Hillary on magazine covers

What does it mean to be a powerful, female political leader? How is 'power' defined by the media differently for men and women? This activity asks you to explore various depictions of Hillary Clinton on magazine covers that were created over the course of her career, in order to understand the magazine-cover medium better. 

A6 cards: Hillary Clinton on Magazine covers
Google Slides: Hillary Clinton on Magazine covers

  1. Work in groups. Make a copy of the Google Slides above. Study Texts 1-10 in and discuss: "To what extent is Hillary Clinton depicted as a strong political leader on each magazine cover?" Discuss your answer to this question, considering the layout, diction, composition, camera angle, lighting, symbols, body language and gaze. Rank the depictions from most powerful to least powerful by moving the thumbnail images on the left of Google Slides. Place the most powerful depictions of Hillary Clinton at the top of your slideshow and the least powerful depictions at the bottom of your slideshow. Share your ranking with your classmates and explain why some depictions were more powerful than others. 

  2. Visit the lesson on Magazine covers in the Text type section of this support site. After studying the conventions of magazine covers, where do you see evidence of these conventions in Texts 1-10? How are they used to depict Hillary Clinton as a powerful, female political leader or weak female political leader? Compare your analyses of the magazine covers with those that are provided here

  3. How are powerful male political leaders depicted similarly or differently? Find an example of a male politician on the cover of a magazine. Share your cover with a classmate and talk about how definitions of power are similar or different for male political leaders. 

  4. Imagine you are the editor of the magazine. Choose an existing magazine. Who would be an interesting person to feature on your magazine's cover? How would you depict this person? Make a mock-up of a magazine cover that depicts this person. You may need to use some photo- and text-editing skills. Work with a partner if you like. Share your mockup with your classmates and discuss what makes it a 'fair' representation of that person. 

  5. In what ways has this lesson deepened your understanding of and related to one or more of the 7 concepts: transformation, identity, culture, communication, creativity, perspective or representation?

Assessment

All of the Hillary covers from Time Magazine could be seen as a non-literary 'Body of Work' (BOW) on which you could base your individual oral. You might also find one of the covers on this page useful for Paper 1analysis. 

Last modified: Wednesday, 20 March 2024, 9:49 AM