Monthly Archives: September 2021

A front cover analysed- attracting that audience

Date
Posted by
Comments0

I have deconstructed and decoded a music magazine front cover from Rolling Stones. I have connotated and annotated:

  • Images
  • The language
  • The headlines
  • The coverlines
  • The colours
  • The typefaces

I started by thinking and researching the magazine company to find the mission statement. The mission statement is what the magazine want to accompolish with every new page, title and new magazine article.

Every magazine has audience demographics and psycographics, demographics is parts of the magazine you cant change the permanent  conventions. For my magazine the demographics are:

  • Age
  • Income
  • middle aged men
  • men wanting to re-live their youth

Psycographics are the type of group of people for example for the Rolling Stone magazine I catograrised it into succeeders which are ‘more money than aspirers, dont need to show it’. However by the fact that the Rolling Stone have used a new modern pop star on the front of the cover, this could change their target auidience as Harry Styles target audience are teenage girls.

Howver even in the groups you will have audience segmentation as you can break down your audience into more specific catogries basewd on many different ages and interests.

The masthead font is serif font and stands out against the plae white and blue background. This infers a older audience as serif font is mainly coordinated with a older audience as it is classy and bold. The textual design conventions add more about the magazine cover as it recognises the form and makes it easier for the audience to understand what the media is. Without the masthead with the serif font or without a main star it would be hard for the audience to recognise the magazine meaning the audience would be pleased and would feel let down.

By gaining this knowlege I now understand that in order to create a succesful magazine that will need to target my audience appropriately and use the correct physcographics and demographics.

Conventional design features of a magazine

Date
Posted by
Comments0

In this task I annotated all of the key parts that make up a good magazine and labeled these conventions as shown in the image above.

 A technical convention I have annotated is the Masthead; this is the main title in bold and big text to catch the audience’s attention. Another connotation is the main cover star. This is the main character on the front cover of the page, the main star that catches the eye of the audience. A formal convention is the things that give the magazine structure and what make the magazine the magazine such as the front cover.

The plug is a self promotion for the magazien once again is a form of pulling the audience in, this also helps the magazine compete with other big brands of magazine. The pug is normally a circular bubble around text to intell what the magazine is going to be about. These pieces of text are normally small. The main cover line is normally a phrase or word related to the main story on the front page this could also be the name as in the annoated magazine cover above. The coverline is smaller then the masthead but bigger then the other coverlines in the magazine. The coverline you will find near the masthead. 

A inset is a smaller image in the cover to catch attention and relate to as much of the audience as possible. This helps the magazine to appeal to more people of different gender and age causing the magazine to become more successful in the media industry.

Although this magazine cover is missing some key parts I will be sure to include in my magazine are:

  • A barcode (normally on the bottom right corner)
  • captions (pieces of text normally with a image related to the text)
  • A issue date
  • Price  

All of the componants that make up the magazine cover and overall the magazine are important in making sure the audience get what they want and that the magazine reaches the audiences expectation of the form of media.

I will be using all if not most of these key and important conventions that make up a good and effective music magazine. These connotations will make my magazine more successful and more appealing to the audience.

The camera talks

Date
Posted by
Comments0

https://www.canva.com/design/DAEq0t7GZzc/view

By using different camera angles we can communicate a narrative and represent multiple stories. On each of the images there are #’s these are denotations and connotations and the name of the camera shot.

The name we give the different types of camera shots comes from the distance we take the photo, e.g longshot, midshot, close up, and extreme close up. It can also be  up to the angle and framing you position the camera, e.g  high angle low angle and what you can see through the frame in the image.

From the knowlege I have gained from this task I now know how important mis-en-scene is and how powerful it is in getting a story and narrative across to the audience just by using props, make-up, costumes,lighting and setting. I now understand the use of body language and facial expressions are also important to get aross a clear storyline/narrative.By gaining this knowlege I can now gain a deeper undertsanding of the media world and add it into my magezine. Using mes-on-scene as well a variety of camera angles will improve the quality of my images and will therefore target my audience at a higher level.

My image that uses mise-en-scene to communicate meaning

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Made with Padlet

In this task we created a mood board for an assigned genre of music, as you can tell from the images my assigned genre of music was pop. In this mood board shown above I have included pop singers and idols, images that are surrouding pop (such as a heart as majority of pop songs are about love), as well as words associated with pop music  (such as produced).  So the conventions of the pop genre are colours, apppearing as the main charcter and bringing together colour palletes and costuimes to compliment the lighting or purpose of the shoot.

On the post it notes are written connotations by our classmates  adjectives describing how our model makes people feel or how he looks.  On the four post it notes is written  “vein” “young” “normal” “welcoming”  These are all connotations of the pop star.

This is my image that represents one of my classmates as a pop artists. We took inspiration from Justin Bieber and other famous pop singers. We wanted the model Issac to really represent the pop culture and what pop artists are wearing as well as what they look like in todays society.

We took our ideas from the moodboard and used the appropriate mise en scene as we wanted the props costumes and lighting to be perfect.  I love how the light bounces off the backdrop and creates a shadow effect onto the pop artist.

I chose this image because I found this image was the most eye catching and was the image that really sends the genre of pop over the edge . Starts to challenge the conventions of the pop genre – he is less produced, manufactured and a little more relaxed.  The cap and glasses really help to bring in some colour to the image while also blendingwith the white shirt. The bracelets add a uniqie and edgy vibe to the pop image.

I now understand the importance of mis-en-scene in the media world and how many different ideas and steps go into creating an image that will be sucesul on my magazine and in the meduia world. Taking what I have learn in this shoot I will use everything i have learn from the colours that compliment eachother to the way the artist is posing.These things I will all take into considerations when creating a succesful media magazine.

 

 

 

A textual analysis of a tour poster

Date
Posted by
Comments0

 

In todays media tour posters are everywhere online, in the streets, billboards they are everywhere and they are all very different.  Every form of media has both denotations and  connotations.

All media have connotaions and denotations, denotations are the things that are in the media text such as text or images. Connototations you decode and destruct the connotations from the denotations and overall impact how the audience might persive the media. For example if I was to select the text as the denotation I could conntate by saying the media desinger uses bold and bright text to catch the audiences attention. You do the same thing with all forms of media such as this tour poster.

In this task I was annotating the tour poster, decoding/ deconstructing the decotations anfd making connotations from the denotations of this Harry Styles poster. The narrative of this poster was to promote his new tour called ‘Love on tour’ . For example The clothing he is wearing signifys  he is metrosexual and he doesn’t care about gender persific clothing.

The way the artist is postitioned lying down propped up onto his arms is very casual, this represents how the artist wants the tour to be relaxed and easy. This also represents that he is wanting to be engaging to the audience he is doing this by smiling to the camera.

By doing this task I have gained a understanding of what I will include into my magazine to make it successful. I have gained ideas for my media magazine such as, a big title to attract the audiences attention, appropriate colour to the subject of my poster and images to convey and compliment my genre, narrative and stars.

 

The Media Ecology

Date
Posted by
Comments0

 

Media is a huge interconnecting independant system made up of many different elements that are all importan to the media world. From my reasearch I have found that all the media uses and gratifications that go into creating any form of media are interconnected and are all interdependant to eachother.

Media ecology is what you add into your media to make it target your audience more effectively and efficiently. Media impacts on todays society in many different ways, such as advertising to try and engage people to interact with your media , to influence and persuade the audience. The media is a huge interconnecting independant system made up of many different elements that are all importan to the media world.

Areas to focus on when wanting to inclue in your media are:

  • what your audience want to see and how it is coming across to them
  • colours making your media stand out
  • The relationships between the different types of software, hardwear and audience
  • The forever changing effects of media
  • perosnal elements to engage the audience
  • The audiences feelings and values

These are all to make sure your form of media is as effective and popular as you would like it to be and make it successful. The perception on media has changed throuhgt the last decade as devices and softwares become more advanced. Media is forever changing in today society.

what I have learnt? And how it is going to effect my magazine?

From what I have learnt I am going to include as many media gratifications and uses in my magazine as possible as these media uses make the magezine more popular and gets across the feelings and values of what my magazine is going to be about. I have also learnt that I would not be able to create my magazine in isolation or independantly as it would not be successful because of all of the media elements are impossible to include on your own.

My Media Diet

Date
Posted by
Comments0

As you can see by my media diet I consume a lot of media for my entertainment. Everyone is consuming media all time listening to music, putting on the radio, posting on Instagram or watching reality tv. These are all forms of media however they all form from different media gratifications for example listening to music you do for your entertainment, meaning you’re listening to media for you and your benefit or personal enjoyment. Entertainment media is also watching fictional tv or youtube.

However watching the news or listening to the radio is a different form of media called informational or information media this means you are learning without recognising you are learning and the media you are consuming is informative. So listening to the news or watching the news you are learning or becoming aware of whats happening in the world. I use a social media app called Tik Tok a lot and this is also an informational form of media as on Tik Tok the app shows whats happening in the world today. Famous brands such as news channels and political influencers are on the app teaching young people new tasks or other information which may become useful to them.

Instagram is different however, every time you post on media you are no longer a consumer of media you are a prosumer as you are now contributing to the media. Even if you don’t post on instagram you are still a prosumer as you are still liking videos or posts or watching live videos. This form of media is called personal identity as you are liking videos of people you follow that you have an interest in the app designs and recommends people or products that best suit your interests.

watching a live tv show or a reality tv show is another different form of media this is a social interaction as you are voting for the person/people you want to win the show or the people you want to get out, this means you are a prosumer as you are contributing to the show which is a form of media.

These 4 different media gratifications have made me consider what I am going to conclude in my media magazine and with the information I have gathered I should make it as interesting and eye catching as possible. The aim of my magazine is to make it as fun and relatable so the audience really gain an interest. My magazine will also include bright and vibrant images as well as relatable and relevant information for the consumers/audience.