Ancillary Product Analysis - Magazine Front Cover

Adam Fox 2052

St. Andrew’s Catholic School64135

The masthead is in a red box on the left hand side of the magazine. This connotes that the masthead is trying not to interrupt the soap operas that it is reporting on and that the TV shows are the most important feature of the magazine. The red background usually connotes power or confidence, however, the use of the colour in this context does not fit those connotations. Instead it is used to connote happiness as it is a bright red that would attract the reader in the shop when purchasing the product.

The non-verbal code of the main image of the magazine is of two men smiling. This is reassuring to the reader as they can now assume that the content will not be too emotional or hard hitting. However, the image is at odds with the masthead ‘Murder!’ which connotes a negative story of a tragic event of someone's death.

The verbal code of the headline is in bold and uses punctuation to create a sense of urgency and amendment that draws the readers attention. The yellow colour connotes happiness and the is a binary opposite to the verbal code ‘Murder’. This again connotes the idea that the audience like to see that despite the negative content, that something positive will happen in the narrative.

The cover line is inside different coloured boxes and different coloured text to match. This is used to make the text stand out on the multi-coloured backgrounds of the images that they are representing.

The masthead is red and within it’s own white box. This connotes an element of separateness that the magazine has towards TV soaps and so could be interpreted as meaning hat this separateness give the readers an alternate perspective on the weeks TV schedule then other magazine.

The headline is in capitals and partly in a cartoon like pop up box. This makes the text more noticeable. The yellow colouring connote the contrasting happiness to the verbal code ‘DEATH’. This is used to generalise the events in all of the images that are shown on the page, this gives the reader the assumption that there has been death in all of the mentioned soaps on the page.

There is no distinct main image on the front cover of this magazine. This connotes that all the featured soap operas are equally important to the magazine and is almost encouraging the readers to watch as much of the programs as possible. Also the images appear to be taken from screen shots from the program, this is demonstrated by the action poses that the bottom left image denotes.

Interestingly, the price and the bar code are positioned over the top of one of the images relating to the ‘collectors edition’. This is not usual conduct for the print media as they try to make it discreet as possible. In the soup opera genre however, this does not appear to be the conduct.

The masthead follows the conventional red colouration and bold font style. This connotes the happy but dramatic tone of the content within as the soap operas often have dramatic plot twist s that are designed to keep the audience watching the series. It also overlaps the picture, this is against the standard doctrine of having the image overlap the masthead to emphasise the importance of the content rather tan the publication.

The headline is in yellow for the part about the ‘baby’ but red for ‘die’. This is used to symbolise the negativity of death and contrasting with the yellow, which is usually perceived as a happy colour. The headline also use punctuation to add a personality to the words to make I as if the words are being said by the characters.

The cover lines are organized in a column with a purple coloured background. This connotes that they are all connected together through the evens of the TV program, this is revelled as they areal under the title ‘CORRIE MYSTERIES’. The fact that they are all accompanied by images give the reader another medium to engage with the information.

The layout of the issue number and date s very compact. This connotes that they wanted o keep the page about the TV programs rather then the publication information.

I will not ‘repeat’ Soap Opera Weekly magazine, as this magazine has no main image, which means that the audience has no anchoring future to focus on. There are too many images all in one area and there is too much on the page at once. I do not think that this would ape to the target audience of the C - E demographic that likes to watch soap operas as it does not have the conventions that they will be expecting and the cover is too chaotic and I do not believe the readership will appreciate this. However. This is also because Soap Opera Weekly is an American publication and so the audience have deferent demands and therefore the publication is laid out to suit there needs and not the British audiences.

From the What's on TV magazine, I will ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale) the anchorage of images with the cover lines because it gives the readers another medium to engage with and relate to. This is effective as it gives the readers some context to the stories in the magazine as the readers now know what the characters that are mentioned look like. I will also try to replicate the shapes that the images are in as this is followed in all soap opera magazines and the readers will be expecting this, therefore it would be wise to follow this trend.

From the Inside Soap magazine I will ‘repeat’ (Steve Neale) the use of multiple colours in the headline and the cover lines because it makes the page more interesting to look at and also give certain words more emotional value than others that will engage the readers.

This will also creates drama based on the content that I choose to use in my publication. I will also try to use the compact layout for the issue number, the date and the price so that the readers can be fully engaged with the content and no be easily distracted by the relatively boring part of the magazine front cover.