Ancillary Texts - Newspaper Advertisement

In addition to the radio drama itself, we were also given the task of producing two ancillary texts to advertise the piece. The first was a Newspaper Advert

At the top I have included a bold mast-head in simple black and white. The two contrasting colours work well with each other to give an eye-catching effect. Directly below is the tagline, which reads 'should I stay or should I go?' This gives a slight indication of the content of the radio drama, but at the same time allows room for imagination, therefore drawing the audience in. The large image is a long-shot of three students, clearly at college or university. This relates to the subject matter of the work, giving a clear indication of the characters involved. The image, along with the quotations from various magazines, give an indication of the target audience. The fact that the models used in the image are young adults, it makes it clear that the target audience are also young adults. This is backed up by the quotation "radio's answer to Skins." The Skins referred to is the popular teenage television drama series, which is also aimed at young adults and teenagers.

At the bottom of the advert, I have included all the necessary listening information, such as dates and times. I have decided to put the radio drama on Radio 4 as it is a well-known spoken word radio station, which would mean that there is a wider fan base than perhaps having it on a less well-known station. I have also decided to have it on after the watershed of 9.00 PM. This is due to the content and the issues dealt with in the radio drama. As it is after the watershed, there is a greater opportunity to deal with the issues, such as pregnancy, in further detail than if it were on before the watershed.

I have also included 'star ratings,' which have been theoretically provided by newspapers/magazines. These star ratings act as an example of cross-media convergence. Star ratings are not generally used on posters/advertisements for radio broadcasts, instead they are mainly used on visual forms of media such as television programs or films. I have decided to go against this convention and have included star ratings from the Radio Times, and other fictitious magazines such as Radio World and This is Radio.

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I edited the central image in Photoshop by adding a poster edges filter effect. I did this by selecting the filter tab, then clicking on artistic and selecting the poster edges option in the drop down box. I then edited the edge thickness, intensity and posterization of the effect.

Below are the original and edited image to see the comparison between the two.

Edited Image

Original Image: