Thursday, 14 January 2016
Summative Statement
I began my practical project by drawing directly from celebrity tabloid magazines. I was doing this through fascination with the content, as it seemed so loud and garish and completely inappropriate in every way and it seemed amazing to me that they were just allowed to exist with no questions asked. They seemed sinister and manipulative in some way, as if to lead the audience quite ham-fistedly to certain points of view. At first for my essay I wanted to explore this, the manipulative visual and linguistic devices these magazines used to achieve and keep their readership, but research revealed they were struggling to as a result of the internet. I wondered how this kind of news still exists in a physical form when all the content was available for free online, which became the new focus for my essay, how lifestyle magazines, as a broader category, remain in print and compete with digital news. I looked into drawing the aesthetic of other lifestyle magazines but decided to focus on just the trashy ones because they made a stronger image. My aims with the drawings were to demonstrate the unethical and unfair nature of the journalism in celebrity tabloids, by recreating their aesthetic to a hellish degree and focusing on statements made and images printed in the magazines that are lost to the din of yellow journalism. By rearranging the information into categories and making the trashy, throw-away aesthetic I have tried to highlight the evils I see in the magazines with a hope to communicate them to their readers and ignorers, and raise quesitons about whether this invasive nature of reporting is an acceptable and humane process to subject people to.
Rita Ora
Rita Ora was the other single focus portrait I chose because the gossip magazines seem so intent to hound her reputation since she has rocketed to new heights of fame and she seems consistently non-plussed.
Jordan
This image was focused on Katie Price, after I decided to make the remaining drawings focus on just one portrait to get them finished on time and to have a change of pace form the larger more complex drawings that were becoming repetitive. I think Jordan epitomises this celebrity tabloid culture as she perpetuates her fame through nothing other than being famous, and telling the magazines what she's doing at any given moment.
Where is the Love?
This image was for news about celebrity relationship issues and break-ups, demonstrations of the news prying into the sad and sensitive aspects of celebrities personal lives.
Tuesday, 12 January 2016
Kardashian Khaos
This was a study into the celebtiry obsession these magazines induce and perpetuate, demonstrated through the disturbing amount of personal information published daily about the Kardashians.
Stop Abusing Your Bodies Process
This shows the development of the first of my drawings, through explanation and progress photographs
Sunday, 10 January 2016
Initial magazine drawings
These are the initial drawings I did, described in more detail.
The Chantelle drawing was previously dissected on a board earlier
The Chantelle drawing was previously dissected on a board earlier
Monday, 4 January 2016
Essay sources
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/04/26/guest-post-the-evolution-of-cosmopolitan-magazine/
http://www.britannica.com/topic/Cosmopolitan-magazine
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/books/a31650/helen-gurley-brown-quotes/
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/about/about-us_how-cosmo-changed-the-world
http://wayan.com/files/Leader_Analysis_Helen_Gurley_Brown.pdf
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/yellow-journalism
http://www.britannica.com/topic/Cosmopolitan-magazine
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/books/a31650/helen-gurley-brown-quotes/
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/about/about-us_how-cosmo-changed-the-world
http://wayan.com/files/Leader_Analysis_Helen_Gurley_Brown.pdf
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/yellow-journalism
Wednesday, 30 December 2015
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Print is dead. Long live print.
Got this book from the library
The introduction is very useful so far
It's basically just my essay but condensed.
Here I shall collect the useful bits to quote later.
"The print magazine as we once knew it is dead or dying. Since the early 1990s weve said goodbye to many of the magazines that once defined the newstands. The Face, Blender, Spin, Vox, Grafik, Sleazenation, BLITZ, Arena, Nuts, Front, Company, Easy Living, She, CosmoGirl, Bliss, Sugar, Teen, Just Seventeen and many more have closed. ... In the ultimate humiliation Melody Maker was merged into it's long-standing rival NME... For those that remain intact the question is no longer whether they will always be here, but how long will they hang on for."
"The obvious answer is that the rise of diital media has caused readerships to shrink"
"Back in the heydey of print we needed magazines for the information they provided. A teenager marood in a countryside town needed The Face in order to connect to all that was cool and exciting in the world. Now that digital media pervades evvery aspect of our lives print's role as information giver is now redundant. That provincial teenager? She has tumblr now."
"The faster and cheaper they try to be, the more they devalue thier product and the more readers they lose"
"Magazines make their real money from selling advertising; to put it another way, they sell brands access to their readership. The magazine is not the product for sale - its readers are. Readers are not the customer - the advertisers are. Meanwhile advertisers get access to readers in return for funding the magazine... if the advertisers can rach that readership somewhere else, cheaper, more direct and measurable - like online - then the magazine is in trouble."
"Digital attacks traditional magazines on two fronts: it erodes their readership and tempts away their advertisers."
"Fewer magazines may be being bought in total but the number of titles on offer has never been greater. While the old-school, advertising reliant magazine industry is shrinking, business is booming for a new generation of independant mags, which tend to be niche, largely ad-free, ideas-led, design focused and reader funded."
Jaime Leslie, of the blog magCulture.com, says that on an average month he sees between ten and twenty new indie magazines launch. In comparison, he says it is difficult to recall the last big launch from a major publishing house."
"Instead of moaning about the internet moving their cheese, these magazines look for ways to use digital media to their advantage"
Omar Sosa "It seems that the Internet is helping independant publications as much as it is killing big publishing groups.'
"Magazines were once restricted by geography when it came to finding the right readers. Today thanks to social and digital media, readers are only ever a few clicks, likes or shares away."
"In delivering ever faster, cheaper, ever more disposable content, digital has created a demand for something slower and of higher value, something that stands the test of time. Producers of successful indie magazines don't try to beat digital media at its game; they focus on the things only print can do. And they do them very well. They revel in the physicality of the magazine. They play with format. They mix paper stocks. They publish long, luxurious articles and photo-essays that take months to research and hours to read and absorb. They lovingly craft issues that are beautiful, collectable and timeless objects."
"The magazine is no longer an expensive way to share information. Instead, it's an affordable way to mass produce a beautiful object"
"These magazines are an affordable way to buy into a brand or lifestyle or to indulge a passion, much like a bottle of No 5 is an affordable way to take home some Chanel."
https://www.antennebooks.com
stack
Jody Daunton "aiming for a life on the shelf, not a shelf life."
The introduction is very useful so far
It's basically just my essay but condensed.
Here I shall collect the useful bits to quote later.
"The print magazine as we once knew it is dead or dying. Since the early 1990s weve said goodbye to many of the magazines that once defined the newstands. The Face, Blender, Spin, Vox, Grafik, Sleazenation, BLITZ, Arena, Nuts, Front, Company, Easy Living, She, CosmoGirl, Bliss, Sugar, Teen, Just Seventeen and many more have closed. ... In the ultimate humiliation Melody Maker was merged into it's long-standing rival NME... For those that remain intact the question is no longer whether they will always be here, but how long will they hang on for."
"The obvious answer is that the rise of diital media has caused readerships to shrink"
"Back in the heydey of print we needed magazines for the information they provided. A teenager marood in a countryside town needed The Face in order to connect to all that was cool and exciting in the world. Now that digital media pervades evvery aspect of our lives print's role as information giver is now redundant. That provincial teenager? She has tumblr now."
"The faster and cheaper they try to be, the more they devalue thier product and the more readers they lose"
"Magazines make their real money from selling advertising; to put it another way, they sell brands access to their readership. The magazine is not the product for sale - its readers are. Readers are not the customer - the advertisers are. Meanwhile advertisers get access to readers in return for funding the magazine... if the advertisers can rach that readership somewhere else, cheaper, more direct and measurable - like online - then the magazine is in trouble."
"Digital attacks traditional magazines on two fronts: it erodes their readership and tempts away their advertisers."
"Fewer magazines may be being bought in total but the number of titles on offer has never been greater. While the old-school, advertising reliant magazine industry is shrinking, business is booming for a new generation of independant mags, which tend to be niche, largely ad-free, ideas-led, design focused and reader funded."
Jaime Leslie, of the blog magCulture.com, says that on an average month he sees between ten and twenty new indie magazines launch. In comparison, he says it is difficult to recall the last big launch from a major publishing house."
"Instead of moaning about the internet moving their cheese, these magazines look for ways to use digital media to their advantage"
Omar Sosa "It seems that the Internet is helping independant publications as much as it is killing big publishing groups.'
"Magazines were once restricted by geography when it came to finding the right readers. Today thanks to social and digital media, readers are only ever a few clicks, likes or shares away."
"In delivering ever faster, cheaper, ever more disposable content, digital has created a demand for something slower and of higher value, something that stands the test of time. Producers of successful indie magazines don't try to beat digital media at its game; they focus on the things only print can do. And they do them very well. They revel in the physicality of the magazine. They play with format. They mix paper stocks. They publish long, luxurious articles and photo-essays that take months to research and hours to read and absorb. They lovingly craft issues that are beautiful, collectable and timeless objects."
"The magazine is no longer an expensive way to share information. Instead, it's an affordable way to mass produce a beautiful object"
"These magazines are an affordable way to buy into a brand or lifestyle or to indulge a passion, much like a bottle of No 5 is an affordable way to take home some Chanel."
https://www.antennebooks.com
stack
Jody Daunton "aiming for a life on the shelf, not a shelf life."
Friday, 4 December 2015
Plan
It was decided in a tutorial with Fred that instead of wasting time printing and making a book, I should instead hand in the actual drawings, allowing me to spend more time nailing the aesthetic of the magazines and making good drawings. They will be explorative drawings focusing on process, mostly unplanned and unfolding unpredictably, that I will document along the way. This will allow for the best possible presentation of the drawings as the materials and colours I'm using will not reproduce well through print, thus there is little point in taking time away from drawing to do that.
I will make six A3 landscape drawings on loose themes, taking the information from the magazines and building the images as I go
I will make six A3 landscape drawings on loose themes, taking the information from the magazines and building the images as I go
Thursday, 3 December 2015
Board
Here is a presentation board explaining the process of my first image.
It dissects the image and explains the explorative thought process behind the drawing.
Growing concern
My project has scarcely changed since the summer, which is of some concern to me because it seems like it should have developed somewhere but it hasn't.
It doesn't make sense to have the other magazines represented with the same drawing style as the trashy mags because they don't look like that and at the minute I don't have drawings that do represent it. Nor do I have time to establish an aesthetic for each different page in the six remaining weeks.
I don't know why I'm making it fold out to A2 other than because it would be interesting to see, which doesnt feel like a good enough reason to go insane drawing it at that scale.
Also as much as I enjoyed working like this in the first place it now feels stagnant and laborious.
I don't know what I'm saying about magazines, I don't know who this is for and I don't know where it would exist.
The work at present is explorative which is a good starting point but I feel like something should have changed about the process by now, but it's exactly the same as in summer, just less enjoyable. And it takes too long to do these drawings to be able to start in what might be the wrong direction.
But I don't know what else to do.
We concluded in the crit that I would make one of four proposed fold out booklets, one for each magazine. This would mean I'd be making entirely new drawings but all trash magazine based for one and propose three more booklets on the other three magazines. So I would have to establish the aesthetic of the other magazines because the trash one doesnt work for other magazines, as well as the fully completed trash magazine booklet, which I'm sure is acheivable but I'm not sure this is the right way to be going. I don't see a development in my work, but maybe that will come with the other magazine aesthetics.
It doesn't make sense to have the other magazines represented with the same drawing style as the trashy mags because they don't look like that and at the minute I don't have drawings that do represent it. Nor do I have time to establish an aesthetic for each different page in the six remaining weeks.
I don't know why I'm making it fold out to A2 other than because it would be interesting to see, which doesnt feel like a good enough reason to go insane drawing it at that scale.
Also as much as I enjoyed working like this in the first place it now feels stagnant and laborious.
I don't know what I'm saying about magazines, I don't know who this is for and I don't know where it would exist.
The work at present is explorative which is a good starting point but I feel like something should have changed about the process by now, but it's exactly the same as in summer, just less enjoyable. And it takes too long to do these drawings to be able to start in what might be the wrong direction.
But I don't know what else to do.
We concluded in the crit that I would make one of four proposed fold out booklets, one for each magazine. This would mean I'd be making entirely new drawings but all trash magazine based for one and propose three more booklets on the other three magazines. So I would have to establish the aesthetic of the other magazines because the trash one doesnt work for other magazines, as well as the fully completed trash magazine booklet, which I'm sure is acheivable but I'm not sure this is the right way to be going. I don't see a development in my work, but maybe that will come with the other magazine aesthetics.
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
plans
here is a plan
of sorts
I'm using the format of an a2 double sided image that folds into an a5 booklet in a cover
here is my mock up
ADD PICTURES OF MOCK UP HERE
each page is going to focus on a different magazine and the main facet of the culture of that magazine
basically i want to be able to see a cross-section of the content of each magazine in one image
so there's esquire first, which will be a general overview of the magazine with a focus on lifestyle advertising, watches cars clothes, a snapshot of the aspirational lifestyle esquire is trying to sell
the next page will be cosmopoliton, and will be similar in content but all changed to the female audience, to show the equivalence of the two and the gender divide. it will be comprised mostly of female models and aspirational products interspersed with snippets of text about the high flying life of the attarctive young professional woman
the back will be zoo or nuts or fhm, whichever one i have because theyre all now out of print so ill have to make do with what i have. either way it will be tits and wounds and gossip about men who like tits and wounds
the a3 page i will assign to trashy mags, because they have the best aesthetic and i will address the topic of their building a celebrity to tear them back down and sell magazines
below is a very beautiful and artistic sketch of my plan
basically it will read from left to right and on the left i will draw a celebrity who is at the start of their career and has nice photos and stories printed introducing them to us, the middle will be a large image of someone in the hieght of their stardom with applicable snippers around and big sun beams like a russsian constructivist poster and the right hand side will be a celebrity that has reached their expiration date and is this being hounded and torn down by the magazines, showing them tired and makeup less with perhaps suspicious white powder in their nostril
the a2 image will take aspects from all of the magazines to make one enormous image of hectic nonsense
either that or ill have one single image on this page to act as a sudden silence in the sequence of visual noise
here's some more words
and i drew some perfume ads too
workin with words
I'm trying to sort out the words that will make the structure of the drawings
i wanted to have the words down first so i could make the drawings around them and have a semblance of structure to start each image with
so ive been picking out little word snippets and trying to formulate little poems with them
either rhyming or just rhythmicly pleasing
sometimes ive just been putting the actual text in the advert
because you just cant make this shit up
i took to drawing this guy
hes like a well groomed thug
and he had a whole article of words about him
they dressed him up in lots of little suits and got him to stand about in them looking edgy and tough
i think hes football or something
simon baker is so yellow and funny looking
so i had three issues of esquire and in flicking through them i noticed a definite white heavy weighting in models
so i counted
and this is the only not white model in the entire three issues
there was a handful of brown men who weren't models
one was a mugshot of a criminal in a story about heroin
one was aziz ansari
two worked at the magazine
and one was a child in an advert for a leisure centre
words are hard
here are some
there are more
i dont know whether to just work like i was in the first place, taking the words as they seemed relevant
because this poem planning is taking a lot of time and im not sure i even want the images to be that text heavy, to fit in a whole verse
maybe ill just take words out in relation to the images and hope they kinda fit together
maybe just words that fit together rahter than actually flowing as a poem
or maybe im giving up cos im lazy
who knows
it needs more work
some drawings
some unfinished preparatory pages
the top hightlighting the ridiculous dramatic coverage of kim kardashians psoriasis 'outbreak'
the bottom a visual overview of esquire
maybe ill finish them at some point but theyre more working drawings on the way to the big one
its difficult, when to start the actual ones, i don't know.
but theres are getting to be a formula for making so that makes things easier
pick a magazine or topic from essay about magazines
find and arrange appropriate text from magazine
fit in fitting images
add flourishes and suitable doodles to fill in the space
now comes the matter of filling an A2 sheet
I have restructured and reordered
I reorganised the content of my essay so that it fits into what it initially was
I think the question can stay the same but it's worth considering removing the social media online part because that dictates that a large part of the essay will be about online news media, which none of my research relates to. What is the purpose of lifestyle magazines seems too short. What is the role of lifestyle magazines in our society… but I detest that word so What role do lifestyle magazines play in the publishing industry? No.
Maybe I'll decide when I've written it
ANYWAY
INTRODUCTION 5-800
- suggest the decreasing point in print magazines existing
- discuss their existing and current impact on culture and lifestyle
- define all terms and lay out essay aims
HISTORY 1-2000
- run through chronology of print magazines
- establish history of magazine tricks and strategies and their development to what we recognise now
- publishers
- where chronology has lead us to now
PRINT RENAISSANCE 5-800
- current climate now, print seemed dead but is under going renaissance in arty magazines and glossies aimed at older age groups
- How where why etc.
POST MODERN PRINT 1-2000
- adapting to digital climate, ones that have are more successful than have and haven't have shut down
- online content, synthesised content integrating digital content into print magazines
- print starting to offer things the online content cant, tactile qualities
GENDER AND SOCIAL MARKETING 2-3000
- techniques and manipulation used currently
- analysis of theories like lakoff language and gender
- their reflection of society at a time
- inequality and differences in content for different target markets
- analysis of use of techniques
- comparisons of mgazines
-selling lifestyle and celebrity
- case studies
CONCLUSION 500
- print serves a purpose of existing but little else
- we need it so that some physical documentation exists
- better for adds
I think the question can stay the same but it's worth considering removing the social media online part because that dictates that a large part of the essay will be about online news media, which none of my research relates to. What is the purpose of lifestyle magazines seems too short. What is the role of lifestyle magazines in our society… but I detest that word so What role do lifestyle magazines play in the publishing industry? No.
Maybe I'll decide when I've written it
ANYWAY
INTRODUCTION 5-800
- suggest the decreasing point in print magazines existing
- discuss their existing and current impact on culture and lifestyle
- define all terms and lay out essay aims
HISTORY 1-2000
- run through chronology of print magazines
- establish history of magazine tricks and strategies and their development to what we recognise now
- publishers
- where chronology has lead us to now
PRINT RENAISSANCE 5-800
- current climate now, print seemed dead but is under going renaissance in arty magazines and glossies aimed at older age groups
- How where why etc.
POST MODERN PRINT 1-2000
- adapting to digital climate, ones that have are more successful than have and haven't have shut down
- online content, synthesised content integrating digital content into print magazines
- print starting to offer things the online content cant, tactile qualities
GENDER AND SOCIAL MARKETING 2-3000
- techniques and manipulation used currently
- analysis of theories like lakoff language and gender
- their reflection of society at a time
- inequality and differences in content for different target markets
- analysis of use of techniques
- comparisons of mgazines
-selling lifestyle and celebrity
- case studies
CONCLUSION 500
- print serves a purpose of existing but little else
- we need it so that some physical documentation exists
- better for adds
Saturday, 28 November 2015
My essay has changed too much
it's about the supposed death of print now
this shouldve just been a mention, not the entire thing
i don't want to write the entire thing about social media and online news
my initial intention was to answer my series of questions on the purpose and role of printed magazines, with a section about their decline and the rise of the internet
because i didnt research the death of print i have nothing informed to say about it, and am finding myself having to stop writing and research more all the time which stilts my progress
its rendered all of my previous research useless and im no longer comparing the structural, aesthetic and linguistic devices of magazines between audiences of differing genders and incomes, their manipulation, their content, or anything, meaning there is no longer a synthesis between my practical and written aspects
today I am going to repurpose the words I have already written and lay down the structure for the essay I wanted to write, that relates to my research, and to my practical project.
resultantly i will not die from confusion
this shouldve just been a mention, not the entire thing
i don't want to write the entire thing about social media and online news
my initial intention was to answer my series of questions on the purpose and role of printed magazines, with a section about their decline and the rise of the internet
because i didnt research the death of print i have nothing informed to say about it, and am finding myself having to stop writing and research more all the time which stilts my progress
its rendered all of my previous research useless and im no longer comparing the structural, aesthetic and linguistic devices of magazines between audiences of differing genders and incomes, their manipulation, their content, or anything, meaning there is no longer a synthesis between my practical and written aspects
today I am going to repurpose the words I have already written and lay down the structure for the essay I wanted to write, that relates to my research, and to my practical project.
resultantly i will not die from confusion
Monday, 23 November 2015
BREAKING NEWS
FHM AND ZOO ARE DEAD
PRINT IS DEAD
ITS HAPPENING
well, titty mags are dead
oh how the world will weep
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/11/17/bauer-media-announces-end-fhm-and-zoo-magazines
i bet their announcement is that theyre becoming online only magazines
PRINT IS DEAD
ITS HAPPENING
well, titty mags are dead
oh how the world will weep
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/11/17/bauer-media-announces-end-fhm-and-zoo-magazines
i bet their announcement is that theyre becoming online only magazines
Wednesday, 18 November 2015
structurey plan
Start
introduce printed media and suggestion of its increasing obselesence
talk about magazines
lifestyle magazines their online counterparts
begs question if more info is available faster for free online, whsts the point in magazines
rich history of printed media
timeline of lifestyle magazines
history of publishers
point about fancy mags being time honoured and trashy being more recent
then history of internet media, online magazines, social networks up to what we can do now
we can do what we want its just a matter of thinking of it etc etc yadayadayadah
look at print magazines now
compare equivalents
current state of publishers
online counterparts
what online offers that print doenst
what print offers that online doesnt
benefits disadvantages of each, argue through them, a good chunk of essay
similarities and differences
things print magazines took from online and vice versa
in that section look at yellow journalism and clickbait as a main example
also in this section, validity of news, speed, accessibility, can get away with more in print or online?
online couldnt ahve existed without print but could it now
do we need it? what do people think
is it the same as the argument of books over tablets
what people think online media could do in future
resurgence of print? will it be strong enough
where does print stand in sales figures, what are the predictions,
what would a world without print be like
thinking of that reality, is print necessary, and then are printed lifestyle magazines nevessary
introduce printed media and suggestion of its increasing obselesence
talk about magazines
lifestyle magazines their online counterparts
begs question if more info is available faster for free online, whsts the point in magazines
rich history of printed media
timeline of lifestyle magazines
history of publishers
point about fancy mags being time honoured and trashy being more recent
then history of internet media, online magazines, social networks up to what we can do now
we can do what we want its just a matter of thinking of it etc etc yadayadayadah
look at print magazines now
compare equivalents
current state of publishers
online counterparts
what online offers that print doenst
what print offers that online doesnt
benefits disadvantages of each, argue through them, a good chunk of essay
similarities and differences
things print magazines took from online and vice versa
in that section look at yellow journalism and clickbait as a main example
also in this section, validity of news, speed, accessibility, can get away with more in print or online?
online couldnt ahve existed without print but could it now
do we need it? what do people think
is it the same as the argument of books over tablets
what people think online media could do in future
resurgence of print? will it be strong enough
where does print stand in sales figures, what are the predictions,
what would a world without print be like
thinking of that reality, is print necessary, and then are printed lifestyle magazines nevessary
Monday, 9 November 2015
making a resource to help me write stuff
Benefits of the internet over printed media
-It's cheap and most things on it are free, magazines are expensive
-its global, magazines require costly physical distribution so have typically more restricted reach
-its instant, magazines require a lot of time, and are daily weekly or monthly, the internet is second by second
-its easy to make content and recieve content, magazines have to be bought or subscribed to and it is comparitively impossible to contribute to them
-it can be contributed to by anyone anywhere (also a negative, cos idiots), magazines are just contributed to by employees, although may make use of internet for sending work across, so no longer logictical restrictions
its a multimedia platfom, video, image, interactive, magazines are text and still image only
benefits of printed media over internet
phsyical, tangible, internet is ethereal and ignorable
print traditionally has connotations of validity, committed to print, no longer the case but news moves so fast online that often its presence in a printed article legitimises the news
experimental/artful considered printing
has more impact, visually, memory, tendancy online to just swipe through amazing things wihtout batting an eyelid
synthesis of tone of thourghout a magazine
most of these things relate to fancier magazines though, journals and the like
what are the benefits of trashy mags, i really dont know
they are accessible to people to whom the internet is not
-It's cheap and most things on it are free, magazines are expensive
-its global, magazines require costly physical distribution so have typically more restricted reach
-its instant, magazines require a lot of time, and are daily weekly or monthly, the internet is second by second
-its easy to make content and recieve content, magazines have to be bought or subscribed to and it is comparitively impossible to contribute to them
-it can be contributed to by anyone anywhere (also a negative, cos idiots), magazines are just contributed to by employees, although may make use of internet for sending work across, so no longer logictical restrictions
its a multimedia platfom, video, image, interactive, magazines are text and still image only
benefits of printed media over internet
phsyical, tangible, internet is ethereal and ignorable
print traditionally has connotations of validity, committed to print, no longer the case but news moves so fast online that often its presence in a printed article legitimises the news
experimental/artful considered printing
has more impact, visually, memory, tendancy online to just swipe through amazing things wihtout batting an eyelid
synthesis of tone of thourghout a magazine
most of these things relate to fancier magazines though, journals and the like
what are the benefits of trashy mags, i really dont know
they are accessible to people to whom the internet is not
Thursday, 29 October 2015
Essay Plan formulating
I really wish i hadn't lost my notes. Stupid stupid stupid
blehhh
What is the role of printed media in an increasingly digital centric world
Is there still a place for printed media in the digital age
I really hate phrases like that though, the digital age, the digital world, they sound weird like a grandmother trying to work a vhs player or something
rephrasing....
What purpose do printed magazines serve in the current climate....
What purpose do printed magazines serve in a world dominated by online media/social networks etc.
Are printed magazines still relevant
Have printed magazines become irrelevant since the rise in online journalism/media
Since the rise in online magazines and news media have printed magazines become obsolete/are printed magazines becoming obsolete
Has online news media rendered printed magazines obsolete
What is the relevance of printed magazines
How have printed magazines remained relevant in an increasingly digitally dominated industry?
Why are printed magazines still relevant in an increasingly digital industry
What makes printed magazines relevant in an increasingly digitally dominated industry
With the continuing rise in popularity of online news media and magazines, how does the printed magazine business stay afloat?
As the online news industry exponentially grows, what keeps the printed magazine industry afloat?
Honestly I could probably spend the whole day just rewording this and it wouldn't get me any further so lets leave it there.
Plan.
So the introduction, I think we established would be a general history of magazines, particularly the magazines I'm looking at, for the first half, and then then later on in the introduction look at the rise in the internet and online distribution of media and news, about 3/400 words for each?
After that I will look into my questions each as subheadings, and dependant on the question will compare the printed and online versions of examples, how it is in magazines and how it is different online and to what extent this dooms or benefits the printed medium
yeah
and ill use examples i've found, comparisons between the magazines in terms of gender, publisher and 'class'
also i may look for first hand input from people in the publishing industry, of which i have found a connection through a friend to a publishing company in sheffield, so that might be useful, it would save having to do a pointless survey to try and get something first hand, although i guess a lot of my research is first hand because its taken form the magazines, i don't know it might be interesting
waffle waffle
I've gathered some basic jumping off point quotes for some of the questions
why do celebrity magazines create celebrities in order to tear them back down again
In the very short introduction to journalism I found this
Why does reporting on these invented celebrities suffice as news, while actual news and events takes a back seat role, often eclipsed by the posterior of a Kardashian
or something along those lines
Quote again from introduction to journalism
Oooh thats good, so I'll end the section with that bombshell and then start the next one about yellow journalism and how its many magazines only means of survival, but explore how fancier magazines don't resort to this, the effect on its sales and audience and what it uses instead
so
How has yellow journalism become and remained a widely used tactic in the sale of magazines
AAAAH
so I just found out that the term yellow journalism was coined to characterise the rivalry between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, which , the former, is the founder of the Hearst corporation!!!!!! ! 1 1! !!! woooooooooo
Why did I not know that it should've clicked sooner
But that means I can use this paragraph to introduce my exploration into the Hearst Corporation and my comparison of its magazines
So with yellow journalism I'll look at magazines that do use it and the extent to which it is still used in the Hearst Corporations publications, and what it has evolved into, and its prominence online
did Hearst win the war? His company still publishes magazines, but Pulitzer has loads of accolades and museums and stuff, and the Pulitzer prize
Anyway if I'm not careful this section could be an entire other essay
Then I'll go on to comparisons in the validity and truth of news reported, maybe in the same section as yellow to limit waffle
Are printed magazines more reliable and valid because of the permanence of print?
Does the printing of an article increase our perception of its validity
Yeah I'll have this combined with yellow because it follows on nicely from the last quote about the boundaries of fact and fiction.
So then I'll talk about magazines literally inventing news, and reference starsuckers again, and then explore how this is much harder to control online and look at how the time it takes to print a magazine can increase the legitimacy of the news, or wether being committed to print means anything at all anymore.
Then yellow journalism and how it all began to just sell papers and win, and now its just our accepted reality.
This section is getting a little diffuse I shall have to work on it and find more stuff
Is their remaining purpose subtle advertising alone? Advertising what? And how does it carry through to online?
Mostly first hand, looking at what percentage of the magazine is openly advertisement and what is subtle advertisement, how the companies are linked and how it's all in the interest of a few people getting rich
What they sell, glossy magazines have more adverts, they're selling lifestyle, aspirational, usually unknown models selling known products, selling an image, products that make an aspirational lifestyle, buying magazine in order to copy this and get lifestyle, reference basic primal urge to copy the successful for evolutionary success, same with male glossy magazines, sell product and lifestyle, as well as showcasing the powerful and successful
Trashy mags sell celebrity, life, stores, gossip, things to discuss, discussion of other people, they sell bitching topics, to bond with existing inner circle using an outside stimulant, sell achievable reality rather than aspiration, sell bad news and what not to do in order to be prosperous
so here i have to look at consumerism theory and such
this wiki is a good start
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirational_brand
thanks wiki
maybe worth looking at the theory of the leisure class from 1899 to find the roots of what we see in magazines now?
So i cant really quote that I guess I'll have to find a better source, but, very useful very very useful.
I think this will be the tastiest segment.
and for magazines selling celebrity
http://www.wonderwall.com/movies/magazine-stars-the-best-selling-celebrity-covers-12252.gallery#!wallState=0__%2Fmovies%2Fmagazine-stars-the-best-selling-celebrity-covers-12252.gallery%3FphotoId%3D51135
I guess I can hypothesise what I think is happening and then prove or disprove it with my first hand research and triangulate with supporting and opposing quotes
I think after what do magazines sell it should be what sells magazines, maybe this is the last one before I go onto the present day and future bit
is it the cover that sells magazines?
Looking at best selling covers
http://mashable.com/2013/08/15/magazine-covers/#LTBUyWy4Uaqb
http://www.magazine.org/asme/magazine-cover-contests/asmes-top-40-magazine-covers-last-40-years
https://www.texture.ca/en/2014/10/09/top-10-magazine-covers-time/
its interesting, the same ones keep cropping up again and again
Looking at the actual hard stats, find out what sells, why it sells, how much it sells, who buys it, if they still do, how the figures change, what makes them fluctuate, does this happen now when big news is reported instantly, before we even get to buy the magazine or its even printed, after the fact, how does this effect sales, what makes a specific issue more popular, is it just glossys or trashy too
I think I'm running out of wordcount
So conclusion probably should go here
That will result in what i write earlier on but i'll wrap up with some stuff about the future of print
blehhh
What is the role of printed media in an increasingly digital centric world
Is there still a place for printed media in the digital age
I really hate phrases like that though, the digital age, the digital world, they sound weird like a grandmother trying to work a vhs player or something
rephrasing....
What purpose do printed magazines serve in the current climate....
What purpose do printed magazines serve in a world dominated by online media/social networks etc.
Are printed magazines still relevant
Have printed magazines become irrelevant since the rise in online journalism/media
Since the rise in online magazines and news media have printed magazines become obsolete/are printed magazines becoming obsolete
Has online news media rendered printed magazines obsolete
What is the relevance of printed magazines
How have printed magazines remained relevant in an increasingly digitally dominated industry?
Why are printed magazines still relevant in an increasingly digital industry
What makes printed magazines relevant in an increasingly digitally dominated industry
With the continuing rise in popularity of online news media and magazines, how does the printed magazine business stay afloat?
As the online news industry exponentially grows, what keeps the printed magazine industry afloat?
Honestly I could probably spend the whole day just rewording this and it wouldn't get me any further so lets leave it there.
Plan.
So the introduction, I think we established would be a general history of magazines, particularly the magazines I'm looking at, for the first half, and then then later on in the introduction look at the rise in the internet and online distribution of media and news, about 3/400 words for each?
After that I will look into my questions each as subheadings, and dependant on the question will compare the printed and online versions of examples, how it is in magazines and how it is different online and to what extent this dooms or benefits the printed medium
yeah
and ill use examples i've found, comparisons between the magazines in terms of gender, publisher and 'class'
also i may look for first hand input from people in the publishing industry, of which i have found a connection through a friend to a publishing company in sheffield, so that might be useful, it would save having to do a pointless survey to try and get something first hand, although i guess a lot of my research is first hand because its taken form the magazines, i don't know it might be interesting
waffle waffle
I've gathered some basic jumping off point quotes for some of the questions
why do celebrity magazines create celebrities in order to tear them back down again
In the very short introduction to journalism I found this
"At it's most successful, the celebrity system is even capable of inventing it's own stars, through specially connected media events."Which I think would start it off quite nicely and then I'll go on to reference the part in starsuckers about tearing them down again and then I'll cite examples of it happening, and analyse how it happens on the internet faster and with fewer boundaries.
Why does reporting on these invented celebrities suffice as news, while actual news and events takes a back seat role, often eclipsed by the posterior of a Kardashian
or something along those lines
Quote again from introduction to journalism
"Today the instinct to amuse is driving out the will and depleting the resource for serious reporting and analysis"Then another mention of the invented celebrities and make believe news followed by one or some of these
"Often this alternative 'reality' appears to outpunch reality itself in today's mass media"
"This tradition in newspapers has always blurred the line between fact and fiction, information and entertainment"
"In the same period that journalism has learnt to make light of the boundary between fact and fiction, it has also become increasingly absorbed by the entertainment and sales potential of celebrity."And I'll go on to look at how the internet expands on this blurring, and reference the surge in popularity of clickbait as the modern yellow journalism
Oooh thats good, so I'll end the section with that bombshell and then start the next one about yellow journalism and how its many magazines only means of survival, but explore how fancier magazines don't resort to this, the effect on its sales and audience and what it uses instead
so
How has yellow journalism become and remained a widely used tactic in the sale of magazines
AAAAH
so I just found out that the term yellow journalism was coined to characterise the rivalry between William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, which , the former, is the founder of the Hearst corporation!!!!!! ! 1 1! !!! woooooooooo
Why did I not know that it should've clicked sooner
But that means I can use this paragraph to introduce my exploration into the Hearst Corporation and my comparison of its magazines
thanks google books
Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies By W. Joseph Campbell
So with yellow journalism I'll look at magazines that do use it and the extent to which it is still used in the Hearst Corporations publications, and what it has evolved into, and its prominence online
did Hearst win the war? His company still publishes magazines, but Pulitzer has loads of accolades and museums and stuff, and the Pulitzer prize
Anyway if I'm not careful this section could be an entire other essay
Then I'll go on to comparisons in the validity and truth of news reported, maybe in the same section as yellow to limit waffle
Are printed magazines more reliable and valid because of the permanence of print?
Does the printing of an article increase our perception of its validity
Yeah I'll have this combined with yellow because it follows on nicely from the last quote about the boundaries of fact and fiction.
So then I'll talk about magazines literally inventing news, and reference starsuckers again, and then explore how this is much harder to control online and look at how the time it takes to print a magazine can increase the legitimacy of the news, or wether being committed to print means anything at all anymore.
Then yellow journalism and how it all began to just sell papers and win, and now its just our accepted reality.
This section is getting a little diffuse I shall have to work on it and find more stuff
Is their remaining purpose subtle advertising alone? Advertising what? And how does it carry through to online?
Mostly first hand, looking at what percentage of the magazine is openly advertisement and what is subtle advertisement, how the companies are linked and how it's all in the interest of a few people getting rich
What they sell, glossy magazines have more adverts, they're selling lifestyle, aspirational, usually unknown models selling known products, selling an image, products that make an aspirational lifestyle, buying magazine in order to copy this and get lifestyle, reference basic primal urge to copy the successful for evolutionary success, same with male glossy magazines, sell product and lifestyle, as well as showcasing the powerful and successful
Trashy mags sell celebrity, life, stores, gossip, things to discuss, discussion of other people, they sell bitching topics, to bond with existing inner circle using an outside stimulant, sell achievable reality rather than aspiration, sell bad news and what not to do in order to be prosperous
so here i have to look at consumerism theory and such
this wiki is a good start
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirational_brand
thanks wiki
In the context of fashion magazines, the "aspirational model" offers readers continuing (and continually changing) fashion, beauty, and physical ideals to which they can aspire but, perhaps, never actually achieve. Criticized for this approach, magazine editors have claimed that their readers do not want to see "real-life" models or the way that beauty products and clothes look on "real women"; that they buy the magazines in the first place because they prefer the aspirational fantasies, and in the second, because they continually hope that by following the advice or buying the products, they will achieve the ever-changing looks that the magazine promotes via the models and photographic/technological wizardry.
Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power — of the income or of the accumulated wealth of the buyer. Sociologically, to the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means either of attaining or of maintaining a given social status.[1] The development of Veblen’s sociology of conspicuous consumption produced the term invidious consumption, the ostentatious consumption of goods that is meant to provoke the envy of other people; and the term conspicuous compassion, the deliberate use of charitable donations of money in order to enhance the social prestige of the donor, with a display of superior socio-economic status.
Veblen Goods In economics, Veblen goods are types of material commodities for which the demand is proportional to its high price, which is an apparent contradiction of the law of demand; Veblen goods also are commodities that function as positional goods. Veblen goods are types of luxury goods, such as expensive wines, jewelry, fashion-designer handbags, and luxury cars, which are in demand because of the high prices asked for them. The high price makes the goods desirable as symbols of the buyer's high social-status, by way of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure; conversely, a decrease of the prices of Veblen goods would decrease demand for the products.[1]Thorstein Veblen, introduced term, useful books?
maybe worth looking at the theory of the leisure class from 1899 to find the roots of what we see in magazines now?
So i cant really quote that I guess I'll have to find a better source, but, very useful very very useful.
I think this will be the tastiest segment.
and for magazines selling celebrity
http://www.wonderwall.com/movies/magazine-stars-the-best-selling-celebrity-covers-12252.gallery#!wallState=0__%2Fmovies%2Fmagazine-stars-the-best-selling-celebrity-covers-12252.gallery%3FphotoId%3D51135
I guess I can hypothesise what I think is happening and then prove or disprove it with my first hand research and triangulate with supporting and opposing quotes
I think after what do magazines sell it should be what sells magazines, maybe this is the last one before I go onto the present day and future bit
is it the cover that sells magazines?
Looking at best selling covers
http://mashable.com/2013/08/15/magazine-covers/#LTBUyWy4Uaqb
http://www.magazine.org/asme/magazine-cover-contests/asmes-top-40-magazine-covers-last-40-years
https://www.texture.ca/en/2014/10/09/top-10-magazine-covers-time/
its interesting, the same ones keep cropping up again and again
Looking at the actual hard stats, find out what sells, why it sells, how much it sells, who buys it, if they still do, how the figures change, what makes them fluctuate, does this happen now when big news is reported instantly, before we even get to buy the magazine or its even printed, after the fact, how does this effect sales, what makes a specific issue more popular, is it just glossys or trashy too
I think I'm running out of wordcount
So conclusion probably should go here
That will result in what i write earlier on but i'll wrap up with some stuff about the future of print
action plan
so thoughtbubble is kinda interfering a lot with my plans, as it was unexpected, BUT i need to put a significant amount of time into it otherwise the time i have spent will be wasted as i wont be able to use it for 603, so it basically needs the majority of my attention, and then as soon as its over ill focus entirely on cop because ill have already done a large chunk of 603
So my plan is
by the end of this week i need to have a clear structured essay plan and some more work on practical, not visual mostly the structure and words, found things from the magazines to make the found poems, more material to work from.
I also need to have finished my heady leggy comic, ready to assemble on monday.
So ill split my time equally between those two, and halloween of course
Then next week I have to focus on thoughtbubble again as its the penultimate week remaining
I will finish my cat zine, make new covers for my other zines, do the colouring book, make the badges and other ephemera and basically make all of the work I'm going to sell
Then the following week I can spend just printing and packaging and doing logistic type tasks, which is low octane enough that I can split the week equally between cop and thoughtbubble
Now the only problem left is that I start training for my new job at the dentist on monday, every evening, so we'll see how this goes
So my plan is
by the end of this week i need to have a clear structured essay plan and some more work on practical, not visual mostly the structure and words, found things from the magazines to make the found poems, more material to work from.
I also need to have finished my heady leggy comic, ready to assemble on monday.
So ill split my time equally between those two, and halloween of course
Then next week I have to focus on thoughtbubble again as its the penultimate week remaining
I will finish my cat zine, make new covers for my other zines, do the colouring book, make the badges and other ephemera and basically make all of the work I'm going to sell
Then the following week I can spend just printing and packaging and doing logistic type tasks, which is low octane enough that I can split the week equally between cop and thoughtbubble
Now the only problem left is that I start training for my new job at the dentist on monday, every evening, so we'll see how this goes
Monday, 26 October 2015
watches
wondered why all of the mens magazine websites have a section for watches
googled it
found this article
reading it now
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/14/men-wristwatches
EDIT:
halfway through reading this article i wondered who wrote it, it seemed to be fighting the corner of watches, is it the watchmakers son
it is not
but it is the former editor of Esquire
CONSPIRACYYYY
googled it
found this article
reading it now
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/14/men-wristwatches
EDIT:
halfway through reading this article i wondered who wrote it, it seemed to be fighting the corner of watches, is it the watchmakers son
it is not
but it is the former editor of Esquire
CONSPIRACYYYY
Thursday, 22 October 2015
questions and notes
so i made a major cock up, or a cop up if you will, and lost my tutorial notes, no idea where they went, they were in my notebook and now they arent, but hey ho life goes on, maybe theyll show up
i think i recall the main points
we narrowed down a question along the lines of what is the role of printed media in the world of social netweorking and communication
because then i can go on to ask all of the questions that need encompassing into one blanket title
the comparisons, rather than taking their own section in the essay, will be used as citations to back up my points as first hand research, triangulated with found sources
we have established that higher end magazines are selling lifestyle and lower are selling celebrity because the audiences live aspirationally and realistically respectively
so questions
- why do celebrity magazines create celebrities in order to tear them back down again
- why does this occur less frequently in higher end magazines
- to what extent does manipulative language feature in different magazines, high low men women,
- when did the obsession with celebrity start
- can one separate article from advertisement
-does the printing of an article increase our perception of its validity
-can online media have the same weight as printed
-with news able to travel instantly online will printed news media become obselete
-how reliable are the sources of news, compared in different mags, and has news become more or less reliable with the influence of the internet
- why do publishers still make printed magazines if most of the content is available online, and all of it could exist online
- how has the internet affected the industry already
- who are the key figures in the printed magazine industry and what potential vested interest do they have in keeping it running
- haves sales figures changed http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/article/1333599/magazines-abcs-top-100-glance
- what is the difference in language use between mens magazines and womens magazines
- what is the difference in language use between higher and lower end magazines
- is the magazine a self fulfilling industry (cirlce jerk)
- it is still possible to control the quality, validity and suitability of the news being distributed with online media platforms being so widely used
-how has the imediacy of the internet affected our perception of celebrity, can they be build and crushed before the story has even got to print
- what could the future hold for print magazines
an initial brainstorm
more questions, or more edited questions to come
a quote for the road, from useful new website i found, media week, talks magazines in business terms
Underlining the point, Colin Morrison, the author of Flashes & Flames, notes the decline of one of the biggest sectors of the past 15 years: "The six best-selling celebrity weeklies, which fuelled media company profits in the years before they were upstaged by Twitter and YouTube, together now make the same profit once generated by Bauer’s Heat magazine alone."
i think i recall the main points
we narrowed down a question along the lines of what is the role of printed media in the world of social netweorking and communication
because then i can go on to ask all of the questions that need encompassing into one blanket title
the comparisons, rather than taking their own section in the essay, will be used as citations to back up my points as first hand research, triangulated with found sources
we have established that higher end magazines are selling lifestyle and lower are selling celebrity because the audiences live aspirationally and realistically respectively
so questions
- why do celebrity magazines create celebrities in order to tear them back down again
- why does this occur less frequently in higher end magazines
- to what extent does manipulative language feature in different magazines, high low men women,
- when did the obsession with celebrity start
- can one separate article from advertisement
-does the printing of an article increase our perception of its validity
-can online media have the same weight as printed
-with news able to travel instantly online will printed news media become obselete
-how reliable are the sources of news, compared in different mags, and has news become more or less reliable with the influence of the internet
- why do publishers still make printed magazines if most of the content is available online, and all of it could exist online
- how has the internet affected the industry already
- who are the key figures in the printed magazine industry and what potential vested interest do they have in keeping it running
- haves sales figures changed http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/article/1333599/magazines-abcs-top-100-glance
- what is the difference in language use between mens magazines and womens magazines
- what is the difference in language use between higher and lower end magazines
- is the magazine a self fulfilling industry (cirlce jerk)
- it is still possible to control the quality, validity and suitability of the news being distributed with online media platforms being so widely used
-how has the imediacy of the internet affected our perception of celebrity, can they be build and crushed before the story has even got to print
- what could the future hold for print magazines
an initial brainstorm
more questions, or more edited questions to come
a quote for the road, from useful new website i found, media week, talks magazines in business terms
Underlining the point, Colin Morrison, the author of Flashes & Flames, notes the decline of one of the biggest sectors of the past 15 years: "The six best-selling celebrity weeklies, which fuelled media company profits in the years before they were upstaged by Twitter and YouTube, together now make the same profit once generated by Bauer’s Heat magazine alone."
Sunday, 18 October 2015
Found poetry blog fun
http://verbatimpoetry.blogspot.co.uk/
i liked this one because a few times when reading freecycle updates Ive thought about how they read like a strange poem
i liked this one because a few times when reading freecycle updates Ive thought about how they read like a strange poem
06 July 2015
Relevent?
I read this the other day
taken from Felix Feneon's three line obituaries? I don't know I need to do more research but its been said that he was the master of the tabloid haiku, which sounds just perfect.
taken from Felix Feneon's three line obituaries? I don't know I need to do more research but its been said that he was the master of the tabloid haiku, which sounds just perfect.
Practial
So I've formulated an adjusted plan for the practical aspect
Instead of having three large gallery pieces each demonstrating the entirety of one magazine I'm thinking now of doing preparatory work that does emcompass the aesthetic of a magazine into one image and then using all of these to make a booklet that folds out into an A2 poster.
Also, one of the bits I liked about my first drawing was the accidental poem I made from splicing words out of the text, around the arrow where it says new lease of life, under the knife
so, as I like to have an text based element in my work and I do like playing with words, I think I'm also going to make it follow a structured found poem as the magazine unfolds
I found this video last year of fold out booklets and I think it would work quite well
A2 fold out poster from Linda Leunissen on Vimeo.
Instead of having three large gallery pieces each demonstrating the entirety of one magazine I'm thinking now of doing preparatory work that does emcompass the aesthetic of a magazine into one image and then using all of these to make a booklet that folds out into an A2 poster.
Also, one of the bits I liked about my first drawing was the accidental poem I made from splicing words out of the text, around the arrow where it says new lease of life, under the knife
so, as I like to have an text based element in my work and I do like playing with words, I think I'm also going to make it follow a structured found poem as the magazine unfolds
I found this video last year of fold out booklets and I think it would work quite well
A2 fold out poster from Linda Leunissen on Vimeo.
Friday, 16 October 2015
Research and things I need to do
- Decide which magazines to look at, and to what extent publishing companies are involved. I think they should be, the question seems to dictate so
do lifestyle magazines demonstrate manipulative techniques in order to ensure their own prosperity
should I add some focus on publishers?
do the publishers of general lifestyle magazines use manipulative techniques in order to ensure their own prosperity
- Is the question right? maybe i should have a title and subheading
- Read correct chapters of texts, magazine books, find books about publishers? Abandon celebrity culture books, less useful, find books about all magazines rather than just womens magazines
- Do i have a stance? Like a theory or whatever, like a feminist reading of blah blah, do i need one?
- Buy magazines and first hand analyse them
- Research bosses of publishing companies, lives, histories, bias
- Research deeper into histories of selected magazines,
- Draw from other magazines, add to body of work with smaller preparatory images on other magazines
- Research manipulation techniques, use of language, language and gender, persuasion etc.
- Research history of yellow journalism
- Research validity of stories comparatively
- Research target audiences for each, ask about their interest in chosen magazine and its topics, do the magazines actually reflect the interests of the people or do the people reflect the dictation of the magazines.
- Plan how this will be structured, current thoughts are:
a chapter about the magazine industry as a whole and the history of the chosen magazine, context and such,
a chapter for comparing and analysing cosmo and esquire,
a chapter comparing the two trashies, both first hand research backed up with theories of language and gender and manipulation etc.
then maybe another chapter on the influence these publications have and examples of it existing quotes backing up that it infultrates our conciousness blah blah balh,
or maybe a part about how its beginning to lose its impact? and the transfer of much of this information to the internet?
decrease in sales since online content has become increasingly popular, which in turn would lead to the same content being even more influential than it previously was in its print form
A plan of sorts..
So if I'm gonna compare different lifestyle type magazines first I need to decide which ones..
Cosmo - Entertainment, Beauty, Love, Fashion, Worklife
So according to wiki Esquire was made because Apparel Arts was so popular but that was mostly just sold to businesses to give advice to their customers. "to become the common denominator of masculine interests—to be all things to all men." in 1933
So thats cool
Is that still the case now
It later transformed itself into a more refined periodical with an emphasis on men's fashion and contributions by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alberto Moravia, André Gide, and Julian Huxley.
now thats interesting, is this how it's still perceived now? Are the contributers of modern day Esquire to one day be the equivalents to Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald?
Who knows..
Anyway
Should they be parallels?
2 'male' 2 'female' oriented?
i think FHM is pretty interesting because of how it seems to have changed over time, but thats not really what I'm looking at so maybe just a section about how these magazines have changed and developed with reference to FHM, perhaps introduction?
So for fancy women theres
vogue, which is too fashion
Elle, which according to wiki is the worldwide most popular
Cosmopolitan, which I think its quite a good equivalent to GQ and spans all assumed female teritory with less of a focus on fashion than vogue, I think theyre roughly equal in their contents….
Also it's worth considering Esquire vs Cosmopolitan because they're both published by Hearst Corporation so maybe it would be more of an equivalent than GQ. I haven't read it though so I don't know the content breakdown, but their tagline says The Smart Man's Guide to the Best in Style, Food, Gear, Culture and more… so I suppose that sounds about the equivilant to Cosmo, cos GQ is more fashion.
So Cosmo vs Esquire?
should i be looking at the online content as well?
I think I probably should
on that note, the two websites are remarkably similar, very clickbait, GIFs and autoplay videos, they even have basically the same subheadings
Cosmo - Entertainment, Beauty, Love, Fashion, Worklife
Esquire - Style, Watches (?!), Gear, Food & Drink, Culture, Women
Okay theyre a little different, but its all just different words for stuff
Oddly the male magazine doesnt have a work section
And watches? what the hell is that? its just a page of watch adverts, that isnt journalism
Are watches just a much bigger deal than i thought?
I mean I found that whole magazine about watches yesterday
a whole new world…
So according to wiki Esquire was made because Apparel Arts was so popular but that was mostly just sold to businesses to give advice to their customers. "to become the common denominator of masculine interests—to be all things to all men." in 1933So thats cool
Is that still the case now
It later transformed itself into a more refined periodical with an emphasis on men's fashion and contributions by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alberto Moravia, André Gide, and Julian Huxley.
now thats interesting, is this how it's still perceived now? Are the contributers of modern day Esquire to one day be the equivalents to Hemingway and F Scott Fitzgerald?
Who knows..
Anyway
Lets look at GQs website
I can't believe it they have a watch section too.. Although it makes more sense in this one cos fashion..
GQ - Comment, Fashion, Watches, Entertainment, Girls, GQ Style, MOTY (?), 100 Most Connected.
Ah, MOTY is men of the year..
Differences are intriguing to observe
its very much about following other successful men
Also the choice of the word 'girls' where Esquire chose 'Women'
Is this to do with target audience age range?
Let's try Men's Health, it's more specific but anyhoo
Workouts, Muscle, Fitness, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Health, Style, WATCHES
WATCHES AGAIN!
What is this some kind of watch selling conspiracy
Glamour - News, Fashion, Celebrity, Hair & Beauty, Features, Magazine
no watches
men are weird
Company - Fashion, Celebs, Beauty, Music, Careers, Travel, Compnay HQ, Chat, Play
Red Magazine doesnt really have an online presence, just a website offering different ways to subscribe.
Interestingly though, at the bottom in big letters. HEARST CORPORATION.
Theyre everywhere
So let's look at the trashys
I still don't know who's publishing them
Zoo - News, Guide, Girls, Sport
much simpler..
FHM - News, Style, Man Food (?), Kit, Entertainment, How To, Health & Fitness, Girls
Girls again, is it the target age group?
Hello! - Celebrities, Royalty, William & Kate (is both really necessary), Fashion, Weddings, Health & Beauty, Lifestyle, Entertainment
Very weird
Heat - Celeb News, Star Style, Entertainment, Get Happy (?), Win, heat radio, heat tv, Offers
get happy is basically clickbait buzzfeed news and games
Published by Bauer Media, who seem pretty big in magazines and radio
They have the nature interest things
Bird Watching, Angling Times, Country Walking trout and salmon etc.
All the cars
All the music magazines, Kerrang, Q, Mojo, Planet Rock
and Empire
AND
MORE USEFULLY
they own Closer, FHM, Grazia, Heat, The Debrief (!? totally thought that was like independant online) and Zoo!!!!!!
aaaAHHHah breakthroughssss
SO
Hearst Corporation - Cosmopoliton VS Esquire
Bauer Media - Heat/Closer/Hello VS FHM/Zoo
meaning i can study also into the history and management of the two comanies and analyse their bias
eheeeeehehe yay
but theres also Star which is my favourite because its just the worst, which is a Murdoch!
so maybe i could allude to star as well
oddly as well it seems to be the oldest of the womens gossip magazines that still exists, started in 1974
BUT it was sold in 1990 to the American Media inc... what else do they own ?
among other things they own Star, OK! and Mens Fitness
not as subject lucrative as Bauer media but maybe more interesting bias and back story with the murdoch involvement, but maybe theres too much to write about both
The problem is the more i research the more research there is to do and the project is expanding and expanding and i dont know if 9000 is enough words for it all
I can't believe it they have a watch section too.. Although it makes more sense in this one cos fashion..
GQ - Comment, Fashion, Watches, Entertainment, Girls, GQ Style, MOTY (?), 100 Most Connected.
Ah, MOTY is men of the year..
Differences are intriguing to observe
its very much about following other successful men
Also the choice of the word 'girls' where Esquire chose 'Women'
Is this to do with target audience age range?
Let's try Men's Health, it's more specific but anyhoo
Workouts, Muscle, Fitness, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Health, Style, WATCHES
WATCHES AGAIN!
What is this some kind of watch selling conspiracy
Glamour - News, Fashion, Celebrity, Hair & Beauty, Features, Magazine
no watches
men are weird
Company - Fashion, Celebs, Beauty, Music, Careers, Travel, Compnay HQ, Chat, Play
Red Magazine doesnt really have an online presence, just a website offering different ways to subscribe.
Interestingly though, at the bottom in big letters. HEARST CORPORATION.
Theyre everywhere
So let's look at the trashys
I still don't know who's publishing them
Zoo - News, Guide, Girls, Sport
much simpler..
FHM - News, Style, Man Food (?), Kit, Entertainment, How To, Health & Fitness, Girls
Girls again, is it the target age group?
Hello! - Celebrities, Royalty, William & Kate (is both really necessary), Fashion, Weddings, Health & Beauty, Lifestyle, Entertainment
Very weird
Heat - Celeb News, Star Style, Entertainment, Get Happy (?), Win, heat radio, heat tv, Offers
get happy is basically clickbait buzzfeed news and games
Published by Bauer Media, who seem pretty big in magazines and radio
They have the nature interest things
Bird Watching, Angling Times, Country Walking trout and salmon etc.
All the cars
All the music magazines, Kerrang, Q, Mojo, Planet Rock
and Empire
AND
MORE USEFULLY
they own Closer, FHM, Grazia, Heat, The Debrief (!? totally thought that was like independant online) and Zoo!!!!!!
aaaAHHHah breakthroughssss
SO
Hearst Corporation - Cosmopoliton VS Esquire
Bauer Media - Heat/Closer/Hello VS FHM/Zoo
meaning i can study also into the history and management of the two comanies and analyse their bias
eheeeeehehe yay
but theres also Star which is my favourite because its just the worst, which is a Murdoch!
so maybe i could allude to star as well
oddly as well it seems to be the oldest of the womens gossip magazines that still exists, started in 1974
BUT it was sold in 1990 to the American Media inc... what else do they own ?
among other things they own Star, OK! and Mens Fitness
not as subject lucrative as Bauer media but maybe more interesting bias and back story with the murdoch involvement, but maybe theres too much to write about both
The problem is the more i research the more research there is to do and the project is expanding and expanding and i dont know if 9000 is enough words for it all
Thursday, 15 October 2015
Publishers and first issues
I'm looking into who makes the most popular lifestyle magazines, or whatever ones I'm considering using.
to see if their ethos and techniques overlap
to explore their bias
to figure out who is at the top and whatnot
also its interesting
HEARST CORPORATION owns:
Elle
Cosmopolitan
Esquire
Good Housekeeping
Harpers Bazaar
(cool picture of the first issue)
on a side note a lot of these magazines are very very old, like they started in the 1800s and stuff
that could make a good bit of exploration, maybe a chapter, maybe a paragraph
a tangential study into how the magazines have changed and developed and how they are also basically still the same….
something to think about..
1894
became womens magazine in late 60's
first published 1886
i think this ones my favourite
its like the most succinct description of how i ignorantly perceive Mens Health
do you have any real friends?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Jones_(i-D)
i-D magazine is pretty interesting
apparently i-D is regarded as the first emoticon
also the old covers are great
Elle was founded in France in 1945. In the 1960s, it was considered to "not so much reflect fashion as decree it", with 800,000 loyal readers and a then famous slogan: "Si elle lit, elle lit Elle (If she reads, she reads Elle)
See this is interesting because my whole point was like how magazines control our perceptions of life and reality and all that, like how they literally shape our lifestyles by telling us what they want us to do
perpetuating an ideal etcetc..
1945
to see if their ethos and techniques overlap
to explore their bias
to figure out who is at the top and whatnot
also its interesting
HEARST CORPORATION owns:
Elle
Cosmopolitan
Esquire
Good Housekeeping
Harpers Bazaar
(cool picture of the first issue)
on a side note a lot of these magazines are very very old, like they started in the 1800s and stuff
that could make a good bit of exploration, maybe a chapter, maybe a paragraph
a tangential study into how the magazines have changed and developed and how they are also basically still the same….
something to think about..
1894
became womens magazine in late 60's
first published 1886
i love this one
it looks like the 80s but it was 1939
comparatively, its a point to consider, that the more higher class glossy magazines seem to have their roots in history, theyve existed for like a hundred years, whereas the tackier magazines have less historical background
eg.
first issue 1999
1996
2002
1988
Grazias wiki article…
From its start in 1938 to September 1943 Bruno Munari served as the art director for the magazine and for another Mondadori title, Tempo.[9]
..interesting
ahaa finally found a picture, i think it says 1943..
1995
GQ, was formerly Apparel Arts and then Gentlemens Quarterly
again cementing my hypothesising of fancier magazines having historical grounding
isnt this fascinating
Zoo started in 2006 on the back of FHM, which began in 1985
interestingly FHM seems to have undergone a massive deterioration over time
its first issue looks like a gentlemenly magazine not dissimilar from GQ
whereas now…
interesting...
2004, I guess the first purely trash male magazine?
depends when FHM got trashy
loaded 1994
its difficult to imagine gary oldman being in a ladmag nowadays..
or even being described as a lad
or being in any way affiliated with lad culture
i think this ones my favourite
its like the most succinct description of how i ignorantly perceive Mens Health
do you have any real friends?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Jones_(i-D)
i-D magazine is pretty interesting
apparently i-D is regarded as the first emoticon
also the old covers are great
Elle was founded in France in 1945. In the 1960s, it was considered to "not so much reflect fashion as decree it", with 800,000 loyal readers and a then famous slogan: "Si elle lit, elle lit Elle (If she reads, she reads Elle)
See this is interesting because my whole point was like how magazines control our perceptions of life and reality and all that, like how they literally shape our lifestyles by telling us what they want us to do
perpetuating an ideal etcetc..
1945
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