Course work Statemnet of Intent

Statement of intent

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and meet the requirements of your chosen brief? (approx. 400 words)

The target audience for my magazines are 16-25-year-old with a fun-loving deposition, as indicated by the course brief. I asked a focus group of this demographic what they thought about current entertainment magazines and found that the generic conventions were appealing to them. Things such as the use of close ups and direct mode of address from the models on the cover. I took this into account when designing my own front covers. I collected a wide range of entertainment front covers to aid me with this. My research into entertainment magazine shows a wide range of these conventions. Entertainment magazines are usually focused around the celebrity they choose to use on their cover, and the sell lines support this as well as giving the readers a sneak peek into what else their readers can expect to find inside. Therefore, I will aim to focus on the subject of the picture and ensure that it is the main focus of the cover and that the sell lines support this. While focusing on entertainment I will also be addressing ideologically based issues that my audience have identified as ‘concerns’. I will be including aspects of diversity to allow me to fulfil the brief 'At least two models representing at least two different social groups.' For example, I will have a male athlete on the cover of the film edition, however the focus will be on the boxing gloves and his eyes rather than his body. On my second cover I will include two females, I believe my target audience will be able to relate to them as I plan to have them posed having fun and looking confident. Both my covers will feature close ups with direct mode of address to emphasise their connection to the reader. My focus will be on attracting young adults of a 'fun-loving' nature as the brief states. In order to produce this, I must have up to date knowledge of pop-culture. My focus group have said that they would like to see a range of different stories that don’t just concern TV and Film so as well as showing this on the front cover I will include a wide range of examples in my magazine contents pages. 

My website will have similar ideas to my magazine to show a convergence between the two platforms but will include further information and features that would be exclusive to online media, such as the use of video. I aim to engage with the target audience to give them representations they feel they can identify with and so I intend to include an interview either in short text form or video form, to help the audience connect with the ‘celebrities’ on the cover. Through my website research I have noticed that the websites are noticeably blander than the magazine covers and often have a plain white background with a main colour, which reoccurs throughout the website. I intend to subvert this convention, I intend to have a clear theme colour throughout the website and the magazines, however use a backdrop on the website which does not distract from the information on the page but makes the site look more appealing to a ‘fun-loving’ audience.

For the audio-visual element, I intend to produce a behind the scenes video of our photo shoots for the cover of one of my magazines. I will betaking inspiration from a Wonderland magazine video using still images from the shoot as well as footage I will take whilst taking the photos. 


How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of your media production? (approx. 100 words)

I intend to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the digitally convergent nature of my media production by conforming to a consistent House Style across the magazines and the website. The masthead will be representative of the house style using a colour schemes and fonts, as well as a logo, which will be seen on each of the products I produce. As well as including extra articles on the website I will also include pictures an, videos and stories mentioned in the magazines to demonstrate a convergence. I intend to use the same models throughout and use a mixture of studio taken photos and location taken photos, so as to fulfil the brief which states that I must include 'a different setting for each cover' as a minimum. I will feature elements like interviews with the models featured in the magazines and wider range of images of the same models so that there is a clear cross-over between the two texts. The company logo for Hearst will be on each magazine, unobtrusive and on the bar code as stated in the brief.