Tast 10 - Contents Page for College Magazine

This is how I would set out my college magazines contents page, the couloured boxes represent the surface area the text/pictures would take up. The text down the side is the contents list.

Task 10 - College Magazine Cover

I am going to be creating my very own college magazine to show, what I believe is the optimum way to set out a college magazine using this as my image...

I will be editing this image and applying text and other images to turn it into a cover to be reckoned with. I will be using the program GIMP Image Manipulator to do this since that is the program I have installed on my PC at home, where I am doing this.

I have added a funky header that matches with the school colour's too the top.

Next the logo was placed in the top right hand corner. Please note that this is a draft of how I would do it, the real thing would be much more refined. I also made the black sidebar larger to border the image. I also added a title/Masthead to the newsletter as well as a date.

This is my final cover, I re-did it all because the resolution was ruined. I have re-invisioned the title/masthead and am happy with the results. I made the page wider and added text.

Task 9 - Analysing a College Magazine

So, a college magazine eh, thats no magazine, if anything I would call it a newsletter. Two major things jump out at me when I look at this image, the title and the heads message. The title has a cool winter design to keep it fresh and clearly shows that this is related to a school/college. The heads message shows that he/she is clearly involved in the school and not just sitting on the sidelines. It shows him to be proud of the school and that is a great sentiment.

Other things that now jump out at me now that I have looked at the image for a bit longer are the images. The images portray the school with an Ideology of a relaxed learning environment, they also make it seem like there is a lot to do here. With the concert and the graffiti wall, this newsletter shows the school as a forward thinking school that would be a lot of fun to attend.

What I would do differently

Like I mentioned in the first line, this is no magazine so the first thing I will do is actually create a magazine. Next I would neaten up the whole thing, it is very cluttered and it like they believe to make something look good every millimetre of surface area needs to be maximised. Finally I believe that this looks very unprofessional, it looks like it was created by a student in fact, so I would overhaul the graphics on the page to make it look more professional.

Task 8 - Ideology

Ideology is the system of beliefs and ideals that govern the way we conduct ourselves and how we like other to also. When people don't match our ideologies we tend to judge or discriminate against them.

Now lets talk about the ideology of my school, as a school you generally like to be seen as safe and unthreatening so that people will come. So lets look at two images vying for the front page of the school prospectus...

The first image may look cool, but this image also harbours some vague hidden ideology that might put people off. For a start, the sky. The clouds in the sky are overcast and swirling, making the viewer uneasy as them signs are normally associated with a bad place. The building is also photographed from a low angle making it seem imposing and that might scare a young year 7 wannabe.

Now this next images is a lot more like it, clear skies, welcoming setting and relaxed atmosphere. All these things make this school seem a lot more appealing than the other image. The ideology can be very important, all though the top image looks cooler it embodies darker tones that shouldn't be associated with school.

Task 7- Applying the Male Gaze

We can apply the Male Gaze theory to pretty much anything, not just music magazines, like this clip from Hollyoaks. In this clip there are a selection of scenes from a single episode where the character of Mitzeee Minniver introduced for the first time. Lets watch...

 

It starts with a scene of Mitzeee walking down the road with her legs fully on show. There is a lot of implied sexuality and she has to even pull her skirt down when it starts to ride up. She is enhanced even more because of the people sitting around her as they follow her with there eyes, the camera then pans around to follow her backside playing of her sexuality even more and objectifies her.

Next she poses next to a window as the camera quick cuts to her face where she removes her sunglasses, pucks her lips and bats her eyelashes. Throughout this scene we also get a song called 'She Wants To Move' which as the title suggests is about a woman who likes to move which can make peoples mind wander and also starts to continues to make her seem like more of an object.

We then get a couple of quick fire scenes where she talks to someone on the phone, makes a joke about female sex toys and kisses someone randomly.

In the second to final scene it starts with a seductive shot of her lips and then a scene where she sprays someone down with a water gun. throughout this scene she is clad in just a bikini and followed around by a cohort of young men to emphasize her sexuality. Then the clip ends with acting like a prostitute and gesturing someone who she is obviously winding up down an alley. Even after she starts to get threatened she starts showing off her body to him making her seem like I've said before as just an object.

Task 6 - The Male Gaze

The Male Gaze is a theory penned by Laura Mulvey that addresses the power that woman can have over men with there sexuality. Take this image for example...

In this image we can see a cover of the music magazine Q with Lily Allen on the cover. In this image she is not being shot in a way which celebrates her music career or achievements in the industry, no, she is shot in a way that flaunts her sexuality and appeals to the Patriatical society that they want to buy the magazine. The seductive pose to the tagline 'SEXY BEAST LILY ALLEN & HER WICKED WICKED WAYS' are there specifically to appeal to the male demographic. This can be seen more clearly when I compare and contrast it with this image...

When it is a man on the cover it is the complete opposite. This is the same magazine but it now has Noel Gallagher of Oasis and now The High Flying Birds, he is not being exploited for his sexuality to appeal to the audience, because that isn't what the audience wants to see. He is actually being celebrated for his music and is pictured next to a speaker with a tagline that empowers rather than exploits him. The Male Gaze is a powerful thing. Now if we look at this next magazine...

 

This is Beth Ditto who took the theory of the Male Gaze and parodied it hard. She is not what most people would call sexy or attractive, so this was a powerful statement. But as Ditto, lead singer of punk band The Gossip, has already starred in her own porn movie with her lesbian transgender lover, and regularly takes all her clothes off on stage because she gets overheated, this nude stunt is not out of character for her, either. Therefore not really having the effect she wanted it to have.

Task 5 - Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocates or supports the rights and equality of women.

History of Feminism

Feminism has always been prevalent in all societies, as children everyone would argue on whether boys or girls are better, but the major push for it was in 1945 after the end of WW2. After the Allies had defeated the Axis forces all over the world the men who had gone off to war returned to there jobs at home, but there was a problem, they where occupied. While the men had been away fighting woman had taken over the workforce at home since there where no men left to do it and do you know what? They loved it! 

So what else was going to happen when the men returned from the battle lines expecting woman to just return to there homesteads like good little girls, NO! There where protests and riots, womankind had a taste of independence and it tasted sweet. Ever since then Feminism has put it's foot up the backside of society and it's not pulling out without a fight. They have secured jobs, rights and respect that woman simply didn't have back in the day and the world is a better place for it.