Original Photos

 

I decided to take my photos in the school grounds at it was less time consuming and easy. My talent is Liberty and I decided that, in order to fulfil a profession 'indie-pop' magazine look I needed her to dress the part, therefore I dressed her in a check shirt, jeans and boots. I kept the outfit simplistic yet stylish and 'indie' music is know for its effortless style. 

 

 Here are some original photos before being edited. I will edit these photos then decide which ones I will use for my front cover and double page spread interview.

 

Equipment I will use

For producing my magazine it is vital to know what equipment I will be using.

To take my photos I will use the Nickon DX from school to ensure that my photos are the best quality I can possibly get them.

In order to edit my photos I will be using a computer and editing software's to download the photos from the camera and then edit them.

Risk assesment

I have decided to take my photos within the school grounds as I am using a fellow student to model for my front cover of my music magazine. For the risk asessment I will need to ensure that the places  I take my photos are safe and not hazardous for myself or the person i am taking photos of.

The weather at present is very cold as we are in Winter. In timesof extreme temperature I will need to ensure that if my model is wearing minimal clothing that she isnt too cold. One of my ideas is having the pictures on some steps, therefore I need to assure that I am careful and that there are no obstructions in the way to prevent any accidents.

However if the weather at present time is either raining or snowing then I will have to have a alternative plan. If this is to happen i will take my photos in the school building preferably in the drama room, in this case there are many wires and lights that could could hazards to the person or the person taking photos.

Mood Board

Questionnaire of my magazine

Questionnaire

In order to prduce the best magazine possible it is vital for me to gather opinions from my target audience. I have asked a series of questions so that I can analyse the answeres and opinions of my audience to adapt and improve aspects of my prototype magaqzine. The following questions i have asked are all based on the look and style of my prototype magazine.
1. Do you like the house style of the magazine?
Becca- yes
Avi- yes
Chelsea- yes
Laura- yes
Chloe- yes
Libby- yes

2. Do you like the magazine name?
Becca- yes, although vibe is already another magazine so i would think about maybe canging it, but still keep it similar.
Avi- yes
Chelsea- yes
Laura- yes
Chloe- yes, I would advise you to look up other names along the lines of 'vibe' to see the different options
Libby- yes

3. How can i improve the main image?
Becca- I like the image overall.

Avi- The image is good, but i would get a closer image of her face.
Chelsea- The picture interfeers with the writing on the front cover therefore i would edit the image so the background is more vibrant.

Laura- The image appears to look abit stretched, therfore when taking the photo for your actual magazine make sure you get a mid-shot to fill a font cover.

Chloe- The facial expression is good, however to create a more music vibe maybe include a musical instrument.

Libby- I like the image.

4. What else can I add to improve the proffesional look?
Becca- The writing around the edges needs to be more closer to really get the proffessional look of a magazine.
Avi- You should focus on the writing around the image so that it really stands out.

Chelsea- I would experiment with differeng colours and housestyles to ensure that you are positive you want the colour red, as red connotes quite a strong deep colour however if you are doing an indie magazine you might want the colours to be more soft connoting a more calm approach.

Laura- Try to have the title of the magazine behind the image.

Chloe- Overlap the texts in order to have a nice fit on the magazine.

Libby- Focus on getting a good image and then deciding where abouts the wirting will stand out.

5. What do you like most about it?
Becca-  I love how the image and the wirting really work together, you have maintained a good colour scheme and a good house style.

Avi- All the texts are similar fonts, so it makes it legible to read and the page isnt really full of wirting and images therefore it doesnt look too busy.

Chelsea- Good use of image.

Laura- The image is good, as you have chosen someone who is current and in the charts therfore your target audience who like that music are more willing to buy it.

Chloe- The colours are compatible and simplistic.

Libby- The overall look of the magazine portrays your chosen genre of 'indie- pop'.

Socio Economic Grouping

Socio-economic grouping is when an individual is  placed into a category based on either their status or job, however we can argue that this process is very undated as it focuses on the individual rather than their living conditions. For example, students are seen to be of the lowest class in the social econmic groups, however they could have very wealthy paresnts, resulting in the student also being wealthy.
When producing my final magazine this is crutial to focus on as I want my magazine to appeal to my target audience. Ultimatley i thought that my target audience would have fallen into the ABC1 catogary, however after doing some reasearch i no longer think this.

The category of A consists people in the Upper Middle class, for example it would include people of landed gentry, large business owners etc. Below that is the Middle Class which is band B, these people usually consist of professional working people or people who are high up in the army. Next two bands are the lower middle class which fall into bands C1 and C2. C1 being professional admin workers, C2 falling lower to skilled workers such as plumbers, carpenters, roofers, and the stereotypical 'white van man' etc. The last two bands are D and E. D is classed as 'working class' in which people work with no or little skill in their job (supermarket workers, cleaners etc.)The final band of people, E, contains people who aren't employed or students either at college, school or university

I personally feel that this is a very unfair method of categorising people. It overlooks any background information about the persons life, their circumstances and their personalities. This method is basically juding a person on their job role, Taking into consideration of the economic status of their being a recession- this is not a legible method. Overall i have come to a conclusion of not having a 'band' for my audiendce as i feel that someone music interest does not depend on weather they own their own business, or wheather they work in a supermarket.

Audience Pleasures

An Audience Pleasure is a range of techniques that a magazine will need to persuade their particular audience to buy and maintain that readership. It is vital when producing a music magazine that you consider key things that will persuade your audience to buy your magazine. Although we say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, subconsciously, everyone does it therefore the main thing to focus on is how the magazine looks overall. This will include things such as images, house style, colloquial language/semantics and the content. I have decided my magazine genre is 'Indie Pop', therefore my target audience is targeted at both, males and females who enjoy and are interested in Indie Pop music. To be able to satisfy my readers needs i will have to consider the direct mode of address.  

The language it uses- As my magazine is targeted to late teens to mid twenties it is vital to use the appropriate language and by that i mean less formal colloquial language. By using colloquial langue it will appeal to the relativity young audience and make the magazine easy to comprehend and relate too. Using personal pronouns such as 'us' 'you' 'we' is also important as it is inclusive and portrays a sense of belonging to the community of readers who share the similar taste of music.

Information it gives- Being a music magazine the content inside obviously is mainly going to be about music. I need to ensure that the information appeals to my audience therefore i could include things such as tour dates of preferred indie bands, interviews that entertain the audience with also providing appropriate sense of humor.

Ritual pleasure of consuming the familiar subscription- this enables all readers to have a belonging to a sense of community of readers who share the same interests/tastes as one another. It gives them the opportunity of self definition meaning that the magazine will influence their personality and ability to find who they are and what they are interested in. 

Second Draft of my double page spread

Draft of my Double Page Spread

 

This is a my first attempt of a double page spread. I chose an interview because when researching i found that this came up as most popular for a double page spread. My first cover was of the artist 'Lorde', i thought because she was relitivley new in the music industry my target audience would be interested in an 'exclusive interview' with her. I watched various amount of youtube viedos to help me construct the content of my interview. I chose topic specific langauge because i wanted the interview to portray a music magazine, all the questions i asked were musically related, from how she built herself up in the music industry to how she copes with beinng in the industry now.

 

I chose the colours black and red to follow from the front page to create a housestyle. The colours black and red contrast with the white background making it easy for the reader to read. The red writing conveys importance therefore is used for the questions. By seperating the questions from the answeres it allows the reader to establish what is what. Placed in the middle of the interview is an exadgerated quote ' this industry has tought me so much more than school' i chose this quote as most of my target market will either be in school or educaion environment. By differentiating the colour of the text and having it on a red background draws the readers eye to the middle of the page. This is likely to catch the readers eye immedietly and make them want to read the interview.

I wanted to have the title of my magazine on the double page spread to give its identity. For my second draft i have decided to change the double page spread layout so that i can involve more interview instead of having it on one page.



Draft of my magazine

 

This is a draft of my magazine, I wanted a rough outline of what i want my final magazine to look like. My chosen genre is 'indie pop' therfore i had to chose a suitable title name. I thought the title name 'vibe' was genre specific. In the proses of constructing my draft i realised there was an real magazine so i tried different ways of changing the title and decided to change the 'I' in vibe to a little italic 'i' as it emphises my chosen genre of 'indie'. I also want the title to appear behind the image as it look more proffessional. To do this i've figured i will have to cut out the picture and layer it over the image.

 

I chose the colour red after chosing this photo of lorde as it goes with her clothes. I then chose black and white font colours as they are easily readable to the audience. The sell lines on the left hand side are in red and white. The red writing telling the key informstion and the white giving more detail. The red and white contrast eachother making it easy to read and able to pick out the key information.

I've purposley put the name of the person on the magazine and an snippet of her interview in black to portray importance of her being on the front cover.

 

The image i have chosen is off google, however for my final magazine I will be taking the photos myself. I think i chose a good image for a front cover of a mazgine as it is a mid shot and she is looking straight at the camera signifying importance. As the image focuses of her face and her eyes are looking straight to the camera it draws the audience to the centre of the magazine.

 

When reasearching i found that the lines between the text is relitivley small therfore making the text closer together, however because i constructed my magazine of Microsoft Word i was unable to do this. When constructing my final magazine i will ensure that the text is closer together to ensure i get the proffessional look.

 

When constructing my final magazine i will have the subheading above the title about lorde on the front cover underneath the title however taking into consideration my housestyle there was no font that made if legible to read.



The Four F's

Textual analysis- Prezi Presentation

Active vs Passive Audience Theory

The active audience theory argues that media audeinces do not just receive information pssvely. They are effectivley involved an often unconsciously in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts. Decoding of  a message in media may be influenced by things such as family background, beleifs, values , culture, intrestes, education and experiences.

There is not one 'reading' of a text but a multiplicity of reding. The producer or encoder of the text does not control the decoding of the text.

Readings
prefferred reading/dominant reading.
The 'intended' reading of the text.

Opporitional reading
You dislike/diagree with the preferred reading

Negotiated Reading
You dislike and like different aspects

Aberrant reading
You dont understand/misinterpret

Other theories and models are compatible with active audience theory, including the Encoding/Decoding model and the uses and gratifications theory, which states that audience are actively involved in determing what media they engage with how, in order to gratify specific needs or desires.

David Carson

David Carson is known as a well known for producing the unconventional magazine 'RAY GUN' with each issue of the magazine being completely different. The result of exploring different magazine typographic design resulted in chaos and not always being able to read the front cover.
After three years David Carson left the magazine however the abstract appearance of the magazine continued.

 

 This issue of ray gun has Liz Phair on the front however we would not of know that had the name not of been displayed on the magazine.

The fact that all we see is her legs and her hair shows originality of David Carsons ideas comprising this to any other magazine we would have a coloured picture of the artist face.

The photo being in black and white shows he wants the bright ref floating tomato to stand out against the image to catch the readers eye.

The bright yellow 'gun' in the title also follows the theme of random colours on the front cover. This draws attention to the audiences eye and the bright yellow and red contrast with the black and white image.

This cover of the magazine as you can see, has a completely different house style. Even the title of the magazine has changed from being white and yellow overlapping to big bold writing. David Carsons idea of changing the title could of been at a disadvantage here as not maintaining one specific style throughout its issue could mean the audience either loose interest or ay not be able to distinctly recognize the magazine resulting in less people buying it.

When we think of a magazine front cover we generally imagine the image to fill the whole page. Here Carsons abstract ideas are evident as we see the image only filling half of the page.

The placing of the bar-code on the magazines are different. This could be to emphasis the originality of the ray gun issues.

The typography of this magazine has stuck to a running style however with random letters being in bold. This draws the readers attention to the text and makes them want to read into it.

Media Text Terminology

Copy- copy is a term that refers to the main text of a clickable advertisement, whether it is a contextual or a pay per click ad. The text of the ad copy is generally the second and third lines of an ad displayed on a search engine results page or any other web page, and is between the title and the display URL. Most advertisers use ad copy not only to describe the advertisement, but to also insert the keywords that the ads have been created for.

Advertorial- this is a type of advertising that is placed in a print publication. This sort of advertising appears like an editorial article.

Bleed-  Text or graphics that extends all the way to the edge of the paper it is printed on. Bleeds are used in publishing for graphical effect and for printed tabs. Most printers cannot print all the way to the edge of the paper, so the only way to produce a bleed is to print on paper larger than the final page size and then trim the paper. 

Strapline- A strapline, in advertising, is a ‘slogan’ used to identify brands (i.e Tesco’s ‘Every little helps’). This could be effective for my music magazine as it give the magazine originality meaning the customers will see it as being unique and interesting meaning they are more likley to purchase the magazine.

Tagline-  a tagline is a small amount of text which serves to clarify a thought for, or designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrasesassociated with an individual, social group, or product. As a variant of a branding slogan, taglines can be used in marketing materials and advertising.

Pull quote- Pull quotes are short excerpts from the presented text. They are used to pull a text passage out of the reader’s flow and give it a more dominant position in the post or the article.

TOP OF THE POPS

Top of the Pops

 

History of the magazine

Top of the Pops magazine is produced by BBC magazines and is a monthly publication. originally is was based on the television programe Top of the Pops, however the magazine carried on when the show stopped airing on t.v. the magazines first publication was in 1995 and is still very know as giving the spice girl their nicknames. Top of the pops have now moved to having less music content and more content being demographically targeted to young girls.
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What is the typical content
Based on the longest running BBC television show of it's kind, Top of the Pops magazine provides the music chart gossip as you would expect. Aimed at younger teenage girls, there is also Fashion, boys and beauty advice all included. When you buy a copy of Top of the Pops magazine, you can also expect a free gift, poster or sticker set - which makes posting it to you a real bind, but we do it with a smile at Newsstand.

who is the typical reader
 It's a great choice for any girls from 12 years old and up and if you are buying as a present - even better on a subscription where you can choose the length only here at Newsstand.

The magazines house style
In order to successfully appeal to their target audience of young girls that love pop music, we find that the colour scheme tends to be pinks, blue, purples and pastel colours connoting girlishness. Also referring to the house style the typography is sans serrif, this is used to seem modern and trendy to comply with the target audience of younger girls.

Who distributes and produces the magazine?
The BBC organisation both produce and distribute this magazine.

How are social groups represented within the magazine?
There has been controversy with the magazine sexualising young girls however i disagree. i personally think that Top of the Pops portray celebrities in a good light as the target audience of the young girls look up and idolize these celebrities.

Kerrang

Iwill investigate the two magazines, kerrang and pop of the pops, both of them having contrasting ideologys.
KERRANG!

The history
The publication commenced on the 6th June 1981
It was originally a monthly magazine, then it changed to fortnightly and eventually became weekly.
During the 1980s and early 1990s the magazines included many thrash and glam metal acts on the cover but then later discarded them when grunge acts such as nirvana to rose to fame.

Content

Features and Regulars The magazine includes things that they know the readers will be interested in like gig reviews, posters and competitions. The bands they choose to feature are genres they know the audience will enjoy listening to and reading about.

 

Language

They’re a rock music magazine so they won’t do a feature about Abba for example. Language Choices. There is a lot of slang terms and colloquial languageused in the articles, this helps relate to the youthaudience and keeps the text light and fun to read.There are often quotes used from artists for theirfans and words like ‘raucous’ and ‘dirty’ are used toconvey the rock and roll theme of the magazine.

 

How are social groups represented

the mission statment of Kerrang! suggest that theywill ensure that we are constantly appealing to our spectrum of readers. From the younger teenage readers who are more open to different genres of rock music – from emo to thrash etc, to the readers who respect Kerrang!

 

House style

 Main Images The photos used in the magazine are carefully selected to appeal to the target audience. The images are very posed, usually with dark colours and sometimes humorous. The images appeal to the audience because they’re bands they enjoy listening to, styled to seem dangerous or comical.

 
Typical Reader

What research methods i will use

Quantitative research is when you identify patterns and trends and statistics.

Qualitative research is peoples opinion and ideas on something, for example an interview would give us the thoughts and feelings of someone's view.

For my research methods I will mainly use Secondary research. This is because research methods such as the internet and magazines and books are much easily reachable, also less time consuming than constructing a questionnaire or survey, However I will involve elements of Primary research with Texual Analysis as this de-constructing a music magazine will help me identify key aspects to focus on when producing my final music magazine cover. I will look at the quantitative side of the research as looking to patterns and identifying who reads music magazines more, or what age will also help me in producing the final product.

Primary and Secondary Research- Advantages and Disadvantages

 Primary and Secondary research

 In Primary research, there is no data available for the researcher, the researcher has to fin out for themselves. This means that the researcher needs to design things such as questionnaires and surveys, then once they have collect data from respondents they can then analyse the result.
Advantages - you can research exactly what you want, how you want, and don't have to rely on other peoples work.You can interpret the results how you want, and don't need to rely on other peoples interpretations.The research will be accurate for the current time / place / situation you are studying, It is tailored exactly to your needs
Disadvantages - It can take a lot of time and cost a lot of money to conduct primary research.You might not always have the necessary things to conduct it, e.g. samples etc

Secondary research is where the researcher have the necessary data available. These data are made available through other publications or reports, like newspapers, internet search engines, websites, blogs, books and magazine. Secondary research means there is no need to start from scratch, you can use the data or information given by these sources.
Advantages- It already exists, so it saves time. It is often cheaper than doing primary research. It may allow you access to data you could not otherwise get.
Disadvantages: In some cases, it is very expensive (scanner data, e.g.) You may have less control over how the data was collected. There may be biases in the data that you don't know about. Its answers may not exactly fit your research questions. It may be obsolete data.

Idealogy and Gender

Male Gaze

The idealogy of the genre affects all aspects of its representation. Music magazines will reflect the idealogy of their genres in visual style and language. The theorist Laura Mulvey argues that media reflects the 'MALE GAZE'. Laura Mulvey set out to explore the male gaze and expose the power structure at play in cinema.  In 1975 she wrote an essay called, “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema”, She identifies the influence of a patriarchal society in relation to film, also exploring how the camera acts as a 'male' eye where women are looked, and men being the 'lookers'. She points out that feminists need a variety of ways and methods to understand the unseen workings of the patriarchal system which objectify women.

Use of the Male Gaze in magazines


Features of the Male Gaze The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely to react the mans gaze.This relegates women to the status of objects. Some theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised. For example music magazines such as Rolling Stone reflects this idea of the 'male gaze' as celebrities are photographed from a upwards angle showing off their curves and body having nothing to do with the music side of there career. Here the camera is acting like the Mans eyes and what the man wants to see. I feel that this is a reassurance to men and their sexual power and at the same moment deny any sexuality of women other than the male construction.

Music and Ideology

An ideology is a beleif or ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture. Every music genre has this idea of an acompanying ideology. Often gneres divide along binary oppositions or a dichotomy. A dichotomy meaning a procedure that is a whole whole split into two parts for example two different music genres.

Here is an exampe of a dichotomy in pop and rock.

                                                 Pop                     Rock  

                  

                                                Clean                                    Dirty                                                           

Calmer                               Agressive

Euphemistic                       Literal

Non-Sexual                        Sexual

No drugs                             Drugs

Happy                                Angry

Dream                                Realistic

Professional/Rehearsed      Less Competent

Generic                               Individual

Low pitched                       High Pitched

Apolitcal                           Policical

For the first assignment in AS Media we had to create a Southfield School for girls front page of magazine cover. This is our final piece. We had to include a mid-shot so we decided to use a student of the school proudly standing outside of the school. We chose the name 'The Social' for the magazine as we felt that is was appropriate for our target audience, them mainly being the students of the school. We also wanted to avoid using the word 'Southfield' in the title as it is visible in the mid-shot of the student. We took the idea o the strapline at the bottom from the magazine from other magazines we had researched previously and felt the photos re-forced the light friendly tone of the school magazine.

 

Here is a real school magazine for Fearnes Sport college.
 In comparison to our magazine there are some aspects that are similar. For example this magazine has a mid-shot in the centre of the front cover, However the image is of a girl playing netball, this could be because it re-enforces the school being a sports college. Also it could be because it is clear recognition of the high school to any outside readers. The colour scheme of red and white is also similar to our magazine, this may purely be because they are the school colours, however it could also be purposefully used as red and white stand out and are very compatible especially when bold red writing is on a white background. Both the magazines have a section at the bottom of the magazine informing the audience on different information. Similarly they are both red and white as this is keeping to the colour scheme, however on this front cover the part at the bottom is acting as a contents page informing the audience of what is to find within the magazine. I like the idea of this especially for a school magazine as it is a clear guidline for different audiences to find what they might be looking for, for example a parent reader could be interested in a different topic to a student therefore this clear contents on indicates where that could be found instead of over crowding the front cover with pictures and writing.

Indroduction

 

 

hey everyone,

 

This is my as media blog. This is where i shall post frequent pictures and updates of what i have been completing throughout the as media lessons. The first peice of cooursework is to complete a school magazine and contents page.

 

hope you enjoy, ella x