Research and Planning, Task Three

- Cosmo Girl
- Bliss
- Shout
- YM
- Teen Vogue

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

Magazines are widely available for anyone at any age, but to what extent should they be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer? One of the main issues that the public is concerned about is that the articles in magazines these days offer information that is thought to be too mature for their target audience, which might lead them to follow the articles and attempt to change themselves by following the information in the magazines.

Many say that magazines should be held responsible for the social ramifications because the influence of them on teenagers are clearly visible. Within the five of the teenage magazines that I have studied, the elements of beauty and fashion and even relationships are clearly noticeable, yet the target audience for the five magazines are between the age of 12 to 16. YM magazine even crossed the line with the tagline of "Friends with benefits", seeing as the legal age for sexual intercourse is 16, which is only twenty percent of the target audience. The magazines are said to have led the teenagers to think that they will have to look their best all the time. On the front of the YM magazine, it also mentioned how to "get sexy, shiny hair", are such words like 'sexy' even suitable to be associated with teenagers? Due to articles like these, teenage girls feel like they have to modify their image to feel normal and fit into the society. The fact that the models on the front covers are all famous celebrities who are photo-shopped to have flawless skin and slender figures pressures the target audience to feel like they must make themselves as good looking as the celebrities. Even know teenage girls know that the models were airbrushed, they would still aim to achieve looking beautiful in order to feel that they are accepted in the society by spending money on expensive skin products, going on diets which might eventually lead to anorexia - a detestable eating disorder that is popular amongst teenage girls. The colour pink can be seen on all 5 of the magazine covers, it is a colour that associateswith girls at any age, which clearly shows the target audience for these magazines, Furthermore, although these magazines are all obviously representing girls, teenage boys are also represented from the many articles on tips and advices on relationship with boys. The tagline in Shout magazine of "What lads really think!" creates stereotype on teenage boys, which the article is most likely to represent only a small proportion of them. Surely all relationships are different and incomparable, so why should there be articles like that which not only create steorotypes on boys but also make girls appear shallow?

However, a few people argue that the magazines should not be held responsible for the influence it has on teenagers. Although magazines are said to have a negative effect on teenage girls, it is the reader's own decision to make the purchase. Magazines are said not to be the cause of the social ramifications, but the influence instead. I believe magazines should be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer to a certain extent. In order to create a more suitable magazine for teenage girls, I think there should be a minimal amount of articles that relates to sex, but more articles on staying safe at parties and outings.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/4990907/Teen-magazines-are-sexualising-readers-says-watchdog.html
http://voices.yahoo.com/popular-teen-magazines-their-possible-effect-on-35176.html?cat=25

Research and Planning, Task Two (2)

Magazine Cover Analysis

  The chosen magazine cover is the September issue of ‘Company’. The name of the magazine is clearly visible as the masthead in a coral pink shade which is a colour associated with females between the ages of 16 to 25; this clearly shows which group of target audience this magazine is made for. With the simplicity of the “Bebas Neus” as the font of the masthead, this big, easily readable and recognisable font shows sophistication which will allow the target audience to pick up this magazine once they take a glance at the cover. Not only can the fresh colour of coral pink be found on masthead, it is also the predominant colour which is seen throughout the front cover along with black and lilac, this colour scheme keeps the magazine uniformed and professionally looking, which will appeal to the target audience as they would also feel polished.

  There are a couple of small parts on the magazine cover which cannot be disregarded, which are the dateline and the price. The dateline can be found on every magazine cover as it allows the audience to see when this magazine was released, and if it was newly released, they would most likely to buy it in order to keep up to date with the latest news in the magazine. The price is also a very important matter that should be placed on the front of every magazine because it shows how much this magazine costs; they generally keep it at the same price for every issue to prevent confusion for the target audience. ‘Company’ is sold at the price of two pounds each, which will attract the target audience because it is rather cheap and the group of target audience will most likely to have at least a sum of two pounds coins lying around.

  There are taglines to show what is in the magazine, this will appeal to the target audience as they allow them to know the main contents of the magazine and some special articles that will be in the magazine and also the insight of them, if the taglines are interesting enough, the target audience will want buy the magazine. The taglines have a consistent font used in every issue of ‘Company’; this also allows the magazine to be easily recognisable.

  The eye-catching puffs and plugs are placed around the front cover to highlight some of the interesting articles that will attract the target audience. In this case, “summer street style” is not only placed on the left third of the magazine that will be the first thing they see when they pull this out from horizontal shelving, it also clearly indicates what will be main articles in this issue of ‘Company’. This leads the audience to be intrigued to read on and therefore buy the magazine.

  Last but not least, the main image of Whitney Port makes up at least fifty percent of the front cover; she is a celebrity who has gained popularity recently, this will appeal to the audience as they will feel like they need to know about the latest news on this new celebrity, which brings them to purchase this magazine.

Research and Planning, Task Two (1)

Glossary Of Terminology Associated With Magazine Design

Texts - A media product
Niche - A situation/activity specially suited to a person's interest
Target Audience - A specific group of readers which the magazine is aimed at
Codes & Conventions - A set of rules that forms expectations as to the content of the magazine
Masthead - The title of the magazine
Signifier - An object
Signified - Concept/ idea arrived through the signifier
Sign - Made up by the signifier and signified
Denotation - The surface or literal meaning encoded to a signifier
Connotation - Represents the signified
Semiotics - The reading and understanding of signs
Cultural Psyche - This is what makes up your identity
Plugs - Information about the contents of a magazine or newspaper given on the front cover
Puffs - Words or phrases on the cover of a magazine used to boost status
Left Third - A lot of important information design placed in the left-hand side of the front cover to attract potential readers as they pull out the magazine from a horizontal shelving system

Research and Planning, Task One

Getting To Know Blogger

After creating my blogger account as the first task of my AS media coursework, I will now blog the first part of my research and planning.

Things you can do with blogger

• There are so many different things I can do with Blogger, I am able to post different forms of media such as texts, links, images and videos from Youtube by embedding them in a post.
• Blogger's simple to use interface allows anyone to publish their voice easily and free of charge. 
• I can customize my blog according to my style through modifying the background, changing the text colours and even the font. 
• What's even better is that Blogger offers CSS and HTML which are very useful when I want to completely change the template of my blog.

How I think Blogger will be useful for my coursework

• Blogger is easy to use and I can access to my blog at home and in college, which allows me to blog anytime, anywhere. 
• I can upload images onto Blogger through different platforms which is very useful as I will be uploading many screenshots to show my work in progress. 
• I will be able to keep track of my research and planning easily by simply going back to the previous post. 
• Blogger automatically saves my work so it will prevent from any potential lost.
• As mentioned earlier I can customize my blog, which I can then make it visually appealing too. 

Below are some examples of the types of media I can upload/embed onto Blogger:

Click here to learn to create a blog on Blogger