Researching genre, purpose and audience of student magazines

Genre
Every magazine has a genre, whether it's sport, fashion, gossip or something else. It's important for a magazine to have a genre because then it can be aimed a particular audience, and it gives the magazine a purpose. You can get magazines with 'hybrid genres' which means that it has two or more subjects that it covers, for example 'Look' magazine covers both fashion and gossip, making it a hybrid magazine. 


Purpose
The purpose of the magazine affects what kind of pictures and articles go in it, and what tone the whole magazine takes. Some magazines are purely for entertainment, whereas others are created specifically to inform the reader about something. 


Audience
Every magazine is aimed at a specific group of people whether it's boys, girls, football lovers or fashion fanatics. This means that all magazines have a target audience and will include conventions that will relate the best to that specific group of people. The target audience affects everything about a magazine; what colours are used, what language is used and almost everything else.