Summer Blockbusters

The Dark Night - Thriller/Action, 20-40 year old males
Iron Man - Action/Adventure, 35-50 year old males
Indiana Jones - Action/Adventure, 35-50 year old males
Hancock - Action, 16-35 year old males
Wall-E - Family animation, 5-13 year old males and females
Kung Fu Panda - Family animation, 5-13 year old males and females
Sex and the City - Romantic comedy, 25-40 year old females
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Fantasy/Adventure, 16-30 year old males and females
The Incredible Hulk - Comic book adaptation, 16-50 year old males and females
Wanted - Thriller, 20-40 year old males and females

At present, horror is a very popular genre and there are more and more horror films being produced. Also, there are a lot of family animations and a lot more films are being made in 3D.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, I think that horrors and thrillers would have been popular. People would have just stopped focusing on mainly film noirs, but the horror aspect of them would have still been popular. I also think that comedies would have been popular, but not as popular as horrors and thrillers.

The Walt Disney Corporation

Go to this website and choose one company and write a description detailing their media ownership

Walt Disney owns many products over two different platforms of media.
Broadcasting:
Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Pixar are a few examples of the film companies that The Walt Disney Corporation owns. They own TV companies such as Disney Channel, Toon Disney and ESPN. Disney Channel and Toon Disney are both aimed at children but ESPN has a different target audience. This gives The Walt Disney Corporation the opportunity to cater to a wider audience. The corporation owns radio stations and music companies – Walt Disney Records, Hollywood Records and Lyric Street Records. Hollywood Records produce albums for artists that have emerged from Disney, such as Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers. Children are the primary audience of most Disney products, so the artists that are signed to Hollywood Records appeal to children too.
Print:
Some of the publishing companies owned by The Walt Disney Corporation are Disney Publishing Worldwide, Disney Press and Disney Editions. Other print products that the corporation owns are magazines such as Discover, Disney Adventures and Family Fun. Because the corporation own products over different platforms of the media, they are able to provide a range of products for their target audience.

Research the company: where are they based? What audience do they cater for? How many different platforms do they own?

The company is based in California. They cater to all members of a family, but mainly target children. They own two different media platforms and also own parks, resorts and theatre companies. These are places that children would want to visit and also, their parents would want to go with them.

How do magazine front covers use symbolic, technical and written codes to appeal to their different target audiences?

Different magazines use different techniques to appeal to a certain target audience. The main differences are colours, fonts, images and straplines. These differences can be clearly noticed when comparing a magazine aimed at males, such as Top Gear, to a magazine aimed at women, such as Heat.

The colours on the front cover of Top Gear magazine are dark. Also, there are not a lot of colours used. The main colours on the front cover are dark blue, orange and white. The dark colours would appeal to men. The use of only a few colours is simple so would also appeal to men. When you look at the front cover of Heat magazine, the difference is immediately noticeable. The colours are a lot bolder and brighter than the colours that are used in Top Gear magazine. They are also a lot more feminine. Pink and yellow are more feminine than dark blue and orange. The colours are not as dark as those used in Top Gear magazine, and there are more colours used. Top Gear used three main colours but Heat used five. This would appeal more to women because there are more things to catch their eye and more colours create a happier mood.

The fonts that are used on these front covers help to make the magazine appeal to a certain target audience. On the masthead of Top Gear magazine, the font is italic. This makes it seem more masculine because it is edgier than a normal font. This would make the magazine appeal to a male audience. The font used in the masthead of Top Gear magazine is different to the font used on the masthead of Heat magazine. The masthead of Heat magazine is a lot more feminine that the Top Gear masthead because it doesn’t have any sharp edges. This would make it appeal more to women than to men.

There are a lot more images used on the front cover of Heat magazine than on the front cover of Top Gear magazine. Top Gear only uses one image and has no secondary images. The main image takes up a lot of space on the page. Heat magazine uses more than one image for its main article. There are four images that are all connected to the main article. There are also four secondary images on the front cover, with two of them being for the same article. Men would be attracted to a magazine front cover that doesn’t have a lot of main images, such as Top Gear magazine, because it is clear what the magazine will be about from just one image. It is simple and the size of the main image makes it eye catching. Women would be more likely to be attracted to a front cover with more images, such as Heat magazine, because it shows a lot more about the content of the magazine, which they would want to know about before they buy it. Also, because there is more of a variety of articles in Heat, more images show the different types of article that will be in the magazine, whereas a magazine like Top Gear is just about cars.

The straplines on Top Gear magazine are not as noticeable as the straplines on the cover of Heat magazine. Apart from “New Lambo”, the fonts of the straplines are all small and they are all the same colour. There are also not any puns or buzz words used in the straplines. The straplines on the front cover of Heat magazine are a lot more noticeable because of the bigger size. The cover also used different colours for different straplines. Two of the straplines use rhetorical questions to get the reader more involved. The strapline at the top of the page uses a buzz word. The main article is about bad skin, so, in the strapline, the word “skin” has spots drawn on it. All of these make the straplines more noticeable and more interesting. This would appeal more to a female audience because it involves them more. The straplines on the cover of Top Gear magazine would appeal more to a male audience because of the simplicity of it.

GCap Media

- Commercial British radio company

- Formed from the merger of the Capital Radio Group and GWR Group

- Merger completed in May 2005

- In March 2008, agreed a takeover by Global Radio for £375 million

- Non-core DAB stations Planet Rock and theJazz closed in 2008

- In September 2008, Global Radio announced that it would re-brand most of the remaining stations as Heart

- Fun Radio was sold to Folder Media, leaving Chill as GCap's only only digital radio station