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1. OCR Media Studies –
A2 Level
Unit G324:
Advanced Portfolio
Soap Opera Genre –
Evidence of
Planning Ancillary
Tasks
Name: Hannah D’Souza
Candidate Number: 6827
Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic College
Center Number: 64770

2. 1) Magazine Cover Deconstruction
Cover stories: These give the readers a
chance to have a ‘sneak peak’ of what’s on
the inside. The target audience may want to
read about what they missed. For example,
“Aaron and Robert KISS!” and therefore
might feel the need to buy this magazine to
establish the answer.
Date/ price tag: Date, price and issue
number help the audience know how
often the magazine is produced (weekly
or monthly) and how much it costs and
this may lead them to subscribe to the
magazine, adding to more copies being
sold as a USP.
Main headline: Usually features the
celebrity in the main image. However,
this magazine doesn’t do that. It’s in big,
bold letters and therefore stands out
from the rest of the stories. The colour,
its printed in matches the shades of the
rest of the font and therefore doesn’t look
out of place.
Barcode: The barcode is used
to validate the magazine.
Pictures: Pictures are the main feature
of a magazine. They reflect the stories
featured as part of the magazine and also
attract the audiences attention. This
magazine however, doesn’t have a main
image which could be seen as a downside
to it. Although it does have a lot of cover
pictures that tie in well with other cover
stories which show variety of soap
operas presented in the magazine.
Masthead: In bold big writing to
make it stand out to the target
audience. The verbal code “Inside”
connotes how the magazine seeks to
reveal drama and secrets from the
soaps. The colour red is commonly
used in soap magazines as it’s bright
and connotes some sort of danger or
disequilibrium that the magazine aims
to feature.
Strapline: The strapline is one of
the most important conventions of a
magazine. The repetition of the lexis
‘Every’ used, creates a sense of
importance to the magazine making
the audience want to buy it.
Something that is missing, which is meant to be a key part to the front cover is a competition to increase the amount of readers looking through and
even purchasing the magazine. Furthermore, the magazine also doesn’ display a main image for the headline.
There is also a lack of synergy with well known social media products such as Twitter and Facebook, which may harm the magazines appeal across
the media platforms and discourage viral marketing. This is something I will avoid discounting as I feel this is very important to include somewhere
on or in the magazine.
Ident:

3. 2) Poster Deconstruction
Main image: The image uses
both high key and low key
lighting for effect. This gives
the woman in the poster a
‘scared’ look making her look
like a victim. I would like to
‘repeat’ (Steve Neale) this
effect in my own poster as I
believe it creates dramatic
effect and keeps the audience
interested. The colours of the
‘dull red’ give us a sense that
there might be a death or
killings. The ‘East End’ in the
background is significant for
the audience to identify the
trailer.
Slogan: “Walford will change.
Forever.” The slogan
immediately catches the
attention of the audience, making
them want to tune in to watch
the series episode when it airs on
bbc1. The use of the one word
lexis ‘Forever’ connotes a sense of
importance for that episode also
engaging the audience through it
through the ‘one word’ effect.
Trailer name: This poster
doesn’t have a trailer name
as the audience are able to
identify the Soap Opera by
the background of the East
End that’s used in the point
of call of their theme song.
This is an element of
difference (Steve Neale) as
we need to have a trailer
name on our poster as we
are introducing a new Soap
Opera.
BBC logo: The
logo is in small at
the left hand corner
and makes up for
the trailer not
having timings for
the audience to
tune in as they
already know what
time the Soap
Opera airs.
Social networking:
#EastEnders is a
twitter hashtag so
audience are able to
engage with the
characters and share
their opinions
through twitter.