Textual Analysis 5

DENOTATION

The magazine cover consists of a black and white photograph of a man looking directly at the camera. It is a medium long shot showing his head all the way down to where the top of his stomach is; his arms are also visible as they are lifted up. The background of the photograph is white, and the photograph of the man covers the whole of the magazine cover. Behind him is the ‘XXL’ masthead and in front of him and beside him are different cover-lines. The photographed man’s name is in block, black capital letters with a little slogan underneath it. A bar code is visible on the bottom left corner of the front page of the magazine.

MASTHEAD

The ‘XXL’ masthead is similar to the ‘Q’ magazine masthead with the white letters on a red square background. The font used is a non-serif font as none of the letters on the masthead have flick ups or small feet and do not join up. The letters ‘XXL’ is another way of saying extra, extra large. The letters ‘XXL’ tell readers that the magazine is extra, extra large and packed with information about artists and many other things.

CHARACTER

The cover photograph is of the successful black American hip hop/ rap artist ‘Diddy/P Diddy’.

COMPOSITION

He is posed in a very cool and street type of way as he is popping the collar of his jacket up and showing his gold teeth to the camera. He looks a bit intimidating as he is from the ‘hood’.

COSTUME

The image is black and white so you cannot really tell what colour clothing he is wearing but I can see a white jacket and white shirt with a chain hanging on his neck. This costume has been chosen carefully to appeal to the target audience of the magazine, who are most likely to be young male and females but mostly females. The clothing worn is similar to what other hip hop artists would wear in videos and photos. The sunglasses on his face complete the look.

NVC

His non-verbal communication is also very cool, fly and even seductive. His mouth is open in a way that his shiny teeth are showing and his eyebrows are arched as if he is screwing his face at the camera

LIGHTING

The lighting is used is high key as the photograph displays brightness and no obvious shadows.

SETTING

From the camera shot that is used we can’t really see any setting because we can only see some of his body and the rest is cropped out the photo.

COVERLINES

The main cover-line that relates to his photograph says: “Hip hops No.1 mogul Diddy” this cover-line is trying to convey to readers that Diddy is very successful in the hip hop culture and his fans him as the king of hip hop. The “Mo Money. No Problems” reference relates to the fact that the more money you have then the fewer problems you will have. The different cover-lines tell us that this magazine doesn’t concentrate on just one genre of music, and doesn’t fully focus on music either, but is diverse in what it chooses to write about. Artists mentioned on the cover lines include Chris Brown, Soulja Boy, Nas and Damien Marley (there is a definite emphasis on American artists). None of the cover-lines use a serif font.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Considering all these points, the likely target audience would be young male and females equally because they see Diddy as an idol to them as he inspires them with great songs and collaborations that he has done with other artists. They would have a good knowledge of popular culture and a definite interest in a wide range of musical styles and the music industry generally. They are also likely to be well educated/well read, and have an interest in American popular culture.