Codes & Conventions of magazines

Codes & Conventions of Magazines

Every magazine is different and unique to try and persuade people to buy and read their specific magazine over other magazines, but every magazine is also the same in the way they are written and laid out. All magazines follow some general codes and conventions to make the magazines easy to read and understand for the reader.

These codes and conventions are used throughout the entire magazine, on the cover and all of the pages inside. The codes and conventions used in the magazines are used to make the articles easy to read and understand for the reader, the colours are also part of the codes and conventions used. Part of the codes and conventions is the layout of the articles in the magazine. For example the positioning of images on the page is extremely important. This is very important because if the text was over the image the reader would not be able to clearly read the article, The main image of an article is usually over to one side of a page with the text on the other side of the page, this separates the page and allows the reader to focus on either the image or the text and not get confused by too much on the page.

Each and every magazine includes certain things that are part of the codes and conventions. For example on the front cover of a magazine there will always be the masthead of the magazine, this helps for the reader to know the brand of the magazine at the first look. It also helps for readers who buy the magazine on a weekly basis to find the magazine easily on a shelf of other magazines. Another code and convention used to make the magazine easier to navigate and read is sub headings within the articles, these help the reader to be able to pick out the part of the article they are most interested in without reading through page after page of writing.

Other codes and conventions used are things such as captions underneath pictures, and headlines. Both of these features help the reader to understand and grasp the meaning of certain articles. The caption is usually underneath small images around the page, the caption gives a description of the image and if the image includes a group of people it gives their names from left to right. The caption is there to make sure the reader knows what an image is actually of instead of just a group of random people. This allows the reader to gain knowledge while they read the articles in the magazines. The headline serves the same purpose of the caption but is for the entire article instead of just an image. The headline is always at the top left corner of a page and is a general overview of the whole article; this means that the reader knows what they are going to read before they begin reading the entire article.

To conclude the codes and conventions of magazines are used in every magazine around the world. All of the codes and conventions used in magazines are simply there to make the magazine articles easier for the readers to understand and read. There are lots of different codes and conventions used throughout magazines, some are very subtle and go completely un noticed by the reader. Others such as headlines and captions are meant to be instantly noticed as soon as the reader opens the magazine.