Deconstruction of Heat Magazine Cover

Heat is a weekly gossip magazine published by Bauer, one of the oligopoly of magazine publishers. Oligopoly means when there are a few companies dominant in the market.

The Gossip Magazine Genre

The gossip magazine genre specialises in maintaining the reputation of celebrities who would have been replaced by others and keeps them in the public eye. Katie Price and Peter Andre are good examples of this as they are constantly being tracked and shown by heat and other gossip magazines.

The Representation Of Women In Gossip Magazines

In gossip magazines, the female celebrities shown are often portrayed in a vulnerable and weak manner and are often shown as the 'female victim'. Women are usually either sexualised and objectified for the male gaze or represented in a negative way to satisfy the curiosity of the target audience.

Target Audience Of Gossip Magazines

The target audience of gossip magazines is usually white people, urban residents, females, working class people. The audience also tends to be between the ages of 18-35 years old, while people between the ages of 35-55 years old are considered to be the secondary audience.

How Does Heat Magazine Communicate With It's Audience?

Colour scheme

The cover uses bright, saturated primary colours (reds, blues and yellows) and high key lighting which anchor the codes and conventions of the Gossip magazine genre and identify target audience.

On the front cover of the heat magazine cover, there are more pictures than there is text. This is also another key convention of Gossip magazines.

The Masthead

The masthead is left justified in red, lower case, serif, blocky font but the flicks make it appeal to women more and make more elegant and, finally, the magazine cover uses shadowing to make the text more creative and recognisable in terms of brand identity – the style of the font would stereotypically appeal to a female target audience.

Above the masthead is a banner (sell line banner) that again references familiarity in terms of UK celebrity, Katie Price (Jordan). The mode of address is direct and upbeat as shown by the exclamation mark. Also, in lower case, the text “And gets off with a man half way through” positions the audience into understanding the sexualised nature of the article which addresses the conventions of Gossip magazines.

In the top right corner of the magazine there is an image that has been deliberately skewed to show a range of text and images. Gossip magazine covers are usually cluttered and try to maintain the reader's attention through different photographs and text styles.

The image could have both a dominant and an oppositional meaning – the dominant meaning suggests that the curvy female image is aspirational while the oppositional meaning could suggest the exploitative nature of the image.

Another feature of gossip magazines is the use of exclamation marks. On the whole magazine that is being deconstructed, there are 8 exclamation marks. This also portrays a very upbeat mode of address and the audience is targeted in quite an excitable way. The exclamation marks make the reader feel as if the story is exclusive and makes them feel inclusive.

Continuing, the feature in the bottom left's cover line reinforces cultural stereotypes and shows a surprise that men would want to go out with women with no make up.

finally, the lead story is again exploring the ups and downs of the life of another celebrity, Cheryl Cole, who the magazine frequently runs stories about. The magazine has chosen to use negative pictures of Cheryl Cole to maintain the presence of the celebrity in the public eyes.

Binary oppositions are used (“from this to this”) to reinforce this representation. Her aspirational image is sexualised and she is framed in medium shot in a revealing dress but is given a film like title, “The Recluse” which opens her up to be the subject of cultural stereotyping anchoring her ‘female victim’ representation.