Textual Analysis of Film Magazine Frontcovers

Language- The language in the written texts of film magazines usually contains jargon related to film and media. Language could also mean the style and colour of text in order to emphasize a particular article in the magazine.

Institution- The institution will be the publisher of the magazine. Future PLC is the publisher of Total Film magazine.

Ideology- The ideology of film magazines are to promote films, directors, actors and production companies. Film magazines usually review upcoming films as well as features on different films and actors.

Audience- The audience of film magazines are usually people who are fans of films and actors. The target audience are 18-35 year olds and usually are mainly male orientated. Many of the covers are of highly anticipated films, most of which are action, adventure and thriller based genres although the cover of the June 2008 issue was Sarah Jessica Parker who starred that month in the new and highly anticipated 'Sex and the City' film which was in the romantic comedy genre.

Representation- The films, actors, directors, writers, production companies and film festivals are the main representation of film magazines. The representation is in the form of images from the film and reviews of that film which help persuade audiences to see the film.

Usually, the images on the front cover or the main article is from the most talked about or highly anticipated film of that month.

The usual conventions of a magazine front cover are;

• title
• headline
• subheadline
• date line
• main image
• additional images
• barcode
• pull quote
• masthead
• issue number
• logo of publisher
• price of magazine

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Sources:

http://www.whosdatedwho.com/what/magazine_view.asp?ID=420