Comparing Reveal and Tatler

You need to ensure you understand how each of these front covers use

MEDIA LANGUAGE

and create REPRESENTATIONS

MEDIA LANGUAGE

Do Now task

Write your own definitions for these key media terms:

1. Denotation           
2. Connotation
3. Anchoring           
4. Audience positioning 
5. Masthead               
6. Skyline
7. Codes                  
8. Conventions        
9. Encoding/ Decoding      
10. House Style

Preferred Readings

Each media text is created by a producer, the producer encodes messages into the text through visual language (media language). When these messages are read in the way the producer wanted them to be read it is called the preferred reading of the text.

The media theorist Stuart Hall created the Reception Theory- can you find out what this theory refers to?

1. Explain what the preferred readings of both magazine covers are.

2. What would be a negotiated reading of each cover?

3. What would an oppositional reading of each cover be?

The famous media theorist Roland Barthes wrote about the ‘rules’ of media language, he referred to the process by which signs are selected, deselected and assembled to conform to codes and conventions, and more importantly to convey meaning to the audience.

1. What are the conventions of magazine front covers?

2. What codes do producers use to appeal to and engage audiences in magazine front covers?

3. Explain which signs have been selected for the front covers of both magazines and what meanings they convey to the target audience of both publications.