Visual communication in consumer journalism: The case of Consumer magazine in New Zealand

This paper draws on supra-textual design theory and, to a lesser extent, semiotics, to study in detail the visual rhetoric of a highly successful and influential New Zealand consumer-rights magazine, Consumer. The analysis considered the magazine at a time when Consumer was only available by mail order, and it proved instructive to contrast Consumer with North & South, a magazine available to the general public off the shelf in bookshops. To fulfil its readers’ visual expectations of what a magazine should look like, Consumer often adopted the appearance of off-the-shelf magazines such as North & South. For instance, Consumer had a large masthead on the front cover and an extensive table of contents. But Consumer also set itself apart from off-the-shelf magazines by the use of visual devices such as fragmented text, technical tables, and by frequently referencing its own previously published material. Consumer also used its long-time chief executive as the recurring image of a wise fatherly figure. The overall visual message proposed to readers was dual: Consumer is both a readable and scientific publication whose information is enjoyable and can be trusted.