Magazines: Changing Representations

What Magazines: Changing Representations covers

Magazines: Changing Representations is examined in A2 Unit 3, Media in the Global Age. It covers magazine media language: codes, conventions and design, constructing representations in magazines, the magazine industry and its audiences, Vogue, July 1965: the historical fashion magazine, Woman, 23–29 August 1964, Woman's Realm, 7–13 February 1965, Cosmopolitan online, Hello! online, Men's Health online, Vogue online, Adbusters, Attitude, Huck and Pride.

The 14 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Magazine media language: codes, conventions and designFive conventional elements of a magazine front cover, mode of address in relation to a magazine and magazine's house style.Open →
• Constructing representations in magazinesHow a photograph is mediated before publication, stuart Hall and van Zoonen's argument that gender is constructed through discourse.Open →
• The magazine industry and its audiencesMain revenue streams of a commercial magazine, significance of advertising revenue to a magazine's content and conglomerate ownership.Open →
• Vogue, July 1965: the historical fashion magazineRecall questions on the publication details, the cover design and its few cover lines, the mode of address, what the advertising reveals about the readership, femininity in 1965, fashion photography replacing illustration, the near-absence of Black and Asian models, and what has stayed the same since.Open →
• Woman, 23–29 August 1964Publication is Woman, ideological work done by the problem page and missing from the representation of women in the issue.Open →
• Woman's Realm, 7–13 February 1965Visual style of the cover and practical content did the magazine carry.Open →
• Cosmopolitan onlineSite's typical home page design, listicle and why does it suit an online magazine and three ways the site generates revenue.Open →
• Hello! onlineMagazine is Hello!, authorised access in celebrity journalism and design of the Hello! website.Open →
• Men's Health onlineWay the male body is presented in the title's imagery and hegemonic masculinity and how does it relate to the title.Open →
• Vogue onlineRecall questions on the founding of British Vogue, how the online form differs from print, the unchanged masthead, the 2017 and 2023 editorial changes, Condé Nast's international reorganisation, the weight of luxury advertising, how the site addresses a reader who cannot afford the clothes, and Barthes's myth applied to a fashion image.Open →
• AdbustersAdbusters's stated purpose, culture jamming and two campaigns associated with Adbusters.Open →
• AttitudeRecall questions on the publication details and audience, what makes a title non-mainstream, its representation of masculinity, the criticism of its body imagery, the 2016 Prince William cover, its campaigning content, the difficulty of advertising for a specialist title, and both sides of the pink pound.Open →
• HuckDescribing Huck as a counterculture magazine, long-form journalism and why does Huck use it and risk when a countercultural magazine becomes commercially successful.Open →
• PrideRecall questions on the publication details, why the title was needed in the British market, its subject areas and the importance of hair and beauty content, bell hooks and Stuart Hall applied to it, the commercial difficulty of serving one ethnic readership, and both sides of whether a specialist title solves under-representation.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Magazines: Changing Representations further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Masthead vs Cover line

  Masthead: the title of the publication, styled and positioned so readers recognise it instantly. Cover line: a short piece of text on the front advertising an article inside.

• Vertical integration vs Diversification

  Vertical integration: owning successive stages of making and selling the same product. Diversification: moving into different products and markets to spread risk.

• Connotation vs Myth

  Connotation: the range of associated meanings a sign suggests. Myth: such a meaning once it has come to seem an obvious fact about the world.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Name five conventional elements of a magazine front cover.

   Model answer

   The masthead, a dominant cover image, cover lines, a puff or flash, and the barcode with the issue date and price.

2. 2

   Why does a magazine keep the design of its title unchanged for decades?

   Model answer

   It is how a reader finds the title on a crowded shelf, so recognition is worth more than any improvement a redesign could bring.

3. 3

   Explain why a masthead is often partly covered by the cover image.

   Model answer

   Allowing the image to overlap the title signals that the magazine is so well known it does not need to be read in full, which connotes confidence and established status.

4. 4

   How do a magazine's cover lines tell a reader whether it is for them?

   Model answer

   The subjects promised, the way they are worded and what they assume the reader worries about together state who the issue is addressed to.

5. 5

   Define mode of address in relation to a magazine.

   Model answer

   Mode of address is the way a magazine speaks to its reader through pronouns, tone and assumed knowledge, and it constructs the reader it wants by taking that relationship for granted.

6. 6

   How does direct address on a cover work on a reader?

   Model answer

   The use of you and of the imperative speaks to each reader individually and positions the magazine as an adviser or friend whose instructions are worth following.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Magazines: Changing Representations revision questions

What does Magazines: Changing Representations cover in WJEC A-Level Media Studies?

14 subtopics: magazine media language: codes, conventions and design, constructing representations in magazines, the magazine industry and its audiences, vogue, july 1965: the historical fashion magazine, woman, 23–29 august 1964, woman's realm, 7–13 february 1965, cosmopolitan online, hello! online, men's health online, vogue online, adbusters, attitude, huck and pride. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Magazines: Changing Representations organised?

By the WJEC 603-1976-8 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.