This is an in-depth CSP and needs to be studied with reference to all four elements of the Theoretical Framework (Language, Representation, Industries, Audience) and all relevant contexts.

Print: Magazine. The magazine should be studied in depth – the front page and from inside, both the contents page and the one page article. If you wish to look at other areas of the magazine, look at the Jan/Feb 2017 edition. There is a digital version of the edition below, look at pages 17 and 101. The interview with Vin Diesel is pp 48-56. There is so much material to draw from this magazine, so be careful NOT to JUST FOCUS ON FRONT COVER as this will be a limited reading of this product.

You will also need to study the magazine looking beyond the specific edition to consider issues of ownership, production, funding, technologies and regulation (Media Industries) and targeting, marketing, sales and readership, audience interpretation, fulfilment, uses and gratifications ideas and theories (Media Audiences).

Media Language (the language of print)

Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings

The magazine front cover and specified content should be analysed in terms of the composition of the images, positioning, layout, typography, language and mode of address etc. this will then provide detailed evidence for application of the other theoretical frameworks

Narrative and Genre

Genre theory ie Steve Neale

The cover and specified content can be analysed in the context of genre in terms of conventions of layout and composition – which will overlap with analysis of visual language – but also as part
of the genre of men’s health and lifestyle magazines.

Genre study would include an analysis of the conventions of magazine front covers – a study which would overlap with visual analysis and audience positioning. Students should extend their genre approach by analysing the conventions of content of the
magazine.

The genre conventions of the magazine cover will need to be studied. While narrative may be more familiar to students as an approach to apply to moving image forms, it can also be very
productively applied to print media as a way of examining audience targeting, positioning and interpretation.
• Consider the way the front cover creates a narrative about character and lifestyle in order to attract an audience
• The way in which the cover stories create enigma and anticipation for the reader – to be fulfilled by reading on.
• Narrative theory (Structuralism) including including Todorov, Lévi-Strauss

Task 1: Start by looking at the key theoretical frameworks of SEMIOTICS, PRINT LANGUAGE, NARRATIVE, GENRE & REPRESENTATION. As before, have a look at the products, front cover, contents page and article, and discuss in a small group as to whether you consider these to be RADICAL or REACTIONARY REPRESENTATIONS OF MASCULINITY, AGE, PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH AND . . . etc. Try to come up with 12 points in 12 minutes.