Soap Magazine #3
The predicted target audience for this soap opera magazine called 'Soap life' will be females aged 16+ and are within the social classes of E-C living in Britain, this will mean there will be a variety of theories such as Laura Mulvey, Higson, Marxist and Blumer, Stanley Hall and Katz as these will be considered to attract their target audience. But to get a better understanding of the target audience predicted was after researching the soaps and researched what the soap's target audiences were.
Masthead
The masthead for this magazine cover is a quarter way down
the page and has a rather large big bold red title called ‘Soap Life’ with a
black outline. This will help attract the target audience in terms of colour,
this redness may connote anger and frustration which will be evidence for the
Stanley Hall theory; ‘Teenagers aged between 12 and 25 are involved with crime,
sex and moodiness.’
In terms of the white background placed behind the text; it
looks like a paper rip/tare and this could connote that the magazine is
attempting to attract people who have a wreckless with a bad attitude; which is
even further evidence for the Stanley Hall theory; ‘Teenagers aged between 12
and 25 are involved with crime, sex and moodiness.’ Although the target
audience will want to view the magazine because this could represent that the
main storylines within this issue of ‘Soap Life’ are involved with a negative
turning point of crime (maybe).
In small red and blue writing it states ‘Check out our
website at Whatsontv.co.uk’ the colurs have been chosen to suit the theme throughout
the magazine front cover as well it stands out against the white, but people
will mainly read it/notice if they are interested, which will be people who
fall under the Blumer and Katz theory (1974) because they may check out the
website for their own purposes like; ‘personal identity, diversion …
information and etc.’
Images
The main image for an EastEnders story line called ‘Ronnie
Beds Danielle’s Dad!’ will attract youth’s to watch this on BBC because it
involves sex and this is an important stage in their lifestyles. But in terms
of mise-en-scene the female character Ronnie tends to wear quite a bit of make
up as well as a trendy hairstyle for people her age. Target audiences who are
British female may watch EastEnders because Ronnie represents them falling
under the Blumer and Katz theory. Although men may watch EastEnders because of
the female character portrayed because she is an example of the Laura Mulvey
theory and men may see her as a ‘sexual desire.’ This will also apply for the
Coronation main headline also because in terms of mise-en-sense Becky is
portrayed wearing make up and has a trendy hairstyle.
Common conventions are featured upon this magazine front
cover and they are; ‘Barcode, Date of release, teasers, a masthead and price.’
Although there isn’t really an issue number because the previous magazines will
be out of date for the storylines taking place in soap operas. These common
convention features will attract their target audience because it will give
them the information they need to purchase ‘Soap Life’ and this will be seen as
evidence for the Blumer and Katz (1974) theory.
In terms of colour, there seems to be 4 main colours, pink,
aqua blue, yellow and white. These colours could represent their target
audience (youth’s) because yellow in terms of denotation may mean a warning,
pink could mean feminine and etc. This will fall under the Stanley hall theory as he states; 'Teenagers aged between 12 and 25 are involved with criminal activity, sex and are commonly miserable.' But the colours will encourage people to read the soap as the colours to woman will be striking and eye-catching.
Within a Coronation Street teaser at the bottom middle of the magazine front cover is a couple kissing in a bedroom (Maria and Tony), with the storyline 'Secret Wedding?' this will attract the target audience to purchase and read this magazine further as it involves dramatic irony, it will make the british public curious as to what the storyline is. But in terms of theory this will agree with the the marxist theory because the male is straight, white and middle-class, also he is the dominant character within the storyline. Although it may attract another target audience who fall under the Blumer and Katz (1974) theory, as they will read the magazine in terms of being interested for their own reasons.
Lexis/Text
This magazine issue tends to focus upon two main soaps; Coronation
Street (Corrie) and EastEnders; this could demonstrate that these are the two
most popular soaps that have the most action packed storylines for target
audiences across Britain. These soap operas target audiences are most commonly
to be known as Youth’s who fall under the Stanley Hall theory.
The main image for an EastEnders story line called ‘Ronnie
Beds Danielle’s Dad!’ will attract youth’s to watch this on BBC because it
involves sex and this is an important stage in their lifestyles. This teaser
featured in the magazine will attract their predicted target audience of
Youth’s who fall under the Stanley Hall theory (as he states ‘Youth’s are
curious of sex’) and are faithful into watching this programme on television.
Semantic fields tend to build up, but the main storylines
seem to create an image of negative relationships involving sex and etc with
the word choices such as ‘Dumps, love triangle, beds’ and ‘secret wedding.’ This will attract the audience because it may relate to viewers watching at home as they may have been through the same experience. This will agree with the
Slang is mentioned in an EastEnders teaser ‘whodunnit’ this could connote that the Soap opera is stereotyping the accent of people within EastEnd London to give the British public who are watching a understanding of reality of what life is like in this side of UK. This could therefore be evidence of the Higson theory as he states; 'People use stereotypes for certain areas within Britain and are featured in Soaps.' This slag though will encourage people to pick up the magazine as it may seem to make sense to the target audience who are females aged 16+ and are in the lower social classes because they will understand the situation and storyline due to their living conditions.
'Summer Shocks' This simple sentence may attract the target audience because most youth females within the lower classes of E-C are out of school and may have time within their summer holidays from school to watch their soap oprea's and catch up/keep up to date with the story lines. Therefore in terms of theory this sentence will be suitable for the blamer and Katz theory because they will want to purchase this magazine for their own interest and purposes.
Conclusion
On a whole; after analysing this magazine front cover from 'Soap Life' it seemed to have met my predictions of the theories in terms of the story lines and teasers. The main theory that seemed to stand out was Blumer and Katz (1974) as there is a variety of large target audience and they will all be attracted into reading about the soaps through their own personal reasons and purposes.
Annaleigh Benn
