Examining Magazine Covers 1

The two covers that i will be analyzing are from the Earth Island Journal and Time. I did not make them and i don't own them.

Visuals: Visually the most noticeable parts of the cover are the black umbrella, the child in the raincoat and the desert in the background. After that it is the message of "READY OR NOT" in bright yellow which follows the convention of important texts being larger and in the middle of the page. After that comes the logo of the Earth Island Journal itself as the message must have been deemed as more important than brand recognition. Two other texts can also be clearly seen, one saying "Climate Chaos is Coming. Time to Adapt." while the other one says "Is Eco-Retail for Real? Chernobyl Revisited".

Examination: The empty sky and relatively unremarkable wasteland in the background ensure that the image doesn't become too cluttered and all of its messages can be seen clearly. The umbrella and the raincoat evoke the connotation that it was supposed to be raining while the black umbrella specifically implies that the child is mourning someone or something. The Large size of the text ensures that the questions and facts the magazine poses are well understood.

Meaning: It is also important to note that the ethnicity of the child on the cover can be interpreted multiple ways and as such this evokes the idea inside of the readers head that this is a global issue not a local one. The texts are as large and eye-catching as they are because in 2011 when the magazine was published there were (and still are) many misconceptions about climate change and it was meant to spread awareness.

Visuals: The magazines visuals follow the convention of the outline of the magazine and its logo to be in the same color and as such to help catch the eye of a potential consumer. Under it is a text that reads "How to Win The War On Global Warming". The cover features a colored tree in a black and white setting being pushed up by a group of american soldiers in what is clearly an illusion to the famous WW2 picture in which a flag is being pushed up instead. Below and above the TIME magazine logo other texts are also visible with the former reading "Special Environment Issue" and the latter being other articles, one on "Obama's Working Class Woes", "Why More Women Are Choosing C-Sections" and "Can Richard Branson Save the Airline Industry" the Issue was also published in 2008.

Examination: The logo is likely as large as it is because it was deemed more important for the consumer to recognize the brand than to be attracted by the content itself as it the time more people were reading TIME than who were actively interested in environmentalist issues. The Tree being in color while the background is in black and white also helps as the tree is the one which is visibly supposed to be focused on.

Meaning: The illusions to the picture of soldiers pushing up a flag and the usage of the words "War on Global Warming" are there to draw heavy parallels between the greatest crisis of the last century and the greatest crisis the world is currently facing. It is also important to note that this topic was deemed important enough to receive a special issue in time magazine (this is partially because the world was much less educated on these topics a decade ago than it is now). A group of soldiers being required to push the tree up also alludes to the fact that no single person can fix global warming and as the names suggests the entire planet needs to do their part in the effort of the survival of what we understand as nature as well as humanity itself.