Magazine 2 - Lesson 1

Adbusters Magazine

• Detournement - 'Culture Jamming'
• Hijacking or re-routing something.

• Culture Jamming - in-depth definition
• the practice of criticising and subverting advertising and consumerism in the mass media, by methods such as producing advertisements parodying those of global brands.

Genre of Adbusters from looking at 3 front covers

• The genre is not automatically clear on first glance due to all covers being completely different and no inside into what stories are featured so we have no clue.

• Parody
• something that makes fun of something else.
• example: scary movie - parody of scream.

• Political
• from the Donald Trump magazine cover.

• Brand Identity
• Informal.
• Main image.
• All different mastheads so that is a big deal as its not consistent with their brand.
• Barcode is in a different place every time, on the 3rd image its directly on his moustache so he looks like hitler and it shows he may be in power only due to his wealth.
• Adbusters does not feature paid adverts if it does include adverts its because they're hijacking it and detournement.

• Adbusters Context
• Published six times a year by Adbusters Media Foundation, 1989 to present.
• Set Edition: May/June 2016
• Price: £10.99 (expensive because they dont include paid adverts)
• Circulation: 120,000 readership (April 2017)
• Genre: Independent/ campaigning/ culture jamming.
• Subtitle: 'Journal of the mental environment'

Analysis of Adbusters Front Cover

• The sans serif so it seems quite modern and is directed to a more high class audience maybe due to its high price point.

• Dark images, not colourful shows a deep meaning and perhaps no happiness in the meaning behind the image.

• 'Post - West' - Going against ideas of western society and is very much anti western.

• Critical of our culture in the idea that we are obsessed with war, as the model seems to be happy and cheering for war.

• The masthead with dirt over the top it looks as if they have ruined there own front cover, the spray paint tool has been used in order to achieve it, shows it is self vandalism, they dont care what we think about them, its more about what they've got to offer inside the magazine.

• We do not know what we would be getting for our money if we spent £10.99 on this, its not clear on what were paying for so we are unable to justify due to the unconventional magazine layout of the front cover.

• Subverts many conventions.

• Masthead is plain white sans serif font clearly visible top of cover, although partially covered over by the 'spray paint' effect, it looks vandalised. The reason why this is unconventional as usually we need to know what the magazine is. Adbusters are also known for deliberately changing the masthead into something different which isn't easy recognisable as an adbusters magazine so we as the audience and consumer are unsure on what were buying as mastheads are conventionally in your face and they stand out whereas this masthead does not and in fact changes to make them less recognisable and identified.

• Black background, main image of male in camouflage jacket, angry expression, clenched fist, image partially spray painted over - subverts codes of consumer/lifestyle magazines, the meaning behind the man screaming is unknown which is an example of a hermeneutic code as we are in the unknown so we are off put by the subversive magazine due to the conventions it is breaking in just the front cover.

• Title of front cover 'POST-WEST' in same white font as the masthead, dominantly positioned in the lower third of the cover, 'POST-WEST' could be considered as the magazine's name as it is unclear what the masthead is so it is easily confused with being the magazine rather than just a story title due to it shouting out and being so in your face.

• Social/Political message - image linked to article 'Time for a radical rethink of what is considered a normal life in the decadent west'. Also suggesting a link to 'post-truth'.

• Intertextuality is the use of taking references or knowledge from other forms of media or occasions and using it in their own form of media, as we need a not of knowledge to understand the title of 'POST-WEST'.

• Front cover image not fully anchored - assumes a level of understanding in the audience.

• Anchorage - how a media product fixes its meaning. We see poor anchorage in this media product as we have no idea there is no meaning behind anything and we have to make assumptions about the magazine rather than knowing for sure due to what the producer is giving us, but the producer gives us nothing and leaves us questioning.

Magzine 1 - Lesson 6

To what extent is Woman magazine examples of specialised and institutionalised media productions? Make reference to their distribution and circulation.

• Magazines are specialised as they target an extremely specific audience so specialised advertisers can have their product advertised to their exact target audience so they may pay a premium.

• Woman magazine is casual and friendly so it is an institution.

• IPC is a large mainstream organisation. It is part of a conglomeration.

• Other IPC titles include Rugby World, World Soccer, Angler's Mail and Family Circle.

Key Theory - Curran and Seaton - Power and Media Industries

• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power.

• Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality.

• More socially diverse patterns of ownership can create more varies and adventurous media productions.

Woman Relaunch Advert 1985

• Still about cooking and women in the kitchen 'high street cookery competition', so they haven't exactly changed their ideologies as there is still a focus on the kitchen.

• The model looks like she's more dressed up and she's going out.

• The masthead has changed, the font has completely changed was naive now its full on and it seems informal but a more gossipy mode of address.

• The competition with 4 cars, if this was in the 1960's then the idea of a women driving would not exist whereas in the 1980's its not anything much different.

• The audience is still working class so not much has changed at all, due to the clothing they've used to advertise.

• 'exciting again' shows that the 1964 edition wasn't as good and it went really downhill but now its back and its exciting again.

Promotional material from Time Inc UK's profile page for woman.

• This is selling audiences, the advertisers which would be interested in woman magazine would be the market of fitness/diet.

• The brand identity is much more different now.

Regulation of Magazines

• IPSO - Independent Press Standards Organisations

• IPSO regulating the stories and editorial content.

• By todays standards Woman would probably break IPSO's rule of discrimination as they are discriminating women by cultivating ideologies into others heads about the way that women are. 

• Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) regulates adverts.

Magazine 1 - Lesson 4

Lesson Starter - Questions on Woman Magazine

• What messages about female identity are encoded in woman magazine?
• Women need to wear make-up otherwise they will not be considered beautiful.
• Women must rely on men for certain things in their life.
• They belong in the kitchen, need to bring up children - article on kitchens.
• What impact could this have on the target audience?
• Target audience is female, heterosexual and 25-45 years old
• It cultivates the idea of women having to wear makeup.
• It cultivates the idea that women are supposed to be housewives.
• What functions might woman's magazine serve?
• Brings together the female community to construct a target audience.
• What potential advantages are there for reinforcing hegemonic notions of gender in a primarily reader base?
• Reflects the society of which this magazine was released into.
• Its a lot better to keep telling women that they are crap.

Key Theory - Feminist Theory - bell hooks

• Feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women.
• Feminism is not a lifestyle choice: it is a political commitment.
• Race, class and gender all determine the extent to which individuals are exploited and oppressed.
• Her latest book is called 'Feminism is for everyone' this quote sums up her and her theory.

Advertising from the 1960's

• Female Stereotypes
• Women are useless as she ruined the dinner.
• Women are emotional as she's holding the male's tissue and crying.
• She's failed as being a women as she burnt the dinner and she needs the male to make it better and to consolidate her.
• The male prefers the beer to the women, objectifying the women.
• Men are the beer drinkers and women are not.
• Women are in the kitchen - cultivation theory (Gerbner)
• Nurturing/maternal
• Dependant on man
• Filling a housewife and domestic role
• Romantic element

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 revenues 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.
• Andrew Green identifies the ways in which magazine advertising can benefit the advertisers in an article entitled 'ESSENTIALS: The Power of Magazine Advertising':
• High audience engagement.
• Less distraction likely from other activities.
• The ability to target niche audiences.
• High production values.
• Potential for placement in highly relevant editorial environment.
• Non-Intrusive - readers can turn the page.
• Long shelf life.

Representation - Advertising in Woman

• Main attraction is to the naked women, the font is extremely small so the first thing the audience will see is the naked woman, and they will then go on to read the advert to see what it is about.

• Because the women is heavily sexualised in this advert men will find her attractive and also women will want to be like her to be appealing to men so they're stuck with the ideologies that this soap will make the women look sexualised and appealing to males so they will buy it.

• Stereotypes is that women are thought to be sexy and that this soap will make them look even sexier.

• She looks like she's supposed to be sat in the bath but she's not actually in the bath as if she was then we wouldn't see her legs and her hair is all done up and her makeup is all done.

• The logo is also bigger than the text but smaller than the image so if either the primary or secondary audience decide to flip the page after seeing the naked women their attention will also go on the logo so when they see this soap they will always see the advert of the naked women and it will become memorable.

• The soap states to make you more attractive, more femininity and to be fresh, so it also has connotations of freshening your life so you dont have to worry about anything as this soap will make all your worries go away and will make your life sweet, kind and fresh again.

• The woman is being sexualised in this position as we can still see her cleavage and her legs, so it is an exceptionally racy advert for 1960's.

• Her body language is also extremely shy as her body is closed and makes her seem quite gentle although she is completely sexualised, and her body is saying that she's sexually unattainable, and makes her look as if she's empowering women as she's closing her body off away from men, which adds to the context as this happened when women started going to uni, so its a step in the right direction showing that they've changed how they used to be as this advert came out in mid 1960's.

• A preferred reading could be that women can smell, as she is now working and getting independence so it shows that women can get dirty and smelly too, so it breaks the conventions that women dont work and women are always clean and tidy, it shows that they need to maintain themselves no differently to how males need to.

• There is a binary opposition between clean and destruction.

• An oppositional response could be that through the choice of lexis and the use of 'darling' makes us feel quite flattered, whereas recently if someone said it there are assumptions that its creepy and condescending.

• The word 'freshness' comes back to the ideas of kitchens and women having to belong in the kitchen so if the women is fresh then so is her kitchen.

Magazine 1 - Lesson 3

Woman Magazine - Kitchen Article

• The audience may completely ignore the article and flick the page as it may be something that is not very interesting to them, whereas others may find it interesting and read it in depth and even try out the methods that are explained and portrayed in the article.

• The instructions make women seem very weak, young and silly, through the language of saying 'it slots in so any girl can assemble it quickly.' showing that they are quite young and not very good at doing anything DIY related as they're young girls.

• It seems to be an important article as not many photos are in colour in the magazine and the majority of these photo's are pretty appealing which is done through the use of colour, making it seem as its a more major article compared to the others, they are mixing in the two stereotypes of women in the kitchen and men doing the DIY.

• It also states that you need to be wise with your money but the money the woman will be using is the man's and if the women spends too much money on the kitchen then it will be the man who will get angry.

• One response could be that it could cultivate the view that we only see women in the kitchen which gives us the view of women belong in the kitchen.

Lisbet Van Zoonen - Feminist Theory (Male Gaze)

• 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.

Woman Magazine - Alfred Hitchcock Article

• Says women's meaning in life is to make men's life's easier.

• Says british women are exotic, but british women to Hitchcock they should be normal, but by saying exotic it sounds like they're a bit mysterious which kind of says they're different to men, they're not people they're animals or something else along those lines, it objectifies women, 'snow-capped volcanoes' is an example of objectification.

• Hitchcock is saying it is completely okay to objectify women, as he says its okay to stare at a women if you're married as it means nothing.

• Hitchcock regularly used women for sex and he was a bit of a creep. (we know this now)

• Hitchcock looks very confident and certain in the photo's that are used of him, the vast majority of the world will not see him as sexually attractive, but the reason why they used them 4 images of him on his article shows that he is important and we respect him for being such a successful film maker.

• Proairetic Code - in the images selected it shows Hitchcock having an important talk so its the idea that he is talking and we don't know what he is saying and also he can look quite inspirational and also makes the article more personal as it looks like he is saying those words which are written.

• This is Hitchcock's monologue as he is the only one talking, showing his power and importance.

• Hitchcock is saying that Latin Americans are like prostitutes whereas the English women with a sex appeal are classy and elegant and thats what makes his films so successful and thats why heterosexual males appeal to his films due to this elegance of sex appeal that English women have.

Magazine 1 - Lesson 2

Woman Magazine - Contents Page

• 'Makeup to work miracles' - makes the assumption that women are not very attractive when they are not wearing makeup, it is a form of hegemony, as the suggestion, 'if you're not wearing makeup you're unattractive.'

• Emphasises that women are supposed to be mothers as there are lot of 'back to school' articles not for the reader but more aimed towards mothers which is another form of hegemony that there purpose is to be mothers and if they're not they may be classed as a 'disappointment' but there is no law against not being a mother.

1960's 

• Form of objectification saying that wives are only good for cooking and that they're clinging onto the men's back, as he's off to work being smart yet she is being silly clinging onto his back and wearing a chef's hat so she does look extremely silly.

• In 1960's a lot more women were attending higher education, so the aspirations and the ideas of what women can achieve are changing and they can chose what they want to do.

• The advertising changed to be more empowering to women and suggests more women have more power, and that they're going to work so they have money so advertisers take the women's side to appeal more to them in hope that they will support their product and/or service.

David Gauntlet - Key Theories

• Theories of Identity
• Audience's are NOT passive, and media products allow the audience to construct their own identities.
• By way of example, what subcultures exist around;
• genre's of music
• certain genre's of TV show (eg sci-fi)
• certain genre's of video game's (eg MMORPGs?)

• Pick'n'Mix Theory
• Audiences can pick and mix which ideologies suit them, and completely ignore the elements of the product which they do not agree with.

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.