Textual Analysis Of "Secondary Teachers" magazine

The Institution behind this media text is "Teachers Magazine". This front cover was taken from the magazine "Secondary Teachers", which is aimed at professional teachers. The ideology behind the magazine is to provide them with an informative and balanced view of what is currently happening in schools and education.

The first aspect of this page that captures my attention is the photograph of the two boys. The image is obviously an important feature as it has been placed in the centre, because of its location the reader is immediately drawn to it. The boys' dark uniform allows them to stand out against the pale background. This contrast tells the reader that the two boys are the central focus of the image. The children featured in the image are represented as being eager and enthusiastic students. They are smiling and are enjoying their work, which is how all teachers want their students to feel. Students are stereotypically seen as being lazy and not wanting to make the most of their education. However the children on the front of this magazine seem keen and motivated. This will greatly appeal to the target audience. Teachers will feel that if they read this magazine, their pupils will enjoy learning as well.

The photograph of the boys then draws us down to the bold yellow headline reading "Playing to learn." The colour yellow signifies happiness, so we make the connection that the boys are happy to be learning. The choice of the colour yellow also works well as it stands out against the dark clothing. The next aspect of the front cover that we notice is the smaller sub-heading underneath the main heading. This reads "How football can improve their Maths and English skills." This informs us what the article is about after our interest has been captured by the photograph and bold heading.

The two red football shirts behind the pupils allow us to make an assumption of what the article is about before we read the sub-heading. The colour red is very bold and bright, and signifies power (for example a red carpet), awareness and action. Red suggests that the pupils are about to take serious action on their education.

The name of the magazine is written at the top of the page where it can easily be seen. The word "Secondary" is written in a very large font, whereas the word "teachers" is in a much smaller size. This is because the company produces two different type of magazine, one aimed at "Primary Teachers" and one designed for "Secondary teachers". Having the word "Secondary" in very large font makes it clear who this magazine is aimed at. The title is coloured in a mixture of green and blue. These colours are very calming and relaxing. This makes the magazine seem more of a gentle read rather than being too hard-going. If it came across as being too 'heavy', people might not want to read it.



This is the contents page from the same edition of the "Secondary Teachers" magazine. The heading "what's inside?" is printed in the same colour as the title of the magazine on the front cover. The same colour scheme is also used on the navigation bar running down the left hand side of the page. This follows through the idea that the magazine will be relaxing and calming to read, as the blues and greens are very soothing colours.

Three images have been used on the contents page to break up the text and give some visual interest on this first page. If there was too much text, the audience may not want to carry on reading it. The first photograph represents another student, again portrayed as being happy and enthusiastic. Once again this will make the teachers think that if they read this magazine, their pupils will feel like the student in the photograph.

On the left hand side of the page there is an advertisement written within a bold, bright yellow circle, asking readers to subscribe to the magazine. The colour yellow is very eye-catching and really grabs the readers attention to the advert. The institution behind the magazine will want teachers to subscribe so they have made the text very bold and easy to read so that it catches people's attention. The heading "Subscribe to teachers" is also written in blue to make it more noticeable compared to the other black text.

The different topics covered in the magazine are written clearly under the "what's inside?" heading. The titles of the separate articles are written in a range of different colours so that they are easy to tell apart. This makes the navigation process much less stressful, readers are able to identify the articles that interest them quickly and with ease. A brief description of what the article is about is also written under these sub-headings, to give the audience an idea of what they will be reading about. This again allows them to find the topics that they want to learn more about without difficulty. If the audience can find their way around the magazine easily, they are much more likely to want to read on.