NME double page analysis

NME contents analysis

NME front cover analysis

Lesson on Voki

In todays lesson, I started to use software called. This involves you typing in a sentence and an avatar will say the words for you. You can choose and customise your own avatars. 

                                  

This is what it looks like on the website, as you can see i have typed in what i want it to say.

Analysis posts

In the next few days I will be uploading my analysis of a front cover, contents page and double page spread. The magazine I have chosen to this from is NME. The reason I have chosen NME is because it is the same genre that in am going to do which is indie. I have chosen indie because it is the genre that I feel I am most confident in to research as I read a lot of indie magazines as a pose to other genres such as dance and heavy metal. 

College magazine

Here is my first attempt of a college magazine. I took an image of three students in the sixth form study  working hard. The image is a medium shot. The original image was quite big so i had to crop it, i also had to adjust the contrast because the original image was too bright.
I told my classmates to get like this because it looks like they are socialising and working at the same time. This gives the school a positive image. 
The colour scheme is yellow, white and red, this is because it is the schools colours so they magazine will be easily recognisable as Cardinal Heenan.     

Ideology

Ideology is the system of beliefs and ideals that govern the way we conduct ourselves and how we like other to also. When people don't match our ideologies we tend to judge or discriminate against them.

The ideology of a school is usually a safe, warm place that you can trust to keep your children.
Here is two images of my school that will; be on the front of the newsletter. 

This image presents the school to be an unsafe place with the gloomy, dark sky. the background gives a  negative impact on the image and could put people off sending their kids there.

Introduction to photoshop

This lesson was all about using photoshop software. We used one of our own images and used different tools to give our own effect on the image.

I chose an image of two students working in school uniform and first of all removed the background using the magic wand tool. I also made my own text and learnt to add a glow/ shadow to the text. I will continue to develop my photoshop skills and hopefully soon enough i will be good at it.

College magazine analysis

 I feel that this newsletter presents our college as a formal place. The students in the images are dressed smartly in uniforms and seem to be organised in the way they're standing in an organised fashion. The image of the choir gives us an idea that the school has a lot of extra curricular activities and a club for anyone.

Also the "Heads Message" lets us know that the head teacher is involved with the school more than others and students may know that the head is a person to speak to. 

There is a modern setting to the school with the image of the graffiti on the walls.

The male gaze theory

The male gaze theory was put forward by Laura Mulvey and it explains the power women have over men by using their  sexuality. For example this magazine cover of Lily Allen. 

  

This image has been shot like this on purpose. This image doesn't have anything to do with her music, it does not celebrate her achievements in the music industry. She is standing in a very seductive pose which makes the reader think she is topless. The headline "Sexy beast Lily Allen & her wicked wicked ways" is specifically to appeal to males. 

This is Beth Ditto who took the theory of the Male Gaze and and shown that she doesn't care. She is not what most people would call sexy or attractive, so this was a powerful statement. But as Ditto, lead singer of The Gossip, regularly takes all her clothes off on stage because she gets overheated, this nude stunt is not out of character for her, either. Therefore not really having the effect she wanted it to have.

Feminism

Origin
Feminism came around during the second world war when women for the first time had jobs, got paid a wage and had independence. When the men came back they forced the women to return to what they done previous to the war. Women disagreed with this and wanted to keep their jobs so started to protest against the men.

The history of feminism 
During the 1960's, women started protesting for equal rights.  Women before the 1960's were known as housewives and mothers and nothing but those two things. This aggravated many women and made them feel the need to reform this stereotype. The 1960's was the time to do this.

Major events-Bra burning
In the 1960's bra burning was well know. Many women burned their bras because they felt it made a statement or a stand for women rights. Many women thought that it meant freedom to be natural instead of pushed up.  At the Miss America Protest there were trashcans that women called freedom trashcans.  Women threw things such as bras, girdles, curlers, tweezers, high heels, etc. into them to be burned. 

Semiotic theory

According to Morris, human action involves signs and meanings in three different ways:                                 

The perception stage - the person becomes aware of a sign.

The manipulation stage - the person interprets the sign and decides how to respond to it.

The consummation stage - the person responds

Denotation - what something really is i.e a red rose would be a flower that is red

Connotation - what the interference of something is i.e. the red rose may connote love or could also represent the death of a loved one.

 

Questionnaire

Here is the link to my QUESTIONNAIRE  this is to help me do my research for music magazines Thank you for helping me in my research.

Qualitative and Quantitative

Qualitative Research
Research that is qualitative is a lot more open ended questions that would require a more extensive answer rather than a simple yes or no. this type of research is used to gain a better understanding of peoples personal views and opinions on the chosen subject. this can be done through telephone surveys, interviews or focus groups.

Quantitative Research

These are simple questions that only require one word or simple sentence answers, usually in the yes/no format. This method is more commonly used to put into a graph or tally chart and can be easily displayed. These questions are also a lot less time intensive so are used more than qualitative when out on streets, for ease. this can be done through questionnaires 

Primary Data & Secondary Data 

Primary data is data that you have collected and you are not getting it from an external source, for example a questionaire that you create and send out. Secondary data is gathered from an external source such as other magazines or a website, you didn't gather the data first hand.

What is a music magazine?

A music magazine is a magazine that is purely dedicated to music news and culture. music magazines such as NME have been around for over 60 years, other magazines such as Q have been around since the 1980's so its fair to say that music magazines have been around for a long time.

Genres include;

 Indie rock

Rap 

                                                                                                                                                                             

Rock

The most popular music magazines in the UK are NME and its longest standing rivals Melody Maker other popular magazines in the UK include Top of the pops, Kerrang and Q.

Major music magazines in the US include Rolling Stone, Spin and Clash.

Introduction to blog

Hi, my name is Jack Mckeown and I am an A-Level Media student at cardinal heenan sixth form welcome to my blog. I enjoy listening to the indie rock genre of music with bands such as;
Arctic Monkeys
Nirvana
Jake Bugg
Foo Fighters
Queens of the stone age

I will upload many blogs, at least 60 in the upcoming months with with my progress so far, each blog with what i have done to improve the last. in this blog you will find;

all of my planning and research of a my music magazine
the target audiences and genres of music
the layouts of a music magazine, what fonts are used and how pictures are used.

I will upload other forms of media on this blog such as pictures and videos like this one