Responding to Q1B "The Essay"

Mr Nag

Media

Representation

N

Audiences

Genre

MR Nag=One piece of course work

Nr Cup= More than one pieces

Genre

John Friskes describes genres as “attempts to structure some order into the wider range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for both the convenience of both producers and consumers.” In other words, genre is simply a way of categorizing products (texts) through the common codes and conventions.

John Friskes relates to my work as I made it convenient to my audiences by following conventions so people now what my product is so it’s convenient for them and this made it convenient to me as I new what I had to do.

Andre Basin  “genres make magazine cover more efficient (by allowing the re-using of fonts, images and the like) and more marketable (by using generic conventions as a way of ‘selling’ the magazine cover to the target audience). Genres in magazine covers therefore, were seen as more arbitrary: they originate at the level of production” (Hall and Holmes, 2008).

I agree with Basin’s theory as I made my magazine cover quickly because I had common conventions to follow so I replicated them in my work.

“Scientific method does not require us to observe every instance of a phenomenon in order to describe it; scientific method proceeds rather by deduction” (Tzetan Todorov, 1970).

I agree with Todorov’s theory as I don’t need to look at every magazine to now what makes one because I only need to see a couple and I then have another to judge if what I’m looking at ifs a music magazine.

Narrative

Bathes: Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution”

I agree in some ways as my magazine does follow what Barthes says because my magazine cover does make a bit of enigma as my main image you see the guy smiling and makes the reader think what is he smiling at which makes you as a reader question the image. However my image does not have linear as its not a group of photos it is just one photo frozen in time.

Claude Levi-Strauss his theory of binary opposition night/day, good/bad, light/dark, good/evil etc. He observed that these oppositions tended to structure texts narratives.

I believe Levi-Strauss theory as I used binary opposites as I used white on black to make it stand out I also used pink which is a female color and then blue a male color together to make some contrast between the two genders.

Tilley (1991) ‘Action Codes’ are a short hand way of advancing a narrative. Action codes are part of the ‘Continuity Editing System’ and are used to signal to the audience that something is about to happen, helping the audience to predict what is going to happen next. According to Tilley, for example, the packing of a suitcase ‘signals’ confrontation, panic or escape in a Thriller.

This relate to my magazine cover as my main image shows a guy in a pose and makes you think what is the next stage and asks what is going to happen next after this pose.

Representation

“All media texts are re-representations of reality…they may be stereotypes or they may be complex representations but it is important to remember that they have been constructed to appeal to a particular target audience” (Hall and Holmes 1998).

This relate to my magazine as I choice the person I did for my main image because he is the perfect age for my target audiences and he is the same age as those people in the magazines target audiences and people like to look at things that relate to them.

Youth: Stanley Hall wrote Adolescence in 2 volumes in 1904.

He came up with the ‘Storm & Stress Model’, which pretty much meant that

 “ Adolescence is inherently a time of storm & stress when ‘all’ young people go through some degree of emotional and behavioural upheaval, before establishing a more stable equilibrium at adulthood.

He thought that

1.  Common mood in teenagers was depressed

2.  Criminal activity would increase at the ages of 12 & 24

Heightened sensation

I have not followed this as I have mad teenagers as fun and for this reason I have challenge Hall as my images do not show teenagers as bad people instead it shows them in a positive light.

In 1975, Laura Mulvey, “As erotic objects of desire for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator within the auditorium.”

I have gone against this as I have period women as not being objects of sexual desire instead I have shown them as strong character however you could say I portrayed men as objects of sexual desire as I have used my main image of a male in to a pieces of attraction.

Audiences

“Any media text is created for a particular audience and will usually appeal most to this particular target audience” (Hall and Holmes, 1998).

This relates to my work as I have used text which you can just see in pervious pop magazines however it may be a little different however it is still the same when you get to the basics and this is so my magazine gives what the public wants to receive/take from it. I also had to make a photo of the artist which approved by the retail, artist and everyone else effect by the image and if not the customer may not buy the magazine. There is also the preferred read where every reads it how we want it to be read however there is also the apposition reading where people don’t like it however they are going to buy it to get something out of which was not intended.

Hypodermic needle theory the media turns us in to what it we consume.

Use and Gratification theory Blumer and Kant’s theory

Diversion (escape from everyday problems)

·      Personal relationships (using the media for emotional and other interactions e.g. substitution soap opera for family life).

·      Personal identity (constructing their own identity from characters in media texts, and learning behavior and values – useful if trying to fit into a new country/culture)

·      Surveillance (information gathering e.g. news, educational programming, weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains etc).

Making a essay for 1B

Analysis one of your Couse work productions in relation to your audiences.

Plan

8 paragraphs

P1

Introduction to your media product (who is for, genre and introduce target audiences) 

Theory (add a quote based on audiences)

Link back to question

P2

Hypodermic theory and how we read things 

P2

Niche or mass audiences

P3

Audiences Demographics (Chunkskie quote)

P4

Your product, about what you did

P5

How you made your magazine into a product (example is the use of a barcode) Technology and how it has changed the way you make your product.

P6

Why people will be your magazine (youth and gratification theory)

P7

How your product may fail in terms of audiences. 

P8

Conclusion (how good was your magazine success or fail)

P1

My media product is a pop magazine where the target audiences is teenager girls age between 13 to 16 there is also a secondary target audiences of my magazine which is parents the reason way they are a target audience is because they are the people most likely to buy the magazine as its unlikely a 13 year old girl will have the money to pay for the magazine.

P2

P3

My magazine appeals to a mass audiences it may be target to a select age range however compared to other genres of magazines my magazine is targeted at a big audiences. My product ass appeals to the mass audiences because of the genre of the magazine is pop which is one of the biggest music genres which appeals to the masses and no matter where you go you are most likely to hear pop music over another genre such as classic which is a very much niche audiences because not many people lesion to classic music.

P4

For my pop magazine I made a front cover page, a double page spread and a contents page I used very bright colour on my magazine to follow conventions of this genre because stereotypically teenage girls like bright fluffy colours instead of the opposite which is very dark colours which are portrayed as bad when pop magazines are seen as bubbly and fun. Also when making my magazine I looked at the audiences demographics which told me people don’t want a expensive magazine they want a value for money product however they also want quality of quantity and I try to replicate this in my work by not blaging and instead getting straight into the gossip.

P5

To make my product into a product I first of all created a barcode because no product sold these days comes without a barcode so to make it a product I had to include it on my magazine. Alongside the barcode I put on the front cover I also put the price on it the reason I choice the price I did was because when doing market research this was the most commune price range for a magazine of this price range. This links on to the reason why people would buy my magazine and the reason way people would buy my magazine is because it gratifies there need because it tells the reader all the gossip on the celebrates and pop music this also link into the youth and gratification theory which says about how we have four many reason for reading /buying a media product one is as I just stated to gratifies a need. Another reason is because of identity and for this reason people want to read my magazine to find out   the hot winter style so they can replicate this in there clothing. They also use my magazine for finding out about the this other world celebrates a said to live and the final reason people finish to read my magazine is for simple enjoyment and entertainment.

P6

Although my product is not perfect and can fail in the form of audiences as have go against some forms of conventions for example when looking at pop magazines they use pink and other very much stereotyped colours and there main colour in there colour scheme however in my magazine I made more male relate colours the main colour as I used very dominate colours like blue however I did also use very girl colours as a secondary colour to enforces the fact that this is a girls magazine.

P7

In terms of success or fail I do think my magazine was I success as I tried to break the division of a male and female colour scheme and also the layout of my magazine is a big selling point because my magazine cover includes a lot however it is well structured and easy to read there may be some problems with my magazine however I do believe my magazine doe attract my target audiences.

Question 1B

MR NAG

Media Language (meaning of the image)

Representation (how things/ideas are shown)

Narrative (how we tell a story)

Audiences (Who is it for)

Genre (type of thing you are looking at)

Media Language:

The use of the leather jacket and other pieces of clothing was to appeal the target audiences who are stereotyped as loving fashion.

I used a bold masthead so it stand out on the page and intern stand out more on the stand.

I used a border around my images to make the images separate from the rest of the page, which also makes it stand out of the page.

Representation

I used pink as a away to appeal to my target audiences who are stereotyped to like pink.

I used slang words to represent my target audiences.

I used very happy images, which showed youth as fun, and happy this is orzo why I picked this images as they best represent my target audiences.

I choice to use a male for my main image because it played up to be stereotypes of pop magazine because the main image is normally of a guy.

Narrative 

With the use of one of my images the girl looks upset so this helps tell the story of her break up which relates to the story.

My main image is of a male be cheeky and happy which helps portray the fun happy side to my magazine. 

I had a girl smiling in a image because it showed her all jolly and told a positive story which would appeal to the readers.

Audiences

I choices the bold bright colours such as pink because that’s what my target audiences wants. I also used a range of images to appeal my target audiences. I also included a fashion section n because my target audiences are teenage schoolgirls that love all girly things such as pink and shopping.  I also included a website link to appeal to a more modern youth audiences.

Genre

You tell my magazine is a pop magazine because everything is big and bold with bright colors which tells people it’s a pop magazine. 


Theories

The media language question will let you do all theories?

Theory 

Representation

As you know from your AS and A2 work, this includes the following: age, gender, sexuality, class and status, ability disability, race and ethnicity, national and regional identity. I must also show sex, gender and so on and how this effect culture. I will need to state the stereotypes and the male gaze. Its a political things which slates teens as being bad.

Narrative  

Its about Barthead, Turdorov, Propp and Strauss.

Audiences

Mass and Niche

Who deciders who can have the product.

Demographics who makes up the audiences.

Hypodermic Theory? Youth de-grasfication theory 


Genre
1. How does your product target an audience?Use the life matrix to categorise your audience.
2. How does your product fit into Uses and Gratification theory and how do these areas overlap?
3. Effects theory: How does the need to commodify your media product make it less 'honest'?
4. Interface: How would your media product have differed if it had been produced in the past for a less 'sophisticated/attention-deficient' audience?
5. How are your audience likely to respond to your media product?
6. Ideology: Does your media product have explicit and implicit ideology?
7. What is a marxist reading of your media product?
8. Hegemony: How does your media product reinforce the current cultural hegemony?
 9. Post Moderninsm: How could your product be defined: traditional/modernist/post-modernist?
10. How 'real' in terms of Baudrillard is your media product?
My magazine is so post to be taken in a happy way and they should feel most after looking at my magazine. However they could have the opposite who where they like the people because of sexual reasons instead of viewing them as role models. they final view on my magazine could I hate pop so I'm going to read it because I want to see how stupid they are.

John Friske genre try to sturture some order in things.
You need to use codes and conventions.

Q1B
25 marks
30mins
You write about one product

Example question
Q1B
Analysis media representation of your coursework production?

I target my magazine to teenage audiences of teens aged around 12 to 16. I decided to use a wide range of bright colours such as pink to attract my target audiences. I also used a very busy looking layout to also attract the audiences because when looking at conventions of a pop magazine its very busy on the page. I also involved slang words such as OMG as this will appeal directly at these target audiences. I also included very bold text  to appeal to this audiences however looking at the light matrix categories I will say my target audiences falls under fun/aties and my target audiences is a mass audiences because it gives the majority of girls aged 12 to 16  want my product.

How does your product fit into this theory and how do these areas overlap?

Blumer and Katz gratification theory can be related tomy magazine as each of the four parts can be related to my magazine. The first is personal relationships as my magazine gets people together and socialises about all the celeb gossip you find in the magazine. Identify can be reflect in how my readers of my magazine tries to copy how the people in my magazine look and they change there behave because of how the people on my magazine act. Surveillance can be related because my magazine tells them about the celeb world. The final is diversion, which is portrayed in how people uses my magazine to escape their world and enter the pop celeb world.

How does the need to commodify your media product make it less 'honest'?

I have included a barcode  and price on my magazine front cover this means it can be easily sold.  I have also included special bonuses in the magazine meaning its more of a commodity.

How would your media product have differed if it had been produced in the past for a less 'sophisticated/attention-deficient' audience?

(Compare a music magazine cover (NME) from the 1960s, 1990s and now.)

My media product would have to change completely because my magazine solely for the teens of this era and the images my not have been popular at that period of time. Also in the past I would not have been able to take as many photos as I have taken and I would not have been able to edit my images to make a magazine like I have created. So this would have meant I would have need to use film which would not have given me the chance to see them before they where created. I would have also needed artists to draw on magazine and I would have to of sorts make up my own typography, as it just did not exist.

How are your audience likely to respond to your media product? 

Ideology

6. Ideology: Does your media product have explicit and implicit ideology?

I have choice this male to represent my magazine and I have choice this person because of his age and gender. I also got him to look quizzical to reflect the mood of the magazine. I have also made my magazine friendly but not just though the model in the image but also though the layout and grammar I have used.  I have also used friendly colours like pink and blue, which makes it more friendly and also makes it clear my target audiences is females. I have or so including things you cant really see like the langue such as OMG which is straight away represent my target audiences age range. I have also got hot winter style section which implants the idea that you need to spend your money I have also included the price which gives the audiences this idea of wow that’s cheap and also I have included fashion which involves the currency that my audience wants. My magazine follows maxism ideology because portrays everything as being perfect such as no one has spots but that is just promoting lies but the reader thinks its true and the reader looks at how happy it looks and thinks they must buy the magazine but they don’t have to.  I have followed post-modernism as it maintains gender stereotypes like girls have long hair and the males have short hair and also females wear make up  because we are judge on how we look like.

Post Modernism

It is a way to define things as post the modern view of something. If you break post modern you are challenge your view in some way for example doing something new. Intertextuality is a post modernism this is when we refer to another text and this reference rewards the consumer that recognises it.

How could your product be defined: traditional/modernist/post-modernist?  

I think my magazine cover is more post-modernist because it follows your standard view of a pop magazine because of the langue and typography however it goes against what some people excepted because it goes against some of the tradishile things you find in a magazine for example how used pink as a secondary color is normally would be the primary color. Also the use of slang terms adds a sense of post modern because such things as OMG would needed to me exampled to select people.

How 'real' in terms of Baudrillard is your media product?

Baudrillar said the golf war never happened.

Verisimilitude: The appearances of reality and trying to fit in with reality.

In short we see a range of images from the media however can we every say this pictures are the truth because you don’t now it true unless you have seen it.

The original image of my main photo is more really than the final because before editing it was blurred and a bit out of focas this makes people think its more really I have also cropped away a big smart of the image which has altered the whole image and it also looks less blurred which makes it seem more real.

The original image of my main photo is more really than the final because before editing it was blurred and a bit out of focas this makes people think its more really I have also cropped away a big smart of the image which has altered the whole image and it also looks less blurred which makes it seem more real.  My image conveys a sense of verimilitude because I have followed the conventions of the genre however I have not edited away spots to make the image realistic and not fake this is also done though the type of clothing and hair which makes it truthful.

Extras

APPLY EACH OF THESE THEORIES TO YOUR MEDIA PIECE:

LEVI STRAUSS Binary theory 'the media exists in creating a series of easily understood oppositions.' I have used the oppsite in gender to show a equal balances of both gender because normally you find both genders on a pop front cover. In my magazine I have also used a select range of fonts such as black text with ether blue pink or yellow in the background to add as sense of confusion and to and I used pink a lot in my color scheme because it was the opposite to the rest of my color scheme which makes it visually appealing. 

BLUMLER "people see themselves reflected in the media they choose to consume..."

I have reflected my audiences because of my content which involves stories which relate to the age of my magazine for example the break up story. I also represented my target audiences though my images and showing them happy and jolly like people reading my magazine is targeted at. Also because of my magazine I have made it how my consumer like it so they buy it because they buy what they like.

BARTHES  Enigma Codes Theory  "We read the media as a series of enigmas (puzzles) to be solved."

My magazine makes the read carry on reading because I don’t tell them all of the information on the front cover for example I included a hot and not section which gets them question who could it be and they need to read on to find out who it is .

MULVEY the male gaze "the media constructs women as objects of erotic desire."

I have followed male glaze because I have portrayed females as objects of sexual desire however I have also made my male into a sexual object which goes against laurer Mulveys male gaze.  So I have set up my males as the some way as my females which because this is done to attract my target audiences. However I have not made it to bad as it is targeted at young aged audiences.

Z-PATTERN and Gestalt Theory of patterns. Rule of thirds.

I have followed z patteren because of how your eye is attracted to the centre of my magazine this done by how I have filled dead space and the placing of my heading.I have also used the rule of thirds though the way I have section my magazine in to three sections the this is done though the use of my masthead which starts the first section and then my three poster section which makes the third section and then you have the center where all the two other sections draw you into the middle section.

1. How does a product target an audience?

Use the life matrix to categories the audience.

The target audiences of big brother is very big its for people who want to commit to one show for a long time for example around a month. Looking at the life matrix I can tell you tribe wired people don’t watch big brother because its not free spirited although moving on fanatics may watch big brother because it is fun but dynamic duos would not watch it because its not active although priority parents may watch it because it is fun. Although looking down the list only struggling singles and maybe settled singles may what big brother to ether escapes from there problems or to pity them and make your self fill better bout your self.

2. How does your product fit into Uses and Gratification theory and how do these areas overlap?

Celebrity Big Brother fits into gratification theory because of the way it portrays personal relationships of all the different housemates. It also shows a range of different identity’s however it makes use want to be like some of the housemates because of the way they have be portrayed.  Also you can find because of the way big brother is portrayed and shows celebrities it gives use this representation of this fake world around use. Big brother is also used as a diversion and a way to escape from reality and enter the celeb world for an hour a day.

3. Effects theory: How does the need to commodify your media product make it less 'honest'?

The way Big Brother is less honest is because it is not there normal life which is how big brother is sold as its celebrity’s put in a room where they are pretty much controlled buy the producers so when they sell it as the real them its not its them adapting to there environment.

 4. Interface: How would your media product have differed if it had been produced in the past for a less 'sophisticated/attention-deficient' audience?

Big Brother has changed in the last ten year because at the start of big brother there was less cameras filming them and there was no tasks however now the public have main ways to watch big brother if that’s still on the TV or though on demand the public also now have new ways to vote if that’s though phones or though smart phone apps which are new.

5. How are your audiences likely to respond to your media product?

With big brother there are two main audiences one respond in way that this is fun and a good laugh and watch the show for enjoyment however the second audiences watch big brother for enjoyment like the first audiences however this audience gets enjoyment out of it because of how bad the show is and pity the show because of it but still watch it because its funny.6. Ideology: Does a media product have explicit and implicit ideology?

Celebrity Brig brother explicit and implicit because as it says in the name its about celebrates however it shows the view that they are not anything like use and they are not a different breed of humans they are the same as use. However the way its implicit is because it does things which are not normal and makes use laugh and pity the celebrities also in big brother it shows love and angrier which makes it more relatable to the audiences it also tells the audience’s both in a implicit and explicit way that celebrities are no different from use.

7. What is a marxist reading of a media product?

The maxist reading of big brother sos that all class are different however they can all come together for example you have a big range of different classes in big brother such as the higher-class and the low class but they act no differently and because of this and the the big range of characters this can appeal to mainly class however particularly those of a lower class because they like to pity the celebrity’s which are seen as high class and by pitying them it makes the view fill happy about themselves this is the same with such other shows like Jeremy Kyle where people watch it to make themselves fill better.

8. Hegemony: How does a media product reinforce the current cultural hegemony?

Big brother follows the current hegemony because of the way in which it gives the public what we see in society everyday. However it also goes against it as it puts people in random saturations where people would never be put in however it does reinforce the current cultural hegemony because it shows use   what society expects to see from its media.

 9. Post Moderninsm: How could a product be defined: traditional/modernist/post-modernist? (do one for each)