The document analyzes the front cover of a soap opera magazine. It discusses the magazine's use of fonts, colors, images and text to attract readers and promote drama. Key techniques included using bold headlines with words like "shock" or "secret" to grab attention. Photos of characters expressed emotion like fear to create mystery. Popular soap operas were listed to appeal to fans. The placement and size of text was designed to suggest importance and intrigue readers to learn more.

1. Soap Opera Genre –
Ancillary Product
Analysis
Name: Jonathan Sheehan
Candidate Number: 2127
Center Name: St. Andrew’s Catholic School
Center Number: 64135
OCR Media Studies – A2 Level
Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio

2. Within this magazine there are
many pop out’s such as ‘HUGE
WALFORD SHOCKS!’ which are
used to grip the attention of their
readers by using extreme words
and combining them in one
sentence. From this the readers
can think that this issue of the
magazine is special in some way
and contains more drama which
readers seek out to find usually
when purchasing this type of
magazine. The heavy stroke effect
increases the importance of the
text and separates it apart from
any of the other text on the page.
Much of the magazine promotes
itself for example under the
masthead it states ‘Every story!
Every Secret!...’ which entices the
reader and forces them into
believing that the magazine will
reveal all of the secrets that are in
the current soaps story plot.
The fonts all seem to be the
same, however each section has
a different size and contains
different effects such as strokes
and different colours to match
with the backgrounds and make it
mo0re relatable.
There are many non-verbal
codes on the front cover for
example the distraught, fear
and confusion that many of
the faces seem to express.
This creates mystery as the
readers and forced into
wondering what causes
these emotions in their
favourite characters. The
camera shots seem to focus
on the characters faces
which is stereotypical for a
soap opera as the helps for
the readers of the magazine
to distinguish their faces.
Not many words or grammar
has been used and most of
the cover lines seem to
express the characters nick
names for example ‘DEBBIE’S
NEW HEART BREAK!’ and
directly appeals to soap
opera fans as they are most
likely to know the program
very well if they are willing
enough to buy a soap opera
magazine.
Each piece of text is situated on top of the images which may be used to connote that the text is more important as the readers are interested in
potential spoilers or secret connotations which may reveal story plots, for example ‘Hollyoaks serial Killer rampage’ key words are also
highlighted such as ‘Serial Killer’ to intensify the drama created.

3. The masthead ‘What’s on TV’ is
large and bold and uses the
colour red to highlight its
importance over soap operas.
‘NEW The Apprentice’ uses
attractive language to engage
its readers and expresses this
through bold and bright
colours. This is widening the
target audience and attracting
more potential readers as they
will more likely be interested in
the content.
The price ‘ONLY 49p’ is placed
within the middle left of the
magazine to try and appeal to
the reader specifically that this
is a magazine that is worth
buying for the small price that
it is and thus attracts potential
readers.
Many famous UK soap operas
have been presented in order
to bait the readers, these
include ‘Corrie’ ‘Doctor Who’
and ‘Waterloo Road’.
This promotes the content of
the magazine and as these are
the most popular soap operas
the audience are most likely to
recognise this and feel secure
within their purchase. Each
program features a cover line
which helps to build the
excitement for example,
‘TRAGEDY for Tracy?’ using
suspicious language to entice
the readers.
Two extra plugs have been used
to entice the readers even
further and these have been
separated apart to break up the
page and make it more
detestable. These include
‘Jedward’ and ‘The Apprentice’.
A large main image has been
used in the centre of the page as
the main story feature Tanya and
Max from EastEnders. The
characters have been edited to
the max. A glow has been used
and all blemishes have been
removed to make them appear
graceful.
The sub heading ‘LEFT FOR
DEAD!’ is dramatic and entices
the readers as it creates mystery
and causes the reader to question
and purchase the magazine to
find out the mystery.

4. Conclusion
Whilst completing this task, I have understood the type of style and format soap opera publications appear as and how bright
colours and bold language help to target audiences, clear fonts and wild colours help distinguish from any other magazine and
make it more eye-catching; also including many exclamation marks and superlatives to make the stories seem more interesting
then they really are. Lastly I would like to mention many cover stories as I feel that this gives my audience/readers knowledge
of what is within the magazine and that this will help them to be more excited for the content as they can recognise the
popular soap operas that they watch.
Steve Neale argues that pleasure is derived from 'repetition and difference' (Neale 1980); there would be no pleasure without
difference.
This goes on to connote that many industries copy themselves with similar styles and the way they demonstrate their
conventions, however difference is also key as it is what makes the magazine unique.
For my magazine front cover I aim to replicate:
• A similar masthead to ‘What's on TV’ due to the simplistic approach they have chosen, mine for ‘Soap Weekly’ will
however have more squared edges.
• A sub heading, similarly used by ‘What’s on TV’ as it is very bold and an impressive stroke effect has been applied to
highlight the dramatic message.
• The shapes at the bottom of the page on ‘InsideSoap’ which separates the smaller stories from the bigger ones and
provides great classification between the two.