Heat is a popular magazine that is released weekly by EMAP. Heat’s directors are Louise Matthews, Paul Keenan and Jimmy Weir. It is a gossip and celebrity magazine that is aimed at young to middle aged women. Every issue of Heat magazine follows the same codes and conventions and each issue is similar in some way or another.
The median of Heat magazine is print in the style of a magazine. The ideology of Heat is that celebrities’ lives and their activity should be broadcasted to the world and they make their profits from celebrity relationships, lives and scandal. The denotation when looking at the front cover of an issue of Heat magazine the first thing that you notice is the bright colours that are included in it. This could be so that when consumers are looking for a magazine they see Heat first because it has the brightest colours, biggest fonts and interesting photos and there is always a lot going on in any front cover of Heat that you see.
The masthead for Heat magazine is always the same so that it can be recognised easily from week to week. It is always bright red, big and in a clear font. The masthead is the symbolisation of Heat magazine. The same tagline is always featured on the cover of Heat magazine which reads, “This week’s hottest celebrity news.” All these codes and conventions are kept the same throughout each issue so that Heat magazine has a recognisable style and image which helps it to sell week after week.
The cover story on Heat is always advertised in bright bold colours and fonts which are splashed across the front cover to gain consumer attention. The connotation of Heat magazine is that when people from Heat’s target audience see the front cover of the magazine, they feel eager to open it and read the stories advertised on the front cover. The reason that they feel the urge to do this is because they are interested by the topics raised and by reading the magazine it gives helps them socialise with other readers and friends.
The representation of Heat magazine is that it is fun, action packed, exciting and scandalous. This can be gathered from its bright and bold image. Heat Magazine is aimed at the mainstream audience because most women are interested in the stories that Heat print. The institution of Heat magazine is the company that produces it. This company is called EMAP. Heat follows the same narrative throughout all of its issues with some slight changes made from issue to issue depending on what the stories are about. The structure of Heat magazine is that it is in different sections on the cover. Each section has a different colour background to differentiate them from each other. The colours clash together which makes the magazine more recognisable. On the front cover of Heat magazine there is the main cover story which is always situated on the centre of the cover. They also have stories displayed and advertised at the very top of the page and sometimes the bottom. Celebrity photos are always shown to let the consumers know who is included in that week’s issue.
The median of Heat magazine is print in the style of a magazine. The ideology of Heat is that celebrities’ lives and their activity should be broadcasted to the world and they make their profits from celebrity relationships, lives and scandal. The denotation when looking at the front cover of an issue of Heat magazine the first thing that you notice is the bright colours that are included in it. This could be so that when consumers are looking for a magazine they see Heat first because it has the brightest colours, biggest fonts and interesting photos and there is always a lot going on in any front cover of Heat that you see.
The masthead for Heat magazine is always the same so that it can be recognised easily from week to week. It is always bright red, big and in a clear font. The masthead is the symbolisation of Heat magazine. The same tagline is always featured on the cover of Heat magazine which reads, “This week’s hottest celebrity news.” All these codes and conventions are kept the same throughout each issue so that Heat magazine has a recognisable style and image which helps it to sell week after week.The cover story on Heat is always advertised in bright bold colours and fonts which are splashed across the front cover to gain consumer attention. The connotation of Heat magazine is that when people from Heat’s target audience see the front cover of the magazine, they feel eager to open it and read the stories advertised on the front cover. The reason that they feel the urge to do this is because they are interested by the topics raised and by reading the magazine it gives helps them socialise with other readers and friends.
The representation of Heat magazine is that it is fun, action packed, exciting and scandalous. This can be gathered from its bright and bold image. Heat Magazine is aimed at the mainstream audience because most women are interested in the stories that Heat print. The institution of Heat magazine is the company that produces it. This company is called EMAP. Heat follows the same narrative throughout all of its issues with some slight changes made from issue to issue depending on what the stories are about. The structure of Heat magazine is that it is in different sections on the cover. Each section has a different colour background to differentiate them from each other. The colours clash together which makes the magazine more recognisable. On the front cover of Heat magazine there is the main cover story which is always situated on the centre of the cover. They also have stories displayed and advertised at the very top of the page and sometimes the bottom. Celebrity photos are always shown to let the consumers know who is included in that week’s issue.
By analysing the contents page of Heat magazine it will enable me to realise how the codes and conventions, connotations and denotations of Heat magazines’ front cover are continued throughout the entire magazine. In most episodes of Heat magazine the contents page doesn’t have an Editor’s letter instead it has a section about the latest celebrity story. This section is called “Everyone’s talking about…” There are photos of the celebrity that the story is about. The celebrities name is also in bold and in a bright font, this is a denotation that is carried on from Heat’s front cover. This section of the contents page normally takes up half the page or sometimes the majority of it.
‘Contents’ is in a bold clear font that stands out from its background colour. Like Look magazine Heat’s contents page is also divided into sections, so the readers of Heat can see the parts they want to read easily and find out what page they are on. On the contents page the featured pages are listed and the cover stories are shown in the list. This is because a consumer would buy the magazine because of the stories advertised on the cover so they are shown in the contents so readers can see them easily. Also another similarity with Look magazine is that the colours used in the contents for Heat magazine are not as bright as the front cover. Both magazines are like this because the bright colours on the front cover are used to grab the consumer’s attention so it can be recognised in the shops, so the contents page does not have to be as bright because they don’t normally see the contents until after they have purchased the magazine.
There is also a box in the corner of the contents page with a brightly coloured border and in a bold font it says, “Exclusive to Heat…” It has photos of celebrities and is advertising featured stories in the magazine and tells the reader what page they are on. This grabs the reader’s attention and acts as a ‘fast track’ for readers to get to the stories that interest them.
The double page spread I will analyse and examine further is a celebrity interview because I was thinking of using an interview for my double page spread when I design my own music magazine. For the double page spread a colour theme is used, in this case the main colour used is different shades of pink. A big photo of the featured celebrity takes up the majority of one page. Like Look magazine double page spread there is also a brief explanation of what is going on to interest the reader. Also, there is a big bold pink letter at the beginning of the text to show where the main text begins like in Look magazine. This shows how magazines that are similar use some of the same codes and conventions and denotations.
A quote from the celebrity is in bold, bright pink lettering in pink quotation marks and it stands out from the main text. Other photos of the celebrity are situated around the text and because it is an interview, the questions are in bright pink and bold. Another similarity between Look magazine and Heat magazine is that the photos all have captions underneath them to explain what is going on in the image. Most of the photos are also medium shots.
In conclusion I think that Heat magazine successfully portrays it’s image of a celebrity gossip magazine on the front cover because it looks fun and emphasises the culture and lifestyles of celebrities which makes readers go out and purchase their issue week after week. By analysing the main features of Heat magazine’ the front cover, contents page and double page spread I have realised how the codes and conventions are carried out throughout the magazine and all features portray the same image for the magazine. I have also realised that some magazines share some of the same denotations, codes and conventions. Above there are examples of Heat magazine front covers.
‘Contents’ is in a bold clear font that stands out from its background colour. Like Look magazine Heat’s contents page is also divided into sections, so the readers of Heat can see the parts they want to read easily and find out what page they are on. On the contents page the featured pages are listed and the cover stories are shown in the list. This is because a consumer would buy the magazine because of the stories advertised on the cover so they are shown in the contents so readers can see them easily. Also another similarity with Look magazine is that the colours used in the contents for Heat magazine are not as bright as the front cover. Both magazines are like this because the bright colours on the front cover are used to grab the consumer’s attention so it can be recognised in the shops, so the contents page does not have to be as bright because they don’t normally see the contents until after they have purchased the magazine.
There is also a box in the corner of the contents page with a brightly coloured border and in a bold font it says, “Exclusive to Heat…” It has photos of celebrities and is advertising featured stories in the magazine and tells the reader what page they are on. This grabs the reader’s attention and acts as a ‘fast track’ for readers to get to the stories that interest them.
The double page spread I will analyse and examine further is a celebrity interview because I was thinking of using an interview for my double page spread when I design my own music magazine. For the double page spread a colour theme is used, in this case the main colour used is different shades of pink. A big photo of the featured celebrity takes up the majority of one page. Like Look magazine double page spread there is also a brief explanation of what is going on to interest the reader. Also, there is a big bold pink letter at the beginning of the text to show where the main text begins like in Look magazine. This shows how magazines that are similar use some of the same codes and conventions and denotations.
A quote from the celebrity is in bold, bright pink lettering in pink quotation marks and it stands out from the main text. Other photos of the celebrity are situated around the text and because it is an interview, the questions are in bright pink and bold. Another similarity between Look magazine and Heat magazine is that the photos all have captions underneath them to explain what is going on in the image. Most of the photos are also medium shots.
In conclusion I think that Heat magazine successfully portrays it’s image of a celebrity gossip magazine on the front cover because it looks fun and emphasises the culture and lifestyles of celebrities which makes readers go out and purchase their issue week after week. By analysing the main features of Heat magazine’ the front cover, contents page and double page spread I have realised how the codes and conventions are carried out throughout the magazine and all features portray the same image for the magazine. I have also realised that some magazines share some of the same denotations, codes and conventions. Above there are examples of Heat magazine front covers.
Well done, Abbie - a lot of detail here - however it would be useful to analyse one issue of Heat and consider layout and design of the front cover, contents page and a dps (double page spread).
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