Front Cover:
"frankie" is a design, art, photography, fashion, home and music focused magazine based in Australia. It is mainly aimed at women, but also men. It claims that it's for people "looking for a magazine that's as smart, funny, sarcastic, friendly, cute, rude, arty, curious and caring as they are". The issues includes real life stories, photography, home and lifestyle tips.
The front cover is very simplistic and clear focuses on the aesthetic of pink, white and green. The green cactus relates to the "home" element of the magazine in the tips that it gives. Furthermore, the women on the front cover relates to the fact that it's target audience is manly female. Below the masthead, the themes and focuses of the magazine are clearly displayed. The front over does not follow the expectations of a lifestyle magazine are there is not much text on the cover. Instead, it follows a more simplistic theme. Each of the pictures on the front, as well as the simplistic theme, is an invitation to buy the magazine, which Barthes may describe as an action code. In addition to this, the whole front cover could be seen to act as a symbolic code due to it's minimalist appearance. This suggests that the magazine is not completely commercial as it has no obvious advertising for the magazine at the front.
However, where the magazine may be seen as conventional is the topics that are included. For example, music, travel and photography are all seen as conventional topics for the lifestyle genre. This is one way in which the publisher could be seen to minimise risk and maximise audience, following the theory of David Hesmondhalgh, as the magazine appeals to a niche audience through the unconventional cover, but also appeals to the audience of the genre conventions due to the topics. This ensures that the audience is broadened.
On the other hand, the masthead is not conventional. This is due to the fact that it is, again, very simplistic in the font and the white colour. Conventionally, front covers of this genre have brightly coloured mastheads, usually a bold black or red. This may be another way in which the publisher is attempting to appeal to an alternative audience. In addition to this, the cover may not be seen as conventional as usually there would be a picture of a model. Frequently, this model is conventionally beautiful in that she has the ideal body type. However, on the cover of "frankie" there are many picture of women of all body types, suggesting that this magazine is for all women to read. Moreover, the magazine does not follow the genre convention of focusing on women's bodies and, arguably, sexualising them. In conclusion, it could be said that this magazine recognises the arguments of Van Zoonen and attempts to make a change to the industry.
Article:
This article follows the theme of the whole magazine of being very picture- based. Here, the text is very minimal, making the audience focus more on the pictures and the colour surrounding them. Following Young and Rubicams 4Cs Model, the target audience may be the reformer as their core motivation is discovery. This is clear as the magazine focuses on giving tops and advice about things such as lifestyle, home and photography. In addition to this, a reformer is curious, meaning that they would be more likely to buy the "frankie" magazine as they are an independent, unique brand that stands out on the market. In terms of Barthes' Codes, the whole article acts as a symbolic code due to the items being displayed on the page. This relates to the magazines aims in that the products that they suggests to buy are not from big corporations, but they are about finding "hidden treasures". For example, the section that writes about soap is about a brand that collects discarded soaps from hotels around the world and recycles them into new bars. This also shows the whole theme of the magazine as the articles appear to address alternative brands.
Website Homepage:
Looking at the homepage of the magazine's website shows a menu bar which reveals the diverse nature in content of the magazine. As this is a lifestyle magazine, this could be used for the audience to pick which content they would prefer to read, which helps to define their identities. This alludes to the David Gauntlett as he believes that a modern audience will "pick and mix" the elements of a text that are most relevant.
Furthermore, the audience strays away from the convention of "clickbait" and encouraging the audience to read the story through hyperbolic language. As well as this, the website avoids overcrowding the space, which makes it more "relaxed" and inviting, similar to the published magazine. The second story that we can see above, "A Spot of Bother" relates to the magazine's aim of being entertaining. This
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