How magazines position their audience Essay

well-nigh life style pickups position their audience by adopting a occurrence mode of address which is aimed to create a relationship between the magazine and its audience, for example the bet cover of FHM (September 2003) includes the following cover lines behave better than Becks bollix with her head and Biggest ever population evoke muckle. These cover lines speak to the audience, which in this case would be men, by adage if you buy this magazine we will show you how to dress better than hotshot of Englands top footballers.It identifies with the single male person and how to get revenge on your ex it also invites them to be a donation of the biggest ever sex survey, this reinforces the bond between the magazine and its audience and makes them feel a articulation of an exclusive club. The front cover of FHM (September 2003) attempts to hook its male audience by using an double, which represents female sexuality. The picture of a female distinction in a provocative pose wearing just her underwear takes up most of the page. It is used to grab its audiences attention on the basis of male and female attraction.The fact that its a celebrity means its not just allone, its someone famous and the use of her first name means it is a more informal start out and helps the audience to feel closer to this coquettish female. FHM is in competition with emaps Loaded and GQ, which means that their front cover has to stand out to a higher place all the rest. FHM uses the exclusive photo shoot of Samia and the Biggest ever world sex survey to promote their magazine as better than any other. The Exclusive shoot of Samia means this has not been done for any other magazine, just for the readers of FHM.The FHM title has been partially covered up by the main image, which suggests that the magazine is well established and no longer call for to show its full identity. The front cover of FHM has typical generic conventions of a male lifestyle magazine, such as the image of a sexy female, it mentions Becks and fashion which has intertextual links with football and has major sexual connotations with the promise of loco porn (Samias sexy shoot). It also includes inside stories on females and sex (girls on the sofa discuss cocks).The red writing adds to the sexy image as red is symbolic of love, lust and sex and it also helps the magazine to stand out. The FHM magazine fulfils the needs of diversion as it gives its audience the incident to escape from their daily routine through reading about more light-hearted matters such as sex, women and cars. It also fulfils the needs of personal relationships by whirl companionship as it identifies with its male audience and helps them to feel a part of an exclusive social group.By using the cover lines Best of British, Mess With Her Head and the mention of Arnie (Arnold Schwarzenegger) it gives the audience personal identity and reinforces the norms and values of masculinity and manpower (Mc Quail, Blumer and Brown 1972). Male lifestyle magazines can be seen as stereotypical of men and male values. Using the front cover of FHM (September 2003) as an example, it suggests that men are only interested in sex, nude women, football and male dominance as most of the page is taken up by the half naked image of a woman. The features mentioned on the front cover are mainly to do with sex, cars and getting revenge on women.The FHM title is made up of the colours of the British flag and the fable Best of British. This can be seen as patriotic which also implies male dominance as Britain is a patriarchal society (male dominated) and therefore reinforces the idea of manpower. Male lifestyle magazines can also be seen to portray a bias ideology of women as most of the women in their magazines are real pretty, thin and sexy which assumes that all men who read these magazines are attracted to this reference of woman. This is not always true of all men and therefore gives a false impressi on of the male expectations of women.This representation of women is also not inescapably the true reality of what most women look like and could be seen to boost women and men conform to this stereotypical expectation of the perfect woman. This would depend on how the specific audience of these magazines position themselves in relation to the text and whether they took the favourite(a) reading and accepted this to be normal, negotiated what they thought and interpreted it how they chose to or contend the reading totally and therefore this type of magazine may not appeal to them. (Stuart Hall).