I got 24/25 for this answer. This answer applies to PRINT MEDIA, so will not be as helpful for those who are doing film. When I was revising for this exam I struggled to find print examples for Question 1, so I hope that this is helpful for someone.

1. Apply genre to one of your coursework productions
The production piece I will be discussing is my A2 production, which was to create the first
four pages of a magazine. The genre of this magazine was regional, meaning that the
content of it would be mainly focused on my region of choice, which was Frome in
Somerset, and I called the magazine “Frome Findings”. I chose this region because it is
where I live and therefore I already had some knowledge of the town which I could apply to
the production process of the magazine. The typical conventions of a regional magazine
are much the same as that of a regular magazine, what with the use of technical, symbolic
and written codes. I found out specific examples of what is seen in a regional magazine
through researching existing examples such as Bath Life, Berkshire Life and Cornwall
Today.
The front cover of my magazine depicts genre in a number of ways. It is mainly done
through semantic elements, as Rick Altman’s theory of genre upholds; these elements
make it easy for the reader to understand the genre simply by looking for the signs. For
instance, I illustrate the genre through colour as the main colour scheme is blue, which is
the colour of Frome Town Council’s logo and also the colour scheme of the real
newspaper ‘Frome Standard’, therefore it has a place among other organisations of Frome
as it synergises with them through colour. Furthermore, the cover title reads ‘the Garden
Cafe’, which is a coffee shop in Frome, and the cover photo is of a cafe from the point of
view of someone sat outside, facing a tree and a coffee table with a coffee mug on top.
The camera shot and mise en scene I have used is of a location which immediately points
towards the magazine being of a ‘regional’ genre because that is a typical convention of
this sort of magazine as I found out during my research.
Theorist Knight said that ‘genre may offer various emotional pleasures such as escapism’.
I think that this quote applies to my production, because although it is very much directed
at upper class citizens of Frome who enjoy living lavishly, it does not restrict people not of
this ‘class’ from reading it. If anyone read my magazine’s contents page, they would take
on the character of someone who enjoys leisurely activity, posh food and a generally
luxurious lifestyle as I have included back to back previews of content such as this in the
contents page. In this way, I have used my regional genre to allow the audience to escape
from the ‘boredom of reality’ (Richard Dyer) and be submerged into an exaggerated,
comfortable lifestyle. Furthermore, the region itself, Frome, is constantly mentioned
throughout the magazine to uphold the genre throughout. For example, in the corner of
every page there is a small version of the ‘Frome Findings’ logo as seen on the cover
page, and so the audience is consistently reminded of the particular genre they are
reading about and so it does not have to be explained, but rather implied. Fowler indicates
the importance of this by stating ‘one advantage of genres is that they rely on readers
already having knowledge and expectations about the works within a genre’.
The fourth page of my regional magazine is an article about the Garden Cafe, which was
featured on the front cover also. An entire article about a cafe in Frome reenforces the
genre because I, the producer, have constructed this magazine with an ‘ideal reader’ in
mind, i.e a member of my target audience, a wealthy upper class citizen. Therefore,
embedded within this magazine are assumptions about my ‘ideal reader’, such as I have
assumed they may prefer to spend their time relaxing in a cafe and therefore would like to
read of one in my magazine. The photo of the inside of the cafe I have used is taken as a
point-of-view angle of someone standing in the shop, therefore I have used mise en scene
to support my genre and I have also I have used language in my article such as ‘the

2. Garden Cafe captures the beautiful, Artisan nature of Frome’ which demonstrates an
application of my genre through language as Frome has a thriving artistic culture which I
have used as a theme throughout my magazine particularly in the quality of its
presentation.
In summary, I think that my production has made my genre clear to the audience. I know
this because when I compare it with real examples of regional magazines such as Bath
Life, I have appropriately used similar conventions in my own magazine but in a way which
suits the culture of Frome and my chosen target audience.