Contents page- Research

During my research of my contents I aimed to research a contents page in which I believed would attract my target audience. This process allowed me to pin point exactly what I was looking for. Within a short space of time I was able to find a suitable contents page which would attract my target audience.

Research- Front Cover

This is the overal theme I wanted to go for. This conveys my overall theme and using similar codes and conventions to what I opt my front cover to look like, Furthermore this music genre is also what my genre is based on, therefore this magazine would appeal to my target audience. The difference between my final front cover production and the magazine in which I have researched is my main article photo is I have incorporated anti- social behaviour into my front cover aiming to attract my target audience.

Esquire rate card

Esquire- Rate card

Total Circulation * 59,160

Adult Readership ### 154,000

Female 20%

Male 80%

ABC1 Profile 81%

Median Age 34

AdvertisingRates

Positions Pages Spreads

A £13,700 £27,400

B £12,770 £25,540

C £10,950 £21,900

D £10,050 £20,100

E £9,120 £18,240

Promotions £7,540 £13,572

It is clear the Esquire magazines makes more money from its advertising than from its total circulation. Its also noticeable that the target audience of the magazine is apparent through the percentage of males and females.The figures are clear with 80% of sales from males in comparision with 20% of sales for females. The ABC1 indicates an idea of the people that would purchase the Esquire magazine these people would be classed as the more "wealthy" generation such as lawyers and teachers. The price of the magazine is also an important factor the prices doesnt just have to entice consumers however has to be suitable for the target audience. In this situation compared to other magazines such as ZOO the prices for Esquire would be significantly higher this is down to target audience of Esquire being ABC1 rather than Zoo which would be C1.

Semiotics diagram

Social Stratification

Social Stratification

The A B C1 C2 D E is very much an economic form of dividing society up (this is referred to by social scientists as Social Stratification)

There many other ways to stratify the audience

Gender, Age, Ethnicity, Lifestyle, Sexuality, to name but a few.

Using the information above we can see there is a balance of power between Producers and Audiences. Producers cannot survive without audiences but in truth they raise more revenue from advertising than they do from selling their magazines to the public. Therefore they will always be more concerned with producing what the Advertiser wants than they will with what the audience.

 Institution                                        Content                               Audience
Who produces the text.              What it looks like                  Who buys it and why
                                          Forms and conventions
                                          Representation

For example if Maria Claire starting producing articles about laboratories testing cosmetics on animals, their advertisers would soon let them know they didn’t like the content regardless of what the audience thought. Editors simple would run an article like that for fear of losing advertisers. This happens in all platforms; TV, Newspapers etc.

Representation

- An image of an object is a representation of it
- No representation can be completely true
- All representations are a selection – they have been chosen
- All representations go through the process of mediation (the process of change)

- An event or ‘’thing’’ goes through the process of mediation and becomes a representation

- Budget and technology are factors that impact a representation
- Genre of the media text will also affect the mediation process
- Time frame – the length of the programme. Also the time from production to the release date – the time available for the mediation process
- The perception of the producer also affects how the overall media text is produced – different producers will see things differently and therefore create their texts to signify different meanings

- Most media producers are male. This would make their view of the world different to that of a female media producer

- It is important that the media text meets the expectations of the target audience it is aimed at

- Censorship – controlling the amount of e.g. violence, sex in order to be suitable for the specific target audience- You can question a representation if you have a situated reality (experience of the situation)
- Mediated reality – watching whilst having no experience of the situation
- Hyper-reality – more real than the real. The representation is more important and more recognised than the real thing e.g. famous people

- How are women represented in the media?
· Housewife
· Professional, working
· Motherly type
· Sex object

Stereotyping

· Discrimination – an act
· Prejudice – a thought

- Stereotyping is most often referred to when talking about race, social class and gender

Encoder/Decoder Model

Stuart Hall           Encoding Decoding Model

1 Media Studies tends to focus on one of three key areas.

Institution

Who produces the text and why. Questions we might ask are what social background are the producers or what budget do they have.

Content

This is where we study the Media Text itself. We might explore genre or narrative or representation.

Audience

Here we are interested upon who the audience are and what impact the text might have upon them.

2 All those who make media texts can be referred to as encoders. Encoders create meaning. When they produce a media text they do so with an assumption of how the text will be understood.

3 The audience all take meaning out of a text. When we watch a film or listen to music we decode the meaning. We try and understand what the encoder is trying to communicate. We can therefore refer to the audience as decoders.

4 As we know all signs are polysemic, therefore all media texts are polysemic. As we are all individuals we must therefore decode media texts in different ways. Stuart hall suggests there are 4 ways in which Media Texts are decoded. We can say that the audience can read/decode a text in one of the following ways.

4 Decoding possibilities

• Dominant reading: the reader fully shares the text’s code and accepts and reproduces the preferred reading.
• Negotiated reading: the reader partly shares the text’s code and broadly accepts the dominant reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way that reflects their own position, experiences, and interests.
• Oppositional reading: the reader is in a social situation that places him or her in direct opposition to the dominant code. The reader understands the dominant reading but does not share the text’s code and rejects the reading, bringing to bear an alternative frame of reference.
• Aberrant reading: the reader is unable to take the meaning that the encoder put into the text. There is a gap (dissonance) between the cultural assumptions of the encoder and the cultural context of the decoder. They just don’t get it.

5 Media Producers (encoders) will often want their audience to take the dominant reading. To ensure a text is less polysemic and less open to multiple meanings they may try and anchor meaning.

6 Encoders need to talk to their audience in the appropriate way. We call this the Mode of Address. Generally encoders will make assumptions about the decoders’ (audience) knowledge, interests and understanding of the world and encode their texts accordingly. Those assumptions are cultural and can have an impact upon the audience.

Consider girls’ magazines.

7  The assumed language and points of reference an encoder uses to connect with an assumed target audience is known as the ‘Public Idiom.’

Kerrang music magazine research

Kerrang magazine was published on June 6^th 1981. From research I have found out that the current circulation sales are 52,272 and around 50,128 in the UK and Republic or Ireland. These sales were last established in July 30th 2011 to January 18^th 2012.  However I additionally found out the total circulation sales for July 2008 where the sales were around 50,000 therefore this shows that the sales have increased slightly. Kerrang competitors are NME from researching the total circulation sales for NME they sell around 35,000 copies from July 2011 to December 30^th 2

011.

Kerrang magazine is published by Baurea media group. The company is is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide therefore operates at a global level. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. The company turned over 1.79 billion last year. Baurea involves media in wide range of different aspects including radio, magazine and television.  Baurea media group are horizontal integration and cross media ownership because it owns different aspects of media.

This the Kerrang magazine's rate card:

Baurea media group conveys convergence as it is a media industry and uses different types of media.  It also uses synergy as a result of promoting its magazine on its radio show. And promoting TV programmes from their magazines i.e. the Kerrang magazine. The magazine uses synergy in order to advertise the bands on this cover which will sell their magazine if the artist is well known or popular; in turn the magazine will advertise the band's new single, album or tour to help the artist make money. Kerrang magazine; although it's popular it's not necessarily a mainstream magazine. This idea shows that it's okay to like things other than what the majority like, and it's okay to be a little different which an important statement to make is. Magazines are published to promote the companies different sources of media through the magazine. The Kerrang magazine makes money by advertising different companies.

The relationship between the internet and my magazine is that both portray advertising for there TV shows and radios, on the website I found this:

This shows that the sky channel Kerrang is being advertised on their website. This shows that the relationship between both internet and magazine is advertising off their own media sources. The magazine is not really conveyed online, Baurea don’t display their Kerrang magazines online, and in addition the magazine falls into its own unique platform for rock genre. Therefore there are not many benefits of not displaying the publication online, apart from the fact if people are eager to view the magazine they will have to buy the magazine in stores.

There is a clear relationship between the encoder and the decoder, with the advantages of modern technology such as web 2.0 technologies this helps interact collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators. The encoder now has created magazine that are designed specifically for their target audience’s in Kerrang’s perspective  they use information about upcoming giggs this appeals to their target audience therefore they are more likely to buy the magazine furthermore, by advertising these giggs or festivals my result in the giggs paying to advertise about their giggs and festivals.

The magazine attracts its target audience by using mode of address the encoder uses assumptions about the decoders interests i.e. as I have already discussed using information about upcoming giggs, however it also uses addition items to help intense customers, such thing like posters, calendars and cd’s all free items included within the magazine. In addition Kerrang uses new ideas to anchor more decoders, by directly addressing the audience the music magazine has a letter on its front cover from the editor, this makes the decoder feel more involved with the making of the magazine.

Rate card









Total Circulation# 178,121
Adult Readership# 350,000
Male 95%
Female 5%
ABC 2 Profile 65%
Average Page Rate £9500
100 pages
Percentage of advertising pages 58%
Cover price £1.80
Monthly magazine
Annual Turnover £1045913.6
5 Companies/Products that would anticipate being inrested in buying space in my magazine
Beats Dr Dre headphones
Blackberry Bold
Topman
Calvin Klein CK1
Right Guard for men
Reasons for advertising in my magazine

• These companies target my target audience therfore its an easy way to have more customers purchase their products 

 

• Throughout the magazine semiotics is evident. The striking feature article photo, makes the magazine standout, it’s bold and filled with a wide range of colours, its gives a meaning of denotation.  Furthermore the Syntagmatic connotation of the feature article photo and the masthead also make the magazine eye catching.
• The main feature photo also signifies a purpose of meaning, from the picture we can see Cheryl Cole and Victoria Beckham, we straight away know the magazine will involve both of them.
• The magazine is targeted a fairly young generation the teenagers is the main target audience.  This is indicated by the magazine linguistic, the language is aimed at teenagers “hot stars”.
• There is a similarity between the icon and the symbol, the icon resembles the importance of the feature article photo, where similarly the symbol is conveyed by the masthead it is the main symbol, where similarly the icon is also a key aspect of the magazine.
• The magazine signifies that there is no feud between Victoria and Cheryl. This is denoted by the cover line.  The didactic cover lines also again evidently shows that the target audience is teenagers, the magazine use the didactic sign because it appeals to the reader, it suits the reader because for that target audience the magazine has to be easily read yet effective.