Soap opera Magazine Analysis (One)

Soap #1

The primary target audience for this soap magazine will be faithful, interested and British in watching the soap opera's that are displayed upon the front cover, this magazine mentions soaps such as Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Emmerdale and EastEnders, therefore this will attract woman who are aged 15+ plus and are in the social class of E-C1.

So the main theorists that will be applied to this magazine brand name front cover will be Blumer and Katz (1974), Stanley Hall (1904) and Laura Mulvey (1975) because I will now analyse this cover and show how 'All about soaps' magazine has attracted their target audience using techniques/technology designs.

MastHead

The masthead on this current magazine front cover tends to be quite full in terms of images of star vehicles (from EastEnders) covering the magazine's slogan name “All about Soaps” and is located at one eighth down the page layout.  This may put certain faithful magazine readers from purchasing this magazine because they cannot see the title and some of the target purchasers may not see it. Although you could argue because of the colour; it may attract the target audience into purchasing the magazine because of the colour of the logo, representing that most of the stories that are advertised upon the cover may be dangerous or thrilling for those who are curious to know wha’ts going to happen next in a plot within a soap opera.

The slogan for the magazine isn't clearly visible as it is hidden behind some of the main characters of EastEnders because they are involved with the biggest story on soap television, but part of the slogan revealed states; ‘Gossip, plots…’ and etc’ in blue font with red stars in between gaps of per word. This could attract the target audience (woman) who fit the stereotype of gossiping in certain events of a normal lifestyle and therefore fall under the Laura Mulvey theory (1975).

Text/Lexis

In terms of denotation; the bottom of the magazine states “PLUS! Three fab posters!” This will attract the target audience's attention to pick up the magazine because the star vehicles the three posters have upon them will encourage people to purchase this magazine, falling under the Blumer and Katz (1974) theory as they state people will watch soaps/television for their own personal purposes such as: “Personal Identity...Diversion and etc.” In this case it will be mainly for personal identity because there is a particular set of characters on the magazine posters.

In terms of connotation the magazine contains all of its common conventions in terms of: price, barcode, price, a main storyline, a main storyline image, issue number and a masthead. This would demonstrate how the magazine is suitable for the target audience who are faithful in purchasing this magazine, also it will agree with the Blumer and Katz theory (1974) theory (personal identity, diversion, information and etc) because people will be encouraged this magazine in terms of the professional layout to the target audience viewing the storylines and etc to glance at what they would like to know.

There seems to be a semantic field of relationships but in a negative sense because there is word choices such as ‘Three is a crowd’ ‘Three free posters’ and ‘secret affair’ in two storylines of the magazine front cover, this could attract the target audience who fall under the Laura Mulvey theory because the characters that are caught in his affair scandal are woman star vehicles from EastEnders (Zoe about to steal Sonia’s man?) and Emmerdale (Charity has found a new lover, but who is it?) , connoting how woman are delicate and are sex objects to men, the dominant gender, also showing that these storylines may attract men also because it will represent how men are dominant and have a choice of woman in the plots, falling under the Marxist theory.

Some advertisement word choices has been placed on to the magazine front cover, these are ‘Exclusive! Inside! Plus!’ and ‘Revealed.’ This will attract some of the targets audience attention because the words are bold and stand out on the page to help advertise the dramatic plot in a certain soap opera featured on television, attracting the audience who fall under the Blumer and Katz theory as they will read the magazine front cover to know more about the soap opera plots for their own purposes; entertainment, personal identity, diversion and etc.

Images

In terms of colour, the main colours to attract the target audience (Youth's) for this gossip soap opera magazine is red, yellow and white, all these colours could represent emotions such as 'red = anger' and 'white and purple = curiosity/misunderstood' but the third colour would disagree with the Stanley Hall theory because the colour 'yellow = happiness/excitement' and this theorist states; “Youth's are involved with crime between 12 and 25, as well as sex and moodiness.” So this magazine may attract some youth's but possibly an older working audience.

The woman characters portrayed upon the magazine front cover will all fall under the Laura Mulvey theory because all of the star vehicles are wearing make up and will attract audience of both men and woman. Woman will be attracted to the images in terms of the characters representing them as a individual person, although men will be attracted to the soap opera because they may see these woman as desired sex objects. But in terms of the storylines, these will make the target audience interested to see which character portrayed in the soaps Emmerdale and EastEnders has

Two timed with another.

Many of the images featured on the front cover to represent a soap opera storyline has a white frame around them, this could have an effect upon the target audience glancing upon the magazine because the images will stand out. People will therefore view the magazine images for their own purpose, making it suitable for people who fall under the Blumer and Katz (1974) theory.

Men presented in the photographs are straight, white and middleclass demonstrating that these characters portrayed are dominant in the media working area as well as the storylines in the soap operas. This will attract men into watching the soap because these characters portrayed in the soap operas may represent many individual men in the Britain.

Conclusion

After analysing this soap opera magazine; ‘All about soaps’ is suitable for the target audience (females aged 16+ and is in the E-C1 class. They are also faithful into watching the soaps regularly and purchase the magazine for their own purposes) because it has shown evidence of Laura Mulvey (1975) and Blumer and Katz (1974). Also the magazine may attract some men into purchasing as it has evidence of the Marxist theory and this may represent an masculine individual in Britain.

Annaleigh Benn