30 Sept 2013

Task 4 - Semiotic Theory

Semiotic theory focuses on the social and cultural meaning of signs and codes and conventions. Signs consist of an image, a word, an object or even a certain type of practise. The meaning of signs depends on the relationship between the signifier, the signified and the referent. We all respond to signs in many different ways whenever if that is to agree or disagree on a certain topic or if we just respond to it from our own actions. These signs can be presented in many different forms whenever that is from an image, a word or a video. We identify and respond to these signs by two terms which are Denotation and Connotation.

Denotation

Denotation is the literal or primary meaning of a word or sign, in contrast to the feeling or ideas that the word or sign suggests. For example a stop sign has the denotation of stopping a vehicle. Even without words we would recognise the meaning from the shape and the colour.

Connotation

Connotation is the idea or a feeling that a word or a sign portrays for a person in addition to its primary meaning. It sets a tone or an emotional association that a word or sign has. It can be negative and positive but is usually something seen by the population in general. For example the stop sign would have the connotation of risk and danger of an accident if the person decided to ignore the sign because of the red colour background which portrays this meaning. 

Applying Semiotic theory

Let's look at this cover...

26 Sept 2013

Task 3 - Questionnaire

 Please take the time to complete my Questionnaire it will be a great help.

Task 2 - Research Methods

 I need to research for my music magazines, these are the two methods I will be using to do this are:
  • Quantitive analysis - used to measure and predict leading to a final course of action,
  • Qualitative analysis - uses to uncover and understand thoughts and opinions.
The two types of data recorded during this is:
  • Primary - Data found by you, not recycled,
  • Secondary - Data retrieved second hand.
Applying Research Methods

Music Magazines can use these methods to get all of there information that they publish in there magazines... obviously. But furthermore they can use Quantitive 

16 Sept 2013

Task 1 - What is a Music Magazine?

What is a music magazine? Surely it's just a magazine containing trivial things associated with music like Interviews, Tour Dates, Photo Shoots, Reviews and Music News and much more... But it isn't just that, it is a magazine dedicated to music culture at large.

Music magazine have been popular since the beginning of the 1900 with magazines from that period still running today e.g B.M.G which, fun fact, is the longest running british music magazine.



As we can see that this magazine is associated with the acoustic genre and many magazines can be associated with many genres. Kerrang! can be associated with metal as well as Q with rock where as magazines like WeLovePop can be associated with the Pop genre.




Even though B.M.G is the oldest of UK magazines it is by far not the favorite, I hadn't even heard of it before my teacher mentioned it in lesson today. That honor falls to The Fly, a free music magazine published monthly MAMA & Company. This magazine was first published in 1999 and has dominated ever since.




The future of physical music magazines is a bleak one. With the takeover of the internet and social media sites like Twitter which get all of the best scoops before thenext montly magazine can reach the shelves. This makes the physical copy, larger monthly magazine obsolete and it will soon die.

Magazine are having to rely on the older music fanbase who may not have as much access to the internet as the younger generation do.

6 Sept 2013

Introduction to my Blog!


Hello,
          my name is Luke Griffiths and I am a A-LEVEL student at Cardinal Heenan sixth form, this blog is for my coursework in my AS Media course. I am passionate about music, I am even learning to play guitar. The music that I generally enjoy is rock/folk and my favourite band at the moment is a clash between 'Oasis' and 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds'.
















The whole idea of this blog is to motivate me to crack down on my work and update multiple times a week to show the progress of my studies.

My first assignment is to create a music magazine to promote an up and coming band in my local community.

The type of research that I will be doing to achieve this will consist of:

  • Studying music magazines like Q, Karrang! and the Rolling Stones...
  • Studying the layouts, fonts/typography, colour schemes, the type of images they use and the covers that I can apply to my own mock magazine.
  • See what the target audience is and appeal to it.
  • Research Genres to decide what type of band I would like to promote.
                                                              
Please look at what I have done so far and please critique as much as possible.

 Thank you,
                     Luke