Textual analysis of "Secondary teachers"

For our Preliminary exercise we had to undertake some research and planning. For part of my research I analysed “Secondary teachers” magazine front cover. By researching magazine front covers it will help me see what different media concepts are used by different magazines. This will help me when it comes to creating my front cover for a collage magazine.

The cover of the magazine is split into two. On the left hand side there is a picture of a girl, she is looking across towards the boy. The picture on the right hand side is of a boy with his hand raised enthusiastically. He has a large smile on his face whereas the girl has a more impatient look on her face as she looks across, although she does have a slight smile starting to come through. The article is about do boys and girls learn differently, perhaps this picture is suggesting that the girl is getting wound up or distracted by the boy?

Both the pictures are medium shots, and looking straight on at the students. It is a point of view shot as if we were looking through the eyes of a teacher or someone watching the students. Watching the way they are learning, which is what the article is about. The picture is in colour which makes the cover seem bright whereas if it was in black and white it would seem plainer and more boring. The background of the picture is a bright white, this makes the writing and picture stand out more and have a sharper impact.

Both the students are dressed very smartly with the right school equipment on their desks. They are the type of students that a teacher would want to teach in their lessons. If the students had been dressed scruffily the magazine would not appeal to teachers because it would not appeal to the professional teaching audience. For this reason smart students are represented to make sure the magazine reaches the right audience, professional teaching staff.

On the right hand side, the headline of the main article “Do boys and girls learn differently?” is written in blue writing. On the left hand side it is written in pink writing. The colour blue is associated with boys and pink with girls, for this reason they have put pink writing on the left hand side and blue on the right hand side to go with the gender of the student.

The two students on the cover are also different races, one black and one white. This shows equal rights and reflects today’s society.

Along the top of the cover there are three short headlines about other articles that appear in the magazine. This will give the audience a chance to see what else appears in the magazine. If the main story doesn’t appeal to the audience one of the articles inside might appeal to them more. The headlines along the top are not as big as the main headline but clear enough to read easily.

The front cover is not too crowded; everything is very spacious and well spread out. This makes it clear and easy to read. Everything is well proportioned; the picture is in proportion with the headline and the writing surrounding it. Proportion helps to emphasis things; it makes the picture and the headline stick out without making them look like they are dominating the rest of the page too much.