Analysis of Magazine Language

Shout magazine

Shout magazine has a target audience of young teenage girls from the ages 11-16, so the language used is important to try and capture their attention. This is done through colloquial terms and other words.

In the magazine there are the uses of ‘#’ which are very popular in today’s society, as we associate hashtags with twitter and that’s one of the main social media websites where young teenagers get together and share things. Also words like ‘fave’ and ‘buds’ are used which is a shorter way of saying favourite and buddy, this is popular within young people today as they shorten their words when texting. This justifies that the magazine is for a younger audience. There’s also the term ‘goals’ used which is a fairly new term used by the younger generation to describe something that they look up to. Using these colloquial terms make the readers feel like the editor is the same age and can relate to what is being written to what they see every day.

As well as there being the use of colloquial words, the editor uses childish language to try and relate to the younger audience and make them feel as if they’re talking to a friend. Some examples would be ‘suck’ when describing something. This could be seen as quite a rude word and something younger people would use as you wouldn’t find it in a magazine targeted for older women because it’s an informal word.

There is also the use of play on words. This is in the phrase ‘insTAYgram’, where the two words instagram and Taylor are merged together. Instagram is a very well-known social media where people share pictures with friends and family so the target audience will recognise the play on words. Also the use of Tay which is short for Taylor Swift suggests that the editor is close to Taylor Swift as they’ve given her a nickname and played around with the idea. Taylor Swift is very popular with the young teenage girls which means they will be attracted to this title as they will want to know what it’s about. The play on words also suggest the fun and freedom the editor has and that they’re trying to engage with the readers which will make the audience want to read the magazine.