Active vs passive

Active vs. Passive Audience Theory

Active audience theory argues that media audiences do not just receive information passively but are actively involved in making sense of the message within their personal and social contexts. There is no one 'reading' of a text, but a multiplicity of reading. Things such as family background, beliefs, values, culture, interests, education and experiences may have an influence on decoding media messages.

Readings:
Preferred reading/dominant reading.
The intended reading of the text.

Oppositional Reading:
You dislike/disagree with the preferred reading.

Negotiated Reading:
You dislike and like different aspects.

Aberrant Reading:
You don't understand/misinterpret.

audience pleasures

Audience pleaures

Group A - This is the group often referred to as the 'landed gentry'. This type of audience are usually wealthy and aristocratic, typically accomplished big- business owners and/or archbishops.

Group B - This category is often the 'professional working people'. For example headteachers and teachers of schools, doctors, lawyers and soldiers.

Group C1 - These are the 'professional admin workers' such as people working in any form of junior management and supervisors.

Group C2 - This group is often specific to the people that do more practical work such as plumbers, carpenters, mechanics and builders.

Group D - People that fall into this category are mainly considered to be the 'unskilled workers'

Group E - Lastly, this group is identified as the unemployed. However the majority of students also fall into this group due to being unemployed while studying.

 

terminology

Media Terminology

Typography- Font
A Masthead- The title used by known typography to make the readers become familiar with what magazine they are reading.
Main image: Typically showing the person or object directly associated with the main feature/article.
Selling line/strapline: Seen as an introductory headline below the masthead describing the magazine.
Pug: 'The ears of the magazine' can either be at the top left or/and right-hand corner on the front cover. the picture of the paper, the logo or a promotion are positioned there or even a freebie is placed there to catch the readers eye.
Tag: The word or phrase is used to engage a readers interest in a story by categorising it.
Cover lines- The essential articles inside the magazine are stated through sell lines, these are regularly seen at the right-hand side at the corner.
Top and bottom strip: These are the strips below and above the magazine that give further into what may be included in the magazine. Mostly being the interesting parts of the magazine.

Print Terminology

Bleed -
Bleed is a term used in media to refer to the printing that goes past the edge of the sheet before trimming. The bleed is the part of a document that enables the printer to have some space to move the paper. Any design that may be included on a document can go within the bleed area.

 

 

Gutter-



The gutter is the blank space on the inside of page margins where a publication is bound or folded, or in other words the space between columns of the printed text.

Pull quote-
This is the line or phrase, in a larger or display typeface, that runs at the top of a page or in a mid-column box to draw attention to the text of the article or story. A pull quote can also be referred to as a 'lift-out quote'.

 

Straplines-

Also referred to as 'slogans' and 'tag-lines', straplines are short and catchy subheadings, this is often used to grasp the audience's attention and promote the advert or magazine.

david carson

David Carson

David Carson is an American graphic designer and art director. He is best known for his innovative magazine design, and use of experimental typography. He was the art director for the magazine 'Ray Gun', this was an American alternative rock n roll magazine, first published in 1992. David Carson's widely imitated aesthetic was defined as the so-called "grunge typography" era. He only produced these magazines for three years, then left the industry. However the abstract style of 'Ray Gun' lives on.

 

 

 

Examples of David Carson's abstract Ray Gun covers.

 

 

This is extremely unusual compared to any magazines produced before as the photograph is positioned upside down. Although it does look edgy and abstract which was the aim of David Carson, I personally think it is not a very effective feature. Another strange feature of the magazine cover is that printed very big and boldly in nearly the centre of the page is the price, this is very unusual as normally the price is very hidden. Again I personally don't think this is very effective as the price might be too much for the buyer and straight away put them off.

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Music and Ideology

Music and Ideology

An ideology is a belief. Every music genre has an accompany ideology, often genres divide along binary opposition or a dichotomy. This will effect all aspects of a genres representation, and will be reflected within music magazines.

I am going to compare the ideology of rock and pop genres of music.

Pop:

• Clean
• No drugs or alcohol
• Non-sexual
• Euphemistic 
• Happy
• Upbeat/fun
• Professional/ 'good' singing

Although this ideology seems very good, a view upon pop is not all that great. Many pop artists seem fake or artificial, thought of as only in the music industry to make money rather than doing it as something they are passionate about.

rock:

•  Violent
•  Loud
•  Sexual
•  Literal
•  Drugs/ alcohol
•  Angry tone
•  Less competent or concerned about professionalism

Rocks ideology clearly is not portrayed as well as pop, infact seems to be quite the opposite. However this genre of music is known to be a lot more authentic and 'real', by this meaning the artist doing it for the love of music rather than to make money.

 

 

 

The male gaze

Laura Mulvey; The Male Gaze

"visual pleasure and narrative cinema"

 

 

The concept of the gaze is how an audience views the people present. This can be thought of in 3 ways;

• how men look at women
• how women look at themselves
• how women look at other women

Jonathan Schroeder (1998)-

"To gaze implies more than to look at- it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object at the gaze."

 

Laura Mulvey invented the term 'male gaze' in 1975. she believes that in film audiences have to 'view' characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male. she argued that most media reflect a 'male' eye where women are looked at, and men are 'lookers'. women are often objectified.

 

Features of the male gaze;

The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a mans reaction of these events. It relegates women to the statues of objects.

 

Some theorists also have noted the sexualizing of the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised. For example this theory works for many food product adverts. An example that stood out in particularly for are Galaxy adverts, that almost certainly include a beautiful women.

 

Criticism of Mulvey

This theory doesn't always work, as some women enjoy being 'looked' at, for example in beauty pageants. The gaze can also be directed towards members of the same gender for several reasons, not all of which are sexual, such as in comparison of body image or in clothing. 

research methods

 

Research Methods

Whilst creating my school magazine I needed to learn what would appeal to my chosen target audience and research into magazines that already exist on the market.

Research is split into two different categories; primary research and secondary research.

 

Primary research is research carried out by yourself, for example:

• interview
• questionnaire
• survey
• internet forum
• textual analysis
• email
• letter

I have personally already used a few of these research methods myself whilst creating my school magazine cover, for example I have performed a survey on which font types were preferred. This proved very successful as I then could see which font types were proven more preferred by the audience.

Secondary research is research found that someone else has already carried out.

• internet
• search engines
• industry and individuals websites
• books
• journals
• magazines, newspapers

I again have personally already used a few of these secondary research methods myself, whist doing background research into school magazines already on the market. I used the internet, search engines and many industry websites, this helped me to find out current selling rates and general background information on successful existing magazines.

 

These can then be split into further data groups; quantitative and qualitative.

 

Quantitative research helps identify any patterns or trends within the data. For example by using surveys and questionnaires, we can discover things such as that more men than women read 'Karrang'.

Qualitative research is looking at peoples opinions and feelings within their feedback. This would be retrieved from research methods such as interviews and focus groups, this type of data tends to use open-ended questions which means we can get as much details within the feedback as possible.