Magazine Terminology

One Third of A2's practical is the production of a magazine cover to promote that of my production 'Writers Block'. But before I even consider making a magazine cover, I must first familiarise myself with the elements which in themselves make said cover;

But what does any of that mean?

A Masthead:

The title used by known typography to make the readers become familiar with what magazine they are reading. Main Image:

Typically showing the person(s) or object directly associated with the main feature/article.

Selling line/Strap-line:

Seen as an introductory headline below the masthead describing the magazine.

Pug:

‘The ears of the magazine’, can either be at the top left or/and right-hand corners of the front cover. The prices of the paper, the logo or a promotion are positioned there or even a freebie is placed there to catch the reader’s eye.

Tag:

The word or phrase is used to engage a reader’s interest in a story by categorising it e.g. ‘Exclusive’, ‘Sensational’, this showing that the magazine has high compliments.

Cover line:

The essential articles inside the magazine are stated through sell lines, these are regularly seen at the right hand side of the cover.

Barcode/Issue number/Dateline & Price:

Pretty self explanatory.

Typography:

Serif: Fonts with fancy feet

Sans Serif: Fonts without fancy feet

Drop- Cap: The first letter of the article tends to be in a larger/different/elaborate font.

In-House:

‘Trademarks’ of the magazine e.g colour scheme= house colours.

Slug:

‘In-house’ logo for this particular section’s e.g reviews have a different slug to interviews.

End marker:

Fancy/elaborate full stop at the end of the article.

Pull Quotes:

Enlarged quotes.

And for deeper analysis...

Connotation/ Denotation:

Words, sounds and visual images have denotative or literal meanings. A dictionary

definition of ‘rose’ is likely to describe it as a flower, with a thorned stem, having a

variety of colours and emitting a pleasant scent.

In our culture, however, the rose has a large number of associated meanings, the

majority of which connect with ideas of romance: ‘My love is like a red, red rose’. Be

prepared to explore these associations or connotations as they are

likely to yield a good deal of insight into the preferred reading of your film poster

and magazine cover.

Anchorage:

A picture is worth a thousand words, so the cliché goes. But rarely do pictures appear without some text, (whether spoken or written), which serves to establish or anchor

an interpretation. In a newspaper, sub editors will apply headlines or captions to a

photograph; in a documentary, a voiceover may serve a similar function. To highlight for yourself the importance of anchorage, try looking at pictures you’re thinking of using for your poster or magazine cover with, and without, accompanying text, or with Different text.

Target audience:

From what you can glean from the ideas already listed, who in particular do you think

was the intended audience for your particular text? Your answer may refer to age, gender, socioeconomic status, region or nationality, sub-culture or even personality type. If you are examining a poster, you ought to consider the context – such as genre & classification – for an indication of target audience.