How does mode of address affect the audience?

Written Codes:

Written codes are the way the magazine uses language to communicate to the reader. In a publication the main written code will be its ‘mode of address’ which is the way the article speaks to the audience, is It formal, informal, simple, chatty etc? There are many different ways the article can speak to the reader and it simply depends on what kind of magazine it is and what kind of audience they are trying to appeal to, for example a magazine that was trying to appeal to affluent women would most likely have a formal mode of addresses. The type of words and styles selected, in combination with the complexity of the sentences are how a reader will be able to identify what kind of ‘mode of address’ a particular magazine has.

“A time to love and a time to die”: This particular article has a detailed, formal and academic mode of address. The intended audience are a homosexual minority, intellectual and mature middle class people who have a ‘high culture’ as they would need to know a lot about the art side of films. The magazine assumes that the reader is very knowledgable about french cinema/culture and language – “omewhat against veristimilitude”. The article is very detailed and structured, giving a breif summary of the plot & introduction into the characters. The first part of the article introudces the film via refrences to other films, that the magazine suggests the reader knows. The second part gives a full synopsis of the film. The third part discusses the narrative structure and style of the film. The fourth part, begins to criticse some aspects of the film balance the comments out from the earlier positive feedback given. The fifth part gives academic refrences to things like important books. The sixth part gives contextual information about the issues that were present around that time, while lastly the seventh part sums up the article and gives closure, revealing something significant about the plot. This particular magazine article is obviously from ‘Sight and Sound’ because of the sophisticated ‘mode of address’ that is present. The article is not used to attract an audience, and tells you so much of the film that when you see it your understanding will be very advanced which shows that the magazine assumes that your not watching it for entertainment purposes but because your culturally active in the cinematic subject of film as an art.

“Did you hear about the Morgans?” – This film review is a complete contrast to the one seen above. It has a light-hearted and chatty mode of address, while the intended audience are for people who watch films to entertain themselves, plain cinema goers. This is evident as it is part of the “Pre-vue” magazine which is an inhouse magazine that would be placed in mainstream cinemas such as VUE. The magazine assumes that the readers like romcoms and show a great interest in film linked to A-list stars as the article focuses more on the two actors than the characters themselves. Even the breakout box is more information about the two main actors as that is how VUE are trying to attract people to see the film, considering they are very famous and well-known actors : Hugh Grant, and Sarah Jessica Parker. The magazine suggests that the reader loves A-list stars, using an abbreviation of SJP to refer to Sarah Jessica Parker, and the reader is assumed to instantly know what the abbreviation stands for, this is part of the casual mode of address. Unlike the film review above, there are no spoilers as the magazine wants to intruige the reader so they can spend money at their cinema to watch the movie. In this article there is no balance and it is a biased film review. This is because this article would be distributed in cinemas, so they need to attract the reader so they will go to their cinema and generate more ticket sales for them.