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Writer's pictureNick Saward

Magazine research- Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan is an American monthly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City as a family magazine. Cosmopolitan magazine is one of the best-selling magazines and is directed mainly towards a female audience. Jessica Pels is the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine. Prior to her time at Cosmopolitan, Pels held editorial positions at The New Yorker, Vogue, Glamour and Teen Vogue. This magazine targets mainstreamers from the 4Cs.

Text One: Front Cover

On this front cover, Kim Kardashian is the main focal point as the image of her covers around 80% of the cover. She is stood in a confident pose, making her appear powerful and independent. She is under clear making her appear more attractive and perfect. She is wearing pink which connotes femininity, which relates to the genre of the magazine. The tag line at the top of the magazine is "This magazine will make you 100% confident", this is a way to give the reader confidence that the magazine will make them a different person by giving them advice on life and fashion. This creates the need for attention and affiliation for the reader as they will want to be like Kim Kardashian who is shown to be the perfect "IT" girl. The idea of Cosmo selling shoes is a connotation to the entertainment genre and the target audience of the magazine. The shoes that feature in the box aren't dull colours such as black and grey but they are bright block colours which add to the overall look of the magazine, making it more colourful and feminine. It has a less serious feel than other high end fashion and beauty magazines with its colour scheme and more open topics. Van Zoonen argues that gender is constructed and that its meaning varies dependent on cultural and historical context. In this cover it shows that women can be superwoman - home, family, money, body and work.

Text 2: Cosmopolitan Celeb Tab on website


Staying with the theme of Kardashians, Cosmo have a celebs tab that is first option to the readers. Under this tab it includes entertainment articles which would correspond with mainstreamers as they are more about we then themselves so they are interested in other peoples lives. This part of the website evokes the bubbly and gossip style of the magazine with its colors and slang words, which suggest it may target younger women.

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