Visual Analysis of Magazine Covers

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to look into ways in which modes are chosen if signs are produced for interpretation and presentation of theories and meanings. Magazine is a complex collection of signs that can be extensively decoded and analyzed by different factors. The most spectacular components are documentary photos, manipulated images and portrait photos. According to the results, many processes (action, symbolic, reaction, and analytical processes), and strategies (e.g. top vs. bottom strategies and margin vs. center), modality modification and color differentiation, are required in representing and interpreting concepts and meanings in this type of discourse. The discourse analysis used here is accomplished based on Halliday’s model of functional-systematic grammar (1976, 2004), which uses three meta functions to describe different communicational modes.