Target Audiences, Ideologies & Representations

Each magazine is targeted at a specific audience, whether that is a niche or universal market. This is usually apparent by the particular design for each magazine, which therefore helps appeal to their target audience. The different representations of the target market are generally presumed by the followings:

• Use of fonts
• Colours
• Graphics
• Images

All of these above help to reflect the ideologies of the specific genres. An ideology is a set of beliefs a person or groups hold. Depending on what the genre of the magazine is, depends on different ideologies the editors will include, which affects how they represent themselves. 

An example of how different ideologies are represented through different genres is pop music. This is a social type of music, which generally has a positive attitude that would be conveyed in a music magazine to present this view across. Therefore, a pop magazine would use bright, bold colours and pictures, as they have connotations of positivity. Pop music isn't abrasive and therefore, the cover wouldn't have clashing colours that clutters it, unlike a rock magazine would. Furthermore, pop music tends to not have any sexual or violent references, resulting in the model on the front cover being smiley and happy, again connoting positivity, attracting to their target market. Usually on most pop magazines, they will have an attractive model as glamour is rather important when becoming a successful pop artist. Additionally, their contrived design is to primarily sell, as it has a universal appeal. On the other hand, with music genres such as rock and hip-hip (rap) generally have a anti-social, violent and aggressive feel to it. Therefore, they will most likely use dark fonts, that will clutter the page to present the specific genre. As both rock and hip-hop music are rather abrasive and sweary the cover would be busy, possibly a model doing a certain gesture, appealing to their target audience. In comparison to a pop magazine, a rock or hip-hop magazine would express their true feelings, not being afraid to say how they feel. They are also not as bothered about commercial success, indicating their market viewers are a more niche market over mass.