Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences within a media area which you have studied.

The institution Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. H Bauer brands include women's weekly and TV listings magazines; namely Bella, Take a Break, that's life! TV Choice and Total TV Guide as well as a number of puzzle magazines. Bauer Media also owns the two magazines, Grazia and Take a Break and it publishes the magazines for consumers to buy. However, there are issues that are raised by the institution’s need to target their specific audience for Grazia magazine.

 

The media products we have studied are Grazia and Take a Break. Grazia is a fashion magazine aimed at upper-middle class women aged between 20 and 45 years old (A, B, C1). Bauer, market Grazia by praising the magazine and writing things such as, it ‘remains the market-leader’ and ‘GRAZIA transformed the women’s magazine market’. However, Take a Break is a real life magazine aimed at lower-middle class women aged between 25 and 55 years old (C1, C2). The difference in the target audience between the two magazines means that they are distributed differently to fit the lifestyle of the buyers.

Grazia magazine is very reliant on stories that are up to date and current such as, the magazine must keep up to the date with the current trends of shops like Oasis, whereas Take a Break is not as reliant on the latest stories and can feature older stories such as, someone who lost weight a few years ago. Also, Grazia features articles about fashion, celebrities and desirable goods, such as perfume and handbags. Grazia also places images on the front cover of the magazine that are celebrities of a high class and status, evident from the number of Grazia magazines that I have looked at. However, Take a Break features human interest stories, useful articles, reader generated content and ‘weekly shop’ adverts. Also, Take a Break features lots of gossip, horoscopes, dating articles and ‘bizarre’ stories. The images on the front cover also feature celebrities who may have a high celebrity status but may have a bad reputation or are known for the wrong reasons. This is again evident from the number of Take a Break magazines that I have looked at.

The two magazines, Grazia and Take a Break advertise themselves using many different types of technology. They widely use the internet, by posting different adverts on the internet for their magazine and also, with their websites, which are created for the purpose of attracting new consumers. The magazines use twitter and Facebook as well to advertise themselves. The two magazines rely a lot on these forms of technology as they are extremely useful for the advertisement of the magazines.

These different magazines are distributed by following the distribution chain. The magazine will begin at the magazine publisher and then will be sent to the distributor where it will be separated, sent to different wholesalers and then distributed to different shops where it will be sold to consumers.

One of the media products that I have studied in particular is Grazia. Grazia targets its specific audience by running stories about high street fashion, current trends, designer fashion shows and collections and style tips for the readers.

Issues that are raised by the media institution, compromise their ability to target their specific target audience. Although, forty two people work at Grazia and they produce 100 pages a week, Grazia struggle to get enough stories to publish every week in the magazine and have to work to try and find good stories to publish. Also, Grazia struggle to get the exclusive story from designers. They have to use their existing contacts and go out to events, to get more contacts, so that they can get the exclusive stories and gossip. Grazia have to compete with other magazines, such as, Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire to get the stories first. This means that they do things, such as, getting tip offs from people on the street and by phoning contacts to find out all the gossip about celebrities. Grazia have a network of people all around the world, yet it still can be a struggle to find out the gossip. Grazia also, have to contact the lawyers of celebrities to get their approval to run a particular story. This can slow down the publishing process and could also reduce the amount of pages printed in the magazine, if the story is not allowed to be run.

Grazia tries it’s best to overcome these issues and try different things to produce the best outcome. In the Grazia documentary, Grazia are shown to have a professional relationship with designers, such as, Giorgio Armani and they report on his collections and shows, to provide him with the best media coverage. In return he gives Grazia the inside scoop on the major gossip about celebrities and their outfits and also on any details on fashion and collections. 

This is my response to the practice exam question that we were set. I have written an essay discussing the ways in which Grazia and Take a Break are produced and distributed to particular audiences of magazines.

Terminology Test

·         Mise-en-scene – Everything in the shot/frame.

 

·         Key lighting – It is the front lighting, it lights the subject of the shot.

 

·         Juxtaposition – It is the contrast between to subjects/objects.

 

·         Props – Items/objects used by the actors.

 

·         Eyeline match – Shows the line of sight at the thing that an actor is looking at.

 

·         Low angle – Shooting from a lower angle than the subject – looking up.

 

·         Shot/reverse shot – Shot of someone and then shot from someone else over their shoulder. – Must follow the 180 degree rule.

 

·         Dirty over – It is the blurry foreground of someone’s shoulder that frames a shot in a shot/reverse shot.

 

·         Binary opposition – Two opposing things.

 

·         Stereotype – A typical representation of a certain type of person. – Class, gender, race.

 

·         Extreme close up – Detail shot: Really close up view of the subject/object.

 

·         Establishing shot – The first shot of a scene that sets the scene.

 

·         Dolly/track shot – Moving shot, which follows a moving subject/object.

 

·         Location – The place where a scene is set.

 

·         Prosthetics – Fake body parts.

We had a test, testing us on our knowledge of different terminology that we had learnt.

Misfits (Shot) - Mise-en-scène

I have identified all of the things in the shot that come under the heading of mise-en-scène.

 



Magazines that compete with Grazia and Take a Break

Grazia:

 

 

Fashion, Celebs, Desirable goods (perfume, handbags), ‘celeb readers’.

 

 

Look Magazine - This magazine is similar to Grazia as it has lots of articles about fashion, hair, beauty and different style tips. Cover stars that feature on the magazine are of the same class and status. However, Look magazine features a lot of celebrity gossip articles and focuses mostly of street fashion. (Published by IPC Media)

More Magazine – This magazine is similar to Grazia as it has lots of articles about fashion and beauty. Both magazines feature tips and advice about different styles. However, it is different to Grazia as More Magazine widely uses social networking sites to involve the reader and get their point of view on articles in their magazine. (Published by Bauer Media)

 

 

 

Take a Break:

 

Human interest stories, useful articles, reader generated content, ‘weekly shop’ adverts.

Bella Magazine – This magazine is similar to Take a Break as it features real life stories, dating and also dieting tips. There are also lots of competitions that readers can enter and both magazines feature a TV guide for readers. However, Bella is slightly different to Take a Break as it features predominantly celebrity gossip articles, whereas Take a Break focuses more on normal people with tragic real life stories to tell. (Published by Bauer Media)

 

 

 

OK Magazine – This magazine is similar to Take a Break as it features lots of gossip, horoscopes, dating stuff and ‘bizarre’ stories. However, it is slightly different as it does focus on fashion more than Take a Break does and tends to have more celebrity gossip and TV gossip. (Published by Odyssey Magazine Publishing Group)

 


We had to research and find different magazines that were similar to Grazia or Take a Break and identify the key similarities, such as, target audience or types of articles and then, we had to identify any differences that create a contrast between the magazines.

Grazia - Documentary

We watched a documentary in class about Grazia Magaine and how the people who work for the magazine, find their stories and create the magazine every week. We had to address these particular questions:

 

·         How do the writers reflect the Grazia readers?

·         Where do they find their stories?

 

·         How does the fashion show attract Grazia readers?

 

·         Why is it also unrealistic for Grazia readers?

 

·         What challenges/problems face Grazia in making the magazine? – Find and record specific examples.

 

From watching the documentary, I bullet pointed key things that I noticed whilst watching it.

·         42 people work at Grazia and they produce 100 pages a week.

 

·         They say that “looking good is a must”.

 

·         Grazia are advertising aspirational catwalk clothing.

 

·         Grazia have a professional relationship with Armani and they report on his collections and shows.

 

·         Competitors – Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire.

 

·         Grazia get tip offs from people on the streets and also by people who Grazia have a professional relationship with. They can also buy exclusive stories from people who can verify the story. – Network of people all around the world.

 

·         The Grazia readers like to read reports about high end fashion shows, showing designer brands and haute couture. They like this as it provides them with aspirational clothing ideas.

 

·         Grazia struggle to get enough stories to publish every week in the magazine.

 

·         Only 300 women buy haute couture around the world every year. Each garment sells for about £1,000 000.

 

·         Perfume and accessories are sold as part of the high end brands to appeal to women who will be able to afford the less expensive items.

 

·         Grazia struggle to get the exclusive from designers. – They have to compete with other magazines, to get the story first.

Representation of Ethnicity

 

We explored different areas of the representation of ethnicity and identified what we should write about in an exam answer.

Audience Theory

1.      The Hypodermic Needle Model:

The advertiser injects information into the audience’s mind via different types of media. This was a simplistic way of attracting the audience as the view was that the audience would be easily susceptible to different information, for example, a poster on the side of the bus. They thought that if the audience saw this, that they would feel obliged to go out and buy it. However this was not the case as the audience didn’t take in the information as passively as the advertisers thought they would. This showed that different audiences were influenced in different ways. This method is very outdated, so it is not applicable to Grazia Magazine.

2.      Two-Step Flow:

This is a more developed version of the Hypodermic Needle Model as it targets the audience’s interests more specifically. This takes into account the type of lifestyle that the audience may lead. This would relate to Grazia Magazine as adverts are placed in the magazines to catch the eye of the reader. Grazia Magazine also includes high end adverts, such as ‘Louis Vuitton’, which would not be placed on the side of buses.

 

3.      Uses & Gratifications:

This form of advertisement was used during the 1960s. The aim of it was to relate to the public by communicating to them on a personal level. The advertisement used diversion; an escape from everyday problems, Personal relationships; such as, using the media for emotional interaction (Eg. Substituting soap operas for family life), Personal Identity; finding yourself in literary texts and Surveillance; Information which is useful for everyday living, such as, Weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains/deals. Nowadays, this from of advertisement is being increasingly used in products, such as video games and the internet.

 

4.      Reception Theory:                                                                                                          

      In the past couple of decades, a lot of research has been done to determine the way that individuals receive and interpret things and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age and ethnicity) can affect it. Reception Theory has been created by using different conventions, to achieve a certain expectation and interpretation. So basically, this concept of advertisement has a preferred reader created by the publisher but yet an alternative reading as well, to appeal to a wider audience.

 

      We had to summarise the different audience theories and explain what they were and if they were effective or not.

Hotel Babylon – Representation of Ethnicity

Hotel Babylon – Representation of Ethnicity

The scene where the two coloured men meet by the pool:

Characters:

·         Ben (In suit)

·         Tel (Board shorts)

·         Stereotypes of people originated from the black community are very prominent in the first scene.

·         In the initial scene, where Ben meets Tel, it is obvious that there is a difference in the social class between Ben and Tel. The shot and reverse shot shows firstly, that Tel is a typical stereotyped black, young male. His appearance portrays him as more fashionable, edgy and radical. He has a large silver necklace, tattoos, braided hair and brightly coloured board shorts. Whilst, Ben is dressed very smartly, in a suit with neat hair.
 

·         The juxtaposition in the scene shows that Ben feels quite uncomfortable around Tel and the atmosphere is very awkward.

 

 

·         Tel has a very open posture and open body language, which suggests that they have known each other a long time. Also, Tel’s facial expressions show him to be very confident and again, a typical stereotyped black male. Towards the end of the scene, Tel even becomes slightly aggressive.

·         It is apparent in this scene that Ben has sexual feelings towards Tel. However, he doesn’t show his feelings openly towards Tel. This perhaps suggests how the black, male community has strong opinions about homosexuality and the fact that it is frowned upon. His sexuality is very controversial in the black community and this is perhaps the reason why Ben is trying to hide it.

·         The lighting is key is this scene and strongly emphasises Ben’s face. However, one side of Ben’s face is lit and the other side is dark. This can be interpreted metaphorically as a suggestion that Ben is trying to hide something.

The scene where the two maids strip for the Japanese business man (Mr Matsui):

·         There is a connotation of power in this scene and a cut away shot to a pile of money, enforces this. However, he doesn’t appear to have any power over his perverted feelings.

·         There is an existing cultural stereotype of Japanese business men, who have lots of money who pay women for strip teases.

·         A shot showing the unease of one of the maids, is followed by a shot of the eagerness of the Japanese man.

 

 

·         The Japanese man also has power over the remote control, which suggests his dominance over the situation.

 

·         There are a few extreme close ups of the Japanese man, which enforces how disgusting and perverted he is. – This brings out an awkward and appalled emotion in the viewer. During the extreme close ups, key lighting is used to focus on his face, especially his forehead, which reflects the light. This highlights the fact that he is sweating profusely. This further shows how ‘excited’ he is for the show that is being put on for him.

 

·         The Japanese man is wearing a dressing gown but nothing else. This suggests that he is hoping for some sort of sexual gratification.

 

·         The scene is played slightly comically and lighter way, which is perhaps more suitable for the target audience.

 
 

The fight scene between the chefs in the kitchen (Gianni and Martin):

Gianluca	Martin
He is short and thin.	He is tall and fat. – Accentuated by the chef hat that he is wearing.
He is quite swarve and of a good looking Italian culture – Good with the ladies.	He is quite fat and unattractive.
He is wearing a black,   fitted chef coat.	He is dressed in a large white chef’s shirt, apron and hat.
Italian	English
Sharp, accentuated tone of voice.	He has a lazy, English accent. – Not too forceful in the way that he speaks (not too assertive).
Stereotypical angry, fiery Italian.	Bitter, not as violent.

·         The extras in the background set the scene as a busy multi-cultural kitchen.

·         Gianni is a short and thin character, dress in a black, fitted chef’s coat. This implies that he is quite swarve and his appearance suggests that he is of a good looking culture; Italian. However, Martin is tall and fat, which is accentuated by the chef hat that he is wearing. He is dressed in a large white chef’s shirt, apron and hat.

·         Gianni has a sharp, accentuated tone of voice, which shows a clear contrast to Martin’s lazy, sloppy English accent. Martin is also not very assertive or forceful in the way that he speaks.

·         Gianni is a stereotypical angry, fiery Italian. He is quite violent towards Martin, which makes up for his lack of height. However, Martin is not as violent but it is obvious that there is a build-up of tension in him, which is portrayed in him as bitterness.

·         When Gianni kisses Martin on the head, he does it quite aggressively. It is also seen as quite patronising towards Martin as Gianni has to get Martin to bend down.

 

·         Martin appears as quite powerful afterwards though, as he grabs Gianni round the front.

 

·         Gianni has sharp, jerky movements, whilst Martin is quite big and is stationary in the shot. This is portrayed in the cut away shot of Gianni, picking up the knife and then back to the shot of the two chefs.

 

·         In the shot, reverse shot, the two characters are almost filmed on the same level. The height of Martin is not exaggerated in this shot. This would imply the equality of the two characters and suggests that they are both to blame.

 

 

The two managers walking towards the kitchen, discussing Gianni and Martin:

·         The two managers are shown as stereotypical affluent white people.

·         The two managers are dressed in smart and sophisticated attire. This suggests that they are of a higher status than the lower class workers, who pass the managers.

·         The workers are dressed in drab, inexpensive uniforms. – They are shown scurrying around, carrying boxes and rubbish.

·         The two managers are taller than the workers in the scene, who are of other ethnicities.
 

We had to watch this extract from Hotel Babylon and write about the representation of ethnicity in four different scenes. We then identified the difference between an extract, a scene, a shot and a frame.

 

Extract, Scene, Shot, Frame:

·         Extract – The selected extract has at least four different scenes, chosen by the examiner.

·         Scene – The scenes could be between 20 seconds and one minute. You choose which scenes you want to write about.

·         Shot – You choose a specific shot to discuss mise-en-scene and the lighting.

·         Frame – You can include stuff about the composition and structure of the frame.