Semiotic Analysis

• You are to type up your analysis of the magazine cover in order to show how useful semiotics is in media studies.

• Follow this guide to presenting your work using it as a template:

• Follow the instructions and delete them as you complete your own piece of work.

• Design your slides however you please.

Semiotic analysis of a magazine cover

Enter your name here

Introduction to semiotics

• What it is• Why it is important in media studies

Magazine cover

• You are to present your semiotic analysis of your magazine cover. You can do this in one of two ways:

1.Insert your magazine cover photo here (find correct one on portal.)Using text boxes and arrows you can present your detailed semiotic analysis of the cover.

2. Alternatively you can crop certain parts of the cover and create a new slide for each section.

• See examples of layout for more guidance:

Example 1Title: GQInitials rather than full name. Short and direct. Masculine connotations (to the point). Circular shape creates a logo / motif (recognisable to audience, branding)

Black and Red: Bold, strong, dominant colours suggesting power and control.

Top left hand corner positioning: Easy to locate on shelf, Largest typeface on cover so the title is prominent.

Image: Denotations are….. the connotations are that……

Shia LaBeouf He’s so money: Play on words…suggests finance is significant to reader and…

Exclusive: Draws reader in, suggests gossip is worth knowing and magazine is first with news

Colour palette of black, red, grey and yellow suggests…

Example 2The title is GQThe use of initials rather than a full title is quite a masculine, short hand technique. It implies product familiarity as the full name Gentleman's Quarterly is not used) the audience is familiar with the brand.Red and Black: Dominant colours suggest power, control, dominance – these colours are often used to indicate orders and gives the magazine a strong identity. The colours are masculine and the shape is circular which is a soft shape but it works to create a logo identity.

The tagline reads Look sharp, live smart: using alliteration and making bold statements about image and lifestyle….

Conclusion

• What key information has a semiotic analysis given you?

• Target audience of product.• Type / identity of product (in terms of content

and delivery.)• How useful is semiotics in decoding magazine

covers?

Upload to your blog

• You need to use your slideshare or scribd account to upload the PowerPoint to the web.

• You can then embed it on to your own blog on blogger.

• You need to explain the PowerPoint in your blog entry post by using the title Semiotic Analysis of a Magazine Cover

and explaining the task you were given and what is meant by semiotics.