Magazines: Final idex

Men's Health - Audience

Men's Health - Language and Representation

Men's Health - Industries and the impact of digital media

Oh Comely - Audience

Magazine Front Cover Production - Learner Response

Oh Comely - Language and Representation

End of Year 1 exam - Learner Response

Oh Comely - Industry case study

Oh Comely: Industry

Iceberg Press:

1.
The Iceberg press was set up in order to aid the rise of a ew era for magazine and media brands.

2.

• "It's all about the audience"
• "Chase the work, not the money"
• "Compromise isn't our friend"
• "We will always make time for ideas"
• "We are stronger when we work with others"
• "We want good people to work in a good place"
• "Every year we will help a cause that matters"
• "We believe in a thing called print"

3.

Oh Comely and The Simple Things.

4.

Both magazines take on a very minimalistic design to their magazines with out flashy covers or the use of star power. Both magazines also stick to a very natural colour scheme with whites and greens to appeal to a female and educated audiences.

5.

Hearst has a very different aim compared to Oh Comely. Firstly, magazines like men's health bases its financial income from commercials and adverts. This means that the magazine will include a lot of adverts in order to generate revenue. Oh Comely on the other hand does not run on advert made revenue but from their actual readers which is why their magazine is £5 to purchase.

Writer's edit journal article:

1.

A magazine that has been published without the help from a large corporation or institution.

2.

That creators of independent magazines have more creative influence and are able to use the internet in order to reach a wider audience.

3.

Kinfolk magazine aims to support audiences put the most important factors first such as friends and family which similarly, Oh Comely has an aim to make audiences socially aware.

4.

Global magazine publishers have not seem to grasp onto the current digital age therefore unable to use the internet to their advantage. Independent magazines like Oh Comely have been able to use the internet to their advantage where they create an online presence in order to promote their magazine to a much larger and diverse audience.

5.

Most independent magazines gather funds through crowd funding. This is when they go online to raise money by pitching their idea to the public for venture capitalist to invest. This includes things like kickstarter or GoFundMe.

6.

Independent publishers are able to connect with their audiences by targeting them through the interest and especially through social media. Interactive posts allow audiences to feel involved with the magazine. 

7.

Independent magazines tend to have strong personal beliefs added into the magazine. This can only be included if the same group of people who create the magazine continue making them. Other groups of people wouldn't be able to represent the same values.

8.

Originality. It allows the magazine to always be different since it provides instructions to the audience on how to do a certain something. It also gives the audience space to interpret meanings. In other words, the DIY approach gives the audience a sense of power.

9.

It could fulfil some personal satisfaction of having a physical copy to flick through rather than a digital copy. Most buyers of magazines ted to be older generations who find it much more convenient to pick up a copy at the store or supermarket when doing their shopping or having a walk.

10.

Independent magazines receive no financial support from any sort of large corporation which means their budget is significantly less compared to ones like men's health. Independent magazines are funded on their own and distributed on their own.

Irish Times Feature:

1.

Because they are specifically aimed at a certain target audience which would meet the wants and needs of the audiences. Their interest and views are most likely reflected here.

2.

Global conglomerates have enough money to print a lot more copies than independent publishers and with the money they are also able to advertise more to a larger audience on a bigger scale.

3.

Independent magazines tend to find loyal customers despite the size of their audience.

4.

The cost of producing and distributing the magazine will be quite costly. For an independent distributor, it would be significantly harder since they don't have the financial support some other magazines have.

5.

• Social Media
• Selling Merchandise
• Setting up events

TCO interview with Ruth Jamieson:

1.

Ruth Jamieson suggests that there is a renaissance in the magazine industry because there has been an increase of online presence on the internet. This means that there is a new market for independent magazines.

2.

Original content that has not been seen elsewhere in other competing magazines.

3.

The speaking out page can be an example of this original content since not all magazines decide to include a section dedicated to people speaking about social issues. It's original, and educational on issues going around in today's world.

4.

He sees a decline in popularity/ readership for magazines. That current mainstream magazines will slowly lose the amount of audience members. Independent magazines will take over instead.

5.

I believe that Oh Comely may have to turn to online magazine but as of the coming few years, I believe they will be successful at surviving.

year 12 media PPE: Learner response

1.
WWW - Some perceptive points and good expression in places.
EBI - Missed opportunities to score extra marks due to lack of knowledge (eg Q7)

2.
Question 1 - Relation to King Kong stories/ Intertextuality

Question 2 - Passive blonde female wearing a revealing top reflects male dominance/ Male Gaze (Mulvey)/ male gaze not shown in Maybelline advert

Question 3 - Media products like the Score hair cream advert help create a corrosive, toxic hypermasculinity that damages both men and women/ Bell Hooks 'normalised traumatisation'/ The score hair cream shows male dominance which can be shaped to cause toxic hypermasculinity.

3.
Into - Explain postmodernism. Vague examples of postmodernism in Billie jean and letter to the free.

Para 1 - Focus on Billie Jean. Talk about the intertextuality in the music video. The background -> Hollywood stage set. Pastiche aspects. Film noir and link to 50's musical like singing in the rain.

Para 2 - Focus on letter to the free. Talk about historical deafness (from Jameson). Elaborate on how audiences use the music video and the lyrics in order to gain knowledge of the past of the black community. This includes things such as slavery, mass incarceration and the amendment 13.

Para 3 - Link both the music videos together. Explain they are both postmodern. Detail on hyperreality which is shown in both. In letter to the free the black square that shows up every now and then is ambiguous which can link to Baudrillard. The question of whether it is real or symbolic of something). In Billie Jean, there are polaroid pictures and moving billboards which go to the ideas of 'copies of copying' or 'screen within screen'.

Conclusion - Although both show postmodern aspects within the video, Billie Jean would be considered more postmodern due to the …… Explain why Billie Jean is more postmodern, recap the paragraphs and bring in a final point to summarise it all.

4.
Benefit -

• Greater control
• Lower costs resulting in higher profits

Diversification - A media conglomerate branching off into newer and other markets or platforms.

5.

Compared to Capital, Deutschland 83 does a better job at reflecting the global nature of the television industry. Firstly, D83 is cofounded by both German money and American money. This allows there to be a connection formed between the two countries which then can be linked to the idea of globalisation within the film industry. Another aspect to note is that Deutschland 83 uses a mixture of English and German again showing diversity and introducing people to foreign television material. Subtitles are also used in D83 to allow views from other countries to be able to understand some of the German dialogue that takes place within the drama. This again links to the idea of globalisation of the industry and how dramas have adapted to appeal to a range of audiences all around the world.

Oh Comely - Language and Representation

Language: Close textual analysis:

Front Cover:

1.
The masthead is written in a sans serif font which seems to be handwritten which suggests that Oh Comely has already started to create personal relationships with the audience.

2.
The audience of Oh Comely have very creative and unique lifestyle and thinking.

3.
The cover lines on the front cover are short and vague which creates questions to the audience and make them wat to read on to find out about them.

4.
The central image is of a woman who is shown in an androgynous way meaning she is not seen with more masculine or feminine fashion traits. In other words a blur between male traits and female traits.
Unlike other magazines aimed at females, she is not overly sexualised (male gaze).

5.
Conventional gender stereotypes are not reinforced in this cover page. The central image features a female presented in an androgynous way which means it doesn't reinforce any gender stereotypes.


Feature: Speaking out:

1.
The headline which is written in bold gives a clear indication that the articles to follow with talk about empowerment of women. This shows that the magazine is suitable for readers with feminist thoughts.

2.
The interviewees suggest that Oh Comely values the power of women and minority groups. They also attempt to support and help readers cope with their own problems.

3.
The page design is not very conventional since it is very minimalistic which is not what you tend to see in other magazines which are seen to have much longer articles.

4.
'My beauty ripples' subverts the stereotypical representations of Eurocentric female beauty. She chooses to love the way she is instead of try to change herself to fit in with the society built expectations of beauty.

5.
The photos aren't photoshopped in order to present certain meanings of beauty but is natural and shows the real side of people. This may mean that the magazine wants to create a fresh and personal feeling to their magazine.


Feature: More than gender:

1.
This feature allows audiences to see a different side to gender and supports the idea of gender fluidity.

2.
The sister of the two siblings was the writer of Oh comely where the brother was the photographer for Oh Comely. This is significant as it creates personal connection between creators ad audiences.

3.
Another way of creating a personal touch with the audience is through the photography. IN Oh Comely, the type of photography was candid photography.

4.
Issues regarding being a transgender in this society is highlighted and the feature includes ways to cope with them.

5.
The biographical information adds a sense of realism and allows the magazine to promote the writers other outlets.


Representation and identity:

1.
The images to the content all subvert traditional stereotypes. An androgynous central cover image and articles from people of who are trans or gay or from backgrounds where they are often looked in a different light.

2.
A FGM campaigner is featured in one of the speaking out sections. She is a young Muslim woman who talks about FGM and the issues around it. This is an example of representation of culture and diversification in the magazine.

3.
There is a lot of women empowerment in Oh Comely and showing a lot of feminist views. The magazine teaches audiences to love themselves the way they are.

4.
Oh Comely has its target audience as women. They expect women to read this magazine rather than men therefore under-representing men.

5.
I believe that Oh Comely fits into the fourth wave of feminism since it clearly shows feminist ideologies and attempts to empower women.

6.
The more than gender article blurs the society made representations of the two genders.

7.
Compared to the cover page of Men's Health, we can see a clear different in gender representations between the two. In Oh Comely, the cover star is shown in an androgynous way in order to not reinforce any gender stereotypes. Men's Health on the other hand shows a very built Vin Diesel as the cover page which already shouts out traditional men's stereotypes.

8.
Unlike other magazines aimed at female audiences, Oh comely doesn't take on the male gaze and is much more gender neutral. In magazines like cosmopolitan, the cover image tends to be an over sexualised and over edited female male to attract the eyes of a male person but aimed at a woman.

9.
Oh comely does support Gauntlett and shows this through their choices of images and choices of content to include within the magazine.

10.
I believe that Oh Comely is an open text since it's minimalistic design means that there is a limitation of words and explanations which would allow more discussion with the audience about the meanings behind the articles or the photos etc. Oh Comely does not force ideologies into their audiences minds.

Oh Comely Audience

1.
Oh Comely presents itself as a 'stylish' magazine which is thoroughly enjoyed by audience members in the target audience. The target audience is said to be aimed at niche demographic and aimed at women.

2.
Has a social media reach of 100,000 and readers per issue is around 25,000. whereas men's health has a circulation of 146,000 and a readership that is around 1 million.

3.
Oh Comely can be found in independent establishments like WHSmith.

4.
Young female around her 20s which is educated and has a decent amount of feminist views.

5.
The most likely psychographic classes to read Oh Comely would be aspirer and explorer groups.

6.
I would say that most of the audience would be around the AB audience since Oh Comely is quite expensive as a magazine and since the wording in the magazine is sophisticated to a certain extent in order to target at a more educated audience therefore fitting into the AB class.

7.
Since some of the words used are quite high level therefore perhaps someone who had passed university and have a certain level of education.

8.
Oh comely can fulfil personal identity and surveillance since the magazine uses star power to gain viewers who known the celebrity and therefore create a relationship with that person. As for surveillance, News regarding the world today is included in this magazine which informs readers of events that are going around the world.

9.
Oh comely has a very minimalistic design throughout the magazine which could suggest the phrasing 'quality over quantity'. There is also a lack of advertisement within the magazine which may suggest that they are not profit orientated but aim to educate and inform their audiences.

10.
Since Oh Comely has a very different and unique aesthetic to it, I believe that the USP of it is what allowed audiences to build up loyalty for it. It isn't something that followed most of the key conventions of magazines. Another aspect to note would be the times a new copy of the magazine is introduced. One volume comes out every 6 months, this makes the magazine almost seem rare since you'd have to wait a whole 6 months to see a different cover for Oh Comely, this makes it seem again unique compared to other magazines.