Adbusters - Media Set Product 8

Adbusters

• This magazine was published in May/June 2016.
• It is independent/niche/campaigning/‘culture jamming’ magazine.
• It is usually published 6 times a year by Adbusters Media Foundation from 1989 to present. The price is £10.99 with average circulation of 120000 (Apr 2017).
• They say they are a ‘Journal of mental environment’ , ‘Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada’, ‘not for-profit magazine fighting back against the hostile takeover of psychological, physical and cultural environments by commercial forces‘.

Front Cover

• The masthead is a bold, white, sans-serif font with an overlay of the main image.
• The only coverline featured is 'post - west' which is centred but also goes across the whole page and doesn't follow the typical conventions of a magazine.
• The coverline is more clear to see, the story is more important than the magazine and its brand.
• The main image used is a man in an army/camouflage vest which suggests he is a solider suggesting violence. The man is screaming/shouting, his facial expression communicates animalistic including his baring teeth and furrowed brows, he is angry. The overall body language includes a clenched fist - he is angry and ready to fight, adding to violence and the ideas of war.
• The main image is a mid-shot, to see the body language clearly but also shows some of the facial expressions. The image looks rolled on and is low quality which doesn't follow the typical conventions of a magazine front cover including high-quality and production-value image. The quality of the image further shows the chaos of a war-zone, the background isn't in focus, it creates an enigma code or suggestion to being anywhere.
• Disrupting our expectations of a magazine front cover.
• The coverline, ‘post - west’ suggests interference of Western countries in middle-eastern wars, it suggests it will discuss about the problems of Westernisation and that post-colonialism (Gilroy’s theory) has caused problems, the West believes that it is ‘saving’ these countries after mistakes made of colonisation.
• Anti-establishment.
• Not perpetuating dominant ideologies in the West - social and the political message
• Assumption that the audience/reader will already understand the context.