The Big Issues

12th March 2018 Notes

Magazine: The Big Issues 

• The magazine must be studied in relation to media language and media representation, including a consideration of the social, cultural and political contexts that influence how media language is used to construct representation. 
• The Big Issue is a niche magazine outside the commercial mainstream that learners may not normally engage with, it provides a contrasting example of how the elements of the theoretical framework for media language can be used to construct alternative representations that appeal to a particular audience, including a consideration of the influence of the  SOCIAL, CULTURAL, POLITICAL context. 

Key Terms

• Circulation: number of copies a magazine sells; 

• Readership: not just who buys a magazine but the total number of people likely to read it. 

• Mass audience:readership on a very large scale. 

• Niche audience: narrow group of readers with a particular interest. 

• Subscription: where a reader pay for a set number of copies of a magazine in audience at a lower price and receives them by post.

• Masthead: the title of magazine. 

• Plug: text that "plugs" a feature that will appears inside the magazine. 

• Puff: a story that is given prominence on the cover.

• Cover Star: the"star"featured on the cover. 

• Anchorage Text: text that anchors the main image and gives it context/meaning.

• Banner: text that runs across the lower section of the cover. 

Advertising and Magazines

• without advertising, no magazine cowed service. If a magazine did not contain ads, then its cover price would be three or four times greater. 

• The INCOME for a magazine comes from both sales and advertising. On average, advertising accounts for 70% of a magazine income. 

• A magazine with a small CIRCULATION is more dependent on advertising that one with a large circulation.