Verran Codes & Conventions

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Verran Representations & Stereotypes

Youth

On the cover shows Justin Bieber, a young artist featured on the front, Bill Osgerby said " The representation of youth has not changed much over the past 100 years". He also said that you don't have to go far to find a bad representation of youth. This image kind of supports his theory as Justin has tattoos and has been associated with crime however this image also portrays youth as successful. The clothing that he is wearing isn't smart however this is the sort of clothing associated with what a teenager would wear. Although he has been involved in crime he has changed himself to be a better person and being on the cover means he would get loads of money which shows that teenagers can be successful. My magazine will be aimed at people between the ages of 15-25 so this type of artist would be appealing to them.

Race

Malik says that people from the black and Asian ethnicity are classed as "other" in society as it has become 'the norm' to be white therefore anyone from a different ethnicity are not normal, so the word 'race' only applies to the other non white ethnicities. This magazine cover shows your stereotypical black male, with sunglasses, snapback and a big chain. Black artists are usually seen to feature in hip hop or grime magazines however these artists feature in a pop magazine which is breaking the stereotype. Pop magazines usually feature white artists therefore in order to follow the common conventions I will be using a white person on my cover.

Gender & Sexuality

This cover supports Laura Mulvey's theory of the use of women in two ways only: As erotic objects of desire for the males on screen and in the audience. This female has been sexualised as she is pictured topless on the cover and this is appealing to a male target audience. Using the sex appeal to sell the product has become one of the most used techniques in the media industry. If you are appealing to a male target, by putting a half naked women on the front it will increase your magazine sales. My magazine is going to be aimed at a mixture of audiences as my magazine hasn't got a specific gender target. Therefore I will not be using a sexualised image as my cover because it will introduce gender stereotypes.

Lady Gaga is also a well know bi-sexual female however she doesn’t fit the typical stereotype of an LGBT person, Andy Medhurst says that ‘sexuality disrupts representation, in the real world you cannot 'see' somebodies sexuality, therefore you would not know their sexuality unless they told you.’ This image supports that as she looks just like a “normal stereotypical straight person”. However the media shows gay men as 'screaming queens' and lesbians as 'butch dykes' so this image doesn’t represent that. 

Class

Janet Jackson has never been seen as an “un-classy” woman, however this image of her posing topless for the cover with someone else’s hands covering her breasts may be seen as controversial and not something a person with class would do. The clothes that people wear can give off stereotypes of their personality for example if you saw a person in a business suit you would think they were polite, however if you saw someone in a tracksuit they could be represented as working class and rude however I don’t think this is an effective way of getting to know a person therefore I don’t think class should determine how successful you are in the music industry.

National/Regional identity

This magazine cover clearly shows the national identity. I think that this magazine is aimed at both British and American readers because the main image shows both of the flags and in the puff it reads "UK VS USA". Andrew Higson states that "Identity is generally understood to be the shared identity of naturalised inhabitants of a particular political-geographical space- this can be a particular nation or region". My magazine will show regional/national identity but it won't be predominantly visible to the reader.

Verran Survey Results

Question 1

For my first question I wanted to find out the main gender that I should be trying to broadcast my magazine to, from this question I found out that I should be mainly trying to please the females that would be reading my magazine but still have the males in mind as the percentages were 75% female and 25% males.

Question 2 

The second question was used to find out the age range of my target audience. I needed to find out this information because I could style my magazine to fit the needs of my audience, I also needed this information so I could choose the right pricing and stories to make sure my magazine would sell well.

Question 3

In the third question was to find out how much the average household earns in a year, I needed to know this so I could make sure that the price of my magazine wasn't too high or too low. The most popular answer that was selected was £25,000 - £49,000 therefore I then designed question number 4 to find out the exact price people were willing to pay.

Question 4

The response I got from this pricing question was that people would pay £1 - £2.99 for a music magazine therefore I am going to price my magazine at £1.99 because it was in the middle of that price range.

Question 5

Because this survey was to find out what my target audience wanted to see I set up a question asking directly what they would like to feature in my magazine. The answer with the most responses was a mixture of all which includes album reviews, celebrity news, music exclusives and the charts.

Question 6

I then needed to know what I should name my magazine. I gave them the choices or "Smash, Unplugged, Pulse & Just pop" The most popular answer with 18 responses was Pulse therefore that's what I am going to name my magazine.

Question 7

This question asked the reader which colour pallet I should have in my magazine. I gave them a variety of choices however the one that they chose was red, blue & yellow but I didn't like this choice so I chose to use black, blue and white because it would be more sophisticated.

Question 8

After finding out all of the other areas for my magazine, I then needed to know how often I should publish my magazine. From this question I found out that I should make my magazine a monthly thing.

Verran Demographic Research

Genre:  Pop Music

Social class: My primary target audience will be people that fall in the categories C1 to E

Gender: Both males and females

Age: 15-25 years old

Nationality: British

Ethnicity: White British

Sexuality: No specific sexuality

My target audience will want to use it for personal relationships, using the media for emotional or social interactions, for family life or to keep up to date with celebrity stories. Therefore in my magazine I will include those to please my audience. 

Verran Institution Research

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Verran Second Contents Analysis

Verran Second DPS