Analysis Of Language

                                Transworld Skateboarding:

The language of a magazine more than usually reflects the content of the magazine and more importantly the target audience. It helps the reader to connect with the content and feel included. Transworld Skateboarding is aimed mainly at skaters, probably younger readers in their teens or younger adult years. 

The magazine uses colloquial and informal language to relate to the readers, as formal language would be too distant from the target audiences’ own ways of speaking. Words like “livin” and “pro” are very much informal, reflecting the demographic that the

magazine is trying to reach (mainly being skaters). Words like “Dude” are also often seen as slang and associated with skaters as well as teenagers and young adults. Many sentences are written the way they would be spoken, almost breaking a text barrier. “So yeah, we skated,” the laid back nature of the short sentence written like it had been said over a phone conversation, also the use of swearing without the intention of adding emphasis when saying “shoot the shit” is meant to appeal to the younger and more informal audience, probably of middle or lower class with less of an importance placed on propriety and social image.

“Since when are kids doing nollie lasers?” The use of rhetorical questions, along with second person pronouns, makes the reader feel as though they’re being addressed directly rather than being presented with an anecdote.

The imagery created by the text is also meant to appeal to people looking for something more raw and gritty; “livin dirty” helps to attract the idealised, partially stereotyped skater. 

                                    National Geographic:

On the other side of the spectrum, however, National Geographic is a more scientific and informational magazine, aimed mainly at older adults and people with an interest in science and scientific news. 

The cover gives a rather philosophical and intriguing statement, being “Why we explore,” which would pique the interest of most people interested in space exploration. The taglines also go as far as to highlight words that emphasize the nature of the magazine’s content, words like “Surviving” and “Stars,” as well as “Microbes,” despite it not being highlighted. These words that are mostly associated with science and would help to attract the target audience, probably mainly being well educated people of middle or even higher class.

In the articles the magazine uses much more formal and sophisticated language, unlike the Transworld Skateboarding magazine which uses more slang and colloquial language, showing the difference in target audiences as Transworld caters more to younger and less formal skaters while National Geographic is tailored towards older, probably more educated, adults. They also use scientific language, like “dopamine,” “Chemical,” and “geneticist,” words that would most probably be better suited for a more educated person. National Geographic also uses quotes as evidence for a more scientific topic while Transworld Skateboarding uses them much more rarely and usually to create the impression of an unknown character talking, e.g. “Dude, are we lost?” 

The language used in National Geographic is also much more informational and doesn’t address the reader directly with rhetorical questions and second person pronouns, this detachment from the reader truly highlights the less intimate nature of the articles and the more matter-of-fact approach that would be more likely to appeal to a person interested in gaining information for information’s sake rather than connecting with the content emotional and feeling more involved.