Magazines: Final index

We have now completed our second in-depth CSP topic - print magazines.

You now need to create a final index of all the tasks we have completed for Men's Health and Oh Comely. Hopefully we all know by now that keeping an up-to-date index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. It keeps the vital CSP information fresh in your mind and also highlights if you've missed anything over the last term. 

This is also important because you'll have a baseline assessment when we come back in September. This will be on radio and magazines (the two topics from the summer term) and will be an opportunity to improve your UCAS predicted grade for your university applications if you need it. 

Magazines: final index

Your final Magazines index should include the following:

1) Magazines: Front cover practical task & LR

2) Men's Health - Audience
3) Men's Health - Language and Representation
4) Men's Health - Industries and the impact of digital media
5) Oh Comely - Audience
6) Oh Comely - Language and Representation
7) Oh Comely - Industries case study

Remember, for your index it needs to link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work and revision notes quickly and easily.

Extra study sessions for those behind on the blog

We'll be running compulsory extra study sessions for Year 12 Media students who are behind on blog work on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 July (after the Year 12 final day). Make sure you catch up with any missing blog work in the next week to avoid being called in!

Index due date on Google Classroom

Magazines: Oh Comely - Industries

Our final concept for Oh Comely magazine is Industries.

This is crucial concept because Oh Comely is a small, niche independent magazine - completely different from the global brand that is Men's Health. We need to explore the surprising rise in independent publishing in recent years and why some small print magazines seem to be surviving in the digital age (although sadly not Oh Comely after its recent closure).

Lesson notes

The independent print magazine is characterised as:

“…published without the financial support of a large corporation or institution in which the makers control publication and distribution…'independent' in spirit due to a maverick editor or publisher who leads the magazine in an exploratory, noncommercial direction” (Thomas 2007).

Source: Writer's Edit



Print: the challenge for publishers

Despite the renaissance of print through independent magazines, there are still huge challenges:

• Distribution: finding distributor, risk of unsold stock
• Lack of advertising revenue: meaning high cover price (all over £5, many around £10 or more)
• Audience: finding and targeting a viable audience

Ironically, the internet has proved an unlikely saviour for independent magazines – it facilitates direct sales and subscriptions and allows magazines to find niche communities, crowdfunding and contributors.

Iceberg Press: an independent publisher

Iceberg Press is completely different to Hearst UK – the publisher of Men’s Health and subsidiary of global conglomerate Hearst.

It publishes just one magazine now Oh Comely has closed: The Simple Things.

Oh Comely Industries case study - blog tasks

Work through the following tasks to complete your work on the Oh Comely magazine CSP. There are plenty of questions here but you will find the reading gives you a brilliant insight into a vital aspect of media - the power of independent institutions.

Iceberg Press

Visit the Iceberg Press website - particularly the Who Are We page and the Why Are We Here page. Read the content and then answer the following questions:

1) Why did the people behind Iceberg Press set it up?

2) What is the Iceberg Press mission statement? (It's on the Why Are We Here page and is a series of statements).

3) What similarities do you notice between The Simple Things magazine and Oh Comely?

4) What differences can you find between Hearst UK, publisher of Men's Health, and Iceberg Press?


Writer's Edit journal article

Read this excellent Writer's Edit academic journal article on the independent magazine industry and answer the following questions:

1) What is the definition of an independent print magazine?

2) What does Hamilton (2013) suggest about independent magazines in the digital age?

3) What is the aim of Kinfolk magazine and what similarities can you draw with Oh Comely?

4) Why does the article suggest that independent magazines might be succeeding while global magazine publishers such as Bauer are struggling?

5) How do independent magazines launch? Look at the example of Alphabet Family Journal.

6) What does the article suggest about how independent publishers use digital media to target their niche audiences?

7) Why is it significant that independent magazines are owned and created by the same people? How does this change the creative process and direction of the magazine?

8) What does the article suggest regarding the benefits of a 'do-it-yourself' approach to creating independent magazines?

9) The article discusses the audience appeal of print. Why might audiences love the printed form in the digital age?

10) What are the challenges in terms of funding and distributing an independent magazine?


Irish Times feature

Now read this short feature in the Irish Times on the growth of independent magazines and answer the following questions:

1) Why are independent magazines so popular?

2) Why is the magazine publishing industry set up to favour the big global conglomerates?

3) What does the article suggest regarding finding an audience for an independent magazine?

4) What are the challenges for magazine distributors?

5) The article suggests that many independent magazines only make money by diversifying into other products. What examples do they give?

Due date on Google Classroom

Optional extension task: interview with Ruth Jamieson

Here's another interesting article on independent publishers - you may wish to just read this excellent interview with Ruth Jamieson, who has written a book on the renaissance of the independent magazine sector. However, if you want to answer some questions too they are below - either way it's great additional research!

1) What does Ruth Jamieson suggest about the 'death of print'?

2) What are the common themes for successful independent magazines?

3) How many of these aspects can you find in Oh Comely? Does this help to explain why Oh Comely ultimately closed?

Coursework: Summer Project 2022

The summer project is a vital element of your coursework - an opportunity to plan an outstanding music promo video/print concept and then present it to class in September.

Your summer project contains compulsory and optional elements; everybody will be researching music videos and promos, creating a concept, writing a first draft Statement of Intent and presenting this to class as an Ignite presentation in September. However, you may wish to also plan and film elements of your production over the summer while you have time and actors available - this is up to you.

Summer project tasks

Complete the following tasks on a blogpost on your coursework blog called 'Summer Project: coursework planning': 

1) Research: music videos and music promos

You need to write a 150-word close-textual analysis of SIX selected videos that will inform your production work. The music video videos you analyse are up to you but focus on a different aspect of media language for each one (see guidance below). For promos, we've suggested a few options but if you can find your own examples you are welcome to study those. Focus more on interviews, cutaways, structure and graphics/brand identity for the promos. 

Music videos

Music Video 1: Narrative
How is narrative used in the music video and what impact does this have on the audience? Can you apply any narrative theories to the story in the music video?

Music Video 2: Technical codes (camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing)
What do you notice about the use of mise-en-scene to create meanings for the audience? Use CLAMPS to help you here and think in particular about how mise-en-scene is used to communicate the genre of music. Look for particular camera shots and movement - remember that movement is a critical convention of most music videos and camerawork can contribute to this. For editing, analyse pace, transitions, the number of shots and juxtaposition. How does the music video create pace and excitement - or does it create a different effect for the audience?  

Music Video 3: Conventions
Think back to our Introduction to Music Video and our work on Andrew Goodwin's theory on music video conventions as part of the Ghost Town CSP. How many key conventions of music video can you find in your fifth music video example?

You can find a range of notable music video examples in this blogpost or you are free to select videos of your choice. You may wish to write more about one video than another but as long as you have 500+ words of music video research in total you will be fine.

Music promos

Music Promo 1: Frank Palangi - Artist Promo - No Plan B

How does this video use mise-en-scene to create meanings for the audience? Look for settings/locations, cutaways, use of colour/black and white, lighting and costume:

Music Promo 2: Bel Thomson Artist Promo Video

Focus on the content here: what camera shots are used? What topics are covered in the interview? What other interviews are included aside from the artist herself? How are graphics or text-on-screen used? 

Music Promo 3: SBTV interview with Slaughterhouse

This is more an interview than a promo but contains many of the conventions we will want to use. How does the video begin? What questions are covered in the interview? How does the video incorporate live performance/music video elements? 

Again, it is absolutely fine to write about different promo videos (particularly if you can find them for the genre you are thinking of using) - as long as you have around 500 words of research/notes on promo videos you will be fine.

In total, your research notes on your blog will be approximately 1,000 words - bullet points are fine.

2) Planning: music promo script and treatment

In many ways, a music promo is a mix between an advert, a documentary and a music video. In order to produce this, you'll need to write a script but you should also plan to write a music video treatment too. A treatment is like a script for a music video - it tells the band or artist exactly what will happen in the video and the kind of style or effect the video will have. You'll need choose what songs you are going to use at this point - remember, you can use an existing artist's work but it needs to be appropriate for the brief. 

You can find further music video treatment guidance here plus an example of a genuine director's treatment for the brilliant alt-J video Breezeblocks. 

For this aspect of your summer project, write a combination script/treatment that will tell a reader what your three-minute promo will be made up of.


3) Statement of Intent

Write the first draft for your genuine 500-word Statement of Intent. This will be submitted to the exam board alongside your media products and is worth 10 marks of the overall 60 marks available.

The original AQA brief is here: NEA Student Booklet - brief 3. 

We also strongly recommend you look at our Statement of Intent 2023 questions to consider document too (you'll need to log in with your Greenford Google account to read this).


4) Ignite presentation

Prepare a 5-minute, 20-slide presentation using the Ignite format in which you present your coursework project. In effect, this is your statement of intent in presentation format. You must cover:

• Your music promo video and print advert concept: artist, genre, songs, interviews, narrative/performance/effects, photoshoot, branding etc.
• Media language: how you will use music promo video conventions and print advert conventions - e.g. camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene to create meanings for your audience. 
• Media representations: how you will use or subvert stereotypes in your music promo and print adverts; applications of representation theory; social and cultural contexts - how your coursework will reflect contemporary media culture and society.
• Media audiences: your target audience demographics and psychographics; audience pleasures - why they would enjoy your promo; audience theory if relevant.
• Media industries and digital convergence: the potential record company that would promote your band or artist; the brand identity for your artist; how fans would engage with your products etc.

Ignite presentations have very specific rules: you must create exactly 20 slides with each slide set to 15-second auto-advance. This means your presentation will be exactly five minutes followed by questions and comments from the class. You will deliver your presentation on your coursework planning in the first week back in September.

Your Ignite presentation will be marked out of 30 on the following criteria (each worth a possible 5 marks):

1) Research (through the presentation AND your blog) 
2) Coursework concept
3) Language: terminology and theory
4) Representations / social and cultural contexts
5) Audience and Industry / digital convergence
6) Presentation delivery

You can find more information about Ignite presentations - including examples - in this Ignite presentation blogpost here.

Summer project deadline: all tasks above due in second lesson back in September

Summer project: optional extensions

Pre-production tasks

Some students in previous years expressed an interest in filming their video production over the summer break. This makes a huge amount of sense - far more availability of actors, much more time to schedule filming etc. If you do want to film over the summer, make sure you complete the following pre-production tasks here:

Music promo planning and treatment
This is effectively your script for your music promotion. There is guidance/links above on how to write a great music video treatment.

Storyboard 
Sketch out a selection of critical shots from your music promo, take a photo of the storyboard and upload it to your blogpost. What visual style are you trying to create? Storyboard sheets can be downloaded from here.

Shot list
Write a shot list containing EVERY shot you plan to film for the music promo AND additional shots to create flexibility when editing. These additional shots are often close-ups, cutaways, alternative angles or similar. I advise using a simple table on Microsoft Word to set out your shot list - you can find a film example here. It makes sense to organise your shot list by scene or location rather than a huge list of every shot in the music promo in chronological order. 

Mise-en-scene
What iconography are you including to ensure your audience understands the genre you are working in? Plan your cast, costume, make-up, props, lighting and setting. This can be simply completed using your blog or Microsoft Word - the key aspect is to have planned all the critical details. 

Shooting schedule 
Plan a shooting schedule for your filming over the summer. Include when, where, who is required and what shots you will complete at each time/location. Again, this can be on Word or Excel or you could simply use your blog. The most important thing is that you've planned it! 

Non-assessed participants
You will need to provide a written record of all non-assessed participants in your production work (both video and print). Keep a record of everyone involved - actors, camerawork, sound etc. You will also need a keep a record of any non-original sound and note it on the Candidate Record Form - so this means the song(s) for your music promotion. Keep these on your blog for easy reference when submitting your work in Year 13.

Production: Filming and photography

Once you have completed your pre-production tasks, you can film or carry out photoshoots as you wish.

Good luck!

Radio: Final index

We have now finished our work on the latest targeted close-study products - Radio. Next we're on to coursework! 

Before we start the coursework, we need to complete a short Radio index to ensure we've completed the three tasks for this unit. 

As ever, this will highlight if you've missed anything and allow you to catch up if you have fallen behind with anything in the last three weeks. 

Your Radio index should include the following three tasks:

1) Radio: Introduction to Radio
2) Radio: BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat
3) Radio: War of the Worlds

For your index, the text should link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work on each aspect of the case study quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can catch up with the work and notes and won't underperform in future exams due to gaps in your knowledge.

Extra study sessions for those behind on the blog

We'll be running compulsory extra study sessions for Year 12 Media students who are behind on blog work on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 July (after the Year 12 final day). Make sure you catch up with any missing blog work before that to avoid being called in!

Note: there will be a baseline assessment at the start of Year 13 testing your latest CSP units on Magazines and Radio.

Index due date on Google Classroom

Coursework: Summer project Ignite presentation examples

Your summer project will involve researching and planning your coursework. You will then present this work to the class in the first week of September in the form of an Ignite presentation.

This will be a hugely valuable exercise as it will allow you to test your idea in front of a potential audience - and make sure your coursework concept is communicated clearly. The Ignite presentation format offers a particular challenge and will force you to carefully consider how to pitch your project to the class.

The Ignite tagline is simple:

“Enlighten us, but make it quick.”

Ignite talks are a popular presentation format online. The rules are simple:

• 20 slides
• 15 second auto-advance
• 5 minutes
• 1 topic

Here's a good Ignite talk about giving an Ignite talk:

Here are some media-related examples:

And here's another Media-related example that shows you why PRACTICE is so important - the speaker never keeps up with his slides and therefore the whole presentation is rushed:

Summer project: Ignite presentation

Your Ignite presentation will be on your coursework plan - effectively a presentation version of your Statement of Intent. This means telling your audience the concept, genre, narrative, media language choices, representations, audience and industry factors in just 20 slides and 5 minutes. 

Good luck!

Magazines: Oh Comely - Language and Representation

We need to analyse selected pages from Oh Comely to explore how it is constructed and the way issues of representation and identity are presented.

Oh Comely deliberately offers an alternative version of the women's lifestyle magazine genre and we need to explore how page design, content and conventions are used or subverted to create this effect. We also need to consider the different representations that can be found in these features.

You need to really get to know Issue 35 of Oh Comely - the selected CSP issue. Selected pages of the magazine are currently available to view online through the website Issuu here and you can download the Oh Comely selected CSP pages as a PDF here - you'll need to log in to your Greenford Google account to download them.

Oh Comely Language and Representation: blog tasks

There are no articles to read this week - instead you need to carry out a close-textual analysis of the CSP pages and answer a range of questions on representations in the magazine. This will be challenging so allow time to complete it and email your teacher if you are unsure on any of the questions.

Language: close-textual analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your close-textual analysis of the Oh Comely CSP pages:

Front cover

1) What do the typefaces used on the front cover suggest to an audience?

2) The words under the title introduce the content and topics addressed. What do these suggest about the potential audience of Oh Comely?

3) How do the cover lines use narrative to create enigma? What do the cover lines suggest about the magazine's content and audience?

4) Write an analysis of the central image.

5) What representation of gender can be found on this front cover?


Feature: Speaking Out

1) What does the headline and standfirst suggest about Oh Comely's feminist perspective?

2) What do the interviewees in this feature suggest about the values and ideologies that underpin this magazine?

3) How conventional is the page design in this feature? Why?

4) Pick out specific aspects of this feature that subvert the stereotypical representation of women in the media. Are they different to what we may find in conventional women's lifestyle magazines such as Glamour or Cosmopolitan? Why is the absence of men a key feature of Oh Comely?

5) How does the photography offer a fresh or unusual perspective on women?


Feature: More than gender

1) How does this feature offer a fresh perspective on gender and identity?

2) What is the significance of the writer and photographer? How does this fit with the Oh Comely brand?

3) What style of photography is used in this feature?

4) What representations of the transgender lifestyle can be found in this feature?

5) Why is the biographical information at the end of the article significant? (Clue: the writer is also an editor of a niche, creative magazine called Entitle).


Representation and identity

Work through the following questions on representation and Oh Comely:

1) How do representations in Oh Comely challenge stereotypes? 

2) What representations of race, ethnicity and nationality can be found in the 'Speaking Out' feature?

3) What representation of women and femininity can be found in Oh Comely?

4) Why might Oh Comely deliberately under-represent men? (The absence of men in the magazine appears to be a largely deliberate move by the editors).

5) Does Oh Comely fit into the possible fourth wave of feminism? Or is it evidence of post-feminism - that feminism is no longer needed?

6) How does the 'More than gender' feature challenge Levi-Strauss's structuralist theory of binary opposition?

7) Judith Butler argues gender is a performance. How does Oh Comely challenge traditional gender roles? You should refer to both the cover and the selected CSP features. 

8) Liesbet van Zoonen has suggested women's bodies are objectified and artificially constructed to present women as passive and restricted to secondary roles. How does Oh Comely challenge this stereotypical representation of women in the media? 

9) David Gauntlett argues that identity is becoming more fluid, media representations change over time and that there are generational differences. Does Oh Comely support this viewpoint?

10) It has been argued that Oh Comely is a far more open text (Stuart Hall - encoding and decoding/reception theory) with more room for negotiation in interpretation. Do you agree with this view? Why?

Due date on Google Classroom

Radio: War of the Worlds CSP (1938)

Our second CSP for radio is the 1938 CBS broadcast of War of the Worlds.

This is a famous broadcast of Orson Welles's radio play - an adaptation of HG Wells's science-fiction novel of the same name. It is a text of historical significance due to a long-running debate over the effect the broadcast had over audiences at the time. 

Narrative and background

War of the Worlds, a science-fiction novel by author HG Wells, was first published in 1898. It is a story of alien invasion and war between mankind and an extra-terrestrial race from Mars.

The original 1938 Orson Welles broadcast is available here:

In particular, focus on the following extracts:

Opening: 0.00 – 4.00
Development: 10.00 – 13.00
Emergence of alien: 17.00 – 19.00
Middle section: 39.00 – 41.00
Ending: 57.00 – end 

Think about these questions while you listen:

• How does the radio play seek to engage the audience?
• What effect do you think this may have had on radio audiences in 1938?

Hybrid genre

Orson Welles was initially reluctant to adapt War of the Worlds, describing it as 'boring'. He was persuaded by the prospect of using recent developments in radio news reporting to create a hybrid-form radio play designed to sound like a real breaking news story. The broadcast begins with a music performance that is increasingly interrupted by breaking news of martians invading New Jersey.


Historical context

In 1938, the world was on edge as Germany mobilised to invade Europe and populations feared gas attacks from another world war. In the weeks leading up to the 1938 broadcast, American radio stations had increasingly cut into scheduled programming to bring news updates from Europe on the chances of war. This meant Welles's use of radio news conventions had more of an impact on listeners who were unaware that it was a fictional radio play.

Media effects theories

The War of the Worlds radio play has become a much-studied text with regards to media effects theories. The initial reported reaction from audiences provided evidence for the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory - that suggests people believe whatever they see or hear in the media. However, later studies suggest the audience reaction was exaggerated by the newspaper industry (under threat from radio at the time) and that audiences are more sophisticated consumers of media than first thought.

You can also apply Gerbner's Cultivation Theory, the two-step flow model and Stuart Hall's Reception Theory to Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast.


Radiolab podcast on War of the Worlds

The American podcast Radiolab looked back on the significance of the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds and later attempts to recreate the effect. It's a brilliant summary of the context and reaction from the audience alongside clips from the broadcast and transcripts from interviews at the time.

You can listen to the Radiolab podcast here.

War of the Worlds: Blog tasks

Media Factsheet

Read Media Factsheet #176: CSP Radio - War of the Worlds. You'll need your Greenford Google login to download it. Then answer the following questions:

1) What is the history and narrative behind War of the Worlds?

2) When was it first broadcast and what is the popular myth regarding the reaction from the audience?

3) How did the New York Times report the reaction the next day?

4) How did author Brad Schwartz describe the the broadcast and its reaction?

5) Why did Orson Welles use hybrid genres and pastiche and what effect might it have had on the audience?

6) How did world events in 1938 affect the way audiences interpreted the show?

7) Which company broadcast War of the Worlds in 1938?

8) Why might the newspaper industry have deliberately exaggerated the response to the broadcast?

9) Does War of the Worlds provide evidence to support the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory?

10) How might Gerbner's cultivation theory be applied to the broadcast?

11) Applying Hall's Reception Theory, what could be the preferred and oppositional readings of the original broadcast?

12) Do media products still retain the ability to fool audiences as it is suggested War of the Worlds did in 1938? Has the digital media landscape changed this?


Analysis and opinion

1) Why do you think the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds has become such a significant moment in media history?

2) War of the Worlds feels like a 1938 version of 'fake news'. But which is the greater example of fake news - Orson Welles's use of radio conventions to create realism or the newspapers exaggerating the audience reaction to discredit radio?

3) Do you agree with the Frankfurt School's Hypodermic Needle theory? If not, was there a point in history audiences were more susceptible to believing anything they saw or heard in the media?

4) Has the digital media age made the Hypodermic Needle model more or less relevant? Why?

5) Do you agree with George Gerbner's Cultivation theory - that suggests exposure to the media has a gradual but significant effect on audience's views and beliefs? Give examples to support your argument.

6) Is Gerbner's Cultivation theory more or less valid today than it would have been in 1938? Why?


Due date on Google Classroom