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Persuasion in the media

Part of EnglishDiscursive, persuasive and informative writing

Media texts are a type of persuasive text.

Lots of magazine covers on a magazine stand

Examples of persuasive media texts include:

  • advertisements
  • reviews
  • articles
  • posters
  • leaflets

They are often produced by:

  • mass media companies such as TV and film companies
  • newspaper and magazine publishers
  • charities

The purpose is often to persuade us to buy products or to give to charitable causes, such as ±«Óătv Children in Need.

Here is an example of a charity campaign leaflet with typical features found in media texts

An example poster for a rhino preservation charity called 'Rescue our rhinos'. It shows the use of headings, sub-headings, images, splashes of information and a logo.
Typical layout of a charity campaign leaflet

Typical features found in media texts

  • Logo – this acts to identify a brand and sometimes a company. Logos can become trusted and can even persuade us to pay more money for a product.
  • Headings/headlines – these are designed to grab your attention and can feature exciting or crucial pieces of information about the product that you are being encouraged to buy or donate to.
  • Sub-headings – these will be a word, phrase or sentence that is used to introduce part of a text. They can also be used to support a headline in adverts.
  • Images – these will try to attract the reader’s attention. There is usually one main image and some supporting images. The supporting images will be smaller and these are known as secondary images.
  • Splashes of information – these are different pieces of information that are placed around the page in order to give you shorter pieces of information at a time. They may be short sentences or quotations, and will be easy to read as they are designed to be read at a glance.

It is these features that the copywriter or creator of the text wants you to notice first.

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