Magazine Cover Analysis 1

Magazine cover analysis 1: The Private Eye is a well-known company which produces magazines relating to current affairs within the world. The magazines primary target audience is generally socially aware, educated, middle aged people who are left-wing voters. Whereas their secondary target audience are socially aware, educated young adults, aged 18-28, this age group consists of roughly 20% of the Private Eye’s readers. The masthead on the cover is placed at the top of the page with a recognisable, bold font. This font and placement of the masthead is used on all the Private Eye covers. This helps to establish and maintain a recognisable brand identity within the market. The magazine uses a colour scheme which predominantly consists of yellow and red. The colour red connotes danger and using this colour around the images of members of parliament suggests that the government are a danger to society. This reinforces the idea that the Private Eye targets the left-wing voters, due to them portraying the conservatives in a negative way. Furthermore, the use of both yellow and red together is a semiotic of a warning and is used to alarm people, such as police tape and signs. This colour scheme also contributes to the overall house style, which is connoting the idea of danger, and belittling the conservative party. Furthermore, the main cover line used is positioned under the masthead, in capital, bold characters stating, “CORONAVIRUS WORRYING FIGURES”. The use of the bold font and capital characters reinforce the urgency required and the importance on the current affair. However, the other cover lines consist of made-up comical comments which have been allocated to members of parliament. This contrasts the main cover line and suggests that the government aren’t taking the matter seriously enough, and every decision made by them results in a bigger mess. These negative connotations on the Tories appeal to the target audience and will see the comical side of the mocking of the government. This magazine cover does not use the traditional code of using one main image with various supporting images. However, this example has used six images which could all be defined as ‘main images’. The images are then supported by the speech bubbles which quote a mocking comment towards the government. The rule of thirds also does not apply to this cover which shows that the cover is further challenging the traditional codes of a magazine cover. Instead of using the rule of thirds images of the Tories dominate the space of the page. This connotes the idea that the Tories are taking over the country and reinforces their power. In conclusion the cover uses various connotations to portray the Conservative government in comical way, and strongly connote throughout the cover that they are inflicting harm to the England and the rest of the UK. They have been portrayed in this manner to make the magazine appeal to the target audience which consists of the left-wing/liberal voters.