Media Studies A1
Historical Magazines
Women’s magazines became very popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960’s, sales of women’s magazines Reached 12 million copies per week.
While this was a period of great change and increased independance for women, many magazines and adverts continued to perpetuate narrow and stereotypical ideas about gender.
Facts about Vogue:
September1916 : British Vogue was created
1920 : Aldous Huxley, and Virginia Woolf placed British Vogue in London
1930 : British Vogues first dedicated beauty issue has arrived
1960 : New Vogue is built
’60’ s are swinging’
-encouraging sex, freedom and exuality
1980’s : Tight dresses, big jeans, big shoulder pads
British Vogue is inspiring women to look ‘unapologetic about having it all’
The written text and images create meaning for the reader for example, the image could convey the idea of informality. The text ‘picnic’ connotes the concepts of leisure and summer having overall relaxed attitude. this article is typical for a Vogue Magazine because, it shows originality, and is unusual which is closely related to the kind of things Vogue publishes. Also the main image on the front page of the article contains a medium angle to imply equality for the audience;they are positioned as equal in power to the individuals within the page. The messages and values within the article portrays a layer back message, yet we would usually associate Vogue as being more sophisticated.
How does the combination of elements of media language communicate meanings?
How does the article reflect typical codes and conventions for this type of magazine?
How does the article appeal to the target audience?
Elegent
Main image, medium angle which implies there is equality
What messages and values are commmunicated in this article?
Messages are relaxed, layed back, casual lifestyle
How are representations constructed in the article?
-List as many different magazine genres as you can
Gossip
Fashion
Sport
Lifestyle
Business
Health and Fitness etc
Examples would be magazines such as Glamour, Vogue, OK, Hello, Pick me up, Chat
2)What are the three broad categories of magazines
The magazine industry contains a huge range of different genres. These can e divided into three broad catogories or groups
-Organisation magazines or customer magazines: These publications are aimed at the customers of particular organisations or companies for example waitrose food supermarket.
-Business or Trade magazines: These publications are aimed at people working in particular business, trades or proffessions.
-Consumer Magazines:These publications are aimed at the general public and cover, a wide range of interests.
3)What are the four subgenres of women’s magazine ?
LIfestyle, fashion, Celebrity, Real life.
4)What repertoir of elements are commonly found in women magazines? Give at least 6 examples
-Health and Beauty tips
-Fashion spreads
-celebrity features
Set text (historical product)Vogue July 1965
.Vogue is a monthly womens fashion magazine
.The original American Magazine was launched by Arthur Turnure in 1892
.Since 1909 it has been published by Conde Nast
.The Brittesh version was launched in 1916
Media Language:Key Theories-Semiotics
Key Terms
-Lexis: The specific type of language of vocabulary that is used
-Sign:A sign is sommething that stands in for or represents something else.
Roland Barthes ordeer of signification
1st levle:Denotation:The obvious Literal meaning of a sign=Signifier
2nd Levle:Connotations or Myths associated with the signn=Signified
Coventions of Magazines
Key Terms:Periodical: A publication thay is issued at regular intervals :weekly, monthly, Quarterly, Annual
Magizines share someformal characteristics with news papers, However,
Magazines differ from newspapers in the following ways
.Printed on high quality paper stock
.Bound or stapled
.Does not provide day to day , up to date information
Learning Point: Magazines Target a particular audience
Different people—Different Interests—Specialised/Niche Market
Conventions of Print Magazines:some context:
In the 1960s, the biggest threat to the popularity of magazines was coured television.
In todays society, the biggest threat to the popularity of magazines is digital/social media
What are the main functions of the magazine front cover
-To indicate who the magazine is intended for;drawing for the attention of the target audience
-To indicate the type of magazine it is (the relevant genre or sub-genre should be clearly signalled to the reader)
-Help the magazine stand out from it’s competitors by conveying a clear sence of brand identity
-Persuade potential readers to buy the magazine by creating audience interest and appeal
Key Terms
Brand Identity-The image that brand projects and the associations the audience makes with the brand, this is built up over time.
Masthead-The title of a magazine presented in the form of a logo. Many magazines use a specially designed type face for the masthead. This is useful for and can also help to distinguish the magazine from its competitors
Cover Lines -The written text that features on the cover of the magazine providing a preview of the content that features inside
Tagline-A short, memorable phrase that sums up the magazine and conveys a sence of its brand identity
Repeat purchase-When someone buys the same brand of product that they have done previously , as in the case of readers who buy the same magazine every week or evey month
House style-The distinctive ‘look’, aesthetic or visual style of a magazine, which helps to convey a sence of it’s brand identity.
Typography-The font styles that are used. Serif fonts such as Times New Roman have short decorative lines, called serifs, added to the letters. They often look more traditional. In contrast, sans serif fonts, which lack the the ornamental flourishes, often look more modern or contemporary.
Mastyhead is unique to individual magazines
Beyonces star persona
1.confident
2.Wealthy
3.Strong Independant Women
4.Promotes Black women
5.Encourages women to stand up for themselves
6.Sexualised
7.Empowered
8.Empowerment of women and African American women
9.Challenges Patriarchy
A concert for Hurrican relief-hour long, live perfomance, generated over 50 million dollars, watched by over 8.5 million people, many people died over hurrican katrina.
Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released the day before Beyonce performed at the super bowl nal in February 2016. The formation music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was released with the song.
-won many awards
-video is set against the backdrop of the ooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
Kanye West quotes
– ‘I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, ‘they’re lootin. ‘You see a white family, it says, ‘they’re looking for food.’And you know, It’s been five days because most of the people are black.’
-‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people’
Buggles ‘video killed the radio star’ was the first music video to ever be aired.
Key Terms:
-Star Persona- Used to refer to those music stars who have an identity beyond their ability to make music, for example Beyonce. That Persona may be demonstrated through Character and personality and be evident in other media platforms for example magazine, interviews, and advertising campaigns.
-Motif-A recurrents thematic element used by an artist and recognized by fans of that artis. It is usally established by the iconography surroundings the artist, including props, costumes and settings.Theme
-Binary Opposites- When products incorporate examples of opposite values, for example poverty and wealth.
-Opposites
-Narrative-spoken account of connected events, story.
-Intertextuality-When someone references someone
Investigating the set forms:Music Form
-The music video is an important promotional tool used by the music industry to market performers and their music.
-It helps to create a star image for the performer
-It adapts or develops the image of a more ‘established’ performer.
-The video is used to anchor and interpret the meaning of a song
-Music videos can also differ in style too…
Narrative, Concept based and perfomances
Narrative- Follows a story line, there are two types of narrative linear and fragmented a linear narrative starts a story at the beggining, goes on through the middle, and ends at the end. A fragmented narraive is one that doesnt. An example on a linear narrative is ‘Katy Perry’-‘Thinking of you’.
Concept Based usally has no storyline, and sometimes have little or no relation to the meaning of the lyrics being sung or the artist singing them. An example of this is ‘black or white’ by Michael Jackson, this music video is also an example of both narrative and perfomance based.
Perfomance- When the music video consists mainly of artists performing in the video. A good example of this is ‘Beyonce-Love on top’.
The origins of music videos date back to musical short films in the 1920’s.
They cam to prominence in the 1890s wwhen MTV based their format around the medium.
Before the 1890s they were called ‘filmed insert’, ‘promotional film’.
Music television channeles may host their own shows charts , examples are MTV, Channel UFX, 4Music, 40 TV and more.
Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ directed by John Landis
Madonna-Borderline
-rebelious and sexy
-Biopic
-Narrative
The films proucers make use of viral marketing by introducing the memes which are then seen by many individual acrross the globe, this increases the audience for the film and benifits/increases there intial success of the film. Another example would be that in August 2015, Beats by Dre launched a campaign to promote the film. People were then encouraged to promote their own town as everyone is straight outta somewhere, relating again to the viral memes made on social media.
Straight outta Compton is a biographic directed by F. Gary Gray, produced by Legendary pictures and distributed by Universal pictures. The film was scheduled for release in August 2015. A trailer was released in February 2015; this included an introduction by Ice Cube and Dr Dre. A global trailer was released in April 2015. The film was released in Britain in late August after the American premier on 11 August 2015.
A biopic is a film about the life of a real person.
This is useful for producers because it draws in more audiences. Getting an insight into famous peoples lives is very interesting for audience members.
An independent film or indie film is a film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment agencies.
Bend it like Beckham
Attack the block
Shaun of the dead
Brotherhood
Anja Somers 