The Empire magazine is written for peoples whos primary interests are films.

It is written in a very
much informal manner, with little use of complex language and advanced English. The style in
which it is written is written for the purpose of talking straight to the audience and being able to
relate to what they are thinking. Other magazines such as fashion magazines like Vogue will written
in a manner which lays out facts, speaking forwardly to the audience. This is done because this
magazine is telling the audiences about what fashion is, it lays down facts. Empire on the other
hand provides an opinion for the audience, which would seem more appropriate anyway as films
are all subjective and opinion based. When conducting a survey on the audiences of the Empire
magazine, I found that on a scale of 1-5 the audience found that the audience found it fairly
appropriate for the magazine to be written informally ranking at 3&4. This tells me that perhaps the
magazine needs to have a change of tone to differentiate itself from other film magazines as it is no
longer meeting the audiences needs and requirements. Furthermore I feel that the images that are
used in the magazine make it appropriate for the audiences needs. The pictures show the
audiences vital pieces of information that relate to the article. In this instance it is likely to be a
picture of a main character next to the writing. The image I think is one of the most important parts
of the article as it what captures the audiences interest from the beginning. If the audience were to
see a recognisable actor from a character that they are interested in, it will naturally capture their
interests. A key part also for capturing the audiences interests will be the colours of the magazine
and how they are presented. Empire magazine is considered to be a masculine' magazine, as
shown on the statistics to the below. Due to this the colour layout will be colours that are
considered to be masculine, as it has to capture a niche audiences interests. As shown in the
picture, we can see primary colours of blue and red that stand out to us as a male audience. The
red and male colours are strongly associated with masculinity, which will then intrigue the audience
from the start. I know that this is also a suitable colour scheme to be use for the article as they are
colours that are associated with youth as well. From the survey that was taken, I found out that
audiences think that the most common group to read Empire magazine will be Groups E and C2.
Particularly with Group E, these two groups would be people who are not old. Because of this the
colours are subsequently important. Furthermore I think that the font also plays a significant part in
capturing the audience and plays a part on the audiences reading experience. As seen in the
picture on the right, we can see that the font which
has been
used is
reminiscent
of Ancient
Greek style
of font. Due
to the
subject of
the article
being about
a film based in Ancient Greece, it would be appropriate for
the article to have this style of font.

While the contents one of the key attributes of the

magazine, the authors must take into consideration
the construction of content for their audiences with
their use of narrative, layout, captions and
anchorage. The narrative links the target audience
with the words and order in which the articles are
written in, which ties in with the importance of the
layout to retain its level of integrity and to work with
the style of the magazine. Furthermore, the
anchorage must relate the images and text together
as it will not confuse any of the audiences. Empire
relates to the personalities of their target audience
with their narrative. The audience here is not a
businessman, or plumber, or interior designer, but a
casual film fan. Its written in an informal manner,
with jokes being made frequently and cultural references to catch the audiences attention. It says
Frankly, his austere, hardcore gaff makes Shawshank looks chintzy, which in itself is both humour
and a cultural reference something in which the audience will find appealing. Empire is fortunate
enough to be a magazine that writes non-fiction articles about fictional pieces, meaning that they
can play many different informal writing techniques. Furthermore, Empire makes use of its large
bold captions and quotes to captures their target audience into reading their piece. Some
magazines will use these kind of pull out quotes to immediately draw the audience into buying their
magazine particularly on the front covers,
however Empire uses it to relate to the article
itself and give the audience a snippet of the
audience. By doing this, it will make the
audience want to read the rest of the article to
see what the quote is talking about.
The layout of Empire magazine is unique.
Sometimes it will be seen that the article will
be straightforward paragraphs with a picture
above it. Sometimes though it may be multiple
small paragraphs sorted around the whole
double page spread. I think this says
something about the magazine itself though,
again relating to the target audience. The
layout is unpredictable. Its random,
disorganised, perhaps even edgy. I feel like it
relates well to the audience as it is random
and unpredictable, similar to what a film fan
will be like. When asked in a questionnaire it was mostly found that the audience found that the
layout was appropriate the audience mostly agreed. I think that if the layout wasn't in this style it

would not be appropriate because it wouldnt fit with the overall style of the magazine. It caters
towards a quite chilled kind of audience, so if it were to be layered out in the style of a broadsheet
magazine it would not look remotely appropriate as the kind of reader of a broadsheet magazine
would be found to be in the Group A socio-economic group. I also think that this kind of layout
makes it easier to read the magazine for readers. Film is a topic that reaches out to audiences
across multiple different ages, so its readers could be anything from 8 to 80 years old. Even with
the small little facts, theyre placed in theyre own smaller separate paragraph. By doing this it easy
to distinguish what relates to the article and what is simply a bit of extra information on the side.
The captions as well play well into the overall layout of the article and magazine as they can set out
the basis of what the style will be in the article. One of the articles states in its caption In
conversation with Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny. Immediately from the opening it tells the
audiences what the article is about, but also then gives us a basis of what the article will be about;
we know that it is an Empire interview with the stars of The X-Files but it also talks about the style it
will be in. It says specifically that it is in conversation with the stars, telling us that this particular
interview will be informal and friendly. Furthermore I feel that the anchorage that is placed
throughout the Empire magazine is appropriate for the magazine as it addresses what the articles/
magazine is about, whilst also being in a similar style to the rest of the magazine. To the left we
can see one of the front covers to Empire magazine, which is covered with multiple different uses
of anchorage which relate to the picture. James Bond is on the very front of the magazine, with the
title of his new film as the main piece of anchorage. Looking at this we can see immediately what
the main topic of the magazine will be about. I feel like this is important as it will immediately
address the audience as to what the magazine is about. Furthermore there are 3 more pieces of
anchorage on the bottom right corner of the cover. These 3 pieces give the audience a bit of extra
information as to what the article will be about. I think this addresses the audience as it will give
them more reason as to why they should buy the magazine, whilst also
being relevant to the topic of the magazine.
As mentioned before the
linguistics of the magazine
is done appropriately for
addressing the audiences
needs. The language is
informal and is structured so
that it can be easily read. The
structure does not make use of
the broadsheet style as this would be inappropriate
because the target audience would not be used to
that style of structure. Furthermore I believe that the
visual style of the article cover the traditional codes
and conventions of a film magazine which
subsequently is appropriate for the audiences
needs. The colours seen on the front cover give off
the impression with its visual style that this
magazine is a masculine magazine; the

predominant red, black, and blue are commonly associated with masculinely. As my data tells me
in my charts the audience feel like this magazine is targeted towards a male audience, so the use
of this visual style is appropriate for the audiences needs. On top of the fact that it is a male
audience, it is also found that the audience feel it is catered towards a heterosexual audience. The
stereotype of colours for a non-heterosexual audience would be camp colours as they are bright
and bold. This colours are still bold, however because of their association with masculinity they do
not give off the camp style. However my charts did say that only 2/3 of the audience felt it was
appropriate, so it may need room for improvement to make the visual style more appropriate.
Unfortunately though I do not think that the magazine is good at having any symbolic codes and
conventions, however there is a strong argument to be made that it is irrelevant as there are no
needs for symbolic meanings. The magazine is straightforward and does not have any doublemeanings in the articles or in the anchorage/ titles. However due to the
nature of it being a film magazine, an argument could be made that their
is no actual need to have any type of symbolic meaning and that it is
appropriate for the audiences needs to have no symbolic meaning in it.