Connotations and denotations

In my most recent media studies lesson we learnt about connotations and denotations. We also learnt how the front cover of our magazine will always involve these two things and that it's important to implement them.


First lets look at denotations. A denotation is the first level of meaning of an image for example when you look at a picture of a rose it represents and flower and reminds the person  of the real thing. So if you look at the first draft of my magazine cover you see 3 students wearing uniform outside the sixth form common room. You can also see that 2 of them them are from a African or Caribbean background, and the one in the middle originates from Asia.


Now lets look at connotations. Connotations is a meaning associated to an image that is beyond the obvious. As you can tell the students in the picture are from an ethnic background. So the reader of the magazine will then be able to infer that the school is extremely multi-cultural and very diverse. The reader of the magazine will also have connotations that people from different backgrounds are able to mix.



For research I decided to look up a real life example of a connotation so that I understand fully why it's used and whether I should also use it. 


Here's a primary example of connotations used in a film poster. Here's an image of the iconic godfather film poster and in the picture you see Marlon Brando wearing a red rose. The rose has connotations of death, murder and blood, whereas you would usually associate a rose with love. The movie makers have clearly put emphases on the rose because the rest of the poster is in black and white, which makes the red of the rose increases in prominence and it stands out


Looking back at my first draft of my magazine cover I'm glad that I have already used connotations by representing the cultural diversity of my school. As previously stated becuase I used people of different backgrounds.