Genres

�  There are magazines covering a huge range of topics and the range is widening all the time. For instance just twenty years ago there were no lifestyle magazines specifically directed at men, yet now there are many. For example; loaded, GQ, FHM, Zoo

�  The magazine market has seen a high degree of audience fragmentation. The publishing costs are low so small readerships can be catered for a profit. For example fishing was originally covered by one main magazine; now there are a huge variety.

Front Covers

�  Front covers are very important to in order to create an identity for the magazine and to differentiate from the competitors.

�  The genre needs to be clear to a targeted audience

�  For example this magazine front cover is very clearly aimed at teenage girls. We can see this through 4 concepts

4 KEY CONCEPTS

�  REPRESENTATION

�  INSTITUTION

�  GENRE

�  AUDIENCE

4 KEY CONCEPTS

�  REPRESENTATION- How is the magazine presented? What is the image portraying? How do you know?

�  INSTITUTION- Who made the magazine? Was it a big powerful or small company?

�  Genre- What is the magazine about? How do you know?

�  Audience- Who would read the magazine? Age, sex, location.

�  I will be analyzing this magazine and researching into their 4 key concepts.

Representation

�  In this edition of GQ magazine, Beyonce is presented in a sexually attractive way. She is in underwear with a cropped top on where you can see part of her lower breast. Her arms are also up whiles her hands are through her hair. This image denotes sexual connotations and promotes a ‘sexy’ theme to the magazine. Also in the first third of the magazine, the sexual idea is encouraged as in large, bold text it talks about gentleman keeping their pants on.

�  The color scheme of the magazine is plain with some splashes of blue and red. This is to make the main image stand out and be the first thing the reader looks at. This is clear as the model fills all three thirds.

�  The representation of the magazine matches the target audience as often men don’t require a lot of detail to be hooked, they could be hooked in other ways such as sexual connotations as shown in this edition.

Institution

�  GQ (formerly, gentlemen’s quarterly) is an internationally men’s based in New York. The publication mainly focuses on; Music, fashion and culture for men. Articles also focus on sex, sport and lifestyle.

�  Gentlemen's Quarterly was launched in 1931 in the United States as Apparel Arts.It was a men's fashion magazine for the clothing trade, aimed primarily at wholesale buyers and retail sellers. Initially it had a very limited print run and was aimed solely at industry insiders to enable them to give advice to their customers. The popularity of the magazine among retail customers, who often took the magazine from the retailers, spurred the creation of Esquire magazine in 1933. The fashion magazine later developed into a music/men’s magazine.

�  GQ is a international magazine and therefor operates on a large scale, it is in the top 50 magazines world wide

Genre

�  The publication mainly focuses on; Music, fashion and culture for men. Articles also focus on sex, sport and lifestyle. At heart, the magazine is a officially a men’s lifestyle magazine however has many sub genres such as music, culture, sport etc.

�  The cover of the magazine meets the needs of the genres target audience as it includes sport, women and classic men interests.

Audience

�  GQ primary target audience are middle aged young men around the age of 20-24. The magazine has a modern ‘glossy’ theme to it and completely depicts a typical young male in todays society. It fits the sterio type of men loving music, food, football and women. GQ completely takes advantage of this and ticks every box that a men’s magazine should. For example in this front cover Beyonce is depicted in a sexual way whiles many sub headlines refer to ‘sexy women’. Also the ‘NFL’ is included which is easily associated with young men.