Textual Analysis Of a College Magazine Front Cover

Textual Analysis

The denotation of the image is, it is a front page of a college magazine. The photo in the magazine shows two American football players in a colour contrast. Both football players are holding an American football and in a position which looks as if they are running. Also both athletes are wearing a football jersey with a number on their upper body. This makes it visible for the audience to know that they are football players.

The Masthead simply says ‘College’ which is in a Sans serif font to make it look modern as it is directed to college students. The word ‘College is bold and written in which looks like a size 20 font. The boldness of the font catches the audience attention and also makes it recognisable. The Masthead is also in capitals which makes it unique and readable.

The coverline on the magazine says “Penn Station” in bold font, this makes it stand out and attracts the audience to the contents of the magazine. The coverline is important because it is one of the things that the audience first looks at. At a glance of this, it immediately attracts a specific range of audience. In this case it could attract boys that go to the college because it is telling them information about the football match which took place.  The coverline also has a black font which makes it clear for the audience to read.

The dateline appears to be on top of the barcode and this indicates the year of publication. The dateline on this magazine simply says “AUG 2008”. However with this magazine this dateline is the date of which it should be displayed until. This lets the reader know that it was recently published. The barcode is displayed on the bottom left hand corner and this would be used by the retailer to register the sale of the magazine quickly when it is purchased.

The selling line is on the top of the magazine, “rosters, stats, schedules, bowl picks”. This is a short description of the titles main marketing point. As it says “rosters ,stats, bowl picks” this makes it clear that those things are included in the magazine and are also key points that will attract the audience into reading the magazine as they know briefly what it will be about.

The main image on the magazine is the two American football player’s both in a running position, which instantly attracts the right audience.  Moreover both players are wearing their football kits to make sure the audience don’t get the sport they are doing mixed up with a different sport. In the background of the image there is a little bit of grass which is shown and the rest is in white. I believe this is to ensure that the reader can read the text and ensuring that the words do not become invisible by running over an image with a lot of colour.

There is also a puff on the magazine which reads “inside! Recruiting reports”. This is to attract the audience with little information, which makes them want to read on.

I soon realised that this magazine is not a college magazine but a sports magazine. However it has many similarities which resembles a college magazine. Also the masthead can make the audience believe that it has something to do with college within its content.