Talk:Empire (magazine)

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[edit] Regular features

Please, whoever it is, please stop adding the paragraph Empire is populist in its coverage and lacks the comprehensive journalism of comparable film magazines such as Sight and Sound or Little White Lies. It focuses on Hollywood fare and its demographic readership is teenage boys. In the past it has devoted entire issues to Star Wars and sex in films.

- Firstly, the more serious Sight and Sound is not comparable to a populist magazine like Empire - magazines such as Total Film and Hotdog are nearer the mark. Secondly, it does cover art films, not just Hollywood fare. Thirdly, as a man in his late thirties, I find the magazine perfectly acceptable and not aimed at teenage boys - if you list the Star Wars films (or even sex in films) as of evidence of its teenage demography I'm afraid that just doesn't fly. Please stop trying to prove a point, thank you. Stephenb (Talk) 13:24, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

The description of the magazine's content isn't exclusively left to your sole discretion, pal. I felt it was inadequate in conveying the style and content of the magazine. It certainly does lack the depth of magazines such as Sight and Sound so why can't I write it. It certainly is aimed at younger lads in its style and content so why is it wrong to include that? It has devoted entire issues to Star Wars and 'sex in films', so they are not unreasonable examples to highlight the magazine's choice of content. I've rejigged the article leaving in most of your description and added mine back in so I suggest you leave it alone now. It now covers all the points we both want it to include.

213.122.7.244 18:19, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

It's not left to my sole discretion, no, but the entry must be accurate and balanced, which your edits weren't. I have removed Its target demographic seems to be primarily teenage boys and entire issues have been devoted to Star Wars and sex in films. because "seems to be" is a point of view (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view) which I disagree with ("teenage" in particular - I don't think the original Star Wars films have that much pull with a teenage audience!) and entire issues haven't been devoted to Star Wars and sex (though they have been the theme of an issue, this doesn't mean the entire issue was devoted to these subjects). It does lack the serious coverage of Sight and Sound which is why the comparison is left in there - but that magazine is in a minority compared to the similar styles of Total Film, Hotdog etc. You seem to be trying to attack the magazine for no discernible reason except you find it juvenile - did you follow my link to Wikipedia:POINT? Stephenb (Talk) 08:31, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Well if you look at the films in the top ten of the most recent user voted Top 201 films - The Shawshank Redemption, The Empire Strikes Back, The Fellowship of the Ring, Star Wars, The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, The Return of the King, Fight Club, Goodfells and The Matrix - you can take a fair guess at its target audience. Or at least the people who read it. The original poster is not alone in thinking this. If you read the Empire forums there are many people who have voiced the same opinion to the magazine and its recent dumbing down". crazymaner2003 (Talk)

That's a point of view, but many of these films are ten years old or more (Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, Goodfellas, Fight Club, Shawshank) which somewhat weakens your argument. I'm in my late thirties and haven't noticed any "dumbing down" (which I suspect is, like many things accused of "dumbing down" simply a way of saying that they aren't the same as they were before - i.e. they've changed - but without any real evidence of a drop in quality. The last "sex in films" issue was around 1999, BTW - I checked :-) Stephenb (Talk) 18:01, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

If you check the IMDb ratings for those films it is males under the age of eighteen who rate them the heighest. And while Empire haven't done a sex issue in quite a while just this month they have had useless and silly (IMHO) features about bikinis and sandcastles! I'm sure the previous sex issues had much superior content than that! crazymaner2003 (Talk)

Well, neither of those articles was in a "sex in films" issue, so you're comparing apples and oranges. The sandcastles one was visually quite interesting, I thought, and I think a film magazine that covers a wide spectrum of film-related information is fine by me (and could have been an article in the magazine at any point in its history). The bikinis one was largely uninteresting to me because I don't follow fashion - if you're saying that it was really there for other reasons (i.e. the male readership), it may well have been, but specifically teenagers? Still, one article that two people didn't want to read isn't evidence of "dumbing down". Stephenb (Talk) 08:38, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

To be honest, I love Empire, but I think it could do with striking a mid point between Hotdog and Total Film and the hiher brow Sight & Sound. The writers are clearly passionate, artistically minded peeps, and there's really no need for them to pander to the populaist crowd. if Empire is the biggest seeling film mag here in the UK, they should start using that as a means to introduce people to what is the biggest art form on the planet, not just celeb culture.

Just a question: I've just created a page for [Guitarist] magazine, and I'm wanting to insert an infobox like the one on this page, with a picture of the magazine's front cover. Does anyone know if I have to worry about copyright? JMalky 10:15, 20 November 2006 (UTC)