David Carson

My teacher recently taught us about a controversial magazine designer called David Carson so I decided to do a bit of independent research into his work and how it would influence my own. I decided to do this using the medium of prezi so it would add variety to my blog as well as a professional way of presenting my findings.

Subject of my double page spread

I am planning to entitle my double page spread article: Why New Music Feels Amazing.
This is a study into how the brain reacts when it hears new music whether it is modern or classical. There has been in depth research into this including the test subjects being put into a CT scan whilst listening to their favourite song then again with a new song and seeing how the brain reacts to the different songs. This includes diagrams of the brain's function during this time which I could use within my article. I have found this video on the 'DNews' website to illustrate my point.

Active and Passive Audience

There is a theory that argues that audiences with a background don't just absorb information but get activeley involved unconsciously because they can apply the message from the article to their real life. So the decoding of the message that is trying to be portrayed an be influenced by family background, beliefs, education, experience etc...
Other Theories:

• Encoding/ Decoding Model of communication: a four stage model of communication that takes into account the production, circulation, use and reproduction of media messages. In contrast to the traditional approach of the sender and receiver, each of these steps are interdependent. "Each stage will affect the message (or ”product”) being conveyed as a result of this. This implies that, for example, the sender of information can never be sure that it will be perceived by the target audience in the way that was intended, because of this chain of discourse."

• Gratifications Theory: places more focus on the consumer/ audience rather than the actual message it is conveying. It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in understanding and intergrating the media into their own lives.

The '4 F's '

The 4 F's of Magazine creating are

• Format- the layout of the magazine including house style.
• Formula- what is in the magazine and where is goes.
• Frame- the margins and gutters in the magazine
• Function- what is the magazine's job? this is usually summed up in a sentence or a slogan

When anyone whether a school student creating a magazine for their coursework and a huge publishing companycreating well known magazine, each have to remember the 4 F's in order for their magazine to b successful. Therefore I will remember then when creating my own magazine.

However, you don't always need to follow the concept of the 4 F's when you are creating a magazine as some publishers have proven. For example; David Carosn and his controversial magazine- 'Ray Gun'. This is a very 'out there' magazine but because this hasn't followed the conventional methods of magazine publication it will become more popular with readers because it may fall into that particular niche in the market for magazines that don't follow conventional methods.

Example of my Print Media Terms

This is an example of my Print Media terms being put into practice and also analysing the double page spread of the Lady Gaga feature in Q Magazine.

When poeple wil first read this page, they will most likely be an 'Oppositional Reader' because of the way that LAdy Gaga has been portrayed in quite a sexual light in this which people may be against even though Lady Gaga is well known for going out in very few items of clothing. However after reading the article and reviewing the image again, the reader can be 'Negotiated' to like the artistic side of tthis page because I like the grayscale effect and the fact she is covering her cleavage would make the reader realise that this is a more sophistiated magazine.


When peop

Print Media Definitioins

• Page bleed: Bleed is a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet before trimming so it would be the area that is to be trimmed off. The bleed is the part on the side of a document that gives the printer a small amount of space to account for movement of the paper when printing. Artwork and background colours can extend into the bleed area which is why designers don't put pictures or articles right at the edge of a page.
• Copy: an imitation of the original product/ image or an issue of a magazine where the publicist makes thousands of identical versions.
• Strapline: An advertising slogan to advertise brands and make them well known and the reader will instantly recognise it.
• Pug: the 'ears' at the side of the page with text or an image in
• Tagline: is a small amount of text which serves to clarify a thought or a slogan
• Pull quote/call out: used in magazine or newspaper as an exerted line which us usually in a bigger or different font to the rest of the page for it to stand out and be memorable.
• Pass Along Audience: readers of a particular magazine that has been passed down to them or they have found it in a doctors surgery -for example
• Advertorial: Advert that is used in place of an article
• Alley: used to separate text boxes on a page spread
• Gutter: the space between 2 pages in a double page spread

History of Billboard Magazine

Brief History: As the world's premier music publication, Billboard has served the entertainment business since 1894, headquartered in New York with bureaus in Los Angeles and Miami, and has editorial correspondents in major cities around the globe.. Beginning as a weekly for the billposting and advertising business, Billboard and its popular music charts have evolved into the primary source of information on trends and innovation in music, serving music fans, artists, top executives, tour promoters, publishers, radio programmers, lawyers, retailers and many others.

Billboard.com features an extensive array of searchable, playable charts, breaking music news, artist interviews and exclusives, news, video and more. Launched in 1995 as Billboard Online, 'Billboard.com' now attracts ten million visitors each month in more than 100 countries and has become in effect the  digital destination for popular music.

This diagram that a vast majority of the readers (68%) are college graduates which would indicate that this magazine would have quite a young audience of about 14-19 years old who are most interested in pop music therefore would be the most likely people to buy it. I have also found that people in the 'C2' category of society would be more likely to buy it because it is accessible to them and with a price of £3.50 so it is affordable for that income bracket which has proved popular because there is a total readership of 48,000. The content of this magazine is typically the 'Billboard top 200' so the top 200 songs of the year as well as the charts and new and upcoming artists from different countries because they believe in the industry everyone should have a fair chance. In different issues there may be certain articles about different genres of music as well as articles with different top artists.

Billboard is a pop magazine therefore it would have a pop ideology which I explained in one of my earlier posts.

Who is the typical Reader and what is the typical content? The target audience of Billboard magazine is females who are aged 15+ because they are most likely to be interested in popartists such as rihanna, Beyonce, One Direction etc.. which is entirely relevant because these artists feature in this magazine. They offer their rwaders a variety of special features such as; Podcasts which are about the celebrities that are focused on. 'Billboard 200' is also fearured which is Billboard releasing the weeks best selling albums.

Producer and distribution: From my background research, I found out that ‘Billboard’ magazine is published by Prometheus Global Media, which also publishes many other well known, American magazines such as Ad week, The Hollywood Reporter, Backstage, Media Week and many more.

House Style of the magazine: Billboard’s house style for this issue of their magazine is kept quite neutral and all similar colours and the font is the same for the cover lines and the masthead but the main cover line is in a different font to catch the reader’s attention. In this edition, they use a layout which places the celebrity o the right hand side of the page giving people a chance to see the 'CARLY!' title first.

Again the Celebrity is in front of the Masthead so I will also be using this strategy in my magazine to show that the celebrity/musician is the most important thing on thing on that page.

Ideology of Kerrang

These are all examples front covers of the rock magazine; ‘Kerrang’ and all of them display the stereotypical ideology of what a Rock magazine should look like.

In this cover, the man at the front of the mid-shot (presumably the lead singer) has tattoos covering his arms which is part of the ideology that rock seems to have a ‘dirtier’ picture than pop does because of the tattoos, the sometimes badly kept teeth and the dark colours (or house style). The fact that he is holding a chain gives the aggressive edge to it and they all seem to have this menacing look on their faces which would also add to it. They aren’t openly showing any designer brands of clothing or have appeared to make an effort with their choice of clothing which fits in the part of the ideology of pop where the artists appear to be less competent and have this ‘don’t care’ attitude toward everything.

In the second cover the band, Slipknot, are wearing leather masks that also represents the angry factor as well as maybe trying to scare the reader to give this band an intimidating/ ‘don’t mess with me’ feel to it. Through doing this it also expresses the band’s individuality and ability to make a statement because any other band doesn't usually have that sort of image.

However, the last cover in my Rock ideology shows a completely different aspect from this ideology. Rock is also thought of as having quite sexual lyrics sometimes and in this cover, the camera is being used as the Male Gaze (Laura Mulvey’s theory of the camera objectifying women) and making the lead singer of paramore- Halyey Williams- look sexy in order to promote her band as well as the magazine so that issue would appeal to men more than women in this case however she hasn’t been majorly airbrushed, no heavy make up or designer clothes and she has had no plastic surgery (which is typical of most other magazines) which is showing the Rock Music is very literal and doesn’t need lots of effects to sound (or in this case look) good.

This proves that this music magazine reflects every aspect of the Rock Ideology in visual style and language.

Ideology and Gender

The theorist Laura Mulvey argued that most of the Media reflects the 'MALE GAZE'. This means that the camera acts as a 'male eye' where women are looked at and men are the 'lookers'. Women are often objectified though.

Objectified: Treating a person as a thing

In my opinion, the 'Male Gaze' is definitely evident in most magazines because there are magazines such as 'nuts' and 'zoo' magazine which definitely objectifies and exploits women. I have also found on television, in age rated television shows they always show a woman fully naked where as with a man it is often done more tastefully where you see his toned torso and then a cheeky bum shot at the end. In conclusion I feel that Mulvey's theory of the 'Male Gaze' is correct. 

However in my magazine, I will not go to such lengths as the image above but I may have some elements of the male gaze in my magazine because I know that it would definitely boost the sales of my magazine because it would definiteley appeal to a wider audience because 50.5% of magazine readers are men ( figures from the NRS website)

Ideology of Pop and Rock

Pop	Rock
Clean appearance	‘Dirty’ appearance
Calmer and quieter	Aggressive and louder
Non sexual/ asexual	Sexual
Euphemistic	Literal
No drugs/ alcohol	Drugs/ alcohol
Happy	Angry (screamo music)
Professional, ‘good’ at singing	Appear to be less competent/ concerned
Very ‘samey’ nothing original	Individuality
Apolitical	Political
Fake	Authentic/ ‘for real’
All about	Make a statement
No swearing	Swearing

• This is the table of the ideology of pop and rock music however the 2 genres are starting to crossover (e.g. pop songs are starting to use bad language)

Music and Ideology

An ideology is a belief. Even musical genres have an accompanying ideology and often, genres divide along binary oppositions or a dichotomy (2 things that are represented as being entirely different from one another)

Research Methods

There are 2 main types of research in order to find out information:
Firstly there's Primary Research:
This is research you have performed yourself. For example:

• an interview
•  questionnaire
• survey
• internet- (self searches)
• textual analysis- the ability to analyse what your respondants say against their attitudes.

I could adapt this to help myself find out about what sort of people read different types of magazines because I could send out questionnaires and surveys myself.


Secondly there is Secondary Research:

This is research that another person or party has carried out and either published it in a book or on a website so anyone can view it and therefore use it. For example:

• NRS website
• search engine
• book
• magazines
• maybe a newspaper

This could help me with my research because I could look on the NRS website or in a book about Media ands find out any figures or facts that I can't find out myself such as on average, what percentage of the population read this sort of magazine or which gender it is most popular with; this would strengthen with my research and give me a wider view and knowledge of what poeple like to read.

There are a further 2 sub-categories of research:

There is Quantitative Research- the statistics in your research and how you try to find patterns and trends from them. Examples of how you can find this are:

• Questionnaires
• NRS website
• Surveys

I will be using this sort of research in my investigation because I will be finding out percentages, means/ averages, modes and finding the correlations of numbers in my data. It is useful because then you make a magazine that will definitely attract your target audience and you would know where to sell it because it would have the highest percentage of magazines sold in that place.

Lastly there is Qualitative Reasearch and this type is to do with the ideas, feelings and finding out the opinions of the person you are asking through using open questions instead of closed ones. You can do this sort of research through:

• Interviews
• Stopping people on the street (e.g. using a sample number of 50)
• Questionnaires with open questions

This would aid my research because I would have a clear and precise view of what my audience wants because they have been able to tell me exactly what they want.

Text in magazines

Masthead- the title of the magazine
 
Font Types: 

• SERIF- (e.g. Times New Roman) this is a more traditional style therefore the auience think that the information that has been put up is more trustworthy which would appeal to an oder audience which is why they would read Newspapers like the 'Guardian' or the 'Independent'
• SANS SERIF- (e.g. Arial or Veranda) this is seen as a more trendy style which is preferred by younger people which is why this is used for articles in magazines such as 'OK' magazine
• HANDWRITING- (E.G. Lucida Handwriting) this makes the article more personal which is why this could be used for the Editors Letter or any help pages in a magazine.

Sentence Types:

• Question (interrogative)
• Command (imperative)           }All of these to persuade you to buy the product 
• Exclamation
• Statement