Ideology

Ideology means the ideas behind a media text or what the text is representing. Ideology is important in a magazine because it gives a pragmatic approach to that magazine. For example, the film 'Dances with Wolves' shows a representation of the ideology of the native american people.

In a school newspaper they would use ideology do show their school in a positive light, for example they would use vibrant colours and show pictues of events that they deem to be benefitial for outsiders of the school to know they do those activities. In this case they might show a image of musical concerts to show off their different activities.

School Newsletter Task

 Front Cover

On the front page of our school newsletter, they use a lot of things associated with the school. For example they have used:

• Pictures 
• Logo
• Colours

Also on this they do not include any information due to the fact that it would be spoken about inside the newsletter.

Double Page Spread

The double page spread is the place where they can share information or inform the reader on upcoming events and things of that sort. They use a formal language style because the person who wrote this it not of a close relationship with the reader, therefore informal language would be inappropriate. Also they have used similar colours to the colours that represent the school, this is also shown on the front cover with the use of the colours Blue, Red and White. In the case of the double page, they only use White and Blue, but still sticking to the general house style of the school. 

Here I have done a mock up of a NME front cover. The image below the real front cover shows the rough style in which NME have used when creating their front cover. This style is used a lot in music magazines. The features in this which I have seen a lot of would be the overlapping image which goes over the title just a little bit, and also the name of the band being a main part of the front cover. This is because the magazine is a special edition featuring a currently successful band so therefore putting their name on it would hopefully attract an audience, in this case, the people who are fans of 'Them Crooked Vultures'. 

 When making my magazine front cover, it is likely that I will use some of these features because they are used so much by a range of different magazines, the techniques they use obviously work and is what makes the magazine look so professional. 

Rule of Thirds Example

These are my examples of the Rule of Thirds Technique

Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds when it comes to photography it when the frame is split into 3 horizontal and 3 vertical equal segments. You would initially put the object you are taking the picture of, not in the center segment. These pictures next to this are examples of a good use of the segments (on the right) and a poor use of segments (on the left). 

Male Gaze Theory

Male Gaze Theory 

Sucker Punch: 

This film could be seen as part of the 'Male Gaze Theory' due to its deliberate all female blonde cast, Therefore the audience of heterosexual males not being the objects. 

 

Mission Impossible:

The Film Mission Impossible has somewhat used the 'Male Gaze Theory' because it does have a women object, but is not necessarily a main character they could be used to make the 'gaze'

Horrible Bosses: 

Horrible Bosses uses somewhat of the male gaze theory when it comes to one of the main character's being a female, but has a lot more of a male cast. 

Transformers:

Transformers uses a woman as an object and is particularly used for the reason of the 'gaze', the fact that the women is seen as eye candy is very important to the character. 

Underworld:

In underworld you can see from this that the women is the main character in the film but whether or not they have used this to conspire with the 'Male Gaze Theory' is more than likely untrue. 

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of signs. A sign in terms of semiotics is something that stands for something else (an object).

The picture on the right is how the theorist Charles Sanders Pierce thought the process of signs worked. Pierce also thought that there were many different types of sign, these would include

Index's are directly connected to the object it is signifying, Icons resemble the thing signified in some relevance, and symbols signify something it has no logical relation to.

Another theorist in semiotics would be Ferdinand de Saussure. Saussure believed that signs are purely psychological and that "a sign refers to something it is not"

Saussure came up with a theory like Piece did, his theory was that a sign is made up of two things, the signified (which is the actual object) and the signifier (which is what it means) together these would apparently make up what a sign is.

Questionnaire

I have made a short questionnaire for people to take part in to help get the best features and aspects about my magazine. To participate in this, please follow this link Here.

Data Methods

When you collect data, you will use two methods of collecting it. The first method would be Qualitative data, and the other is Quantitative data.

Qualitative data is when you ask questions that require more of an elaborate answer to what was asked. Getting this type of data is hard to generalise but can give a more honest and informative answer.

Qualitative data is used for a more opinion based answer, or something that is specific to that  person.

Quantitative data is when you ask questions that only require a one word answer or a option to tick a given answer in a box. The advantages of this would be that it is easier to generalise and it is usually quick. Although this is more efficient, the answers may not be accurate to the actual opinion of the audience.

Quantitative data is more of a fact based answer in which there are minimal answers available.

Introduction Post

Hello, my name is Andy Nelson and have taken Media Studies at A level. In this blog I will be posting my work for each stage of completion.

My preliminary task is to produce;
-Front Page
-Contents Page
For a school magazine.

My main task is to produce a music magazine, for the younger generation, which will talk about a local band which I have access to. I must provide a
-Front Cover
-Contents Page
-Double Page Spread

All of this work will produced by me including all pictures and text.