Audience Theory: Social Grouping

I decided to create a quick diagram showing the different aspects of 'Social Grouping'.

Social Grouping is the theory that was created and expanded upon by 3 men; Burton, Hartley and Fiske. These people researched and found that the audience of which would be watching, reading and, in general, seeing media related products, and how this could show and relate to their interests, could be class into these points;

(Click to see in full size/quality!)

There were a few other points as well to consider;

• Political allegiance
• Self interests (e.g. Music lover, gamer, love for retro)
• Wealth (urban vs. rural)

By considering these aspects, you can aim at a specific audience/or even make sure you reach as many of these as you desire.

So for example, a TV programme such as Skins. They would have to aim and focus on their audiences age, nationality, sexuality, race, class and relations.

School Magazine Research and Analysis

Magazine Covers

 

Contents Pages

Notes/Analysis:

• Enthusiastic titles and images
• Majority face or mid shot of a student, really happy and smiling, showing achievement
• Colourful or colour used to portray a certain aspect or thing; i.e. fashion or uniform
• Almost always some form of white font, represent purity possibly...
• Most subjects relevant to school (for example, 'How to Beat Pre-Exam Stress!') and maybe a couple 'fun' headlines
• Name is simple, relevant, 1 worded, enthusiastic and confident, positive, CAPITAL LETTERS and 'cool' sounding

Possible name options for my magazine:

• READY!!
• BRIGHT
• BLOOM (sounds quite feminine, same-sex schools?)
• ☺PTIMISM ('☺' replacing an 'O'; friendly, modern, text talk)
• CREATE (this could possibly be used for a more creative schools, like art and design specifically trained ones)
• SUCCESS or SUCCEED (business specialist?)
• CLASS
• ACHIEVE

Skins Poster Design

This is the tester poster design that I created for a new series of Skins, having used filters, effects and basic techniques of Photoshop Elements.

I used effects such as Gaussian blur, colour dodging, layers set to multiply and many more to create a really nice design. I also had to figure out a nice layout so that everything would be evenly spaced and if not showing on a major level, at least blending into the background somehow.
I also added in slight vector art, with creating a 'dripping' effect from the title. This was because many magazines, particularly ones aimed at a younger generation, include some fort of illustration and vector artwork nowadays.
Everything I did for this will be great practise for learning how magazine covers are set out and created.