Preliminary Task -Content Analysis

 

In this section of my blog i am going to analyse two different front covers of a school magazine. By doing this i can get a more in depth understanding of what the codes and conventions of a school magazine are.

Magazine one 

This school magazine has decided to use a photograph as the main feature of the page. The photograph works the colour green is emphasised throughout the whole page. By using the colour green for the text it makes the magazine have a continuos theme. In my opinion the green is quite overpowering and gives the feeling of looking like an environmental magazine. The boy in the photograph looks well groomed which makes the school look good. This is how the school represents themselves. They have not used a scruffy looking student on the front cover and therefore have represented their school well. There is not too much information on the front cover which is good as it does not look too cramped and it is easy to read and understand. The idea of having a bar at the bottom of the page works well as it invites the reader to look inside the magazine. However i do not think it goes with the style of the rest of the magazine. Perhaps more photographs would help the magazine to appeal to more students as the photograph used does not relate to any of the stories on the cover. They could of used a photograph of the "old head girl" and one of the "new head girl" as this relates to one of the stories and would make the reader open the magazine. By including their school logo on the magazine would also improve the look of the cover. Overall i believe the magazine works quite well. I like the photograph they have used but i believe they could of thought more about the font colour and the layout of the text. From this cover i have learnt to consider what colour scheme i use and that the photographs i use need to compliment the articles that are inside.


Magazine two 



Similarly to the other magazine this front cover also has a main photograph. The aspects of this cover that i think really work are that they include a slogan. This is a good selling point as the students would associate the school magazine with this slogan which would rise the awareness of it. The name of the magazine is also catchy. By using alliteration it adds effect and again makes it sound catchy and fun. The layout of this magazine works well. One thing that could be better is the colour of the text. There is no continous theme which would usually link the magazine together and make it a package. The different purples and green could be changed for colour. I also think that the yellow does not go well on the background of the purple. I understand their motives for using yellow-as it is a connotation of a star. However the yellow does not show up extremely well against the purple. This magazine have used a second picture which i believe makes the magazine look more interesting , as there is more to look at.