Analyse The Scoreand Drugs the Factslooking at how genres have been used and subverted in these leaflets to attract specific target audiences. How effective is this?

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Catriona Howie        English Media Essay        Ms Sutcliffe

Analyse The Score and Drugs the Facts looking at how genres have been used and subverted in these leaflets to attract specific target audiences. How effective is this?

        Drugs the Facts is a small leaflet produced by the Health Education Authority (HEA) to discourage persuasively eleven to fourteen-year-olds from using drugs. The Score is a larger leaflet also produced by the HEA, aimed at educating fourteen to eighteen-year-olds about the dangers of drugs and how to handle situations involving them. The Government run the HEA and the National Drugs Helpline. Both leaflets have subverted the well-known genre of teenage magazines to appeal to their audiences. Unfortunately, some of the methods of subversion applied appear demeaning, patronising or even ‘cheesy’.

Teenage magazines are aimed at selling products through the many advertisements between the articles. Teenagers feel as though they can ‘relate’ to these magazines because the magazines act as if they are their ‘friends’. The magazines consciously promote clothes, music and lifestyles that appeal to teenagers who buy them. The companies writing the magazines want their audiences to feel this so they can be more easily influenced into responding to the adverts they carry.

Drugs the Facts is designed to represent and appeal to a demographic group of eleven to fourteen year olds. It uses bright colours and interesting graphics and images which resemble those drawn by a person of that age. The Score seems to be aimed at an older demographic group, fourteen to eighteen, as its colour scheme is more subdued. It converses about topics in a way many teenagers would. The names of the articles inside are listed on the front, as they are in many teenage magazines. The generic conventions employed on the front cover of The Score appear analogous to those of a web page, with the small pictures that look like icons or hyperlinks, but there are features of a teenage magazine as well.

The overt intention of both leaflets is to inform young people about drug abuse, although both leaflets also contain a covert intention. In The Score, the assumption is that many teenagers aged fourteen to eighteen may have already used drugs, or are using them. The Government takes advantage of this leaflet to educate teenagers on how to cope when a drugs-related situation arises. The covert intention of Drugs the Facts is to prevent persuasively younger teenagers from experimenting with drugs at all. The consequences of substance abuse for society are phenomenally expensive in terms of both medical care and social cohesion. The Government has a responsibility to prevent the misuse of drugs and to educate the population about the facts and consequences. To reach the widest possible target audience it has subverted the well-known genre of teenage magazines.

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The front cover and the contents page of Drugs the Facts are very effective at enticing young teenagers into reading the information presented. Whether it is effective at preventing them from actually taking drugs is dubious. It attracts teenagers by using similar generic conventions to those of a teenage magazine, as it is very ‘busy’ and lists the things you can find inside. This may be so that the demographic group of eleven to fourteen year olds feel they can relate to it, and continue to read it assuming they will be entertained. The front cover could persuasively prevent them from ...

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