Language Register

Language and its register is important in a magazine and its articles as the companies and writers have to make sure what they have written is suitable for their target audience. I feel that there does have to be a certain level of formal language to make sure people can take a magazine seriously however having it too informal could turn people away through boredom or lack of interest in the text. 

Bliss Magazine

 

This article above is from the Bliss, music and celebrity magazine. In this article Emily Osment is talking about how Miley Cyrus (singer) hasn’t heard her new music. This is a quote from what Emily has said but the way it has been written to suit the audience will have been very specific. Bliss magazine would be targeted at girls around the age of 8-14.  This would mean that the text would need to be entertaining but also easy to read making the language register quite informal when compared to high end fashion magazines like Vogue. When the quote finishes, it says ‘Smile? Check, Moving? Yep!’ This involves rhetorical questions that give the reader something to get involved with and think about, further relating to the informality of the text.

The magazine to the left talks about up and coming stars and in the text by Samantha Castro in the opening paragraph it says;

‘Photographer STEVEN TAYLOR relates to most musicians, and like them, sometimes he has an aversion to publicity and always being photographed. Guess that’s pretty much why he chose to stay behind the lens’.

 

I feel that this text is slightly more formal compared to the bliss magazine article. I think this because it uses much longer and more meaningful words which could suggest how they are aiming this magazine at an older target market. However when it says ‘guess that’s pretty much’ I feel that this is more informal and chatty, especially when comparing it to the text around it. 

In many cases, teenagers, adults and occasionally children too use taboo, slang and words with these relations so some magazines use certain fraises in their articles to relate more to their audiences.
Is this right?
Depending on the magazine style and the target market it is aimed at should depend on what is and goes inside the chosen magazine. If a magazine has a lot of slang and swearing, it should not be marketed at younger teenagers and children. My reason for this is because it would be teaching children the wrong things. Taboo is very distinctive and can be easily avoided therefore there is no reason at all why this should be used in any type of magazine as it is 99% likely that there is a non taboo equivalent.

In the magazine that I produce I will use a limited amount of slang to prevent encouragement of certain terms but I will use some to make my magazine more chatty and informal to some extent relating to the language register of what my text will be.

To the right you can see an example of how swearing has been used on the cover of a magazine. This magazine is the Cosmopolitan and is aimed and targeted towards older teenagers and women. The word has also been stared out so that the cover doesn't look displeasing to the eye. Personally I feel that if it said this taboo language in full it would be inappropriate and could be the prevention of people buying the magazine. All the other language on this cover appears very informative about what is inside and it doesn't give away to much.

Overall language and its register is very important for a magazine and all of the features included in it like images, articles and what the headings are.