This was by far my most difficult revision process. I went through so many drafts that I didn't end up using. Below is my final Table Of Contents and the pictures below are my drafts. My final revision looks very different from my first draft because of the layout, format, and color scheme. I used to have a black background but I changed that to white. Image- taken by me 1. This is my first draft. I wanted a more mature and clean look. But after creating it, I ended up hating it. I thought it looked bland and to simplistic. I wanted to make my design look more intricate and girly. I changed my target audience from general to a more female based focus. Simply because, I like more with feminine deigns than gender neutral ones. Also because fashion magazines tend to target females more than males. 2. For my second draft, I ditched a two page spread for a single page one. Because I realized my table of contents was very short and simplistic. It wouldn't make sense to spread out so little information against two pages. Instead, I decide it would be better to condense, so my readers get an overview of contents. This was by far my most drastic change. I switched the black background to pink. I switched the white font to pink. I incorporated more pictures. 3. For my third revision I changed the white font to black, I added the text 'Featured article' to allude to my two page spread. I though it would tie in all my pages by making my TOC more believable. I added more dark pink text to make my page a little more complex. All Dress Images- were taken from Pinterest 4. For my fourth TOC I switched the color scheme around. I made the white banding pink and the rest of the page pink because I wanted to create more contrast. I thought the title was to simplistic so, I switched to skinnier an taller letters. I added my logo to the header because I've seen life style magazine do it. I added a pink square around the feature article to make it standout more. Lastly, I added a page number and fake link because I've seen it in Elle magazine. 5. For my fifth TOC I switched the light pink header to hot pink because I thought draft #4 looked to washed out. I switched my white logo to black so, it can be more visible. I removed the place holder pictures to my model because I wanted my magazine cover and TOC to be a continuation of each other. Overall, my draft #4 and #5 did not change much. I just moved the lettering around so it was more left aligned. Image- made by me
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Today, I'm going to briefly talk about my table of contents progress. I'm going to explain my course of action and future plans. Dress Image- Pinterest As of right now, I'm revising my table of contents because my original one doesn't fit my magazine cover. I decided to use less red because I want my magazine to appear more feminine. The first image is a rough draft of what I'm going to create. I'm taking extra precaution to use the same fonts and colors as my cover. I want my magazine to appear cohesive. To achieve this I have my computer on split screen so, I can compare my pages. Here is an image of my set up so far. Images- made by me, Place holder pictures- Pinterest
New: Table Of Contents Original: Table Of Contents Images- made by me, Background- Creative Commons Overall for this revision, I wanted to test out a more simpler layout. The main changes I did was include more color and the arrangement of the text. My new copy has no pictures and includes the color pink. After comparing these two drafts, I realized that I should leave the pictures in the final copy because it makes the pages look more interesting. I deleted the "ModaHouse Contents" text because I thought the placement was odd. In the new draft, I made the text left aligned. My main goal was to simplify the overall design, because I thought it looked to cluttered. But, after seeing the pictures side by side, I think I should leave the cluttered look because it looks more appealing. My main goal for my final copy is to make it more feminine and aesthetically pleasing. I want to include more pinks than reds because the red looks very domineering and pink seems more inviting.
I revised my magazine to add more pinks and less reds. Overall I'm planning to create a similar picture to the placeholder one below Image- Pinterest
Digital media is connecting humans from all across the globe. People are relying on digital content for entertainment and news, rendering physical content like movies and paper print obsolete. Last year digital media surpassed physical media by 50%. This significant continuing development of digital media technology has had an astronomical influence on media institutions and audiences. This change has created competition between consumers and large companies, has lead to collaborations between consumers and conglomerates, and given more power to consumers on the internet.
Digital media is blurring the lines between consumers and suppliers. Because of digital streaming sites like Youtube and Twitch, anyone can host an audience, including a consumer. People who used to watch TV or attend movies for entertainment can be influencers. These influencers can build a following on digital streaming sites and gain popularity. Since most people have access to the internet, it has become more convenient and cheaper to watch online content. Because of this notion, many people skip out on watching physical tv or buying movie tickets. Instead, people search online for influencers who cater to their interests. This new development has lead to influencers and large entertainment companies fighting for the public's attention. Influencers can start their own companies and market to their specific audiences. In return, audiences engage with their influencer for attention, and influencers receive feedback on what is working. This cycle makes it easy for them to maintain a strong following, and large companies are suffering because of it. Companies dedicate more production value to their content; however, their work caters to a general audience. This fact has lead to an unstable audience. Digital media has lead to collaboration between everyday consumers and companies. Because influencers have dedicated fanbases, many companies are partnering with famous influencers for monetary gain. Dedicated fanbases tend to follow whatever an influencer says. Because of this fact, followers are more susceptible to paid sponsorships than non-followers. These paid promotions are more effective than tv advertisements because the connections between consumers and influencers are stronger than everyday buyers. Companies are partnering with consumers because people's attention spans are decreasing from a few minutes to seconds. Social media is constantly bombarding people with news people tend to move from subject to subject. And if something doesn't interest them, the consumer will scroll past the advertisement. Because of this fact, many companies partner with familiar people because familiarity leads to more attention. Lastly, companies are trying to emulate false consumer relationships by creating social media accounts to connect and establish followings. In general, digital media is giving spotlights to online personalities, and companies are hoping to take advantage of that by using their notoriety for attention. Companies are learning to establish online presences and move content online for easier accessibility. Increasing digital media has given more power to consumers. People discuss, research, and debate topics online, including entertainment. People engage with online streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Because of this accessibility media institutions can see which shows are the most appealing. They can see the percentage of people who rate a title fairly and choose to provide more content for that demand. People can call out and critique companies. Companies can either cater to criticism and apologize or use this digital engagement for attention. Physical media doesn't allow this to happen because people spend most of their time online. Media institutions are recognizing patterns in engagement and are catering to these demands by moving online. I am planning to write my article to a female/ general audience because the picture I'm planning to create will be a girl in a thrift store. The girl will help my female demographic relate to the picture because it will allow them to insert themselves into the situation. However, my topic will target a general audience because the language is neutral and the problem applies to the whole population. To me, it's important that my audience feels something from my planned picture. I would like them to feel nostalgia because thrift stores have clothing that can seem familiar because of decade fashion trends. I want my audience to feel sympathy for these types of issues because sustainable fashion is something that interests me a lot. The most current news is sustainable fashion because social media like Instagram and TikTok are educating people about where clothes are coming from and how it is produced. Streaming sites like Youtube and Netflix have documentaries about the fast fashion industry and the conditions workers are laboring in. I'm planning to watch some documentaries or clips on why I should not buy fast fashion. This will help me compile a better list of why people should not support corporate giants. Below is a basic draft of what I want to achieve, it is not complete. I used a hook to generate curiosity, I used a question because most people don't like unanswered questions. My article is going to be longer because I want to be neutral and educate people about this issue. My body text is very cluttered and my overall placeholder text is about 365 words. Overall, I'm planning to expand on this. Who, What, When, Here, Why, And How?
WHO- My audience is going be mostly neutral but cater slightly toward women WHAT-My issue sustainable fashion WHEN-Current issue around the world HERE-Two page spread, left will be the picture and the right will be the article itself WHY-There has been a rise in sustainable fashion documentaries AND HOW-I will achieve this by telling people why they should support it in a small 10 topic article Overall Concerns Checklist
My two page spread looks very amateurish. I need to analyze more magazines to see patterns in format mastheads, titles, and pictures. I also need to analyze more monochromatic magazines. Image- HighTimes The author of 10 Commandments Wyclef Jean uses large bold letters for his title. The purpose is to entice viewers to read the article. The bold letters can be seen from a distance and are very jarring. The subtitles of the paragraphs are bold and stand out against the skinny letters of the paragraph. The purpose is to create a hierarchy between the letters and topics. For example, the most crucial element in the article is the title because it acts as the first glimpse of what people may be reading. The second most vital element is the subtitles. The subtitles follow the flow of eyesight and give shape to the structure of the article. The eyes carefully follow these letters because they stand out against the white background. The last level is the paragraph content which is Jean's responses. The responses are small because most viewers skim over large sections of text. The author uses a small bolded quote for the hook. The hook is meant to draw in the viewer. It achieves this by summarizing what the reader is thinking. The viewer may be thinking what is the article about or who is Wyclef Jean? The hook answers this question by stating Jean is a rapper and he lives by certain rules. The writer uses a two-thirds shot to show his pensive looks. This creates curiosity and engagement because the audience will want to know why he's posed like that. The writer uses a quote to entice the reader to answer Jean's question which is, "What makes a perfect gentleman? Leave big tips, baby?". The word gentleman is targeted at males. This helps the viewers understand who the article is targeted at. This quote is a direct address and calls the reader to follow his example. This is a fourth wall break because photographs are not meant to address people or be personified. The author doesn't use many page numbers because they don't want to break the flow of the text nor distract from the article. The language is somewhat casual because the author is relaying quotes from Jean. Jean is speaking in relaxed nature because he's trying to get the audience to feel comfortable and connected with his ideology.
My magazine challenges social conventions because it represents counterculture. My magazine is informational and neutral. While I was creating my magazine cover, my vision was a neutral magazine. This is an idea reflected in the titles; the titles are neutral and not tabloid-like. Most magazines contain gossipy/ sensational headings and are multicolored. My cover challenges these conventions because the tittles are objective, and the overall color scheme is monochromatic. My use of monochromatic colors is supposed to give a serious nature and give off the feeling of power. This notion is achieved by using the color red. Red is symbolic of power and energy.
My magazine is representative of social groups. Most of my titles mention minorities and use neutral language. So, the audience can feel included. I chose to mention minorities because it has been shown that people like to be represented in the media, they are consuming. My magazine focuses on bigger issues that my audience can relate to li My magazine challenges social conventions because it represents counterculture. My magazine is informational and neutral. While I was creating my magazine cover, my vision was a neutral magazine. This is an idea reflected in the titles; the titles are neutral and not tabloid-like. Most magazines contain gossipy/ sensational headings and are multicolored. My cover challenges these conventions because the tittles are objective, and the overall color scheme is monochromatic. My use of monochromatic colors is supposed to give a serious nature and give off the feeling of power. This notion is achieved by using the color red. Red is symbolic of power and energy. My product engages with the audience in simple ways. My magazine engages people by using typography, color scheme, and bolded letters. The typography is large and easy to read. I did this because I wanted the words/ titles to be seen from a distance. While creating these headers I thought to myself how this magazine would look in a grocery store. This guided how I placed my titles and chose my colors. The color scheme of black and white is easy on the eyes. This color scheme is quite easy to read and prevents the viewers from squinting and losing interest. The bolded nature of the letters was intended to catch people's attention because it differentiates what parts of my magazine are important. If my product was a real media text, it would be distributed online because I would want to increase my accessibility. Creating online copies allows people to read the topics anywhere and anytime they want, this can increase my audience pool. If I were to choose physical copies, I would distribute my text in malls or shopping centers simply because people shopping in these areas tend to care about fashion more than the average person. It is important that I market this hypothetical magazine to my target audience, people who are young adults. The real-life print is important because older audiences favor physical copies over digital copies therefore it's important that I focus on a digital and physical release. Media ownership or media consolidation is the phenomenon of a few corporations/ conglomerates controlling most aspects of media. These conglomerates achieve this by purchasing smaller outlets and shares. This process eliminates competition because they gain more control and prevent other companies from profiting from the entertainment industry. One huge issue that arises from media ownership and funding in contemporary media practice is conglomerates have lots of control over what people see and think, which can lead to less diverse opinions and biases. Not only that, media ownership limits people to fewer media outlets; therefore, people have fewer options to choose from. Lastly, media ownership can perpetuate the director's own agenda and lead to less funding in projects that they deem wildly different from their viewpoint.
Media ownership has lots of control over what people see and think. Since conglomerates control generous portions of the entertainment industry, they have access to many entertainment outlets. For example, Time Warner owns CNN and TMZ, and Time Corp owns most media outlets. These companies can severely cut down on the type of news we view and sway our preconceived representation of the world. This is known and Stuart's Representation theory. This theory goes as follows media represents reality, social group, and places large conglomerates can distort how reality is perceived. For instance, conglomerates can choose to show negative and violent imagery this can make people unconsciously believe that the world is more dangerous than it seems. These companies can choose which stories get the limelight and which remain quiet. This bias is known as inclusion, the conglomerate only covers stories that interest them, most of these stories are shocking and increasing ratings. Therefore, there is a monetary motive. In this case, this leads to less diversity and a limited representation of the world. These companies do not consider that people are diverse and can lead to the alienation of certain ethnic groups. Companies can also choose to ignore issues that regard themselves, this is known as an omission. They do this because they do not want to hurt their reputation. The final form of biasness is revision, conglomerates will revise information that can potentially harm them because they do not want to lose viewership. In short, few conglomerates own all entertainment media and control how you feel about something ( i.e.. Ethic groups, social issues, and real-world problems) because they influence/sway your opinions regarding an issue. This creates biases and a lack of diverse opinions because everyone is getting their information from the same source. Another critical issue of media ownership is audiences have fewer options to pick from. Entertainment conglomerates like Walt Disney own most entertainment subsidiaries like ABC, ESPN, Hulu, and much more. Walt Disney and other conglomerates like them narrow down entertainment options and prevent people from viewing different forms of content. For instance, if a consumer chooses to boycott a conglomerate because of a differing viewpoint, it would be almost impossible to do so because of their overwhelming number of subsidiaries. This can also apply to production, distribution, and advertising. Synergy is the practice of conglomerates and subsidiaries cooperating for a primary goal. Cross-promotion is promoting a station through its outlets. This form of production allows a conglomerate to promote its idea in multiple stations without people knowing. This gives people fewer options to choose from because they are presented with the same options over and over again. Cross-promotion works to manufacture this idea by taking an original product and mass-producing it in multiple forms. For example, DC and Marvel characters have had toys, movies, and shows made off of them. This severely limits the superhero market because most people only know of these two companies. After all, the level of manufacturing and promotion prevents people from looking at other options in entertainment. This can eliminate other competitors and lead to less diverse options. Lastly, cross-advertising is when an outside company plans to advertise through a conglomerate. This can give them access to multiple outlets and they use this form of technology to gain recognition through the masses. Overall, these elements can potentially feel limiting because people are being presented the same options repeatedly but on different channels and streaming sites. Media ownership can perpetuate the director's agenda and lead to less funding in projects that they deem wildly different from their viewpoint. These directors can affect how we take in their perspective and they can achieve this by omitting and adding key elements in their work. Stuart Halls's reception theory states that media text has encoded and decoded messages. For example, a producer can put their unconscious biases in the media by inserting explicitly said ideologies, and some audiences can develop a similar mindset due to similar cultural principles, this is known as dominant. Sometimes the audience can understand the meaning and intention of the producer’s message but may need to adapt to it to alight with their own beliefs. The last element is oppositional the audience ignores the producer's ideology. This process is heavily influenced by new technological advances that have been made in recent past decades. The introduction of smartphones, the internet, and computers have allowed these forms of media to prevalent's conglomerates have created streaming sources like Netflix, Hulu, AND YouTube. These technological advances allow people to access entertainment in various places and perpetuate the idea that people are moving from tv to the internet. So, it is imperative that these companies move online. For example, Walt Disney implemented a new streaming service called Disney+ they implemented this system because they want to expand their reach to a wider audience. Therefore, they want to move their agenda and unconscious bias by partnering with other networks so they can move online. Growing I’ve witnessed that many news outlets only report a small scope of the world. They tend to favor one side of an argument over the other, they report on stories that will garner attention and tend to let their unconscious opinions manipulate their neutrality. I have also learned about media ownership in school and how a lack of diversity creates issues. A lack of diversity prevents innovative ideas from forming because people get comfortable with what they see. People do not go out of their way to look for other sources. Personally, I find it hard to support smaller companies because a majority of them are owned by someone bigger. Not only that, I’ve seen a shift to online content, and that conglomerates are hoping to monetize on this trend. Media ownership is definitely a big issue because I cannot imagine how limited it will be in the future considering these conglomerates tend to buy out their competitors, In my last post I explored table of contents inspiration. Today I'm going to see what I can improve on and answer the following concerns/ questions:
From these I hope to gain a better grasp of what I'm trying to achieve... Image- I made it My product somewhat challenges conventions because I'm using large/bold numbers to display my page numbers, in other fashion magazines the numbers are relatively small. My table of contents is very bold and somewhat cluttered. Typically fashion magazines are simplistic and modern, they use thin and delicate letters. It represents social groups because the images (a women walking in a dress and a myriad of chairs) show daily depictions of life. The woman can be a maternal figure and the chairs can represent either work or education. The large letters and number accommodate sight- impaired individuals and helps them see the titles from a distance or from arms length. The bold contrast (black and white) helps increase the readability and helps people understand the text much better.
The product engages with audiences because the the overall sizing and color scheme makes it easier for people to see it from a longer distance. For example, if the audience were In a grocery stores they would most likely pick the issue up because the characters are easy to decipher and eye-catching. The images are faint enough to not interfere with lettering, so people will be pleasantly surprised that their are graphics in the magazine. The media will most likely be distributed in a book store because based on the titles its more informational than sensational. Some things I can improve on include the following - The placement of the logo - The sizing of the numbers and white space - The overall theme because the table of contents |
AuthorA highschool student in her senior year. Archives
April 2021
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