Drew's A Level Media

Adbusters (May/June 2016) Culture Jamming: Re-routing culture. Changing the original meaning of something. Culture jamming is the practice of criticising and subverting advertising and consumerism in the mass media, by methods such as producing advertisements parodying those of global brands. Culture Jamming examples: Dominant ideology of: Iceland: Convenient, easy, affordable, lower quality Long Road: Easier than Hills Apple: Expensive/overpricing Facebook: Intrusive Amazon: Unethical

To what extent are Woman and Adbusters examples of specialised and institutionalised media productions? Make reference to their distribution and circulation. Woman has competed with Woman's Own (Newnes) and Woman's Weekly (Amalgamated) to be the top-selling title. The three rivals ended up merging to become IPC. Their sales peaked in about 1959, at about 2.6m, 3.1m, and 1.8m each. In 1937 Odhams (now IPC) opened a printing plant in Watford, Herts with Speedry Gravure Process for colour printing. Woman launched weekly in June with low cover price, 2d, for a full-colour magazine. Within a year, the title was selling 500,00 copies per week. IPC is a large mainstream organisation and is also a conglomerate because of the fact that IPC or Time inc is owned by Meredith and also owns many other companies below it such as Warner Brothers. Time Inc has owned and published over 100 magazine brands such as: Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, golf magazine etc. They also co-operated over

Key Theory 12 - Power and Media Industries - Curran and Seaton The media is controlled by a small number if companies primarily driven by the profit and power. Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality. More socially diverse patterns of ownership can create more varied and adventurous media productions.

Key Theory 13 - Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Hunt The increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.

The Devil Wears Prada   What are the issues that arise from mainstream magazine production? How accurate is the representation of the magazine industry? What real life inspirations did the film draw on for characters, settings, themes etc.? I would say that some issues that are presented in the film "The Devil Wears Prada" with the mainstream magazine production is that you are not allowed to have your own identity when you work there. This is because the film suggests that you do everything you can to please the people above you in the industry and if you are not enjoying it you should work harder. Furthermore, an issue that is presented is that everything comes down to one persons opinion and nobody else's matters. The representation of the magazine industry is probably quite accurate because of the fact that large industries need to meet exact deadlines all of the time and they can not afford to make mistakes. This means that the fact that everybody nee

How does the front cover of the set edition of Woman reflect the socio-historical context in which it was made? On the one hand I would say that the front cover of Woman magazine reflects the socio-historical context in which it was made because of the fact that the main image of the woman that is used on the front cover is a woman that would appeal to the target audience at the time the magazine was published. This is because most women at the time this magazine was issued would, stereotypically, have been housewives and very domesticated. They would have often taken care of activities such as: washing, cleaning, cooking and they were also seen as very maternal and, therefore, loving and caring for their children. The main image of Woman magazine appeals to this demographic because of the fact that she represents the ideal woman at this time. This is because of the fact that she is wearing practical clothes so that she can clean and cook easily and she is also wearing make

Brand Identity How a business presents itself to and wants to be perceived by its consumers. Essential aspects to consider when creating a brand identity -Target audience/audience interests -Format of marketing -Style of the magazine -Cost

Key Theory 9 - Feminist theory - Bell Hooks Feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women. Feminism is not a lifestyle choice: it's a political commitment. Race, class and gender all determine the extent to which individuals are exploited and oppressed. Female Stereotypes More domestic Less aggressive More emotional More compassionate Advertising in Magazines Magazines generate revenue primarily through sales of copies (print and digital) and through advertising. Advertising accounts for approximately one third of total revenue across the industry. It is, therefore, vitally important that the magazine and advertising content target the same audience in order that the advertising brands benefit from increased sales as a result of advertising in the magazine. Magazine advertising vs TV advertising Magazine adverts have: High audience engagement -Less distraction likely from other activities -Ability to target niche audiences -Hig

Key Theory 8 - feminist theory - Lisbet Van Zoonen Gender is constructed through codes and conventions of media products, and the idea of what is male and what is female changes over time.  Women's bodies are used in media products as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony.  Read the Alfred Hitchcock article  and make notes on content, ideology and lexis. Make sure to pick out several  (at least three) example sentences  that you can ultimately quote in the exam! Analyse two of the images included in this article.  Consider shot type, costume, and especially the anchorage provided by the lexis of the captions. What ideological perspectives are being constructed? How does this interview reflect the  representation of women in 1964?  How does it differ from how women are represented in 2018? In what ways does this article confirm  patriarchal hegemonic ideologies  relating to women? Research Alfred Hitchcock , particularly acc

The contents page of the "Womans" magazine creates many assumptions about the target audience for the magazine. This is because  Betty Friedan (American feminist) said that advertisements portrayed women in a particular way: "Women are shown solely as: men's wife, mother, love object, dishwasher, cleaner and never as a person". How does the magazine's contents page reflect: Codes and conventions of the sub-genre of magazine? Social and cultural context of the magazine? The target audience? The contents page of the "Woman's" magazine creates many assumptions about the target audience for the magazine. This is because the contents page displays all of the articles that will be featured throughout the magazine. Most of the headings are very stereotypical of women at this time because they are things such as: beauty, cookery, fashion, home and knitting. This means that the magazine assumes that women would naturally enjoy and w

Key theory 7 - David Gauntlet - theories of identity Audiences are not passive, and media products allow the audience to construct their own identities. By the way of example, what subcultures exist around Genres of music Certain genres of TV show (eg sci-fi) Certain genres of video game (eg MMORPGs) This theory is often called the pick and mix theory, where audiences can choose which ideologies suit them and ignore the elements of the product that they do not agree with.

Woman magazine: Facts Published weekly by IPC, 1937 to present Set edition: 23-29 August 1964 Price: 7d (7 old pennies, approx 80p in today's money) Became popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960s, sales of women's magazine reached 12 million copies per week. Woman's sales alone were around 3 million copies per week in the 1960s. How does the combination of elements of media language: Communicate messages, values, and ideological perspectives? Reflect the social/cultural context? Establish the brand identity of the magazine? Appeal to the target audience? I think the "Woman" magazine communicates messages, values and ideological perspectives through the use of layout and design. This is because there is a main image of a woman looking up at the camera whilst smiling. This helps to communicate their ideology because it makes the target audience "women" think that if they read the magazine they can be as happy and conte

Component Two - Magazine Industry One: Media forms and products in depth Name of magazine: filmint Examples of generic conventions Layout and design Simplistic design on the cover and throughout the magazine. White backgrounds with black text, the photograph is clearly the focus of the cover and similarly the screenshots from films throughout the magazine are supposed to be focused on because they are the only things that are coloured. The text Is broken up into columns and is often separated with a picture. The masthead at the top of the magazine is the name of the magazine and underneath it has the issue number and volume. Cover lines on the front cover to sell whats inside the magazine. Font size, type, colour and connotations The font is consistently small and easy to read. It is portrayed in a sans serif way to make it easy to read and the colour of the text is usually black. However, the text is sometimes in a different colour to symbolise a heading. Images/photog

Back to Basics: Semiotic/Textual Analysis Semiotics:  Semiotics the study of signs and symbols. All aspects of a media product are signs. Semiotic analysis is pointing out what the different parts of a media product mean. Model - Mid shot Model raising hand - Gesture Model facing camera - Direct address Models hair is prominent - Mid shot, mise-en-scene Product - Foreground, mise-en-scene Logo - Tag lines Small description - Sans serif font Red/White colour scheme - Setting Promotion - How to analyse a media product Step One: Denotations - stating the obvious Step Two: Media Language - Step Three: Deeper meaning/reading too much into things/connotations - You can't really read too much into things- always analyse Back to Basics: Semiotic Analysis Addressing audience: Direct address Model with bag over head: Mid shot, Proairectic codes Grey background: Setting Bright orange plastic bag: Mid shot, Hermeneutic codes Statistics: Lexis Text: Sans Serif Fro