Main Task: Front Cover Textual Analysis

In this assignment I am going to do a textual analysis of the Front cover above.






Denotation: In this front cover of 'The Source' I can see a grey back ground with red and white cover lines around it. I can see a young afro american man holding a gun, he has countless tattoos onb his body.


MastHead: The masthead of this magazine is 'The Source.' 'Source' Is in a bold red font with white outline to make it stand out even more and they also edited it to have a drop shadow. The 'the' is small and hangs on to the source which suggests that there is alot hanging on to this magazine showing there is alot of information in this magazine.


Costume: You cannot really see the costume being worn by the main character but u can see that he is wearing a plain white vest, this shows that it is hot and also that he doesn't care much about he's appearance because he didn't care about wearing anything over the top.



Props: There is only one prop used in this front cover, which is of a gun. This shows that the main character is a gangster and ready to kill someone. Because the gun is pointed to himself it showed he is ready to kill himself. This juxtaposes with the cover line which says 'suicide is not an option' but then the image is saying otherwise.



NVC: The main characters head is pointing up as if he is in a desperate situation and is seeking God's help. He eyes are squinting to show that he is scared o what he is about to see or that he is holding back tears.


Setting: This looks as if it is set in front of a wall. It is very dull and not excited, this keeps the attention on the character. The gun is the same colour as the background which makes it blend in.


Dateline: The dateline is just above the barcode. It says the month first which shows that this magazine will be sold monthly. It's very small and in a dull black font which shows that it isn't the main attraction of the cover.


Main Image: In the case of this front cover there is a single image of the rapper The Game. The image is very big in order for the main character to stand out, with the singing closing his eyes to show that he is hiding something.


Cover-Lines: The cover lines on this article are very bold and clear and use bright colours to make them stand out. They are all in good positions and do not overlap each other or overlap the main image. Also the colour used does not clash with the background decided to use so it fits in with the whole magazine front cover.



Main Cover-Lines: The main cover line is very large and just a little bit smaller than the masthead. It consists two parts one with the main characters name and the second a punchline which is smaller but underlined so it also draws a lot of attention. The main cover-line is only over a bit of the main image and does not cover the main aspect of the image, but is still big and clear enough to see.


Left third: In this particular magazine the left third is quite important as it contains a lot of valid information such as: the barcode which is used to scan the magazine in shops. The date so the customers know if this is the latest edition out. And the main cover-line so they know what the main story in this magazine is about and if it catches their eye.


Barcode: The barcode is in the bottom left of the magazine front cover and it is very plain and simple and doesn't draw much attention towards itself.


Selling Line: The selling line of this magazine is directly below the masthead and it seems as if the main image has cut off the end of the selling line. The selling line is 'The Bible of hip-hop music' this shows that this will give you every bit of information you need for hip0hop music in this magazine. It is very short but does the job it is meant to do.


Website Link: The website link is very small and is at the bottom of the barcode. This shows that the magazine is not bothered about their website being advertised on the front cover but it's just there for policy.


Conclusion: To conclude this cover has focused on different codes and conventions of a cover to make this as successful as possible. There are a lot of aspects that i can use for my cover to make it as successful as this one especially as i am doing the same genre.