Codes and Conventions of Magazines

Codes and Conventions of Magazines

The common codes and conventions on the front cover of a magazine include:

·         A Masthead (name of the magazine)

·         Cover lines

·         Main image (usually covering majority of the page, normally relevant to the main article)

·         Some form of advertisement

·         A barcode

The masthead will normally be located at the top of the page. The magazine tag line is normally found just above or just below the masthead. The main image will normally be at the centre of the page as it will be the relevant to the main cover line. The cover lines are normally surrounding the main image although they can sometime be on top of the main image itself. There is normally some form of offer or advertisement promoting the magazine and trying to encourage subscriptions.

Much like the cover pages, contents pages follow a set of codes and conventions that they all try to use in their own unique way. The usual layout for a contents page is:

·         Columns of information or page numbers

·         The magazines name will be at the top of the page

·         Will normally have a similar colour scheme to the front cover

·         Information about the magazine, maybe an editors story

·         A main image usually related to the main article.

All magazines will have similar codes and conventions on the Front cover and their contents page. This is because they try to keep the theme of the magazine going through out. People will stereotype the magazine on the way it is laid out as well as what is in it. The different colours, text and images will affect the sorts of readers that read the magazine.

The three different categories for codes are; Technical, symbolic and written codes.

Technical Codes: Normally to do with the photographing of an image, this includes Framing, the depth of field, lighting and exposure.

Symbolic Codes: This is to do with what the objects within the magazines connote. For example colour, clothing and body language.

Written Codes: This is to do with the language that is used and the affect that it has upon the reader.