Textual Analysis of 'Closer' Magazine's Front Cover

I have chosen to analyse the devices used by Closer to attract the younger target audience of teens or young women. By focusing on this magazine I should get a good understanding of how to appeal to the student audience as it has a similar age range in the target audience as my magazine will have.

The colours are a very important way of attracting the young target audience. The colour pink is the main background of the cover, which clearly connotes that it is stereotypically aimed at females. The other colours on the cover are all bright and contrast to the pink, which makes the cover very eye catching. The masthead is in white which contrasts with the pink and makes the name stand out so it’s clearly visible. Also, the colour white has connotations to purity and innocence that may be seen as contradicting the behaviour of the celebs on the cover.

‘Closer’ as a title is very effective for giving the readers the impression that they are getting ‘closer’ to the events and the news around the celebrities. Can also be signifying that readers can be getting ‘closer’ to the celebrities themselves.

The graphics of the cover allow for all of the images and text pieces to compliment each other. All of the images have captions which give a brief taste of the story within which makes the audience want to buy the magazine to read the full story.

Women are the only gender on the cover with tag lines of what could be seen as gossip. This links to the typical stereotype of women being gossips and bitchy. Also, the target audience are those that are interested in celebrity gossip so the captions are relevant and effectively create an appeal for the magazine.

Buzz words such as, ‘exclusive’ are used that catch the readers attention. The word exclusive suggests to the reader that they are getting information that nobody else knows. The word also suggests that Closer is the only magazine to have the photo so the word advertises the magazine to the audience instantly.

The wording is all in in short and snappy lines that makes the magazine appeal to the younger audience as they are less likely to want to read large amounts. Whereas the older generation might be more willing to read large amounts about topics in the magazines of their choice, the target audience for Closer may prefer to read smaller amounts or may not have the time to read as much.

By showing that the celebrities all look very glamorous, it emphasises how poor the lady in the cover line in the top left corner looks as she is a member of the general public and not celebrity. Also, the caption includes the words, ‘incest’ and ‘dungeon’, which could be implying that she is being disgraced. Her direct mode of address as she looks directly at the camera (and the readers) and the close up on her face both connote the sense of a crime. This is because the shot is very similar to that of a mug shot of criminals.