CLASH MAGAZINES

PREP Write freely about the house style of Clash music magazine. Your focus is on 'media language', that is, how the musicians are represented, layout, font, colour and so on.

Clash is a very niche and clean magazine, the masthead is always in the same place, and in bold white writing, besides the exception in the bottom left image, which shows a more complicated 'collage' like effect with a complimenting pumpkin orange. The artist's name's are usually seen along the bottom of the magazine with a photo of them as the front cover, a 'falling' effect with the issue number is used as well.
A range of artists are included, from popstars like Zayn, Rappers like Travis Scott and Rockstars like Marilyn Manson. The house style is maintained despite these differences. Each cover shows the featured artist, some of which are slightly obscured by the use of blurr or by their own physical features giving each artist a certain 'vibe' suitable to themselves and their genres.For example Manson features in a more 'moody' monochrome cover in comparison to those like Travis, who are in more colourful vibrant settings.

LEGO AD BREAK QUESTION

9 Analyse the representations found in the UK television ad break for The Lego Movie. [10]


A range of different representations are found in The Lego Movie Ad Break showing a wide variety of different stereotypical characters, for example from thugs to teenagers to the very 'normal' people, a variety of people are found making the ad break widely entertaining and relatable as it shows everyday  characters, and even some famous characters, to be depicted as a nostalgic childhood character. This helps identify the target audience, despite how many of the adverts are for older people for example Insurance companies like confused.com, and medical organisations like The British Heart Foundation, they bring a comical edge and childish play on their companies/organisations message, making it memorable while advertising a new movie.
The Lego Movie Ad Break also  depicts different characters within the movie which crossplay into the adverts, for example Emmet a 'nobody' who goes on to do amazing things, and WyldStyle a fierce, empowering woman who has clear strength as a woman. These are not traditional characters for expected genders, as Wyldstyle is undermined being a young woman, but always pulls through as she is so persistent and fierce, and Emmet proves to not be such a masculine figure, yet still pulls through in the ending. The ad has some sense to real-life to it, but for the most part, it is comical and a play on real life.

BOB MARLEY MOJO

PREP: Refer to Extract 1 in the insert. Analyse the representation of Jamaican Reggae music and musicians such as Bob Marley in this MOJO front cover. (5 marks)

From this MOJO cover, it is easy to identify the representation of Jamacian Reggae music, by the use of stand out colour, strong pull quotes and the way in which Marley is standing. Marley is presented as smiley and confident, showing the reggae is all about a positive attitude, combined with powerful pull quotes "from gang war to one love..." this representation is heightened, as it depicts reggae to be political in someways, yet positive and powerful. The element of politics and power also is enhanced with the other pull quote "1976 a year of reggae revolution". "Revolution" being the emotive noun. 
Compared to more generic MOJO covers, Bob Marley goes against genre conventions, of being serious and portraying the 'hard life' but a brief feature of rock-star David Bowie is more in tune with the generic means of the MOJO music magazine.

MOJO Q4

PREP for TUESDAY 22 January 
MOJO Another quick and easy revision prep, worth 5 marks. Base your analysis on MOJO's March 2019 issue. the exam question won't have the covermount (free CD) so don't refer to it.

 

Mojo is a music magazine prodominatley aimed at males who have an intrest in rock music, most covers connote a serious intimidating tone, so having Joni Mitchell with a beaming smile on the front cover is a break of stereotypes for both the magazine and fans. Joni despite smiling in the cover has pull quotes such as "My gift was born of tragedy" which is more like the usual tone in which we see Mojo to be in, this pull quote explains the tough reality of being a rock-star and that it is more than meets the eye, something which is broadly touched on in Mojo covers.

Other stories about bigger artists like David Bowie are included, these stories also cover a sober issue of "baptism! betrayal! the untold story!", this makes the reader have sympathy for who is included making them more likely to pick up the magazine as they wish to find out more.

Q8. THE OBSERVER

PREP
To revise the 'media language' question, you focus on the layout. It is a quick and easy question, worth 5 marks and only 2 examples needed. Please copy the question onto your blog and write the 2 examples taken from the recent Observer online. The answers below will help you.
Exam q.8 (5 marks, write 1/2 a page; give 2 examples)

A very restraint colour palette connotes a clear sense of formality and sobriety, there is a strong blue header with clear set out columns and articles making the layout clean and articles easily accessible. The neutral tones also help maintain a serious 'feel' to the newspaper which can be used to identify less popular but still current news stories. The website has its columns ordered from most important to less to help a viewer find what they need.
The use of serif writing furthermore connotes formality, but the use of occasional sans-serif writing helps create a modern feel to the newspaper, as it is modern and covers modern issues. Pictures are used to enhance the likely-hood of articles being clicked on as they are both gripping and relevant to topics covered.

THE OBSERVER VALUES

Study the online newspaper extract to revise exam Q. 9 (below). To make this prep quick and easy, all you have to do is copy / paste the text below and identify all relevant articles or features that represent the newspaper's values:

  1.  The major use of newspapers is to offer a sense of knowing what is going on in the world.The Observer knows that its readers are serious and interested in international affairs. This is evident in hard news articles about..... Brexit, Prisons, Police arrests and US news

2. The Observer meets its audience's need for a range of cultural, sporting and artistic news. It provides these with... articles about a range of topics, for example music,  current affairs, historical events, education as well as branching out to scientific studies, there is a wide range of articles based on a variety of different topics.

3. The Observer does not shy away from 'difficult' issues that could make uncomfortable reading, such as... the rise of serious crimes, Trump threatening a National Emergency, a Saudi teen having a long travel to safety, the harsh truth of the Brexit deal

4.  The Observer has sections which are designed to appeal to different types of readers.The Observer reflects the diversity of its readership in articles on... Music, Studies and Politics are all covered which may be interesting to a diverse audience as they share different interests

5.  Newspaper readership can still be used as a symbol of one’s social identity. The term ‘Guardian reader’ connotes a certain

type of social attitude and The Observer  similarly reinforces

a set of social and political attitudes, and thus identity, in its

representations. For example, Observer  readers like to think

of themselves as open-minded and this is reflected in the

Observer’s practice of allowing both sides of an argument

equally to be put when the newspaper is clearly on one side

of this argument. There is an example of this in....

 The title of the main article 'Labour set to call vote to topple...' clearly shows that the newspaper is more left-wing but doesn't directly criticise more right-wing parties

 

6.  The entertainment function of newspapers may take the

form of humour.  It may take the form of diversion into

a celebrity world of ‘glamour’. It may take the form of human

interest stories in which readers are invited to sympathise with

the subjects of the article. Newspapers further offer games,

puzzles, crosswords and the like. At the higher end, sections

such as the New Review in the Observer may offer the pleasure

of extremely well-written think pieces and literature reviews. An example of this is....

In this particular extract there is only 1 piece which completely supports this - the article about music, but it says 'again' meaning they have had previous stories about it, as well as having no way of introducing the two names 'Dua Lipa and Anne-Marie', suggests again that previous articles have been covering them.

 

 

SK8ER BOI AND TEENAGE DIRTBAG COMPARISON

PREP: To revise for q.2 (4 marks), copy / paste each of the following descriptions into your blog post. Write either SB or TD at the start of each, to indicate either Avril or Wheatus. Some answers may refer to BOTH so put both initials.

SB- This video is documentary style mostly hand-held camerawork, de-saturated colour and fast-paced editing.
TD- This video has saturated colour, more controlled camerawork, slower-paced editing.
SB- This video consists of mostly montage shots.
TD- This video has more developed editing with cause and effect.
SB- In this video, the singer values rebellion, which is seen in the narrative.
TD- In this video, the singer values 'fitting in', conformity, albeit to an oppressive system, which is seen in the narrative.
SB- This video is set in LA, a big city, with its connotations of street credibility.
SB- The mise-en-scene of this video is American suburbia with its connotations of conformity. 
TD- This video is intertextual in its narrative (=it makes references to high school drama).
TD/SB- In this video, the singer performs to camera.
TD- In this video, real locations and 'everyday' costume for the performers connote a sense of naturalism.
SB/TD- In this video, there is a sense of linear narrative (a story is told, in the order it unfolds).