Investigation Methodology

My investigation is based around comparing two different football magazines that are aimed at different-aged audiences, so I had to find out how to find the most appropriate magazines to compare. The two magazines I have eventually decided to compare are 'Four Four two' magazine, and 'Match' magazine.
My main question for this research is: How do these two magazines use different language techniques to communicate to their different audiences?
I look to differentiate these through the language used, grammar, graphology, phonology?, use of humour, and initial front-cover presentation.
The theory it is based around is language and change.

There are several reasons I have decided to compare these two. Firstly, according to 'www.w3newspapers.com', they are both in the top 4 best-selling football magazines in the world - with Four Four two and match being the only two in the top four sold regularly in England.

Also, they both (as intended) have very different target audiences. Four Four Two is a more serious, informative magazine, said to be aimed at ages 15-25 and at a middle classed audience who are more interested in the facts and detailed information(Source: http://cf.blogetery.com). Whereas on the other hand, match magazine has an average-reader age of 11 so therefore is aimed at a fairly younger audience.(Source: http://www.bauermedia.co.uk)

However, there are also some good similarities between them that make them even more suitable to compare, such as the fact that both of these magazines were released within a couple of days of each other (with four four two being a monthly magazine, and Match weekly) so they will contain the same stories, but in their specific way. Also, both of these magazines are aimed more at boys/men as normally you tend to see football as a male interest so in this respect they may contain similar (male) language.

So overall the majority of what I do to compare them will be by finding similar stories in the two of these magazines, but seeing at how they present them differently and how they speak to their audience. As said above, I will also look at the language and grammar used, how much they use both graphology and possibly even phonology, the seriousness of the texts/use of humour and also I will compare their front covers to ultimately see how their magazine is meant to be seen.

English Coursework Idea

For my coursework research topic, I am looking at two separate football magazines - one aimed at younger children and one aimed at older teenagers/adults and looking at how these two magazines use different language techniques in order to communicate to their target audience.


For my data, I have collected the most recent issue of the magazine "Match!” which is a weekly magazine released every Tuesday and is aimed at children. The magazine I am comparing it to is the most recent issue of the monthly magazine "Four Four Two" - it is released at the start of every month and is a more serious football magazine for an older, more mature audience.
There are several reasons why I have chosen to compare these magazines. Firstly, they were both released at the same time near enough so will contain similar stories. Also, I am comparing them as according to w3newspapers.com, they are both in the top 4 most read magazines in the UK.

 
My main question for this research is: How do these two magazines use different language techniques to communicate to their audience?
I look to differentiate these through the language used, grammar, phonology, graphology, use of humour, and initial front-cover presentation.
This theory it is based around is language and change.