The Big Issue

The Big Issues

12th March 2018 Notes

Magazine: The Big Issues 

• The magazine must be studied in relation to media language and media representation, including a consideration of the social, cultural and political contexts that influence how media language is used to construct representation. 
• The Big Issue is a niche magazine outside the commercial mainstream that learners may not normally engage with, it provides a contrasting example of how the elements of the theoretical framework for media language can be used to construct alternative representations that appeal to a particular audience, including a consideration of the influence of the  SOCIAL, CULTURAL, POLITICAL context. 

Key Terms

• Circulation: number of copies a magazine sells; 

• Readership: not just who buys a magazine but the total number of people likely to read it. 

• Mass audience:readership on a very large scale. 

• Niche audience: narrow group of readers with a particular interest. 

• Subscription: where a reader pay for a set number of copies of a magazine in audience at a lower price and receives them by post.

• Masthead: the title of magazine. 

• Plug: text that "plugs" a feature that will appears inside the magazine. 

• Puff: a story that is given prominence on the cover.

• Cover Star: the"star"featured on the cover. 

• Anchorage Text: text that anchors the main image and gives it context/meaning.

• Banner: text that runs across the lower section of the cover. 

Advertising and Magazines

• without advertising, no magazine cowed service. If a magazine did not contain ads, then its cover price would be three or four times greater. 

• The INCOME for a magazine comes from both sales and advertising. On average, advertising accounts for 70% of a magazine income. 

• A magazine with a small CIRCULATION is more dependent on advertising that one with a large circulation. 

Practical: Front cover

TASK -  Create a Front cover for The Daily Mail including all elements of an example cover for a made up story.  

Story:



- Indiana Savannah - Friends with Meghan since 2005, used to be her make-up artist on set of NCIS. She is friends with Brett and advises him to cut Meghan out of her life.
-Brett is a film producer. him and Meghan were childhood friends and started to be more close in 2005.
- Meghan Markle 'behaved appallingly' and it has been said that she was with Harry for publicity and to boost herself up the social ladder.
- Prince Harry found text messages between the two - "Had Harry - Prince Harry - not found those text messages then she would have probably continued the affair for the rest of her life!"
Indiana have got some screenshots from Brett's text messages with Meghan like proof.
- Brett is a outgoing, easily manipulated, nice guy, Devastated, Hurtful, thought there was a future with Meghan, Bitter, Resentful, Shame that Meghan has treated him like this. 'Poor Brett.'

Article Layout:

- Who, What, Where, When, Why.
- Further details/Quotes.
- Background, opinion, Future?

Example Newspaper:

 This is the newspaper that i based my front cover off of showing 2 stories; one , on the right with a photo, and a main story taking up most of the space.

 



1) What was the task you were give and who was your target audience?
The task was to create a front cover for the Daily mail including elements of a traditional Daily Mail front cover with the main story being the one given. All other elements had to be made from scratch. The audience for this task was the readers of the Daily Mail, so adult around 20-40 years old, for a C1-2 audience.

2) What research did you undertake and what did you find were some typical conventions of a Daily Mail front cover - Layout, types of stories, font etc.

For research, I looked to find typical conventions of the Daily Mail to focus on. Then I analysed how the paper talked about certain issues and how they would show them. Some typical conventions included 3 main articles on the front cover; along the top, under the title of the paper was an article that would focus on what is included in the issue of the paper. Underneath that were 2 articles; one was the main story without a picture which would be the bigger headline and then an article underneath and the other was an article based more on reality which was placed along the right side of the page. The Daily Mail have their own font which they use in every single issue of the paper so i had to find a similar one and after trying some.

3) Which Daily Mail cover did you use as your main source? What are your observations from this source?
The Daily Mail cover I chose was a typical issue of the paper with the typical layout of a usual paper. From this I could copy the layout but I changed the articles. From this source I can also see the colors that the paper use in their front cover so by seeing this, I could copy the colour scheme so I can get an accurate copy.

4) Which areas did you find most challenging?
The areas I found most challenging when recreating this Daily Mail front cover was trying to match the fonts and get the correct spacing. Due to Daily Mail writing their own fonts it would be almost impossible to exactly match it so trying to find ones as smelt as possible was a challenge. Also, the spacing between the writing and text proportions were challenging to march and look even due to how much you had to experiment with the text sizing and stretching. 

5)What was your initial feedback? what did others say about your production? How successful do you think it is?

I got feedback that my writing needed to be smaller in my article so that more could be fit in and so it was more typical to be Daily Mail. Other than these critics, my production was said to be good and my choice of stories, headline and wording was good. Overall, I feel like my end product was successful as it looks like a front cover of a Daily Mail issue.

6) Identify what went well and with hindsight, what would be done differently.
Overall, my front cover was shown to be very successful as it fitted with the conventions of the newspaper. All of my articles were said to be typical of the paper, my writing in the article was said to be conventional, I had a good choice of photos and my headlines were very good. However, in hindsight, my font in the article could be smaller to look identical to a typical front cover and then I could fit some more writing in and also, I could have worked slightly more on my spacing in some areas but overall I think my front cover was successful.

7) What have you learnt from completing this task?
From this task, I have learnt about all of the conventions of the Daily Mail and have focused on each element in more depth and have realised why they have done this. Also, through my research for the task, I have found many front covers for the Daily Mail and have seen how they approach different issues showing their views and biased thoughts. 

Assesment 1b

ASSESSMENT 1B NEWS - GBHS MEDIA STUDIES A LEVEL Marksheet

Name:                                      Date:

AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework of media and contexts of media and their influence

AO2 Apply knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework of media to:

Analyse media products/Evaluate academic theories/ Make judgements and draw conclusions

Level 3	·         A comprehensive response to the set question ·         Comprehensive and accurate knowledge and understanding ·         Convincing, perceptive and accurate analysis ·         Convincing, perceptive and accurate evaluation ·         Highly developed and accomplished judgements and conclusions The response demonstrates a highly developed and detailed line of reasoning which is coherent and logically structured. The information presented is entirely relevant and substantiated.
Level 2	·         An adequate response to the set question ·         Adequate and generally accurate knowledge and understanding ·         Adequate and generally successful analysis ·         Adequate and generally successful evaluation ·         Adequate and generally well-reasoned judgements and conclusions The response demonstrates a line of reasoning with some structure. The information presented is in the most part relevant and supported by some evidence.
Level 1	·         A minimal response to the set question ·         Minimal application of knowledge and understanding ·         Analysis is minimal and/or largely descriptive and may not be relevant ·         Evaluation is minimal or brief, and is likely to be largely descriptive ·         Judgements and conclusions, if present, are minimal with limited support ·           Information presented is basic and may be ambiguous or unstructured. The information is supported by limited evidence.

Identify a strength or strengths in your assessment: What are the areas you need to improve? What do you need to focus on for your next assessment?

Assesment 1A

ASSESSMENT 1A - GBHS MEDIA STUDIES A LEVEL Marksheet

Name:                                      Date:                                                    Mark:

AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework of media and contexts of media and their influence

AO2 Apply knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework of media to:

Analyse media products/Evaluate academic theories/ Make judgements and draw conclusions

Level 3	·         A comprehensive response to the set question ·         Comprehensive and accurate knowledge and understanding ·         Convincing, perceptive and accurate analysis ·         Convincing, perceptive and accurate evaluation ·         Highly developed and accomplished judgements and conclusions The response demonstrates a highly developed and detailed line of reasoning which is coherent and logically structured. The information presented is entirely relevant and substantiated.
Level 2	·         An adequate response to the set question ·         Adequate and generally accurate knowledge and understanding ·         Adequate and generally successful analysis ·         Adequate and generally successful evaluation ·         Adequate and generally well-reasoned judgements and conclusions The response demonstrates a line of reasoning with some structure. The information presented is in the most part relevant and supported by some evidence.
Level 1	·         A minimal response to the set question ·         Minimal application of knowledge and understanding ·         Analysis is minimal and/or largely descriptive and may not be relevant ·         Evaluation is minimal or brief, and is likely to be largely descriptive ·         Judgements and conclusions, if present, are minimal with limited support ·           Information presented is basic and may be ambiguous or unstructured. The information is supported by limited evidence.

Student DIRT Task

Identify a strength or strengths in your assessment: What are the areas you need to improve? I have to improve to explain better what I want to say and tell more examples What do you need to focus on for your next assessment? to understand well the questions and write all that I know about that and be more secure

Newspaper History: Task 5

Representation of Youth



1.Who is being represented in this image?

2.Are you being given the stereotypical or countertypical image of the person/group? Describe the representation.

3.HOW is this representation being constructed by the media language? – consider camera angles, choice of images, colours, size, mise en scene, etc.

4.How is the representation being constructed by the text? – consider word choices, size of text, tone, etc.

5.Does this representation fit with the institutional codes and conventions? Explain your answer. – think about institution, audience, tabloid/broadsheet, etc.


The representation of this article is of teenager thug causing trouble in London. I think this due to the fact he's wearing tracksuit with hidden appearance suggesting that he's been making trouble or done wrong.Young people are used to wear Adidas so this is why he's being represent as a troubled youth. It immediately creates the stereotypical idea in the readers head that it is a youth, in a tracksuit who set the car on fire as they tend to cause trouble.  The use of the word "ANARCHY" in large block capitals also makes the reader think that youths create trouble and go against the rules. They used this font to make it stand out to catch the readers attention. "Mindless Violence" is saying that all youth are mindless and stupid, as they don't know what they are doing which is an incorrect stereotype. The use of red font creates a negative image as red is typically used to portray death, sadness, or
pain. The slightly formal use of language is used to make them seem better that the people who are creating the riot. The representation has been constructed by the use of Photoshop, from a man who has actually 35 so not a teenager and a car on fire, to make it look bad to The Suns audience which is middle class. The colors of the fire straight away create a negative vibe, and the choice of person used also makes a negative vibe due to their posture and choice of outfit. The camera angle has made it seem as like it is a result off the mans actions, when it is not. The size of the person compares to the fire is out of proportion meaning that it it makes the man seem powerful, and therefore makes the reader think that he is intimidating and people should be scared of him, adding to the incorrect stereotype.
This article fits in with the typical tabloid codes and conventions as the large and colorfull image on the front cover, the main word in a big font, and this is what a typical "The Sun" readers likes

SUMMER TASK 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lGoQhFb4NM

Summer Task 1