MAGAZINE TERM DEFINITION

Mode of Address 1 A box of text at the top of the magazine 2

Strapline 2 The way the text ‘anchors’ the meaning of a picture 6

Direct Gaze 3 The way the magazine addresses the audience 1

Puff 4 The company or business that owns the media text. 18

Indirect Gaze 5 When the subject looks away from the audience 5

Anchorage Text 6 Featuring star ratings, opinions on new music, films, etc.

8

Features 7 The way the subject looks at the audience 3

Reviews 8 Calls out to the reader, usually offering them something

‘special’. Appears in a bubble, circle or flash. 4

Ideology 9 Articles in a magazine 7

Conventions 10 Factual characteristics of the population – gender, age,

etc 17

Binary Opposition 11 The ideas portrayed in the magazine, such as thin models,

stereotypes, thinking in a ‘fashion forward’ way. 9

Symbolism 12 The widely recognized way of doing something 10

Enigma 13 The contrast between two things – light vs. dark, day vs.

night, good vs. evil, etc. 11

USP – Unique Selling Point 14 Signs, symbols (usually images) or colours that illustrate

a meaning 12

Realism 15 A mystery or a question that is left unanswered in the

media text 13

Richard Dyer’s theory of ‘STARS’ 

16

A technique used to show the ‘real world’ around us 15

Demographics 17 The way something is portrayed in the media text 18

Representation 18 States that stars as shown as ‘commodities’ and

‘ideology’. Commodity means they are presented as

having something special such as signature dance move

or style. Ideology shows they have a set of ideas such as

‘girl power’. 16

Ownership 19 The company or business that produces the media text 

21

Neologism 20 Something special shown in the media text to target an

individual 14

Institution 21 A word to describe a new trend being shown to us in the

text 20