Analysing a magazine cover 1

This magazine is actually quite interesting because it is a hybrid magazine , between a hip hop music magazine and a gossip one. We understand that this magazine is a music magazine because the title/masthead boldly states "Hip Hop" while the secondary title/header/lead story has big bold yellow font's, as the gossip magazine "OK! Magazine" has, which indicates to us that this magazine also holds gossip within it.

I believe that the target audience for this magazine will be hip hop listeners due to the title "hip hop", and most commonly those from an afro-Caribbean background, due to the term being originated by two known as Lovebug Starski & DJ Hollywood who came from African-American backgrounds who were black. The particular age group that this magazine may be for are teenagers & early adults, due to the front cover having celebrities known as Soulja Boy and Trey Songz which are all under 26, so I would say the target audience is from the ages of 13-25, which is a wide age group and demographic. From the images on the front cover I gather that the interests of the target audience are celebrities, because the front cover is full of nothing but celebrities.

The mode of address that this magazine is using is one that it is telling us to lift up the magazine, because it is showing us the main people on the cover have something to hide because they are avoiding eye contact with the reader, whilst the minor people on the cover are making eye contact with the audience. This makes the reader want the audience want to read the magazine, because they want to find out what the two people (Kat Stacks & Soulja Boy) are hiding by avoiding eye contact with us. The type of relationship the magazine wants with the readers are a truthful one, since the two main people seem to be concealing it.

The two main people on this front cover are Soulja Boy and Kat Stacks because they are part of the main story which is within this magazine, they seem to be the selling point of this magazine. But to make us understand what the story may be about we have the anchorage text which says "Exclusive Interview: KAT STACKS EXPOSES SOULJA BOY?!", which is reinforces the selling point which makes us wonder what secret she may have about Soulja Boy, and by the magazine having an exclusive interview it makes us want to read the magazine, to understand more about the situation. Furthermore anchorage text is used to interest the reader in the magazine such as "Alleged drug romp with Soulja Boy in ATL hotel" & "Secretly films what is suppose to be cocaine in a bedroom", which makes the audience understand what the key situation is, but leaves them on the edge of their seat making us want to purchase the magazine to find out more.

The overall message that the artist is giving out is that he is guilty and/or upset , because this artist is avoiding eye contact with the reader and he usually has a smile which seems to be missing in this image, leading us to believe that something has gone wrong.

This magazine cover is portraying rappers in a negative way, by indicating to us that they may have addictions & have really dark sides to them, and they are a negative influence upon the young generation. No buzz words seem to be present upon the cover of this magazine.

The title of the magazine tells us about what will be within the contents of this magazine, which will be hip hop music and coverage of hip hop culture. The title of this magazine tells us that the readership will be from a middle class majority, possibly those who are not working, and since the target audience is so specific it tells us that the readership will be low. The title of the magazine tells us that the image of this magazine will be quite urban, because hip hop is usually urban, not sub-urban. Another thing the title of this magazine tells us is that it's style is quite casual, so the layout of the magazine will be quite casual and simple.

The puffs on the front cover tells us that there will be the latest news, and high key information about the hip hop stars that we adore. This tells us that the magazine expects to get a young audience, because it is normally teenagers who care about the current affairs of hip hop celebrities.

There is a slogan on this magazine which is "Covering Hip Hop culture" , it tells us that the main focus of this magazine is to cover hip hop culture and keep their target audience updated with the information, and it attracts readers because it makes the reader think that they will be up to date with hip hop culture by purchasing and reading this magazine.

The colours used on this magazine are yellow, white and red, and the reason for these colours being used is because they are bright and attractive to the eye, and will catch the readers eye as they walk by. I find these colours attractive because they are quite bright, and they are colours which are usually used to alert people. Yellow and red are harmonious colours and are used in sports, for warnings and discipline so this magazine may be warning us about some celebrities, and disciplining them by writing they wrongs within the magazine. The font within this magazine is bold to attract the reader's attention.