Magazine Research: Differences between film magazines in the UK .

There are many film magazines in the UK, including; Sight and Sound, Empire, Vertigo, Uncut etc. when looking closely at these different magazines, it is interesting to see how they differ and consider why this may be the case. Empire is a magazine wich carries out a consistant mode of address, which is fun and colloquial. Initally, Empire was launched as a sister magazine to the very popular music magazine, Q in 1989. From that point onwards, through its eye gripping images, appealing layouts and casual communication with its audience, Empire has been a major success. The magazine is aimed at young adults which is evident through its content. Empire includes features such as 'daily quiz', 'competitions' and 'game reviews' which reveal its target audience quite clearly.

The cover of the magazine alone promotes the 'chatty' mode of address and the casual tone that runs throughout the magazine. This is evident through phrases such as 'First kick-Ass Review Inside'. The images on the cover show the virtual reality theme which also runs throughout. Empire is full of intense graphic images to promote the latest action films.

It can be argued that Empire assumes its audience are only interested in specific genres such as comedy and action films and that the audience will already have a knowlegde about things such as video games. It also assumes that readers have an interest in certain movie stars, as often an issue will focus mainly on one or two actors (as you can see in this case, 'Speilberg' and 'Zemeckis').

The magazine 'Sight and Sound' differs hugely from Empire. Its proffesional mode of address and basic structured layout contrasts to Empire massively. Sight and Sound is aimed an older and more sophisticated audience. When comparing its content to Empire this is emphasised. Features included in Sight and sound consist of things such as 'Obituaries'and 'film review: Capitalism: A love story'. This content would not appeal to a young audience with an interest in films full of action and virtaul reality video games like Empire but an audience with an interest in historical information about actors and film. Sight and Sound however does make assumptions about its audience, as does Empire, by providing reviews on romance films and factual information about the deaths of movie stars thereby assuming that the audience will have keen interest in these areas. Sight and Sounds synopses provide film plots in full, including suprise twists therefore leaving no suspence in the reader as to what might happen when viewing the film as Empire would. Overall, in comparison with Empire, Sight and Sound is a very informative magazine with intention to educate over entertain whereas Empire seeks to grab the attention of its readers with a somewhat 'tabloid' content full of interesting facts about film and celebrities whilst careful not to reveal too much in their reviews and synopses. The cover of Sight and Sound also reveals the mode of address and the style of magazine through its image of a man sophisticatedly attired, wearing a suit and spectacles. The cover lacks colour and animated graphics contrastingly to Empire, it is mainly black and white with a black font used. Unlike Sight and Sound, Empire uses an exciting typography with different colours and sizes to make it more eye gripping, Sight and Sound consists of a basic font and its articles are longer in length with more textual information than imagery.