Advertising and reader’s letters: between the expected public and the manifested public

Abstract

The article presents an analysis about advertisements published in the Scientific American Brasil Magazine, referring to the public characteristics. We made a comparison between these characteristics included in the advertising message and the characteristics of the reader’s letters published by the magazine. The analysis is based on the French Discourse Analysis theories, especially on the concepts of ethos, of communication and reading contract. We imply that readers are fully involved with the magazine issues.