The document analyzes two student magazine covers: 1) The main image shows a girl blowing bubble gum to appeal to rap music lovers and gangsters. Her outfit connotes rebellion. However, images of "Kleopatra" below do not fit the ancient Egyptian theme. 2) The second cover uses mise-en-scene to target its audience. The main image of a boy pointing conveys boldness, while his black outfit represents courageous rappers. Images below of black and white boys promote multiculturalism but suggest appealing only to boys. Backgrounds represent different countries to show rappers adapt cultures.

1. This is the final publication of a student. The main image
uses mise-en-scene to appeal to its target audience. The
main image is of a girl blowing bubble gum, with a direct
mode of address, her costume is a blue denim jacket
which is tied up to reveal her belly. The shot is a mid
shot which only reveals her upper body. Her posture and
costume connotes rebellion. Her posture and the way
she blows the bubble gum is known to be a rebellious act
mostly carried out by female gangsters. Feminists will
argue that presenting a woman in such a rebellious way
empowers them and her direct mode of address shows
how courageous women are. The main image is placed
against a plain cream background which makes the
image stand out more. On her head she wears a red
bandana, this is a code to recognise gangsters as most
gangsters love wearing bandanas. However, hence most
rappers are also gangsters, this also presents her as a
fierce rapper. Her overall image and outfit suggests that
this magazine mainly aims at the target demographic of
rap music lovers or gangsters.
Below the page there are three images with the cover
line "All New Kleopatra Photos” beside them. However,
the images do not fit with the Kleopatra theme as when
people hear Kleopatra they expect to see an image with
ancient beauty and characteristics, such as heavy gold
jewelleries as Kleopatra was an Egyptian Goddess who
wore such jewelleries. These three images that were
aimed at connoting this ancient quality are modern. the
girl sticks her tongue out in the second photo which isn’t
something you see ancient Goddesses or even people
do, it is more likely modern girls nowadays do. The girl in
the image is wearing a modern style of make-up and puts
the chain in her mouth, which again is a modern and not
an ancient characteristics. These images do not convey
the meaning of the cover line.

2. This is another front cover of a student’s
music magazine final publication. Like most
magazines do, it uses mise-en-scene to appeal
to its target audience. The main image which
is of a boy pointing at the reader with a direct
mode of address connotes his boldness. His
costume is black which stands for courage and
hence here he represents a rapper, it connotes
that rappers are courageous. The background
is graffiti and the main image is of a black boy
and the three images below are of a white boy,
this suggests that this magazine aims
promotes multiculturalism but hence there are
only boys on the cover it shows that it is
gender stereotypical and therefore appeal to
boys only. It might also appeal to people who
love rap music.
The three images below which are of a
white boy each have an image from a country
as the background. The first image has a
background which as the caption says,
represents London. The boy’s pose in that
image matches the pose London boys
generally do. The same is connotation applies
to the other photos as they also represent the
pose most boys of that country do. This also
connotes that Rappers adapt to different
cultures.

3. I believe that the second magazine cover is most effective. Not only does it convey all its
intended messages, but even with the busy graffiti background, the texts still stand out
and are readable.