Conclusion to student magazine task

In conclusion, I found the program I was using fairly easy to adjust to. However, I had never used the application before so I felt that i had a little disadvantage to everyone else. On the other hand, I managed to produce a satisfactory amount of work that I have spent a long time on. I particularly like the centre images that were included as they projected the idea of a student's life. However, the colours in the images were hard to put a colour scheme to. Thankfully the college logo colours go well with the image and I am overall proud of what i have produced. 

These were the photos that I was going to use as pictures for the front cover and contents page. Some of the photos were too blurry and some were not the right shape I was looking for. Thankfully, I have two that fit my needs and have used for my assignment.

Student Magazine contents page

The contents page went very well as i had enough room to include the articles i was planning to include as well as the page number, a free meal voucher code and an introductory segment to let the reader know what the magazine will be about. 

The colour scheme is the same as it will be a running theme that will run throughout the issue. 

Again, I have tried to highlight the key words in each article title to let the reader know what it will be about; this will also comply with the colour scheme. 

The centre image is another student, who is suggesting to the reader that there is a definite balance between the social life and educational life of a typical student. 

As you can see, the text is small, yet the layout is traditional in terms of a typical magazine contents page

Media student cover magazine

Magazine cover

This is my magazine cover that I will be using for the task. I have yet to create a contents page, however I have some pending ideas that I will soon apply to the magazine.
As you can see, I have used the colours of the Southdowns logo; this will make it look better than if I use random colours; it will give the magazine an organised feel to it.
The mast head is simple yet effective, it tells the audience what the magazine is about with one simple word; the readers will be able to predict what the magazine will be about just from reading the masthead.
The highlighted puffs are green to catch the readers eye as well as go with the colour scheme of the college.

Flat plan layout 

This is my flat plan layout; it is the basic design of the magazine I'm going to create called 'Student Life.' As you can see, this is the traditional layout for magazines that are made today, there is the masthead located towards the top of the page, the article titles in the left third, and the centre image. For my magazine, I'm preventing to include the many 'plugs' and 'puffs' that you would see on a typical magazine today. I'm also going add a segment of an article that will be included in the contents of the magazine which I have yet to write. 

Initial Ideas for Preliminary Task:

My magazine will be aimed at college students and their experiences inside and out of college. The first  idea of the student magazine will be the topics it covers to include in the contents page. The magazine will be aimed at students but I'm determined it to be not all about work and study; more the social events and gigs that our age range will benefit from. The title of my magazine will be 'Student Life'. This title appeals to me most as I will be aiming to cover the social life of a typical student as well as adding some course tips.

For my background image, I'm planning to include a picture of me in mid air jumping off of some stairs. This image combining my given body language will give off the impression of college being an exciting place to do your course. It will look appealing to fellow students as it will show students that you can achieve the correct balance between social life and study.

I am also thinking of placing the masthead in the traditional place, just above my head so it doesn't get cut out. Also, the colour scheme will be red, and white. This will apply for the cover as well. 

the left third will contain a smart column of articles the magazine will contain. Including 'keeping on top of work' and 'Social events to attend.' The font type will be Ariel to give it a smart/casual feel. I don't intend to add too many puff and plugs as they seem annoying to the reader. Although I may include one or two about competitions to win tickets to gigs or to win an i phone.

The contents page will include the same background image that is displayed on the cover, however, it will be taken from behind. This will give the magazine a 360 degree view of the image, moreover, it will be adding m a personal touch that is important to the magazine. I aim to create the expected magazine for the task but add a 'quirky' feel to it.

I created this cover when drafting in ID.

I have yet to add a masthead a various other additional text, however i have managed to fit the selected image to the cover frame with no excess image left over.

IPC media case study task 5

IPC Media case study task 5

IPC media is an award winning digital publisher and consumer magazine founded in 1958. It holds 60 iconic media brands and is accessible by phone, tablet and on-line. IPC media has a huge audience of 25 million global users every month. The company has an associated partnership with its advertisers, business partners, employees and consumers. IPC has a huge variety of magazines that fall into the categories of: men, women, home, lifestyle, up market women's lifestyle and TV. These categories get sorted into five division groups: 

IPC connect 

IPC connect is the mass market women's division. It holds a wide variety of magazines which are read by 9.4 million mass market women. The digital brands are used by over 5.3 million unique users. It is obvious that IPC connect serves millions of women which rely on the company to deliver the media efficiently. The audience is highly responsive as so many women read and use it; making them valuable to IPC connect. Here are the magazines associated to IPC connect: 

Teen Now

Woman

Woman's Own

goodtoknow Recipes

Woman's Weekly

Pick Me Up!

Chat

Chat - It's Fate

Chat Passion

NOW

What's On TV

Soaplife

TV & Satellite Week

TV easy

TVTimes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_Media#Connect

IPC southbank

IPC southbank is the upmarket women's division. It has 3 specific groups that it focuses on which include fashion, women's lifestyle and home interest. This category is for the target audience of a middle aged, middle class women who have time and money to spend on these particular magazines. Its readership base reaches up to over 10 million. Here are some examples of IPC southbank magazines:

Marie Claire

InStyle

Look

Woman & Home

Feel Good Food

Feel Good Home

Essentials

Ideal Home

Homes & Gardens

Livingetc

Country Homes & Interiors

25 Beautiful Homes

Beautiful Kitchens

Style at Home

Wallpaper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_Media#Southbank

IPC inspire

IPC inspire covers a lot of categories that are all inspiring activities for men. these include: country, shooting, equestrian, marine, sport, men's lifestyle, music, cycling, decanter and technology. These are a lot of categories to cover as the portfolio contains 38 cover brands. This category contains everything from 'country life' and The Field' to 'Nuts' and 'NME'. These are the magazine covers associated with IPC inspire: 

Country Life

The Field

Shooting Times

Shooting Gazette

Sporting Gun

Horse & Hound

HORSE

Eventing

International Boat 

Industry (IBI)

Practical Boat Owner

Yachting Monthly

Yachting World

SuperYacht Business

Motor Boat & Yachting

Motor Boats Monthly

Rugby World

World Soccer

Golf Monthly

Nuts

NME

Uncut
Mountain Bike Rider

Decanter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPCMediaInspire

                                                 

                                                                             History of IPC 

The 1950's was a competitive era as there were so many big publishing companies were dominating the media. there were three leading publishers in particular who were in competition. These were: George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications. 

These three businesses teamed up with the mirror group to found the International Publishing Corporation. These three magazine publishers had been established in 1881, 1890 and 1880 so they had their own impressive history to work with. They had magazines that were being published in the late 19th century, however they were all under the umbrella of IPC. 

IPC has been through 150 years of amazing history that contains many highs and lows but always survives. It is now the leading magazine company which owns the most popular magazine titles. Such as 'What's on TV?' 'Nuts' and 'NME'. 

Questions/History continued 

IPC has now gained every target audience as it owns almost all of the major magazine titles. When the corporation began, in the 1800s, the company was mainly focused on the general public, middle-working class. The company released a successful article during the Crimean war which was important as communication was weak in those times. Any information about the war that was received was crucial, it was a serious time and the article contained narrations of the soldiers who took part in Charge Of The Light Brigade. However, there were some recreational titles to keep the British spirits high: 'Country life' 'Yachting world and 'Amateur gardening' were popular British titles. These magazines were aimed at the middle class who had money to spend on magazines. 

Now days, the company has grown into a huge corporation which includes titles of all categories. As Britain is not in any life threatening position such as that of the Crimean war, the company is able to thrive on the modern day technology and resources. 3 years ago, IPC had to categorise the many magazines they owned and managed. This was a big step forward for the corporation as they were now growing at a considerable rate. These categories were: Men, Mass-market women and Up-market women. As you can probably predict, these categories will be associated to the magazines that the category would conventionally read. For example the Up-market woman would read 'Country Homes & Interiors.'

IPC would be great with publishing a new music magazine as they as a category which holds only two big titles. NME and Uncut are both two huge music magazines which reach over one million readers per week. Although people can get the information slightly faster on-line, the physicality of the magazine is what sells. There is a lot of genres to create a magazine on (rock and pop being the most popular) so it is important to impress the consumers on a weekly basis, if so, then it would be a safe move.  

With Pop and Rock being the most popular genres of magazine, it would be likely that IPC would publish a music magazine of those genres. Although, they are a large corporation, therefore can afford to take risks such as this. It could be time for a famous Folk genre magazine. IPC may add a little safety by creating a Folk-Rock magazine to keep the interest of the consumer.

How musicians are styled to represent different genres of music (to do task) 

There are hundreds of music genres that have their own styles. Some popular music genres are 'pop' 'rock' 'folk' and 'indie rock.' Usually, on the front cover, there is an image of a musician or band that are associated to that particular genre. For example Olly Murs would be on the cover of a pop genre magazine and slipknot would be on the cover of a heavy magazine. These two artists contrast in almost every way, you can see how they are styled and associated to their genre of music:
                                                             

Slipknot are a metal band and are extremely talented. Many people get put off their music due to the costumes and the lyrics, however, the actual instrument playing is incredible. Their genre is fast paced therefore they have to play at an incredible rate. It is hard to believe the are even human when combining the music and rather sinister costumes. Slipknot do have a theme of singing dark lyrics which interests a certain type of category of target audience. They are a very popular metal band yet the genre its self isn't that popular as you don't see many interviews, documentaries or awards given out on TV.

 Olly Murs is a very popular artist. He specializes in 'pop' music and is well styled to the genre. He appears on TV a whole lot more that Slipknot as pop music is considerably more popular. As the target audience is mainly teenage girls then he is able to sell merchandise and gain opportunities to appear on TV shows like 'the xtra factor.' Olly Murs is styled fashionably and has the current trend and hair style. This suits his genre well as he mostly sings about love and relationships so he wants to be looking 'hot' at all times which he fails miserable at when a male audience listens or watches him. 

Here are two links to the two contrasting artists performing, see the difference for yourself:

slipknot:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fVE8kSM43I

Olly Murs:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lxaNO5V06k 

Essay Question task 4

magazines contain a hidden yet deeply manipulative intention. Those of a female target audience are especially popular as this is the conventional gender to be more concious on their physical appearance and take critisism to the heart. Although these are not my personal thoughts on gender related audience, this is what the producers have to assume as they need the majority to read and relate to the magazine. Many fashion magazines with a skinny model giving tips on how to look like her is just an example of how an audience can be lead by a single persons thoughts and looks. The intention of most magazines do intend to be harmless,  yet the actions taken because of the magazine can cause a devastating affect. 

Articles in particular that contain weight loss, how to get skinny and how to look your best all the time are one of the major problems that affect people all over the world. It can be dangerous to follow these diets and tips and tricks to get the 'perfect body' if they are not studied and thought out as they are unbalancing their diet. young people in particular are at risk as their bodies are changing and going through puberty; they need a healthy balanced diet. Many readers of these magazines have little knowledge that the pictures of models on the cover are highly edited and tampered with to make themselves look 'perfect.' The thigh gap is a popular look to have at the moment, many girls were starving themselves to make their legs skinny enough to have it. Is is issues like these that cause readers to put their health at risk to look like their favourite model. It is clear that the producers are responsible for including this manipulative information and need to think about the outcome before publishing.

The affect of these articles can have a socially damaging result; they can influence groups of people (young girls in particular) to dress certain ways or wear certain things, as they are growing up they want to be like adults by reading adult magazines and wearing adult clothes. This can socially damage children as they can go out wearing ill suited clothes to their particular age group. The readers of 'now' magazine for example are going through a point in their lives where they are most open to influence and inspiration due to the target audience. The magazine industry seize the opportunity to release articles about 'how to get a sexy body' and 'celebrity gossip,' this constant reading and researching on these categories can get quite addictive, especially for someone who is at their optimum point of learning and taking information in. One of the results of this can be a drop in school work, getting into trouble for wearing ill suited clothing, and not eating certain foods to get skinny like a model. It is clear that most magazines are using the dark technique of taking children's open minds and filing them with celebrity gossip and tips on how to look your best. they are not forced to include the articles but its what makes them sell, although it is partly the parents responsibility to make sure their child doesn't get roped into the damaging content. On the other hand, not everyone has parents and not everyone has parents who care about what they read.

to conclude, i think that magazines should reduce the amount of physical appearance related content but reduce it gradually so the target audience will follow. For example, the magazine has been feeding them information about how to look good all the time, so it should start to introduce articles about not caring so much on how you look or wearing clothes that suit different occasions. This could spread socially because if one popular child likes it and shows it to everyone else, all the other children are going to want to be like them, resulting in them telling their friends and so on. This will reduce the amount of criticism the magazines are getting for publishing so much unnecessary content. 

Conventional genre analysis

The first thing to notice when comparing these magazine covers is the genre. These five covers are all aimed at teenage girls. All these magazines include the colour pink; suggesting that the editors of these magazines have to conclude that the majority of teenage girls like the colour pink and different shades of it. The editors also have to predict wheat a typical teenage girl would like and what would catch their eye. The centre third on all these magazines include a female model or in heat's case, a couple. These models and couples are influencing teenage girls to look and be like them or to intrude on the lives of others, The teenage girls who read this will be reading tips on subjects like: how to get the 'best body' or '4 easy moves to a sexy prom body.'The editors also are trying to introduce sexual activity faster, motherhood and parties. The first example cover is of Jennifer Aniston being 'pregnant at 40!' Although this is in fact an older age to get pregnant, it is implying that is is wrong to get pregnant at that age and should happen  sooner, however it doesn't say how soon. This then puts the whole idea of when to start and who to start it with; whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, who to talk to and so on.

The urge to put the image of sex and sexual related elements into the minds to teenage girls is one of the ways the producers generate the most profit. For example in the corner of the 'heat' magazine, it contains the article on: 'you voted Tom Daily sexiest man on the planet 2013.' This is implying that every girl has voted for him to the 'the sexiest man on the planet' when actually only a certain number of people did and others will have voted for other men. when the target audience reads this they will have particular interest on that article because it is saying that they have voted for something and this is the outcome when they most probably did't vote. This is using over exaggeration to confuse the audience into reading this article. and therefore buying the magazine.

Another thing that acts as a conventional theme throughout the covers is the gossip of celebrity couples. Peter Andre and his love life is a big hit to all gossip magazines as they can use it to catch the target audiences eye. The magazines are assuming that all teenage girls thrive on the gossip of celebrity couples. 'Now' magazine uses the harsh word of 'war' to describe the disagreement that Peter and Jordan have. The gossip magazines usually blow tiny things out of proportion to catch the attention of the target audience. As you can see, the article on this so called 'war' is located in the left third, crossing to the centre third. This means when they are stacked, this is the thing the target audience will see.

The conventional class that the editors and producers will be aiming their magazines at will be the middle-lower class, therefore there will be large social groups at school who read these magazines and take all of what they say to heart. They think that if they don't look like the model on the cover then they are ugly; they are brainwashed to believe that beauty is only skin deep. What is even more harmful is that the images of the models on the covers are edited to take away any blemishes, spots, fat, shades, moles and other elements that are deemed 'ugly.' The selected 'Now' magazine has the worst content for gossip, although it does project how the thigh gap is not a great look. This means that the amount of teenage girls trying to achieve the thigh gap will reduce just because the magazine says. Mothers who have to be cautious of these magazines will perhaps take a liking to this magazine as it encouraging teenage girls to ditch the thigh gap. However it isn't promoting to feel comfortable with your body, it is notifying the target audience that the new look has changed. 

Who gets affected by film piracy?

(introductory project essay)

Film piracy is an issue that has been on-going and continuously growing for years. The situation has spread so widely now that it is affecting the economy, social groups and the film industry that actually create the film. Completely stopping film piracy is out of the question as there are hundreds of websites that get used constantly every day. The only thing we can do is to reduce film piracy to achieve the perfect balance between the number of sites in use and the film industry losing money. The main groups of people that get affected by the use of film piracy are: cinemas, film directors, and the general public.

Cinemas are hugely affected by film piracy as they are effectively ‘the middle man’ in the issue. They don’t create the movies that the public download; they just show them to earn revenue for their company. They are losing money because the public are ‘file sharing’ the movies instead of paying money to watch them. This loss of profit then causes the cinema to increase their prices. With the prices of tickets to see films getting more expensive, the public are then less likely to buy the more expensive tickets. This then causes less successful business for the company which leads to producing anti-piracy adverts in the beginning of films and producing posters to place on bus stops, lamp posts and bill boards. In the UK, film distributors are rewarding cinema staff for finding people who are illegally copying that film for piracy websites. Recently, thirteen cinema ushers across the UK have been given cash rewards of up to £700 for their findings of film pirates. The outcome of the twelve incidents included arrests, cautions and exclusion orders. The generous rewards were funded by the film distributors’ organisation. By seeing this, cinema staff will be more likely to make more of an effort to crack down on the amount of film piracy in cinemas.

Directors, screen writers, actors and actresses are another large group of people that get affected by film piracy. They are the ones who put the effort and money into creating the film just to be downloaded for free from a film piracy website. Although it may seem like they are the ones who suffer the most from this issue, they do make millions from the profits generated by the sales of the DVDs and cinema tickets.  Film piracy is subtracting a large amount from the directors, screen writers etc. however, they still have millions transferred to their bank accounts. (Depending on the popularity of the film) Kevin spacey is a man who fits most of the categories of the film industry. He is a director, screenwriter and actor. Spacey was interviewed to determine his personal perspective and ideas for film piracy. He thought ‘people will always go to the cinema for the experience.’ On the other hand a majority of the public will always strive to feel the satisfaction of getting something for free. He also states that it is important to make sure that cinema is always used more than film piracy sites. As a director, screenwriter etc, film piracy is a big deal for a man like spacey, he is passionate about the experience of seeing the movie as much as he is about making them. I personally agree with his ideas, I think that people don’t think as much about the people who have put a lot of effort into making the movie which is very important as they are the people who make the thing that film pirates steal.

Social groups are the people in which are committing the -what seems like- fake crime.  58% of the down-loaders world-wide are 16-24 year old. This age group is predicted the most popular to be illegally downloading as this is the age group that is at the right age to find the piracy websites. Most of them will be is full time education and so will be on computers frequently. The people of this age group may follow a particular popular person who is deemed ‘cool.’ Therefore if that person were to illegally watch films then the other people will want to be like them. This means resulting in multiple people watching films illegally, so the trend spreads, making it almost impossible to stop everyone from doing it. Some people who are knowledgeable of computers create the websites themselves. The main reason for this is to gain popularity from people on the internet or people they see every day.

In conclusion, I think that not everyone understands the broad range of people that film piracy affects. This may be because they do not think deep enough of the consequences of film piracy; they think it is free and harmless when in reality it betrays those who worked hard to make the film, actors and actresses. The public don’t even realise that they are the reason as to why the cinema are rising their prices which then the public moan at when it was them in the first place. I think that there needs to be a clearer understanding of the effect of film piracy to the public in order to reduce the issue further. 

second magazine cover breakdown
(to do task)

This magazine cover is of a different genre compared to the 'men's fitness' magazine cover. The most obvious difference between the two covers is that 'men's fitness' is aimed at the personal fitness and strength of our individual selves whereas 'yachting world' is more about learning the skills and information about the yacht industry. The centre third is extremely different compared to the centre third of 'men's fitness;' the centre third of this cover is a caption of a yacht going full speed with the crew sitting on the port side. This is an extremely action packed centre third caption compared to that of 'men's health' where there is just a still image of a celebrity with an exceptional amount of muscle.

The left third is similar to that of the previous magazine cover, it still has the important information that represents the whole magazine compacted into a little column. Again, words like 'ultimate' and 'winner' are highlighted to attract the attention of the reader. This vocabulary of attractive words are highlighted to act as the 'puff.' This is similar to the strategy 'men's health' took.