Wednesday 24 February 2010

Action Plan

.*.Action Plan.*.



Linked Production: Magazine Mock ups


Magazine Mock ups

Above is a mock up of a double page fashion spreed, which will be featured in our teen magazine. We have attempted to recreate a typical magazine fashion page, however we have decided to do a double page and create two looks: one for a casual day and one for a party night out. There are simple conventions of a magazine present such as: page numbers and the font colours are mainly pink and purple, as these colours generally associate to girls.

Monday 15 February 2010

Research into Genre and Similiar Texts...

Research into Genre and Similiar Texts...

...Teen Magazine genre...

Teen magazines are magazines aimed at younger teenage readers, usually young women. They usually consisted of gossip, news, fashion tips and interviews and may include posters, stickers, small samples of cosmetics or other products and inserts. In the United States, teen magazines were conceived of during the 1940s. In the United Kingdom, Fleetway's Honey (1960-1986) is regarded as having established the sector. Teen magazines are produced in many countries worldwide, and enjoy wide popularity in Australia, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Seventeen Magazine started publication in the US in 1944 and was the first magazine devoted to the needs and likes of adolescents. While some teen magazines focus almost exclusively on music and film stars, others feature more extensive coverage of lifestyle issues and are virtually junior versions of magazines such as Cosmopolitan or Cleo. In many countries, teen magazines are aimed almost exclusively at teenage girls.

List of 3 texts that I will use for my investigation:

- Heat

- Star

- OKmagazine

Heat - The website is controlled by Bauer London, a company incorporated in England and Wales. The magazine is concentrated around the generation of celebrities, lifestyle and gossip. The magazine offers the best in entertainment and celebrity news every week, This magazine is one the best selling magazines in the UK. The magazine was first launched in 1999 as a general entertainment mag. and was expanding in the market as years went by due to the success of readers and sales.

Star – The magazine was founded by a male called Rupert Murdoch in 1974 as a competition to the tabloid. The magazine mainly focuses upon celebrity coverage and gossip. Star was a great success and was soon recognised and established. The magazine is updated weekly and was first produced in the United States. It is said that, “The magazine came out on top as the most-read magazine, book or blog in a survey of 11- to 14-year-olds” and is consumed by a significant amount of young teenage girls.

OKmagazine - the OK magazine is packed out with big celebrity stories, photographs and stars from the world of showbiz and entertainment. This magazine includes all sorts of features for its audience, such as; fashion, gossip, competitions, break up and make up etc. In 1974 the institution started as a small publishing company with limitless vision. In the 80’s a range of special magazines were launched and only a specific amount were sold in the 90’s. However, the celebrity publishing was a success and women were the main target for these sales and readings. The OK magazine made the magazine print industry stronger as there were celebrity connections from the magazines. the process of making decisions can be done very often, and this is due to having the advantage of short lines of communication. Also, due to the ownership, which includes reproduction and distribution, there was tight control and there was commmitment as well as stamina, which contributed to the investment until the title had reached a higher status and had become market leader.


...Market Research Report....


The teenage magazine sector has been shrinking rapidly since 2005, and still faces significant threats from a number of sources. One of the main factors leading to what seems to be the imminent demise of the sector is the `Kids Getting Older Younger' (KGOY) phenomenon. Rather than reading magazines created especially for their age group, young teenagers are turning to women's lifestyle glossies and celebrity magazines aimed at older readers.

However, the biggest threat to the sector comes from other forms of entertainment — notably the Internet, but also television and radio. Teenagers are now able to access information about music and the other things that interest them almost instantly through the Internet, television and mobile telephones, and traditional teenage magazines struggle to compete with this.

Most magazines within the sector have responded by creating their own online presence, but circulation figures for the traditional magazines continue to decline.


...Circulation of Similar Texts...

The Brangelina twins have arrived, Madonna will enter her sixth decade tomorrow and we are in the midst of the latest series of Big Brother. But despite the glut of celebrity gossip, sales of celebrity magazines have hit the buffers.
Titles such as Heat!, Closer and Reveal saw their sales plunge, in the latest figures from the Audited Bureau of Circulation.


The success of gossip websites, the economic downturn and growing apathy towards Big Brother were responsible for the collapse, industry experts said.


Heat! magazine's sales fell under the half a million mark to 470,129 for the six-month period to the end of June – 11.8 per cent down on the previous six months, and a 15.8 per cent decline on the 558,365 copies it recorded one year ago. The rival celebrity title Reveal fared worst of all, losing just over a fifth of its circulation, down from 347,257 last year to 277,002. Closer magazine fell by 7.5 per cent on last year, while Love It! fell by 7.1 per cent.

Hello! bucked the trend, no doubt helped by winning the rights to show the first pictures of the new twins of the Hollywood A-listers Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, earlier this month. The title increased its cover price to £2.50 from its usual 50p for the special edition, which contained 17 pages of glossy images of Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. Its circulation rose to 427,054 at the end of June, 8 per cent higher than the previous six-month period and 1.7 per cent up on a year ago.


OK! magazine's circulation was up by 9 per cent on last year at 607,048.

Production Presentation

...[Production Presentation]...


Presentation for pitch of linked production:



Evaluation of "WWW" and "EBI" for presentation

Evaluation of "WWW" and "EBI" for Pitch: 4 Magazine articles plus a front cover

What Went Well?

Overall our presentation went quite well in terms of giving a clear over view of our idea by using a brainstorm to outline what our magazine will consist. Also, there was a range of media terminology used appropriate to our text such as, "tagline" and "price sensitive" and the institutional research was thorough and usefully applied to our production. Furthermore, there was some reference made to the audience theory of Uses and Gratification, where we distinguished how our audience will be able to identify with our product. Finally, our presentation slides were clear and well designed.


Even Better If...

Though, our presentation was significant and well structured it could be improved to make it even more effective. Some of the ways in which we could improve our presenatation and presenational skills is by having key words, rather than full sentences to trigger our main points. Also, revise key terms such as 'Masthead' so that our presentation covers a whole range of key media terminologies. Furthermore, we could have mentioned psychographics in deeper depth along with circulation fiugures for other leading publishers, such as; Closer, Heat, OK and Star.

Thursday 4 February 2010

Linked Production

...Linked Production...


What I intend to produce?


As a Linked Production to this investigation, my partner (Anika) and I will be creating a four page magazine article interviewing teenage girls on how the representations of celebrities influence them, which will also explore health issues. We will seek to do a number of interviews and surveys mainly targeted at girls of Greenford High School in order to see how far the representations of celebrities affect teenage girls with any relation to their health.


My initial idea for the linked production is...


To produce a four page article including a front cover of a magazine, following the codes and conventions of other magazines such as:Heat magazine also considered as the "Bible" of gossip magazines ,OK magazine and Star magazine.













The front cover is an important aspect of the magazine as it initially attracts the reader and is a taster of what can be seen within the contents of the magazine