Ideology essay

An ideology is a set of beliefs or ideas that guide an individual or group. Magazines

can display these ideologies that they may have in many ways through their articles

and that is what is going to be explained and analysed throughout this essay with

reference to a particular article.

In this example of an article from the magazine Q it is clear to see that the artist is

about the hip-hop artist 50 Cent. This straight away gives the reader an idea of one

of the magazines ideologies. Q is a popular music magazine that intends on

providing its readers with news on the latest artists, tracks and interviews with the

hottest artists out there. So by having a large image of 50 Cent, a very popular and

well known artist, taking up a whole page the magazine is showing the readers that it

is including the best artists and the ones that they know their readers want to know

about. So one of Q magazine’s ideologies is that they want to showcase the hottest

artists and in this article they have done just that.

In the image, 50 Cent has a very serious and almost intimidating look which can also

suggest another of Q’s ideologies. This magazine has made it clear through its

exclusive interviews and rating systems that it is very much focused on the music

industry and as well as it containing some fun elements e.g. photoshoots it

particularly wants to zoom in on the music side of things. So through 50 Cent’s

serious face, he is giving across the message that Q magazine is serious about the

music and wants its readers to respect that.

The language used in this magazine article are really a combination of formal and

informal language which again presents another possible ideology of Q magazine.

For instance, in the main heading the word “hell” is used and it is also printed in italic

font. The word hell is evidently a slang term and it shows that as Q is informing its

readers about this hip-hop artist, then it must also reflect the language of the artist so

that the reader can really engage with the artist and understand his terminology a bit

better than they would have if the whole article was in formal language. The tag line

beneath the main heading also demonstrates slang being used in “fiddy” which is

what 50 calls himself and what other people call him too. This again helps the reader

to engage with the artist more and supports Q’s ideology of getting their readers as

close to the music as possible.

There is also a more meaningful and heartfelt ideology revealed in this article. The

pull quote in the bottom right hand corner of the magazine on the image says

“getting shot didn’t hurt as much as you’d think”. This suggests that 50 is tough and

is able to deal with bad things such as this which then makes the reader delve into

50’s early life. 50 had a tough upbringing, growing up in the violent and poverty

infested neighbourhood of South Jamaica, located in Queens, New York City. This

tells the reader that 50 is rapping about his life and how hard it has been for him but

he wants to encourage other upcoming artists to express themselves in similar ways.

So, it can be inferred from this that another of Q’s ideologies is to promote inspiring

and thoughtful messages to their readers who they hope the majority would be

aspiring artists.