Magazine 1 - Lesson 1

Difference between Component 1 & 2 

• Component 1 has unseen media in it whereas Component 2 doesn't
• In Component 1 only a few things we've revised will come up whereas in Component 2 everything we've revised will come up.

4 'pillars' of media studies

• Media Language
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Industries

Component 2 - Introduction to the Exam

• Your POV and OPINION need to come through.
• There is HISTORICAL CONTEXT/PERSPECTIVE
• Not looking for a DEFINITIVE answer, you need to 'MAKE UP' the QUESTION yourself.
• You DO NOT need to do a BALANCED ARGUMENT.
• 10 minutes PLANNING
• 40 minutes WRITING

Barthes Semiotic Codes

• Symbolic
• Hermeneutic
• Proairetic

Claude Levi-Strauss

• Binary Oppositions

Magazine Generic Conventions

• Overview of Magazine Conventions
• Glossy Cover - Connotations of being at a better quality.
• Expectation that you are going to keep the magazine.
• More adverts than a newspaper.
• Bigger expectation on full page photographs.
• More about the look and design compared to a newspaper.
• May come with a free gift or free samples.
• Editorials.
• Magazines often opt to more gossipy modes of address.
• They can take an exclusionary mode of address.
• Allows you to be a market leader by being the only magazine with that certain genre.
• 
  

Name of Magazine: 

• WHAT HI-FI

Layout and Design: 

• Glossy Cover - Connotations of being at a better quality.

Font Size, Type, Colour and Connotations:

• Working class audience as the font is in Sans-serif, so it is more informal.

Language and Lexis:

• The language is aimed at more working class by using words like, 'affordable' and 'bargain' to give them hope that they will find the best deals and better deals than they would if they done the research themselves.

Women's Magazine - Week Ending, August 29th 1964

CONTEXT

Published weekly by IPC, 1937 to present.

Set Edition: 23-29th August 1964

Price: 7 old pennies, (approx 80p in 2018 money)

Women's magazines became very popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960's sales of women's magazine reached 12 million copies per week, Woman's sales alone were around 3 million copies per week in 1960.

• She looks around 34, inferring that it is aimed at a middle aged female audience.

• Very feminine colours so it will appeal to a more feminine audience.

• Very stereotypical view upon woman's leisure, as it is expecting that women like to cook, from the lexis of 'Kitchen'.

• The woman has an elegant bob, so it makes her look quite high end and she acts as an idol to young women, so they may think inside the magazine there are tips on how to look like this elegant, classy woman.

• The pink/purple background suggests the wall of a kitchen and by using the heading 'seven star improvements for your kitchen' this gives an audience response of her being a stay at home wife and in the kitchen.

• The model is quite plain and uninteresting so it lets the audience identify themselves with the woman.

• The lighting is quite bright on her face so an audience response to this is that women are quite bright.

• Another audience response makes the magazine more personal and friendly through the handwritten font.

• Affordable and approachable for 80p (inflation) for a weekly magazine.

• Stereotypes of women wearing makeup, as if they want to be an 'a level beauty' they have to look inside the magazine to see how to be this beautician, this is a hermeneutic code as you dont know the answer to the 'are you an a-level beauty?'.

• One response is that you need to believe you have certain rules, as there is a direct mode of address in this magazine.

• Heterosexual men will see this magazine and know that it is not targeted to them so they would not buy it.

• Heterosexual men will maybe see the magazine and find the woman on the front cover and find her sexually appealing and this may make the women want to aspire to be like this woman as men find her attractive and they want to be like her.

• The magazine could be saying that you are inadequate and not good enough by this life that these people in the magazine are asking if you have, as a 5 star kitchen isn't enough and you may not be an A-Level beauty and you could feel not good enough.

• Younger girls may read this magazine and want to be like this woman on the front cover so they're putting ideologies into younger girls heads which are easily manipulated. 

• Pride of being British, she is the British woman and we are proud to have her as the 'british woman with special magic'.

• Not every woman who picks this up will buy this, some women will find this boring as the women is plain and boring with stories about kitchens so middle and upper class women may not find this magazine appealing at all and prefer something with celebrities and gossip.

• The model's teeth are airbrushed, which adds to the 'perfect' woman idea, which is aspirational by the audience, and they wish they were like that but not in a completely out of this world way but in a more achievable way compared to the celebrities seen on vogue.

• She is wearing traditional women's clothes, reinforcing hegemonic views on how woman should dress, and the flowers on her dress could symbolise her as delicate.

• One response could be a feeling of empowerment as there is a magazine that is dedicated solely to the gender of Woman, woman is the most normal term and the most non delicate approach and seems more modern and more classy compared to girl which is more delicate.

• Audience response will feel more personal and more connected and affectionate response as she is staring straight at us, its a friendship look and is a more connecting look so we feel as if we have built a friendship with her and we owe it to her to read this article.