Analysing Magazine Articles

Use these questions to help you to analyse at least 2 magazine articles:


1) What does the choice of artist featured in the article suggest who the target audience will be?
2) What type of language is used in the article? Is the language used informal or does it have a more academic quality? How does this language appeal to the audience? Give examples of words or phrases which are specific to the style of the magazine.
3) What tone does the magazine use to address the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence
4) What style of text is used? Is it similar to any other pages? What does it say about the image of the magazine and the audience? How is the text arranged? How is the interview laid out? Are various entry points used and why?
5) How are the pages laid out? How much of the pages are taken up by images and how much by text? How does this reflect the audience? What do they value?
6) What tone is the magazine using when addressing the reader (as a close friend, a member of an 'in' crowd or an informed intelligent fan?) - provide evidence
7) How is the artist/band presented to the audience through the images? How is meaning achored through the caption? You may wish to carry out a textual analysis.
8) How does the style of the article match the style of the front cover? Is a house style being developed across all the pages you have analysed?
9) Does the article demand any prior knowledge? Give examples.