Practice essay 2
Weekend-(Guardian)

Firstly, the predominant colour of the magazine cover is black suggesting the magazine is a serious magazine. This suggests the target audience is mainly older adults, aged 22+. This is because youngsters, for example, teenagers would not be interested in this colour because teenage magazines are mostly bright colours. Because of the colour of the magazine it could represent Guardian readers as dull because black is usually associated with death/funerals. However, it also shows the Guardian are environmentally friendly because they are not using colour ink which is less environmentally friendly.

Moreover, the title of the magazine 'Weekend' is at the top of the page and in the middle. The title is not big, which suggests it is a well known magazine because it is already known which is why the title is not big. The colour of the title is olive green, a subtle colour. Again, this does stand out against the black, but not as much as other colours such as yellow or white would have. This again suggests that the magazine is well known amongst Guardian readers.

There is only one artciele inside the magazine which is advertised on the cover. This suggests that the Guardian do not force ideologies into their readers minds by encouraging them to read the magazine including loads of straplines encouraging them to read their mag. Instead there is only one. Which shows the Guardian readers are more intelligent than those who read magazines such as; Smash Hits or Heat. This also shows how well established the magazine is because it does not need to encourage the readers, it probably has a well reputation already.

The image of Charlie Brooker on the magazine is in the middle of the page and is a long shot. This enables us to see his whole body and expression which show his character as a comedian because he is pulling a funny face. This will let the reader know that if they find him funny from the picture they may find his 'evil Christmas quiz' funny too. He is dressed in black to create suspense. As does the lighting which is dark and dim at the top of the page and gradually becomes lighter towards the bottom of the page creating a shadow. This is done to create an 'evil' theme on the page because that is what Charlie Brooker's quiz is about. Again, this is probably done to create a comical effect because Charlie Brooker is a comedian and the 'evil quiz' probably really is not 'evil', instead it is probably funny. Guardian used Charlie Brooker because he writes an article for The Guardian anyway which means the readers are familiar of him and if they keep on buying the Guardian they may like him, as opposed to putting someone who is not so familiar with Guardian readers and the editors will not know how it will go down with the readers.