School Letters Analysis

The image above is of the Deyes High School Newsletter which we analysed together in class using media terminology and critical viewpoint.
The Deyes High Newsletter is exteremly basic, boring and generally quite plain.
I think that this is mainly due to the lack of colour used and the face that the layout is quite symmetrical.
The image at the top of the frontcover is one of the main focal points of the piece and yet, it is a pencil drawn image which gives the cover a dated look within today's modern society. However, I believe that the main reason the image is used is because the newsletter will become more appealing to the students parents, giving the school a more professional image.
The use of the Science logo and the words "Specialist Science College" emphasises the schools achievements, automatically allowing anybody who looks at the newsletter to be aware of what the schools main achievement is. It is common for schools to do something like this as it "bigs up" the schools achievements, another example of this is Maricourt High School which emphasises the schools skills in Mathematics.
There is a mix of fonts throughout the cover for example, the first sectoin of text "DEYES HIGH SCHOOL" is in Times New Roman with the 1st word being in bold, automatically drawing the readers attention to the letter. The use of "Comic Sans" font on the "Newsletter 2 December 2010" causes a mix of fonts within the page, giving off a very unprofessional look to the cover. It seems that the mix of fonts is trying to appeal to both the students parents and the students themselves by giving a professional and unprofessional approach to the cover.

The image above is of the St Ambrose Barlow Newsletter cover which we also analysed together in class using media terminology and critical viewpoint

The newsletter cover uses bold and bright colour which automatically draws the reader to the newsletter unlike the Deyes cover which isn't appealing at all. There are many features of a magazine cover which are incorporated in this cover giving a more professional look to the newsletter such as; Puffs, Pugs, Headline etc.

However, the cover looks more like an article page within a magazine as it consists of the main story and the contents list on the cover. The use of a "Redtop" masthead has also been used, creating a eye-catching and professional looking cover. Redtops are quite often used in other magazines & newspapers such as; The Sun, The Mirror, Hello! etc.

However again, the use of "Comic sans" asthe main font makes the cover look unprofessional and childish, but, the used of 4-colour images which have been cropped and edited to fit in with the anchorage which is a lot more professional and eyecatching than the pencil drawn image on the Deyes letter, causing it to give a younger appeal to the students instead of the parents.