The many different types of magazines that are present in the market could be seen as a proof that editors are constantly looking to target an audience. Indeed, in order to secure the right type of advertisers, magazine editors have to find the right type of readers so that the efficiency and popularity of advertisements and features is maximized. Therefore, readership identity is constructed throughout the contents of a magazine, from the topics of features, to photographs and advertisements. In order to enlighten this construction of the ideal reader, we need to study what the concept of identity means and how it is assembled in magazines. We will then apply these principles to the deconstruction of Financial Times Magazine with the aim of determining how this particular magazine constructs the identity of its readers, in an attempt to attract its target audience.
[...] Indeed, Bignell (1997: 56) points out the need to how the mythic meanings in magazines relate to ideologies, and whether these meanings are being naturalized in support of an ideology'. Similarly, the article ‘What's in it for EU?'(Davies, 2004: 22) supports the enlargement of the European Union but otherwise holds very capitalist views: ‘Britain possesses a shamefully large underclass that is producing unemployable illiterates and a government that thinks 50 per cent of young people should go to university.' What is more, the author uses words such as ‘unskilled labor', ‘horde of parasites', and ‘cheaper labor' and holds a very anti-communist and one-sided view when he states the likes of fascism, communism and many other tyrannies.' Communism and fascism are ideologies but they only become tyrannies in the hands of a tyrant. [...]
[...] This is particularly evident in advertising, as Jhally (2003: 251) states that ‘advertising [ ] does not work by creating values and attitudes out of nothing but by drawing upon and rechanneling concerns that the target audience (and the culture) already shares' and the photographs that are present in magazines and whether these show right kind of people, in the way they dress and look' (Morrish, J. 1996: 43). This leads us to the social and cultural aspects of the construction of identity in magazines. [...]
[...] Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 56-59. Jhally, S ‘Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture' in Dines, G and Humez, J.M.Gender, Race, and Class in the media. Thousand Oaks: Sage, p.251. Dines, Humez, J. M.2003.Gender, Race, and Class in the media. Thousand Oaks: Sage, p.245. Rutherford, J ‘Identity: Diversity and Difference in Post- modern Politics' in Woodward, K(ed) Identity and Difference. London: Sage, p Gough-Yates, A Understanding Women's magazines: publishing, markets and readerships. London: Routledge, pp Bourdieu, P (1979). Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste, trans. [...]
[...] Indeed, as Kellner (in Dines, 2003: 245) argues, cannot help but construct notions of ourselves at least in part from the media images that surround us, and given that the advertiser uses idealized images of ourselves to sell us products, most of us will find ourselves woefully inadequate when we compare ourselves with such images'. Therefore, Financial Times Magazine is very selective of its potential readers. If you do not possess an interest in finance or economics and in any case, do not have the necessary jargon, you are less likely to purchase, or even read, the magazine. [...]
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