Listings Research: TV Times

When looking into the various different types of magazine available, we eventually discovered TV Times, another British listings magazine that is similar in many respects to that of What's on TV, in the sense that it makes use of the typical codes and conventions reprensented via listings magazines.

Although the listings magazine is displaying a different subject to What's on TV, for instance it's displaying Strictly Come Dancing rather than a soap, as likewise both have similar levels of popularity, it still grabs the audience's attention.

When creating our listings magazine, we will effectively switch over the role between the Strictly Come Dancing image, and that of our Soap (The Cross). This will emphasize the fact that the The Cross is what is being advertised rather than that of other programmes. Of course though, other programmes will still need to be featured as although the primary purpose is to advertise The Cross, in order to follow Codes and Conventions of listings magazines, we will need to feature separate articles. This will likely be the most difficult part of the process, as replicating effective immagery in this style is something of a proffesion, however it is indeed something that we will have to do well in order for the listings cover to not only fit in with standard Codes and Conventions, but also to create an image worthy of being within our media portfolio. 

In terms of the layout, and attractiveness, the listings cover makes use of a standard layout following typical Codes and Conventions. For instance, at the top of the image is the masthead in brightly lit red to create a stand out effect, that allows the audience to know what he magazine is, and for that matter the title that it has been given. The title itself, although relatively bland and dull, fufills its primary intent of giving a name of the listings magazine, and attracting the intended audience.

Listings Research: What's On TV?

A major part of our Portfolio is of course the creation of a TV listings front cover featuring our Soap. In order to create an accurate portrayal of a Front Cover that features all the neccesary Codes and Conventions it was important for us to research various TV listings magazines in order to decide what would be the most appropriate layout for our own listings cover.

On the left is an image of 'What's on TV' a popular listings magazine that gives information effectively on the scheduled shows for that week, featuring various interviews and details that our designed for the audience to consume.
In termsof layout of the page, the listing cover focuses heavily upon the Soap EastEnders. This is because of the fact that EastEnders is one of the most watched shows in the United Kingdom. It would be futile to show an image of a Programme that wasn't overly popular, as people effectively wouldn't see the use of reading an article in the magazine on a programme that they're likely to not be interested in.  As a result of this, it is imperrative that we create a Soap that looks appealing, and for that matter; one that is appealing in a listings form. For instance, the story line concerning the week that this What's on TV deals with has the main story of Stacey's pregnancy involved. Likewise, it will be neccesary for us to select a particular story from our Storyboard that we believe will attract our chosen audience, and then effectively advertise it on the front of a listings page.

As you can see on the image, the main story of the week has the main character featured; Stacey. She is facing directly towards the audience to create the effect of her looking at you. Although this may seem to be slightly odd to an extent, psychologically it makes the audience feel that they are directly involved with the character and as such want to be apart of their story, and as a result will then watch the programme. During the creation of our soap, we will use this code and convention in an attempt to create a similar effect.