TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF STUDENT MAGAZINE

'Campus Life'

Front Cover.

‘Campus Life’ is a student magazine from Canada and I will be using it to analyse the features and contents and find out what is successful on and in a student magazine for when I create my own. The central image on this magazine is a male, he is dressed in a ‘rock band’ type of style, which could connote that he in cool and popular and so other student want to look up to him. Like many other magazines there is a direct mode of address, the model in the middle of the cover is looking straight into the camera which connotes the idea that he directly talking to the reader and potential buyer. The central image slightly cover the masthead, this shows that they are confident in there magazine enough to know that readers will still recognize the name. The masthead “Campus Life’ is in white against the grey, burred background. This makes the name stand out in the cover and so stand out from all the other magazines.

The general colour scheme of this magazine is white, red and black. These are all contrasting colours and stand out among the other colours. The red connotes passion and danger meaning that this magazine could be fun and sexy.

This cover contains a puff. This is when extras are added to the magazine in which you can enter competitions or get free vouchers. The puff that ‘Campus Life’ contains is to enter a competition. This is surrounded by a bright red circle attracting a lot of attention.

To the bottom of the cover there are some of the stories and information that the magazine contains, these have been placed to show just how much the reader will be getting when they buy this magazine.

Contents Page. ‘Campus Life’s’ contents page contains a ‘table of contents’. In this they list the main stories and extras that the magazine contains along with images and page numbers.

The page numbers simple make it easier to find what the reader wants. This is useful because stereotypically students are lazy and after a hard day of working this will be more appealing to a student thinking of buying the magazine. The images make the whole page more colourful and appealing to a person of teenage years who are looking for fun. The four main stories that the magazine contains are accompanied with an image to create a visual aid. This attracts attention to the biggest stories, which would be the most important and most likely to persuade the potential buyer to buy.

The colour scheme continues from the front cover and onto the contents pages. This not only means that all titles and important and interesting information and gossip can be made to stand out but the eye is still being dragged across the page from one interesting story or extra to the next. All the time these colours are making the magazine fun and interesting for a student that has been sat looking at textbooks all day. This will persuade the student to perchance the magazine again and again.