Selling the 'Indie taste': A social semiotic analysis of Frankie Magazine

This chapter examines the ways in which a popular Australian independent women’s magazine titled frankie distinguishes itself from mainstream women’s glossies by commodifying the ‘taste’ of anti-consumerist independent culture. In particular, it analyses the multimodal discursive resoursces frankie employs, including tactile texture, visual modality, evaluative language, and genre (contextual metaphor) in creating the ‘indie taste’ and in resolving the ‘indie culture paradox’—to sell products without seemingly promoting any ostentatious consumption. Based on the analysis, the chapter argues that the key strategy frankie uses to mask its consumerist nature is allowing multiple ‘consumptions’—that of semiotic artefacts, of culture and of consumer goods—in a single discursive space.