Soap Opera Genre –

Ancillary Product Analysis

Name: Joe Dolan

Candidate Number: 2043Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic SchoolCenter Number: 64135

OCR Media Studies – A2 Level

Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

The denotation of the masthead is ‘What’s on TV’. The masthead of this magazine is clear and functional with the use of bright colours and bold font. The colour red represents the magazines passion for the covering soap of which is Eastenders and the two Landlords and the passionate love they share.

“MY SECRET PAST!” – This cover line is Bold and capitalised with the use of outlining and the exclamation mark of which makes it more exciting for the reader. This makes it more appealing for the audience so they wish to turn the page and see what this is about. The colour of her outfit also suggests that she is pure as opposed to the secretive story, which adds further scandal and intrigue for the benefit of the reader.

The images give the ability for the reader to be eased into the story with a small subheading such as “Val’s shock test results” and these images are located in the bottom of the page from left to right and illustrate the characters that are being discussed within the magazine and a subline giving a summary of the story to get the audience intrigued.

Within this magazine it doesn’t give the audience a chance to win anything or any perks of purchasing the magazine apart from the content that is within.The use of a large image of the EastEnders couple anchoring the main headline “Mick Carter & Stacey” capturing the mains storyline through the brightness of the image and is able to capture the audiences attention through this editing and boldness.

Through the use of these bold verbal codes such as “Save you”, “New” and “Shock” help the audience become drawn to the emotive language as it is influential and gives them a link to the headlines and stories and therefore makes them understand what is within this magazine.

The cross media convergence used through this magazine cover is the website of which is presented underneath “What’s on TV” and it gives a direct link to whatsontv.co.uk

Gradient Background: The brightness of the background is effective in portraying a happy exciting effect on the reader and relates to the smile on the main characters facial expression

The pop-up consists of verbal codes such as ‘Dales Baby Drama’ of which is stood out boldly though its font colour and effective capitalisation. Therefore this would make the reader more enticed to read this and would be more obliged to purchase this as they want to understand the story behind this. The font is in bold and has an exclamation after it to make it seem bold and captivating. The red rectangle behind this makes it clear and contrasts this effectively.

The main font used is consistent throughout the whole page and interestingly is capitalised with no use of italics to make it clear and bold.

The non-verbal code of the main image of Max Branning can imply that this magazine is typically read by the male audience (Hartley) and gives an idea from more of a male perspective. The magazine also uses verbal codes to promote the magazine such as “Every Secret” but also with the use of a pull out quote such as “You’re Sick!” can give the audience an idea that this argument is from a lower class and how aggression is present.

The use of language withinthis magazine is effective in targeting the lower class audience who this soap opera magazine targets. For example the use of verbal codes such as “Punch-Up!” gives the ability for the audience to understand the lower class nature of these characters and how their environment such as “Albert Square” changes them.

The non-verbal code of the image interestingly portrays the stereotypical view of the male gender as superior and placed in front of the females, even though the story is about his affair and how he is described as “Sick” he still stands in front of the two females even though he is of a minority. This gives the ability and “Signifies” the audience that the male is more dominant as he is the father of these two females therefore holds authority of them.

The strapline used is consistent along every issue they release and is “Repeated” across all issues in the same font and colour scheme to make it look professional and something to look out for as the reader is able to recognize it.

Cross media convergence within this magazine front cover isn’t present clearly and can suggest that the magazine due to its price of £1.60 is exclusive and is able to match the target audience successfully.

Conclusion

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From working on this task I will ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale – 1980) the capitalisation of the font for example the strapline and sub heading and the boldness used to draw the readers attention to the text and make them want to continue reading the story. I also wish to ‘repeat’ the use of effects on the images and the layout of the main image from the Inside Soap issue as it matches the stereotypical view and works effectively in drawing the reader in. Lastly I will use the shocking language like “Rot in Hell” as it shocks the reader and makes them want to see what the story is all about.The strapline language makes the magazine seem more exclusive, for example “EVERY WEEK”, which gives the audience the information of when it is released and makes them feel like they should purchase it weekly.