyles’ there is such content about different types of hairstyles and what would be the best look for you. In the magazine ‘Hairstyles’ there are a lot of opportunities to look at different hairstyles. There are hairstyles of each hair colour, face shape, age,
Evening/night outs and day, and sex. Every page has a picture of hairstyles on it. In this magazine they advertise events such as hair styles competitions.

The two magazines are very alike in many ways, the two magazines I have been comparing both appeal to the same audience(women and teenagers), I can tell this even from the front cover, the colours the editor has chosen to portray what sex the magazines are for has been done very well. The content have some of the same ideas in ‘Heat’ about celebrities and the latest look, in ‘Hairstyles’ there is also celebrities and the latest look.

They are also different. Although there are some of the same ideas in the content there are also very different ideas. With ‘Hairstyles’ it is mainly about hair but in ‘Heat’ there are a lot of different styles and genres contained in the magazine. For ‘Heat’ magazine there is a lot of history and figures on how many the magazines sell. It has been very hard trying to find any information on ‘Hairstyles’ magazine.


In summarising and analysing the magazines I have found out that the media business is all very similar when you are producing a women’s magazine. The front covers of women’s magazines are very similar even if the content is different. The media is very good at selling magazines to the target audience the captions they use effect the decisions to make them buy the magazine. They manipulate and get the target audience to have a positive view on the magazine and when buying the magazine.


BIBLOIGRAPHY

Copyright 2008 Bauer :(www.heatworld.com) Julian Linley : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_(magazine)

Retrieved on: 7 October 2008