Language Register

The language register used by magazines all depends upon the genre of the magazine and the target audience so the content of the magazine appeals to them. Although there are some magazines that dont have a specific genre and vary there use of language with the type of music that is being used.

Different magazines use different registers to match their magazines genre. For example the music magazine NME which is a mainstream rock/pop mag uses informal slang lanuage when presenting it's articles in the mag. This may be due tot he fact that the audience will be morde in tune with this particualar language register. Which in turn will mean that the mag will appeal more to the readers, so this should ensure they will buy the mag more. On the covers of the NME mags there is often immature images placed on the cover which in genral have a theme of humour throughout, again this obviously appeals to the readership so they will enjoy reasing and looking at it as it provides a differnt form of entertainment. The images and terminolgy they use throughotu the magazine is attractive to the target audience as it complitments and matches the genre of the magazine really well.

On the other hand an example of a magazine that uses a formal language register is the music magazine Q. Which some may argue is a higher class of magazine which entices peoiple of a higher socail background, this may be the reason that the Q magazine uses a more formal language throughout the magazine. the terminoly which is used throughout is of a higher sophistiacation than NME this may inturn mean that the magazine is slightly excluding teneagers. This may not be a bad thing for the mag as they maybe specifically aiming it at higher class sliughtly older audience for example in there early 20's. The font of the Q magazine is also of a more formal nature, this staright away may disencourage teenagers as they may not like the look of it. also in terms of the layout of the magzine, Q uses a very simple layout with very minimal text which to me makes the magazine look of a higher class than most others including NME.

For my magazine FRESH i want the language register to be somewhere in between NME and Q magazine. This should ensure that my target audience can be larger so this will possibly bring in more sales. I do not want my magzine to be to formal as this could put off possible readers, but on the other hand i also do not want it to be too informal which could attract people who do  not particualrety belong to my target audience.