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‘High Profile’ – Textual Analysis of a School Magazine

Language

Cool, relaxed colours create a mature nature to the magazine. The title ‘High Profile’ also has mature connotations (but also sounds fun and extreme, from the usage of the word ‘High’), using capital letters, making it more formal, but the plain white colour against the blue sky produces relaxing connotations – like clouds. Usage of bold and varying text sizes reinforce this effect. Furthermore, some font has been highlighted by making it pink-which has very female connotations (but this effect is not overused, otherwise the magazine would look like it had been intended for a younger audience). Very short, punchy sentences on the front cover are used (e.g: “excellence at KEHS”) to keep the audience interested, as young people are often busy and may lose interest – it makes the magazine sound fast paced, introducing a fun element – these elements may have been implemented due to the audience of the girls only school or their age, where they are going into adulthood and may want to be given more respect. Bold effects and the convention of having large font on a magazine front cover have been implemented in order to attract the audience. Also, exclamation marks have been used repeatedly, which have fun and exciting connotations, and make it seem less formal. Finally, a pun and been used: “Czech this out”. This hints on something to do with Czechoslovakia and also makes it sound like an interesting article, as little is actually revealed in this statement and the audience will want to read on – it also adds a humourous element, which again makes it sound more fun and less formal.

Institution

The institution that developed this magazine is most likely the school itself, or a group of students that have decided to make their own magazine about trips that the school has been on, in a club, which also provides vital information to students about what is going on around the school etc. There is no price indicated on the front cover, nor any sponsorships logos, which suggests that the school pays for the printing of the magazines. Alternately, the magazines may only be supplied on the school’s website, so that no printing is required, so there are very few costs.

Audience

The audience of this magazine would be current students of the school, or future students, so that they can consider going to the school. This is noticeable due to the ‘New Teachers’ part in the magazine, which would only be aimed towards students, not other staff or parents. All of these students are females, probably 16-18, judging from the age of the students on the picture on the front cover.

Representation

The characters on the front cover are represented as active and having fun – which reflects the overall appearance of the school itself – making it seem inviting to others, and improving the atmosphere for students. The characters are all laughing and clapping at the girl that has fallen over, which represents her as ‘clumsy’ and idiotic to this audience and gives all of the characters an appealing appearance, making them seem friendly and happy (even the girl on the floor is laughing). The audience may also want to read on to discover what actually happened in this incident.