AS coursework: Blog progress check

AS coursework: Your schedule

Monitor your progress against these deadlines – and if you see yourself falling behind, CATCH UP! Record key dates in your diary and work out when and how you will use your independent study periods and homework.

During the course, you’ll be able to see what your teachers think of your blogs here.

Red = We are concerned you are falling behind. If you do not catch up and improve/add to your blog, you are in danger of failing the course.

Amber = You are making satisfactory progress, but there is more to be done to secure yourself the grade you are capable of.

Green = You are on top of your coursework, and are making good progress. Keep up the good work and refer to the comments we have posted on your blog to help develop your coursework even further.

By 5^th October

Research into existing media

What are the conventions of a magazine front cover?

What is a school magazine? What are their different purposes and audiences?

Analysis of 2-3 different existing school magazines

Research into target audience

Who is your target audience? (Particular age group/niche if applicable)

Audience questionnaire/interview/focus group etc. – What they want from a school magazine

Results and evaluation of research

Collate your findings and present appropriately

What have you learnt from your research and how will this influence the decisions you make about your school magazine? 

Planning and drafting

Based on your research, develop a clear idea of your brand and your target audience: How will you communicate? How will they be positioned? How will both be represented?

Identify which conventions you will follow and why

Which locations, costumes, props and actors have you considered? Which ones will you use and why?

Mock up layouts and from these, draw up a shooting schedule (include shot list, location, props etc.), ensuring you have permission to take photographs in these locations

By 19^th October

Production

Ensure you keep track of photos taken (and selected), problems encountered, decisions made (and altered) etc. and upload evidence. This will form an ongoing 'Behind the Scenes' commentary on your production work (and pick you up LOADS of marks for your evaluation if you do it well!)

What technology/equipment have you used? What have you learnt?

Upload final layouts and explain the denotations/connotations, with reference to magazine conventions

By 2^nd November– MAIN TASK (MUSIC MAGAZINE)

Research into existing media

What is a music magazine? What different types exist? Who publishes them? For whom? What are their different purposes and audiences?

Analysis of 3 different existing music magazines

Research into your chosen genre

Which genre(s) have you chosen and why?

What seem to be the conventions of this genre? Who is the target audience?

Who are the main publishers for magazines of this genre? Are there particular conventions that are specific to these types of magazines?

Choose three artists associated with this genre and analyse how each one’s ‘star image’ has been created. How are they represented and how does the target audience relate to them?

Research into target audience

Who is your target audience? (Particular age group/gender percentages/geographical/brands they buy/where they shop/interests/values/etc.)

Audience questionnaire/interview/focus group etc. – What they want from a music magazine

By 16^th November

Results and evaluation of research

Collate your findings and present appropriately

What have you learnt from your research and how will this influence the decisions you make about your music magazine?

Planning and drafting
Based on your research, develop a clear idea of your brand and your target audience: How will you communicate? How will they be positioned? How will both be represented?

Identify which conventions you will follow and why

Which locations and actors have you considered? Which ones will you use and why?

Mock up layouts and from these, draw up a shooting schedule (include shot list, location, props etc.), ensuring you have permission to take photographs in these location

By 30^th November

Production

Ensure you keep track of photos taken (and selected), problems encountered, decisions made (and altered) etc. and upload evidence ensuring you record evidence (again - an ongoing ‘Behind the Scenes’ commentary - see point above!)

What technology/equipment have you used? What have you learnt?

By 14^th December

Production continued

Ensure you keep track of photos taken (and selected), problems encountered, decisions made (and altered) etc. and upload evidence ensuring you record video evidence (an ongoing‘Behind the Scenes’ commentary)

What technology/equipment have you used? What have you learnt?

By 11^th January

Production continued

· Ensure you keep track of photos taken (and selected), problems encountered, decisions made (and altered) etc. and upload evidence ensuring you record video evidence (an ongoing ‘Behind the Scenes’ commentary)

· What technology/equipment have you used? What have you learnt?

Upload layouts and explain the decisions you've made and denotations/connotations, with reference to magazine conventions

By 25^th January

Production continued

What has your audience said about your finished magazine?

How does it compare to other music magazines on the market?

What have you changed as a result of this? What effect has this had on your finished magazine? Upload any amended layouts and accompanying analysis.

By 8^th February

Evaluation

Multimedia evaluation uploaded to include at least three of the following: text, images (screen grabs etc.), hyperlinks to research, video footage, voice-over.

Linking Research and Practice

As promised, some help with making links between research and practice.

Year 12 AS Media Studies

You should, by now, have completed research into comparable texts and a potential audience. You will probably have uploaded annotated magazine covers and contents pages and sample questionnaires/results.

It is now essential that you consider how this research will inform your decision making. 

Here is an example of the way in which you could present your ideas. A table like this one shows that you have made the vital link between your own research and your own practical work.

The observations that you make will, of course, depend on the texts which you have studied so don’t expect them to be exactly the same as those recorded by other students.

Observation	Impact on My Work
Most covers use a single image – often a medium shot, featuring one or two students. They are engaged in either a classroom/extra-curricular activity but a direct mode of address is employed as they look into the camera.	I will follow this convention as I intend to photograph two students and position them centrally. A medium shot will enable me to include the students whilst capturing something of the background. However, I want the students to seem unaware of the camera and engaged in the activity of film making.
The mise en scene creates a sense of a well-equipped school which promotes dynamic learning. E.g. inclusion of computers/sports equipment.	My inclusion of video cameras has been influenced by this observation. I hope that these connote a sense of creativity as well as suggesting that the school environment promotes active learning with up to date equipment. I will ensure that text referring to the activity anchors the image and makes it clear that the students are engaged in a film making project.

You must try and link your observations about the content and composition of images/ text/audiences with your decision making.

Some useful terms:

Representation ,denote, connote, iconography ,mise en scene, composition, framing, focus, foreground,colour,lighting, background, text, anchors, audience, traditional, contemporary, contrast, extend, complement, convention, follow, subvert, experiment

Intro to textual analysis skills lessons and resources

As promised, where relevant, I'll upload power points and resources from our lessons on to Googledrive and create links to them below. Separate posts will be created for the different topics we study.

Links to all 'Introduction to Textual Analysis' lessons will appear in this post. Please ensure you use these resources to keep your notes up to date and catch up on any work you have missed.

Miss O

Intro to Media Language lesson 1 - 10/9/12

Intro to Media Language lesson 2 - 17/9/12

Cover lesson for Thursday 20th September

Cover lesson for Tuesday 25th September

Intro to Media Language - Magazine covers - 27/9/12

Media Language and Modes of Address - 1/10/12

Media Language - Analysing photographs and planning your own - 8/10/12

Shot list for use in cover lesson 9/10/12 - Please plan in detail!

Linking textual analysis of music magazines to brand and target audience - 19/11/12

Images for Tues p2 lesson

Click on your allocated image to download the jpeg file. When it appears, right click and select 'Save image as...' - then save it to your 'My documents' or USB stick.

Music magazines: Institution and audience research

Music magazines suffer sales decline

Uncut loses 14.2% year-on-year circulation followed by NME and Q as worst-hit music titles in second half of 2011

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• Josh Halliday
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 February 2012 15.27 GMT

Uncut magazine lost 14.2% of circulation year-on-year in the second half of 2011 in a bad period for music magazines. Photograph: Uncut

Q, NME and and Uncut suffered double-digit year-on-year sales declines in another torrid period for the music magazine sector in the second half of 2011.

Every magazine in the sector that reported a year-on-year comparison saw sales decline against the second half of 2010, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for the six months to December released on Thursday.

Uncut magazine was the biggest circulation faller among musicmagazines in the second half of 2011. The IPC Media title shed 14.2% of its circulation year-on-year and 5.6% compared to the first half of 2011, to 62,305.

The magazine's IPC stablemate NME reported a 14% drop year-on-year, to 27,650 sales – a 4.7% decline compared to the previous six months.

Q saw its circulation fall 12.1% year on year, to 77,522. The BauerMedia title remains the second biggest-selling paid-for music magazine despite a 3.5% period on period drop in sales.

Mojo remained the best-selling paid-for title in the music market, with a 0.3% period-on-period lift in sales to 87,555. However, the title fell 7.5% on the second half of 2010.

Mojo's Bauer stablemate, Q, fell 3.6% compared to the first half of last year, to 77,522 – a 12.1% year-on-year decline.

The rock title Kerrang! fell slightly on the period, shedding 2.2% of sales to 42,077 after an impressive first half of 2011. The title fell 2.1% compared to the second half of 2010.

Future Plus's free title Odeon Magazine held onto its position as the biggest title in the film market. Odeon Magazine reported a 3.7% distribution drop compared to the first half of last year, to 179,840 – a 3.4% year-on-year decline.

Empire magazine remains the biggest-selling paid-for film title, despite a 2.3% period on period fall and 3.2% yearly fall in sales, to 167,056.

Empire's rival, Total Film, managed to remain above the 70,000 sales mark with only a 1.3% circulation drop on the previous six months – a 9.9% drop compared to the final half of 2010, to 70,908.

Click below for more interesting articles:
Drop in circulations
The relaunch of 'Uncut'
'Music magazine covers no longer grab me'
A 'pocket-sized' music magazine - now 10 years old and the format clearly hasn't taken off yet!
Closure of 'The Word' 
Criticism of British music magazines - This could offer useful evidence to justify your decision to subvert certain conventions
Magazines will always have a place on people's shelves

School magazine research: Watch out!

You might be finding it difficult to lay your hands on examples of existing school magazines. This, in itself is an interesting media issue for consideration:
Why is this?
What impact has new technology had on print editions of school magazines?
What other technologies are schools using to communicate with their students?
There also seems to be a trend for producing annual, rather than more regular magazines. In that case, are they magazines in the usual sense of the word? What will the frequency of your publication be?
It seems to be easier to find examples of magazines for Independent Schools. Should you, therefore, follow the conventions of these examples regardless of your audience? Or, if you're going to subvert them - Which ones? How? Why?

However, a consideration of these issues won't help you with your actual textual analysis - an essential step if you are going to produce an effective school magazine that follows the generic conventions!

Take care when using the internet to source examples - they are likely to be magazines produced by AS Media Students just like yourselves, rather than live school magazines!

Here are some links to online school magazines which tend to follow the conventions and layouts of print editions:

http://www.hamptonschool.org.uk/The-School/School-Magazines-new.aspx (Check out the regular publications, rather than the annual ones. Notice how they have identified specific target audiences within the school, rather than producing one publication for all students.

http://www.oratory.co.uk/downloads/School%20Magazine/Oratory%20Magazine%20Iss_169%20(Low-res).pdf (An annual magazine)

http://www.nunthorpe.co.uk/our-school/school-magazine (Links to termly magazines produced by this school up to 2009)

http://www.toorakcollege.vic.edu.au/Portals/0/magazine/TheElephant_S01_2012_web%20version.pdf (A magazine produced by an Australian school)

http://www.uhs.org.uk/for-students/school-magazine/ (A regular publication for Uxbridge High School - but like many regular magazines, it feels rather more like a newsletter than a magazine. This might be something you think about during your preliminary)

A beginner's guide to textual analysis

Alan McKee 'A beginner's guide to textual analysis' (2001)

Interesting and useful reading - for both your coursework and the TV Drama Unit.
Enjoy!