Conventions analysis front cover

Institution

Rolling Stone

The Magazine Rolling Stone is a biweekly publication that covers popular culture, mainly music and politics. It was first published in November of 1967 by Jann Wenner and Ralph J. Gleason. Jann Wenner was born in New York City and borrowed $7,500 from his family members to set up Rolling Stone in San Fransisco. Jann also is the current owner of Men's Journal and Us Weekly. Ralph Gleson was an influential jazz and pop music critic, also from new york, who after working with Jann Wenner on a different magazine helped set up Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone started as a music and politics magazine and is still that. Although they focus more on the music industry now, in November of 2005, Wenner interviewed U2's lead singer Bono, which focused on both music and politics (which he received a National Magazine Award nomination for). On average 8 people read the same copy of Rolling Stones, totalling their circulation to 1,433,000 (2013). Rolling Stone has 20 different versions that are published in different countries, but England gets the American version as we don't have our own. 

SOURCES: 

Weir, David (1999-04-20). "Wenner's world". Salon.com. Retrieved 2013-09-05. 

Wenner, Jann (2005-11-03). "Bono: The Rolling Stone Interview". Retrieved 2007-10-31.

MRI (Spring 2013). "Rolling Stone Demographics" srds.com/mediakits/rollingstone/demographics.html.

Ideology

In advertising, Rolling Stone often uses women to sell products, by objectifying them, and insinuating they're only capable of the 'housewife' roll. Rolling Stone tries to be controversial and describes themselves as "the pulse of youth culture," even though 73.2% of their audience is over the age of 25. Rolling Stone has a lot of political associations, which gives them a lot more to write about than just the music industry. Being on the front cover of Rolling Stones is a prestigious status, and works to both advertise an artist to possible new listeners, and also persuade people seeing an artist they know on the front cover to buy the magazine, because of this rolling stone is a very prestigious magazine, strongly and often subconsciously associated with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone doesn't really advertise their magazine, instead they rely on 'outrageous' cover shoots, and controversial, relevant and interesting articles to get the attention of readers and create a word of mouth advertisement.

Audience

The audience of Rolling Stone is:

Representation