Cosmopolitan magazine - Textual analysis

This magazine is from Cosmopolitan, this magazine comes out monthly and is aimed at women of a young age. Having a woman on the front would encourage women to buy it because now a days women care more about there appearances and should have more 'power' in the world, so by doing this the magazine becomes more appealing, especially to the younger generation, as I have already said. The lady on the cover is called Taylor Swift and is a very recent pop star who people may be inspired by. Taylor has her hands shaped like as a heart, I have carried out some research into the meaning of hearts and I found that hearts are a symbol of love, and they have spiritual, emotional and moral meanings. It is a symbol of love and affection to one another. Through the heart shape she is making we can see the colour black which is of the top or dress she is wearing, the colour black represents death, evil, power and elegance. I think that it is more likely to represent elegance as Taylor is a woman that is really popular and has had no 'bad press'. The fact that Taylor is looking straight at the camera shows that she is dominant and has no fear, also is a sign of confidence to be able to look at people, it shows she is not shy. She is not stood at any angle, she is standing straight to the camera.

The magazine colours that have been used are very powerful and attractive, this is part of that status of the magazine and the people who buy it are likely to be like this too.

Cosmopolitan is ensuring they are reaching their target audience by using enticing stories that people of their target audience age would be interested in and the language used, for example under the black writing where it says 'Taylor Swift' it says, 'On love, success and revenge' which tells the reader that pop stars that are famous have problems in their lives, as the word 'revenge' suggests. This piece of writing is written in white, white is the colour of purity, goodness and innocence, the word 'revenge' does not match what the colour white means, revenge is a way of 'getting your own back' on someone that has victimised you. Underneath that it has the word 'PLUS' in capital letters which is quite striking in the fact that when people read it it will stand out to them as after that it says, 'Download her new song -FREE', the word free is appealing to everyone because you can get anything in this world for free.

On the left hand side underneath the title there is a red star with '898' written over it. I have carried out some research as to what stars mean, I found that they are recognised for when people do something right, usually children get a shiny star when they have achieved something, it is also recognised as a religious meaning, for example when Joesph and Mary followed the star and it is part of a religious sign of Islam. The colour red, of which the star is coloured, represents blood, fire, power, and strength, it is also a generally bright colour so it stands out and is attractive to the viewer on the shop shelf. I have also carried out some research on what those numbers mean, the number 8 has a connection with religion and in China it represents the totality of the universe as the number 8 is a closed line and is never ending, a bit like a circle. The number 9 is known as the greatest single digit number and is historically associated with the Roman Empire as he had 9 dragons on his robes. After this it says 'THINGS YOU'LL LOVE', so here it is already telling the reader that they'll like it before they have read the article that is inside the magazine about it. After all of that it says 'HOTTEST PARTY LOOKS', 'GLAM MAKE UP TRICKS', and 'WIN LUXE JEWELERY, JEANS AND BAGS'. All of these were written in capital letters, as I have done. The words that have been used are the type of language that teens and young women are likely to use, for example 'hottest' and 'glam'. 'Win' is another good word to use as people these days do enter competitions and are generally more competitive, again, this is appealing to the reader as they may be enticed by winning the 'jewelery, jeans and bags' as these are highly used fashion items that many people use daily. Below all of this it says 'and 1 magic move to Sexy Abs!'. The word 'sexy' shows that this magazine has a status about it that ables it to have a sex appeal. Women are becoming more healthy these days and some are on healthy diets and fitness plans to help them lose weight, so this caption is likely to appeal to those people as it says '1 magic move', so from that I get the impression that its easy and wont take long if it just 1 thing to do.

Looking at the font of the title of the magazine 'COSMO girl' I can automatically tell that it is aimed at young women and girls. The font of the 2 words are totally different, the word COSMO is in block capitals and written in black and is very easy to understand and read. The word 'girl' is in more of a curly curvy font. This may have something to do with Taylor's hair as it is very curly and generally girls like curly frilly things. I find that it is a little bit difficult to read but it shouldn't be for many people. It is written in red, and as I have previously researched the meaning of red I can say that I think it represents power and strength of women and the fact that Taylor is on the cover backs that fact up.

Above the title of the magazine it says in red, 'YOUR LOVE,MONEY AND STYLE HOROSCOPE', this is likely to appeal to people who like to see into the future and like to know what is going to happen. I have carried out some research as to what horoscopes are, they are the place in which certain planets were at the time of your birth. People who are very mystical and like to see into the future are likely to find this appealing.