Contact sheets

I chose the two pictures above because they showed my model looking directly at the camera making them seem dominant. Although it could be argued their are some elments of the male gaze within these pictures, i do understand my magazine is a business and will need to use this is order to attract an audience and make a profit.

The three pictures i chose from this shot all had good lighting, used the rule of thirds and presented my model in a way that used some elements of the male gaze. Also, she is portrayed as quite childish- like my demographic. This is so i can attract my audience.

Evaluation (Q7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?)

When i made my preliminary task i used the same software as my final magazine (microsoft publisher) however it was not as asthetically pleasing. This is for many reasons, one being that my preliminary task had a wider audience of parents, teachers and students so it was harder to focus my mode of adress in  a way that would be suitable and entertaining for my audience as a whole. I used standard english but did not try and use words students wouldn't understand. The colours were a reflection of the colours associated with the school and the typography was fairly standard as i did not think these would have a massive impact on the magazine. When making my final magazine i took into consideration how the typography would effect the message i am trying to make. I learnt that the same thing written in two different texts can give a tottally different message and even letters can be made to look sexualised.

For example in these two pictures above, the words up close and personal appear to have two differnt meanings. This was the title i used for my double page spread and i wanted to make sure i gave the right impression. I had to compare many fonts in order to choose an appropriate one for my demographic. The one above gives an impression of intrusion and exclusivity wheras the one beneath is more feminised and gives the impression of intimacy. This is not the message i want to inflict upon my reader. I decided to use a font that was soft and feminine yet not sexualised in anyway.

Another thing i learnt in the progression of my magazine which contributed to the asthetic of my final magazine was how to take good photos. It is apparent in my preliminary task that some of the photos are slightly out of focus or the lighting isn't good. When i made my final magazine i wantedit to look as professional as possible so i took the photos in a studio flooded with light and used a plain white backdrop so it would be easier for me to manipulate my images using Serif Photo Plus. MY final images were at a very high standard and they reflected what the aim of my magazine was all about. They presented a very diluted version of the male gaze that would hopefully  attract and entertain my audience as well as identify with them as something they can aspire to. This taps into the uses and gratifications theory that assumes we use the media for reasons such as information, social interaction, exchange and personal interaction.

Something shocking I learnt in the progression of my magazines is the impact of the media on young girls. I did a lot of research into my target demographic and found their idea of beauty is a direct reflection of what the medias idea of beauty is. Young girls from the age of 8/9 worry that they are not attractive enough to be recognised. They considered anything above a UK size 8/10 as fat and imperfect and were shocked when i informed them that Marilyn Monroe who had been considered the most beautiful woman alive was a generous size 16. This shows how over time peoples perception of beauty has changed as a result of the media. One of the things they considered made a woman 'beautiful' was clear, smooth skin. This is obviously something they have subconsciously learnt through the media.  Often in magazines they airbrush skin to make it appear flawless. This is an example of hyper reality. In reality no woman has perfect skin. One thing my focus group said about the woman who they chose as the 2nd least attractive was that her skin was 'ugly'. In actual fact the model had freckles which are not normally regarded as ugly but the media does not recognise freckles as a sign of beauty and therefore neither do young impressionable girls that are exposed to this farce day after day.

I was not able to conduct as much research into my demographic for my preliminary task which shows in its final construction. However with my final product i had learnt so much about my audience and i knew exactly what impact i wanted my magazine to have. The result was a well constructed magazine that appealed to 94% of girls aged 8-12 that i showed it too. If i were to make further editions of my magazine i would cumulatively remove aspects of the male gaze until my magazine had gained a large consistent readership and i would no longer need to use the male gaze to attract an audience. This is because i want young girls to grow up knowing what real women look like and to aspire to them and not the cartoon characters they see on the covers of magazines now.

I realised in the progression of my magazine that research is extremely important. For example when i showed my templates to a focus group i expected them to chose the one that had the colours pink and blue as blue has conotations of calmness and tranquility and pink is associated with femininity, however, they actually chose the design that incorporated green which has connotations of nature. This is important as my final front cover incorporated that green as a design element and if i had not done this research i may not have received such a high percentage of approval for my final design.

Evaluation (Q6What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?)

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product


When I manipulated the photos i had taken i used Serif Photo Plus. I was not familiar with this software and it took many attempts to get the right result. Using this software i whitened the models eyes to make them seem brighter like they do in other magazines, I also whitened her teeth in the same way using the 'dodge' tool. On my first attempt i over did the whitening and it didn't look right. I had three more attempts before i finally achieved the result i wanted.



I also used Serif Photo Plus to enhance the dynamic of my photos, to make it look more 3D I used the 'summer' option to make the pictures brighter. This makes the reader feel like they are interacting with the characters in my magazine.

I learnt a lot about taking the pictures themselves. The first pictures I took for my preliminary task were out of focus and dark, this made them hard to manipulate and they didn't look professional. However when I took the pictures for my final magazine i took into account mise-en-scene, which is basically everything within the frame, and i also experimented with a variety of shot types and angles in order to get the right balance between independence and male gaze 'submissiveness'.

For the construction of my magazine i used Microsoft publisher. This was useful as it allowed me to place all the aspects of my magazine together very easily. The range of   colours was also useful as it allowed me to colour my typography in a way that was suitable to my target audience. The range of typography was important as i wanted to address my audience in an appropriate way.

For the construction of my double page spread one of the main issues i had was making use of the space i had and balancing the page so it looks professional. First i added the banners which are consistent with my brand identity and show the pages of my magazine are linked. The info box and design motif came next, i played around with the placement of these in order to get the best result. I decided to change the direction of my image in order to make the flow of the magazine for coherent and as she is facing towards the article it makes it seem more important than if she was facing away from it.

Evaluation (Q5 How did you attract/address your audience?)

Having a clear idea in my head of what my audience expected and what message i wanted my magazine to get across, i got started planning my magazine.

Firstly I constructed my front cover. I created a banner, a masthead and feature stories using the tone of colours my demographic seemed to prefer. I made sure too use typography that was fun, soft, and friendly which was the overall mode of address for my magazine. My masthead was the same shade of green that my audience were attracted to when i showed them the templates. Throughout my magazine i used the same tone of 'candy-shop' colours which my audience seem to prefer as opposed to harsher colours such as red.

My model 'Millie Mox' is represented as a happy independant girl who is not very noticably in line with the male gaze. Her clothes are loose so as not to draw attention to her figure, this is because i want my readers to acknowledge that regardless of what other magazines try to emphasize, figure is not important and women are not to be objectified because of their bodies. The colour of her shirt is sky blue which has aspirational connotations as they say 'when reaching for your dreams, the sky is the limit'. Also, the shirt has a denim look and denim has connotations of masculinity, this is because it was originally invented for farm labour workers,  however it is not obviously denim which 'dilutes' the connotation.

I used the design element of a star heart and sun combination to place on random places of the pages. This enabled me to make use of dead space as my demographic appeal to these sort of design elements because they make the magazine seem more 'collage like' young girls often like the idea of creating their own scrapbooks so i tried to incorporate some 'scrap-book' features in my magazine.

Also, on my front page included the additional insentive of a 'Miley Cyrus make up set' although i didn't want to encourage young girls to feel the need to create a hyper real version of themselves, i know this is something they aspire to and often a reason why they buy the magazine in the first place. Also the idea of being like Miley Cyrus presents the very meaning of hyper reality as her character of 'Hannah Montana' is a hyper real representation of herself as is her on screen character of 'Miley' both are aspirational figures and young girls feel as if they can identify with her 'normal' character and aspire to her 'popstar' character. Also, they aspire to the way Miley can transform into this 'hyper-real' version of themselves.

On my contents page i included a page that gve readers the 'chance to meet Zayn Malik' since One Directions' success on the X-factor he is one of young girls favorite male stars. This is because he presents a non-threatening slightly feminine looking role model. Wheras older girls would prefer someone like Danielle Radcliffe who seems more grown up and masculine.

On my double-page spread i tried not to put to much copy as i know my target demographic do not like reading large chunks of writing and would lose focus quite quickly. I aim to keep my reader intrested so i decided to use not much copy in soft colours, divided into smaller sections.

Evaluation (Q4 Who would be the audience for your media product?)

As i mentioned before, my audience will be girls aged 8-12. In order to construct a magazine for this demographic i must first ensure I understand what they want and expect. In the construction of my magazine i must be careful as at this age young girls are very impressionable, especially by the media. I chose this demographic because they are more likely to buy magazines than their older peers who prefer using the interernet for information, entertainment, personal identification and exchange (Uses and Gratifications theory).

Through my QuestionPro survey i didn't find much information that was relevant to my demographic. This is because i distributed it using the social networking site 'Facebook' and young girls do not use this and mostly use the internet for playing games. However, it did help me to establish a reasonable price for my magazine. Furthermore, I had to conduct my own research. I did this by doing a semi-structured group interview on 25 girls between the ages of 8 and 12. The research was useful as it informed me on what type of things girls expect from a music magazine.

The questions i asked helped me to understand what kind of women young girls aspire to and why. The women they chose included people like Beyonce. Beyonce is a succesful strong women who has never been in the public eye for the wrong reasons and it is easy to see why young girls want to be like her however, much of what they aspire to is her appeareance. Although it is understandable that young girls want to be beautiful, the extent to which they would go for this is phenomenal. During the interview the topic of plastic surgery arised and over 50% of girls said they would consider plastic surgery if they were not happy with their appearance. This result is what inspired me to push forward the idea of 'Real' women in my magazine.

Another thing i learnt about my audience through research is that they prefer men who present a feminine or softer look. e.g. Justin Bieber because they present a non-threatening look about them and girls feel comortable and equal to them. This shows us that even though these girls have been raised in a patriachal society which has been reflected in the media they consume. They still strive for equality.

Through my research i constructed an audience profile of my target demographic.

Evaluation (Q3 What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?)

When publishing my magazine I have 3 options. I can either go to a major publishing house, an independent publishing house or I could take the route of self-publishing. All of these options have benefits and limitations.

Major publishing houses such as EMAP who publish The Architects' Journal, Construction News and Community Nurse have many departments that are dedicated to different areas e.g. marketing. Because of their wide range of resources they specialize in magazines that are aimed at a mainstream audience. This means they already have a wide range of information about different demographics. They could also put a large amount of money into promoting my magazine, however I cannot ensure my magazine would do well and if it didn’t a lot of money would be wasted. In reference to my magazine, they don’t own a magazine aimed at young girls so will not be able to help me.

Independent/ Boutique publishing houses e.g. Dennis Publishing  generally focus on niche audiences and publish many high end magazines aimed at niche audiences.  They put a lot of passion into driving their magazines to do well and gain a large audience. If the magazine starts to become competition for a mainstream magazine major publishing houses may ask to buy the magazine. Although not all magazines are successful, an independent publishing house would be helpful in pushing my magazine to do well and may help it go to the mainstream.

Self-Publishing as an option, may be considered as a risk as without the help of a publishing house as I may not be able to reach a large audience due to my lack of resources. However, many self-published magazines do well e.g. Sniffing glue which was one of the first examples of a self-published magazine. Also, due to the impact of the internet I could possibly publish an E-zine which would be read online and I could gain a profit from advertisement if my magazine does well. Also I could promote my magazine using social media which would be relatively cheap and probably free.

I have decided to go with a major publishing house as they already know a great deal about my target demographic and could help it gain a wide readership. Although a self-published online magazine may be more suited as magazine sales are declining, my target demographic is young and may not always have access to the internet.

However i would like for my magazine to have some sort of online presence which is necessary due to audience fragmentation. This would mean that my audience would be able to access content online as well as in the magazine. A recent study showed that since the release of web 2.0 and 3G phone internet more and more people are spending their leisure time online rather than watching t.v. or reading.

I would like to have a website for my magazine as well as a Facebook page and a twitter address these would work in synergy with my magazine meaning my magazine would promote my website and my website would promote my magazine. I would also like to encourage the idea of exchange allowing my readers to share content with the magazine through the website or Facebook page e.g. with competitions of readers with the best drawing of a particular pop star then an online voting poll for readers to choose their favorite.

Evaluation (Q2 How does your media product represent particular social groups?)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

A sterotype of my target demographic is that they are very girly, like animals and the colour pink is the most attractive to them. However, i know that this is not true of all girls age 8-12. Recent studies have shown that girls this age are getting more and more involved in activities such as football, playing a musical instrument and comic books. This may be because gender roles and social norms of girls do not have as much of an impact as they did 30 years ago. Ann Oakley conducted a survey on pre-teen girls and asked them about their aspirations in life, in 1974 their aims seemed to revolve around motherhood however when she repeat the study in 1994 the girls' aims were directed on a career. Seeming to prove that girls nowadays prioritise career ambitions over starting a family.

My magazine aims to reflect a positive representation of women within the media, the character i used 'Millie' is pictured as happy and friendly. The clothes she is wearing do not emphasise her figure or draw attention to her body, this is because i tried to oppose the male gaze within my magazine however i understand that my magazine is a business and will have to incorporate some features of the male gaze in order to make a profit. This is why i shot my model wearing some make up with her head slightly canted. The use of make up may be an example of hyper reality within the media however she is not wearing anything which is an example of hyper reality to the extreme e.g false eyelashes or breast enhancement. My model is not typical of a model you would find in a magazine such as cosmopolitan. She is not a size zero and i have not edited her to look so, she is a UK size 10 and hopefully this will inflict upon my readers a more realistic idea of what girls look like and should look like.

The typography i used is varied but most of it is lower case which gives an impression of femininity and softness, also the colours i used are mostly 'candy-shop' colours and have connotations of childhood and innocence which is what my magazine is all about.

Also, i purposely didn't include any direct links to the idea of relationships or romance as other magazines aimed at my demographic. This is because i think this should not be something young girls should be interested in at such a young age as this reinforces our patriachal society. I want to inflict the idea upon my readers that romantic relationships are not as important as the media portrays.