Hegemony

In media studies, hegemony refers to the ways in which the media encourage people to consent to status quo power structures. People have to do things, willingly and happily, in their everyday lives that keep the powerful people on top. Gramsci believed the media have always had a key role in teaching people to do things in their everyday lives that support the power structures. In media studies today, people look at how the media support power structures such as government, capitalism/corporations, and patriarchy.

·         Paying taxes

·         Fathers "giving away" their daughters during wedding ceremonies

·         Women as the ‘glamorous assistant’ on TV

·         Choice of news stories

Often the term "ideology" is seen as referring simply to a system of ideas and beliefs.

Photoshoot Ideas - Music Magazine

I like the rustic, casual effect



I like the pose in this picture, it would also be easy to copy 




I like the background in this photo



This is the photo I like the most, im going to emulate this photo but use a more interesting background in the shoot

The impersonal apporach on a magazine cover makes it stand out

For my double spread I would like my band standing in a lake, to create a unique environment.

Evaluation Of Magazine Cover

Overall i am happy with my two final pieces - I used photoshop and Dafont to create my school magazine and contents and felt after doing this task my photoshop skills have improved a lot! Dafont enabled me to use specialised fonts to match my magazines theme, without it the finished product would have been a lot plainer. I researched many sport magazines before choosing my design - i feel sport magazines these days are too plain and boring so i wanted to make my cover more fun and interesting also that includes a variety of sports! Sport magazines are normally very masculine so i tried to make it unisex - my contents is more softer than the front cover to make it more equally masculine and feminine. The strenghns of the magazine is it has a strong front image and  I have used aspects of the magazine I wanted to emulate to make it more realistic. I have used various sans and sans-serif fonts to make the magazine more interesting and appealing to the school student audience. The stories i have written are interesting but mainly focus on the male audience. Weaknesses include the business of the frount cover and the plainness of the contents! i Could have used less stories on my cover and more pictures on the contents.  If i did my magazine again I would have widened my target audience and used more affective puffs. I believe this is a positive start to photoshop and all the skills Ive learnt will help me on the next task.

Contents

Here is evidence of my contents progression, i have chosen to keep the format simple to contrast the magazine cover. I have kept the same text format to keep the sport theme going. 

Emulating Basis

I have taken ideas from rugby news and emulated it into my final magazine. I used the one main image idea, lots of interesting sub-headings and different fonts. I have made my magazine more fresh and modern.

Magazine Cover Final Image

Final image

Edited background

My final image for my cover is on the left, and my edited background i have incorporated is the beginning of my magazine cover.

Photo Shoot for Magazine

On the photoshoot i wanted to get a variety of different sport action and posing shots. I used boys because my target audience for this issue will be for the football and rugby teams.

Using Photoshop

I cropped this photo, and added text.

I used the greyscale tool on this photo

Using Media Terminology

Ideology-Ideology translates to the science or study of ideas. However, ideology tends to refer to the way in which people think about the world and their ideal concept of how to live in the world.

Mise en scene-is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means visual theme or telling a story, both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful.

Demographic-a characteristic used to classify people for statistical purposes, such as age, race, or gender; a demographic group: a collection of people sharing a value for a certain demographic principle: An individual person's characteristic.

The purpose of this advert is to show that by eating Weetabix, you will be full of energy. It informs us that Weetabix is a good breakfast to start the day.

The target audience for this advert is aimed at everyone.

The encoded meaning is that if you eat Weetabix you will be full of energy

The decoded meaning is that it is only for men.

The aberrant decoding is that its only for horse riders

Comparing Magazine Covers

                                                       

I have chosen these two contrasting magazines to show which has a bigger effect on the reader and why.

'Seventeen' magazine draws the reader in straight away, the use of colour, fonts, interesting sub-headings and the main image being a celebrity immediately makes us accustomed to the cover. I think colour has a huge effect on magazine covers, we see things better in colour and easier to understand/relate to. 'Seventeen' uses puffs and block sans fonts, it is crowded but this allows the reader to stop and read these headings then decide whether to purchase the magazine. 'Newsweek' on the other hand has a less appealing front, it merely has the title and two boring sub-headings. Also the main image is not a very famous person, readers would rather read about someone they know. Unlike 'Seventeen' its not very relatable. Its a magazine you wouldn't stop and flick through the pages at. There isn't much to go on, the fonts used are basic block sans. Very plain, A person who would want to read this magazine would be very plain and subdued, on the other hand a 'Seventeen' reader would be fun, outgoing and trendy.  

Film Trailer

'The sisterhood of the travelling pants' one of the BEST girly flick chicks going! This film will make you laugh, cry and you never get bored of it :) The film is about four girls who have always been best friends, they are 16 and for the first time they will be spending summers apart, they find an old pair of jeans which fit them all! they write to each other sending on the jeans with whats happened where they are, sounds boring but it is amazing! It has effective transitions between the girls stories which make you want to watch it and find out what happens next. I give it a 5 star rating!

Film Posters

When i saw this poster advertised on a bill board, it interested me. It has audience grabbing techniques such as; a dark background with bright red lettering. The title is associated with the fairy tale, but because of the dark sinister woods in the background and the girl standing alone in it connotes danger and fear. this posters target audience is for people who enjoys stories with a twist but also with an element of thrills.

Serif and Sans-Serif Fonts

Most fonts can be broken down into two general categories. Those categories are “Serif” and “Sans-serif,” and the difference between the two is very simple: One has decorative “feet” while the other doesn’t.

We normally associate Sans-serif fonts to be informal and clearer to read, we would use them as mastheads on magazines or on a PowerPoint presentation to children! Serif fonts on the other hand are more sophisticated, we would use them when writing letters and on magazines with a more formal audience.

Denotations and Connotations

19/9/2011

Denotations and Connotations are words we use when we describe meanings of media, whether it be a TV commercial or the front cover of Vogue. A Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a word, the 'dictionary defintition' for example: 

Waterloo Road

The girl on the far right is wearing school uniform this denotes she is a school girl.  A Connotation on the other hand refers tot he associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotions suggestions to that word, for example: The girl on the far left has her mouth slightly open, this connotes she could be shocked or upset.

Codes and Conventions

7/9/2011
Today in lesson we studied two contrasting magazines, we listed conventions and codes from each. The first magazine was called 'InStyle' it was a sophisticated high fashion magazine, it was very editorial and it was targeted to middle aged women, who are interested in style and fashion. The next magazine was called 'Best' it was a high street commercial magazine which was full of celebrity gossip and real life stories. a convention from each magazine was that they both contained high amounts of advisement, also there presentation of price were similar, the font was small and the price was almost hidden. Overall the magazines were very dissimilar so the codes were simple; the colours contrasted as well as the fonts. the content was very different, 'InStyle' talked a lot about fashion and 'Best' contained various stories from celebrities, soap operas, and horoscopes. We discussed the contrast the magazines had in class.