The document summarizes representations in magazines. It discusses how magazines like FHM negatively represent women by promoting unrealistic beauty standards. In contrast, magazines like National Geographic and The Countryman positively represent the environment. National Geographic typically features people between ages 24-54, with a slightly higher percentage of male than female readers. Younger people are less likely to read magazines focused on nature. While National Geographic does not explicitly address social issues, it may discuss how environmental changes affect people. The magazine's conventions include high-quality images, short informative articles, and a consistent style and layout to appeal to its mostly older audience.

1. Representations in your magazine
Negative: This is where the representation created is intended to give a negative
impression of the person or group. Examples that can come with this are that of
magazines such as FHM. This has a negative impression as females that look at the
women in the images will feel like they have to look like that and will result in having a
bad self esteem in how they see themselves. Also this can have a negative effect on
Males as they will see the women in the magazines such as FHM or Nuts and expect
all women to look like that, resulting in a lack of respect towards the other gender.
Positive: This is where the representation created is intended to give a negative
impression of the person or group. For example the nature magazines such as National
Geographic and The countryman. These both have positive impressions because they
look at the environment and all that goes with it. These magazines provide a good
source of information about how the world is changing.
Social Groups: Groups of people can be represented in many ways. When considering the
National Geographic Magazine the groups of people that are seen to be that of an older
generation who has a lot of interest in the growing world. There is one dominant gender that of
the Males however Women a close second with 44% to 56 % of the males asked. Age groups
for both genders are that of between the ages 24-54. The people represented are that seen as
a positive group because they care about what is going on around them whereas in
comparison to gossip magazines such as Hello! They can be seen in a negative light. An
example of National Geographic being positive is that it is a non-profit scientific, education,
and entertainment organization. Meaning they are only interested in providing a service
and people that read the magazine must also be seen to be giving positive impression.
Social Issues: Social issues are not seen in National Geographic magazine as it looks at the
world and environment as a whole. However there can be few topics covered that do look at
how the natural world can affect people and cause issues. For example Rising sea levels. And
how this can affect people living near the coast. Social issues with The Countryman Magazine
can be that of how the nature can have a result on what farmers and people working in the
country are trying to grow.
Stereotyping: Stereotyping can often be looked at when considering representation. You can
see when looking at the magazine that certain Stereotypes become clear. For example how the
media producers of National Geographic know that older people will be more interested in it
and the way that people of a younger age will not look at it at all. The magazines will see
younger people to read magazines such as the gossip and sport ones. Therefore not asking
them in a questionnaire may result in the target audience being slightly wrong.
Presence and Absence: The presence of a group can help you see what they represent in a
magazine however an absence can tell you information as well. National Geographic is missing
the younger age group. This can tell the media producers do not see them as potential
customers, therefore advertisements on social media or in other media forms is not necessary.
The representation this creates is that the magazine has one target age group and that is cut
down to Men aged 45+. The presence of this age group is clear because of the exotic places
on the front covers that are recognised by the men and the text written in a way that the media
producers assume the other generation would understand.

2. Genre codes and conventions:
Content: Typical content of the magazines is that of a much greater amount of images then
text. The two magazines of The Countryman and National Geographic both share similar
interests such as both contain information about nature, this is because they share the genre
and same target audience. The images are always high quality as this is the main attraction.
The Articles are relatively short however they have pure information about the topic and
nothing else such as interviews with people. These magazines do not tend to have many
advertisements inside them. Because they do no target a large market it is difficult to make
any profit from the adverts. Also because National Geographic does not make a profit it is
not likely that they will want to advertise to their customers.
Style: The magazines both share distinctive and recognisable styles. The visual appearance
is very important to these magazines in order to keep the same readers they have House
styles that instantly make that customer pick the magazine. These House styles include
having Titles the same size, colour, and font in each edition made. They are always both in
the same position on the page, that of the top. This relates to the genre targeted of older
people as they prefer continuity and magazines of the simplistic nature. Having the style
suggests that the content is not changing and that is important to retaining loyal customers.
On National Geographic it has a yellow Border around the magazine. This is also seen as
part of the house style and kept intact over the years so the target audience can see that this
is the magazine they want to keep buying.
Symbols: Symbolism is the way something in the magazine is represented though a
symbol. In rock magazines like Kerrang a person is seen to be wearing a leather jacket. So
in National Geographic magazine the symbol is seen to be either a location or animal to
represent the magazine. This can also be seen as part of the house style because the
reader knows roughly what is going to be on the cover the next time they go to purchase it.
Also the way people dress is important when looking at how symbols can be represented.
For example in the Countryman magazines, a picture of a Farmer will often be used as this
can represent outdoor life and the typical ‘Countryman’ to go with the name of the magazine.
Cultural: Codes such as symbols, clothing and certain words relating to the topic can only
be seen by those who are targeted. The culture of the target audience will understand what
the codes mean however new customers that of the age groups or genders interested may
not know what is happening or what something means. That is why Magazines such as
National Geographic have to have house styles because it is coming increasing hard to
wider the target market. When looking at the certain words, these can be technical words in
relation to the nature or animals and how they live. The codes are used as the media
producers of the magazine believe they need to interact more with the people targeted so
using words and images that they will know makes them feel part of the magazine.

3. Technical: Every type of magazine has a set of conventions. The way things are normally
done. In magazines such as the ones looked at these can be the size, the number of pages,
text to image ration and advertisement. National Geographic’s conventions will be that of
having the same size pages such as the front cover and the yellow border being the same
width after every copy. The ration of Text the images will be seen as over 70% images
throughout the magazine. This can be seen straight away when looking at the front cover.
And where the only text is the name, title and sub heading. The image covers the whole
page lie many of the same style magazines, the countryman also has a similar approach.
The pages are typically similar with a double page spread used for the high quality images
and little text in the corners exampling the topic in hand. Advisements are not much of a
convention in these types of magazines as they tend not to promote other businesses.
Changes over time: Genres are always changing their audience because when the
world changes and people get tired of the same things it is important to change with
the times and adapt you product. For example the purchasing of newspapers has
fallen rapidly in the last 10 years, so the media producers of those newspapers such
as the times or The Sun have started having their products online and on a newly
made website. Having subscriptions of the news online. This adaption can come with
the newspapers and even more so with National Geographic. For example the
Magazine changed from a text oriented publication to a scientific journal then
eventually to an extensive look on pictorial content. Now it has become well known
for its style.