Due to the fact consumers spend 76% less on magazines from 2019-2023, newspaper and magazine industries must act fast to adapt to the extremely competitive media market.  

I agree, to some extent, that producers must target specialised audiences in order to maintain success and popularity. This is because, as the online digital market has become increasingly popular, audiences have become more fragmented. This results in different tastes and preferences becoming more specific such as beauty, fashion, fitness and different hobbies that are currently trend. By adapting to these changes, magazine companies can keep and entertain their customers with niche preferences. For example, the magazine ‘The Gentlewoman’ targets a very niche market of ‘modern women with style and purpose since 2010’. This magazine claims to be ‘consistently one of the best performing publications on newsstands’ and has a positive, uplifting indie vie to it which reels in customers who seek an empowering guide to the representation of women and identity whilst focusing on personal expression and community. The Gentlewoman’s loyal customer base of women mainly in their 30s depend on their favorite magazine to say traditional and on-brand. In order to survive, the Gentlewoman has focused on it premium branding and high-quality content whilst also focusing on their long-form interviews, profiles and celebration of women. Their print version also differs from other brands due to their premium materials and elegant layout helping the magazine to stand out from others. 

For example, in ‘The Gentlewoman’s 23^rd issue the actress Scarlett Johannsen is seen to be starring on the front cover. This use of star power is used to inspire and reel in viewers. Bright colors and hyperreal quality help the actress to stand out from the page. Scarlett Johannsen has thick purple eyeshadow and full red lip accompanied by thick dark eyebrows. These small elements quickly grab the attention of the target audience. This bold and bight portrait photograph alongside the large title of ‘The Gentlewoman’ insinuates that Scarlett is ‘The Gentlewoman’ and this is her story. The ‘Uses and Gratifications theory’ of Katz and Blumer, relates to this product as it explores he idea of an active audience and how a magazines audience had cognitive needs such as information, knowledge and escapism/ By reading a high quality, interactive magazine, the Gentlewoman’s audience is able to be transported to a world far from a digital screen and instead to the real world of women’s fashion and beauty.  

However, I also believe there are different ways for magazines to survive in the modern day. For example, the magazine ‘GQ’ as a more mainstream option targets a broader audience of around 212,000 readers. This magazine aims to be the ‘flagship of men fashion and style and targets men who are interested in fashion, culture and entertainment. To survive digitalization, GQ took a larger risk financially but a smaller risk with audiences. GQ’s broad audience will depend on their favorite magazine to adapt to the new digital age and become an online platform for its convenience and accessibility GQ have recently rebranded and restructured in response to the declining sales across the print magazine industry and have invested largely in social media platforms, digital articles, videos and interviews for their large audience bracket that consume media online. Their interviews and use of ‘star power’ have also heightened their ability to stay visible and relevant.  

For example, GQ magazine chose actor Robert Pattinson to attract their audience on their front cover with his glamourous and unusual style. This high-profile actor has been displayed on GQ’s cover to have an intense and mysterious allure which catches the eye or viewers with his rugged and thuggish qualities of a black eye, broken nose and metal capped teeth. These visual aspects cause the audience to see the actor from a different perspective and set him aside from his good-looking charming roles in cinema today. Steve Neales theory of ‘genre’ applies to this product as genres are defined by specific codes on conventions. The theory explores how genres contain repetition and difference and how this ties into conventions and stereotypes. For example, the audience is expecting a boyish persona from Pattinson due to this repeated genre throughout his usual work, however they are instead greeted with an image of him consisting of spiky hair and metal chains which highlights the difference in Robert Pattinsons expected genre. 

Questions	What went well?	What could be improved?	What I am going to do to make the improvements
1	good use of deconstruction and cultural codes as well as implementing theorists	go into more depth on the ideas of theorist.	do more research to get a a better understanding on theory’s
2	good use of information on csp stats	knowledge on lupin and responder	use the blog to gain a better understanding on csp and re watch shoes
3	good explanation on videogames and linking the question and theorists	go in to more detail on linking back to the question	do more practice question that are similar
4	good use of information from magazines	provide more key words and media terminology	use the blog to go over magazine articles and language used to describe and annotate

Guidelines for mass media use may differ across the world. The public goods theory purports to show why goods with defined characteristics of publicness cannot be produced efficiently by the private sector of the economy , The media, which people are exposed to significantly shapes their beliefs, opinions, and actions, substantially impacting their comprehension of altruism-related issues, an individual’s perceptions can be influenced by the extent of their exposure to a particular subject. This suggest conflict as media companies want to produce popular content regardless if its hurting or infliction on members of the public, anything to keep viewers interested.

The popular show Lupin became popular during the global pandemic , produced by Netflix, made 2.45 million being the first French series to reach Netflix’s top 10 in the US. Within the program, the use of popular music makes it contemporary fresh original and innovative, the choice of casting reflects a diverse blend on French acting talent (a black actor). The development in the shoes narrative shoes an elaborate sense of pleasure (puzzle narrative), when looking at a postmodern approach, Lupin shows a feel of culture with use of a black man as the main protagonist whilst the text and reference provides a series on nouns providing the audience with strength and connections with friends and shapes experiences bringing people together.

Deconstruction of media texts refers to braking down media to get to its intended meaning. Figure one can be deconstructed by looking at what each signs signifies to create a meaning. For example, the denotation of the main figure in this advert is a man wearing a Louis Vuitton skirt. However, if we look at the deeper meaning, this conotates that Luis Vuitton is showing how gender in fashion is no longer sterotypical and it is showing that they are trying to show the inclusivity of fashion. Similarly, Cultural codes refer to how each reader interprets signs in different ways. This can be seen in Figure one becuse of the use of a ethnic model Manu Rios. This can be interpreted differently by differnt people becuse the people from the same culture as the model will see representation through this advert becuse it is presenting an under represented culture as being the main image. The advert also mixes signifiers of both masculinity and femininity by having a male showing his muscles wearing a skirt. This signifies that gender is fluid in fashion and shows representation of this fluidity.

Q4. The target audience of GQ can be defined by demographics and psychographics (urban millennials and Gen Z). This audience is targeted through consumerism and notions of ideal images in a similar way to the construction of a mainstream, mass mode of address. The target audience can be defined as specialised by the magazine’s focus
on youth, diversity, alternative fashion and a reference to queer culture. The producers of the magazine have shifted from more mainstream representations of social and cultural developments to more specialised ones. The aesthetic (media language and representation) is part of the selling point
of the magazine which is specific to the print form. Aesthetic is positioned more with alternative magazine styles (eg Kinfolk, Frame) than mainstream (eg Men’s Health) Representations of masculinity appear as fluid, with an interest in fashion and beauty as the norm – though the extent to which this can now be defined as specialised could be evaluated.

The target audience of The Gentlewoman can be defined by demographics and psychographics – the readership is relatively small and has an unusually high average income, distinguishing it from the mass audience. The mode of address is defined as serious but ‘playful’, constructing the audience as intellectual. There is a focus on ‘long form’ journalism as opposed to celebrity-led profiles as well as a focus on literature, environment, design and architecture, suggesting the way
the producers construct a specialised readership. Additionally there is explicit focus on modernist design in the aesthetic of the magazine which differentiates the representations from those aimed at a mass audience. Coverage of mainstream women’s magazine subject areas such as fashion and beauty are constructed to be authentic in opposition to negative consumerism in order to focus on individuality. Moreover The Gentlewoman ‘club’ personifies the brand’s (paradoxical?) attempt to mix consumer luxury and alternative taste to target a specialised audience.

QS	What went well?	What could be improved?	What ill do to improve
1	Understanding of what cultural codes are, and stereotypes which helped me create an argument	Need to learn what deconstruction meant and this would mean i was able to write more and have a better answer.	Find out key media terms and define them and then memorise what the terms mean
2	23/25	Need to find out more about how the specifc CSP’s are regulated	Learn more about both of my CSPs, some qualitative and quantitive data.
3	23/25	expand research with qualitive and quatitive data	research more on the context of the video games
4	23/25	exapnd theory base(not just pleaure theories)	watch videos such as Mrs fisher to expand knowledge

Q1: the signs that constitute the Father Christmas, the signs that combine as

words to provide anchorage and the signs that draw significance from this

anchored context.

• The Father Christmas is fairly crudely constituted being iconic with low

motivation by colour, styling, positioning to offer instant recognition,

reassurance, benevolence, a warm welcome and a clear focus.

• Here is signification at four levels, reference (denotation), association

(connotation), myth and ideology.

• The setting suggests an urban, business-oriented, consumerist Christmas.

There is warmth here but nothing particularly spiritual unless the audience

identifies a star in the east among the white spots in the sky (which may be

stars or snow and add either way to the manufactured ‘magic’).

• The words provide anchorage through a tag-line “when it comes to

Christmas, there’s no place like Manchester”.

• This stating of Christmas then sharpens up the snow-covered iconic

buildings which add relevance and a familiar Christmas aesthetic.

• It also draws focus to the pretty lights which draw attention to what most will

recognise as a German or continental or merely generic Christmas market.

• There is a semiotic vocabulary for those who want to use it: paradigm,

syntagm, icon/index/symbol, denotation/connotation/myth/ideology.

Equally it is appropriate to respond out of the language of composition and

framing size of shot, camera angle.

Q2 • the effect of economic and political contexts on representations

• the way events, issues, individuals (including self-representation) and

social groups (including social identity) are represented through processes

of selection and combination

• the processes through which meanings are established through

intertextuality.

Economic and political contexts:

• media products and the representations in them can be seen as a product

of the economic and political contexts in which they are created

• issues such as censorship and stereotyping may impact on the creation of

products and the way in which representations of power are created and

received

• products must reflect the cultural values of their target audiences in order to

be successful but these may be diverse and can explain the differences in

representation

• products may take up particular economic and political standpoints from

which to address their intended audiences and ‘the world.

Ghost Town:  this is more overtly political, a conscious reproach to Thatcher’s Britain

• a booming City and South East juxtaposed with the post-industrial collapse

of the economy everywhere else drew up lines of opposition across the

1980s

• the video provides a guided tour of deprivation anchored by a literate

protest lyric

• there is also a political message in the multi-racial composition of the band

in a Britain beset by the mobilisation of the hard right

• punk had provided access to expression to the disenfranchised and

prompted a new kind of political pop that was articulate and working class

Q7 • how media organisations maintain, including through marketing, varieties of

audiences nationally and globally

• processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations,

groups and individuals in a global context

• the relationship of recent technological change and media production,

distribution and circulation

• the significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit

public funding, to media industries and their products

• the impact of ‘new’ digital technologies on media regulation, including the

role of individual producers

• how processes of production, distribution and circulation shape media

products

• cultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh

Responses are required to consider the extent to which contemporary

debates around diversity are reflected in the kinds of films being produced

and of the CSP being a significant case study in this respect

Questions	What went well?	What could be improved?	What I am going to do to make the improvements
1	Analysis of content within the photo	Link to theory’s and use better terminology	Cover areas of relevant theory’s for signs/semiotics
2	Provided knowledge on linking close study product to question	Reading questions properly to ensure I have covered all aspects of what it’s asking to do	Carefully read the question and provide more use of theorists
3	Good use of context and theorists to follow up my points	Introducing more theorists to give another  perspective and show knowledge of other areas	Look into more information on the score advertising
4	Gave a detailed explanation linking CSP to given theorist examples of theorists ideas and concepts	Give more information on more theory’s and go into more depth when talking about them and linking to CSP	Support my points with more knowledge of theorists and different approaches
5	Able to associate key terms to postmodernism	Give a better explanation of given theory	Research hypodermic needle theory
6	Good use of examples of newspaper context	Provide more cultural knowledge within the newspaper	Research more into the beliefs of the newspapers getting to know their values and how to provide content to them
7	Good understanding of theoretical concepts and use of language	Give more information and context towards theorists linking to CSP	Search online to get a better understanding of distribution