Introduction/Methodology
Nowadays, a
lot of the British public seem to have turned their attention to the use of the
internet in order to find out the latest news and reviews in the world of
football. But despite this, there are still the regular magazines managing to
maintain their sales figures. ‘Match!’ with a current average weekly
circulation of 72,861 in the UK[1], and “Four Four Two” magazine, as of June
2012, had 631,000 readers worldwide[2], in countries including Malaysia,
Brazil, Vietnam and of course, Great Britain.
So for my
investigation, I have compared these two magazines – ‘Four Four Two’ and
‘Match!’ for several reasons. From my research, I have found that first and
foremost, they are the two highest-selling magazines in the UK[3] and as well,
they are both aimed at different age-ranged audiences(Four Four two – 18-40[4],
Match! – 11-14[5]). However, there are also some good similarities between them
that make them even more suitable to compare, such as the fact that both of
these magazines were released within a couple of days of each other (with four
four two being a monthly magazine, and Match weekly) so they will contain the
same stories, but in their specific way. Also, according to both of my sourced
websites, both of these magazines are primarily aimed at boys/men.
The theorist
that I am looking at is ‘David Ogilvy’, who was hailed as the “father of
advertising”, said that certain words can be used to attract the audience’s
attention. I believe that this will be useful in my investigation as I can look
at how these two different magazines use the techniques in Ogilvy’s theory and
if one tends to use it more commonly. Prior to investigating this, I’d expected
to find that ‘Match!’ had a significantly higher use of these words as if they
are offering free goodies/toys to kids – the child will be more easily enticed
than an adult. Away from language, I also will look at the use of graphology in
the magazines, to see how consistently they use images – and how effectively
they use them.
Also, to
compare the difference between the two in terms of language used, I decided to
find a couple of articles that are the same/very similar within them and
quantify the number of polysyllabic words used. I did this with three articles
so that I obtained reliable data. I had originally expected that as a result of
doing this, I would find that ‘Four Four Two’ had a significantly higher use of
these words - compared to the jargon in ‘Match!’
So overall
the majority of what I do to compare them will be by finding similar stories in
the two of these magazines, but seeing at how they present them differently and
how they speak to their audience. As said above, I will also look at the
language and grammar used, how much they use both graphology and possibly even
phonology, the seriousness of the texts/use of humour and also I will compare
their front covers to ultimately see how their magazine is meant to be seen.
Data
Analysis
Do you think that it is a
representative sample of the whole data pool?
I feel that
both magazines are good representations as they are both the two highest
selling regular football magazines in the UK according to www.w3newspapers.com.
In this sense, they seem the two best choices to use and compare. In terms of
the magazines themselves, they are a good example for the company as they are
presented the same as their previous issues, containing similar content, just
with updated news stories.
Does it offer enough data to
analyse/test your hypothesis with/write 1500 words about?
From looking
within the magazines, I have found that it does have enough data as I have
looked at a number of different features in both of the magazines that I am
able to compare such as:
- Language and Grammar
- Use of Graphology
- Quantifying the number of polysyllabic words used
- The front cover (Using David Ogilvy's Theory)
What can you quantify/tabulate?
From reading
the magazines briefly, I feel that one thing I can do is look at two similar
articles within both of the magazines and compare the number of words used that
are polysyllabic I can also do this
numerous times with a number of different articles in the magazines for
reliability. I will expect to find that one of them will have a lot more usage
of higher lexis than the other.
How does the theory you have read so
far illuminate your data (what does theory tell you to look for that you have
found or found the opposite)?
The theorist
I have decided to look at is 'David Ogilvy' who was an advertising executive,
and hailed as the "Father of Advertising". He said that certain words
can be used to attract the audience including qualifies like 'new' and 'free',
with also verbs like 'buy' and 'free'. He said that you can also tend to find
the use of puns, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia and rhyme for
entertainment.
So I can use
these statements and compare if the magazines use these methods, and if so how
they use them differently, which will likely be on the front cover. This could
also count as another thing to quantify, to see how much they use these
conventions.
I can also look at how the magazines try and use influential power to persuade their readers to do something e.g. buy the magazines, subscribe to the magazine, buy merchandise advertised within the magazine.
I can also look at how the magazines try and use influential power to persuade their readers to do something e.g. buy the magazines, subscribe to the magazine, buy merchandise advertised within the magazine.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Match_(magazine)
[2] http://www.mediauk.com/magazines/42220/four-four-two/readership-figures
[3] http://www.w3newspapers.com/magazines/soccer/
[4] http://magazineindustry.wikispaces.com/file/view/foufourtwo+case+study_Alex.doc
[5] http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/match
