Language: The cover models are the entire band called Metallica. These are in long-medium shot as you can see their lower legs, but don't seem to be much of a distance away. The lead singer is in a violent, agressive pose, appearing to launch himself at the camera with a clenched fist. This connotates that he's angry and wants a fight. He is also being held back by one of the other members, which may connotate that they are holding him back, music-wise. The lead-singer is also pulling a a face which is iconic of screaming. The band are wearing costumes that are iconic to their image of heavy-metallers. The lead singer is wearing a black vest, allowing his tattoo's (iconic of rock 'n' roll) to be on view, whilst the mise en scene of his black vest and jeans connotate that he's the bad guy; the antagonist. Other band members have long hair or scruffy, slightly baggy jeans, which are iconic of Rock 'N' Roll. The band member on the far right of the front cover is wearing the costume of an American Football team. This establishes them as an American band and the mise en scene of the colour black connotates evil; which is what rock is portrayed to be like, stereotypically. The layout of the magazine follows conventions with the title and the rest of the masthead situated on the top of the cover, the main image in the centre, dominating the page and overlapping the magazine title text and the sell-line. The main headline, which I had to search for, wasn't clearly visible as, as I said, I had to search for it. This isn't very good as it should jump right out of the page and, if possible, be right on top of the main image. The colour scheme is red and white, with some appearances of black as an outline colour. This follows the overall colour scheme of the magazine as it is also red and white. I know this because the background is white, and the magazine title is red and white on all issues of the magazine. The Rolling Stone has also betrayed conventions of a rock music magazine as there is only one image on the front cover. This goes for a simplistic design but makes the front cover slightly boring. There is also no barcode or price tag that is viewable on the front cover. This could be, however, due to the image deriving from the internet, and because prices may vary, thet have decided not to include one on the image of the front cover.
Institution: There is no visible contact information, including websites or subscription service to the magazine, and there is also no mention of the company that owns and publishes the magazine. However, I do know that it is published by Wenner Media (Jan Wenner, who was also the founder) and is an LLC (Limited Liability Company). The magazine is published in New York in America, and is an American magazine. The magazine itself is not sold in the UK and therefore is not likely that British bands would appear in the magazine, let alone the front cover.
Ideology: The message which the magazine is trying to portray is that heavy metal music is gritty, unpleasent and violent. This is told through the mise en scene of the cover models. You may find this magazine sold across the world as there seems to be no prejudice or unacceptable behaviour to allow certain societies to not accept it in their culture. However, there may be some individuals who believe in pacifism, and therefore don't believe in violence, which is what the magazine is trying to portray rock as.
Audience: I'd say that the magazine was aiming at the AB1 audience. I say this because my knowledge of the price of buying the magazine is $6.34, compared to Kerrang! magazine which is sold in the UK for around the £2.00-3.00 mark, meaning it would be catering for the BC1 populace. The Rolling Stone also targets not only rock music fans, but pop music fans. I say this because it features artists such as Britney Spears as a cover story (although there is no picture) and the magazine also delves in to politics and Popular Culture. The magazine is clearly not aimed at UK audiences as, as previously stated, the magazine is not on sale in the UK. It also features no British bands and only deals with American bands. This means that, even though there are issues for these countries, the audience wouldn't exactly be catered for Columbia and Germany, for example. The age criteria of the magazine is most likely to be 30+ year olds as the magazine deals with classic rock bands and not new age pop-rock/emo/indie bands, although The Killers (cover story) are an exception as they are big in America. This means that the magazine is not aimed at teenagers who will either get their magazines out of there EMA or get their money of their parents.
Representation: Heavy Metal (or Mosher) band 'Metallica' are the cover models for this issue of the Rolling Stone. They are portrayed as nasty, evil and brutal characters due to their stances and costumes, along with their costume colours (mise en scene). The tagline on the masthead "The Lies Of Sarah Palin" represents, in just one minor sentence, as a liar and someone who isn't very nice. Sarah Palin, who is the governor of Alaska (or at least was the governor, but resigned) features on the front cover too introduce the use of politics in to the magazine. The cover models represent heavy metal as gritty and nasty, due to their facial expressions. Sub-cultures such as Emo's and Chavs have been excluded from the front cover, and possibly the whole magazine, as the Rolling Stone prides itself on featuring "true" rock 'n' roll and no teenage, good-looking bands who only say they're rock (most of them are genred under pop or pop-rock).
