AICE Media Studies

Purpose of Cover Ideas: In my blogs, I intend to conduct a very thorough analysis of my thought process which is why I go back and forth between ideas and concepts. This is also the reason why I dedicate an entire post to one specific set of ideas, but it truly does help my thought process. It is now time to analyze my three options of car magazine covers in order to begin creating my magazine cover. After I view ideas of each of these three options of magazine covers, I will take pictures of each option in order to see which I like best and I will create a sample cover using that image.  Single Vehicle Cover: Analysis: These Magazine covers for the "Single Vehicle Cover" ideas were excellent. They truly help me get a grasp for the concept, versatility, and creativity that is tied along with this kind of cover. As a matter of fact, I have learned new ideas that could be incorporated that I had not thought of before. For example, the third magaz

Next Step: Now that the survey is out of the way and I have an idea of what to place in my cover magazine, it is now time to establish exactly how I will want my front cover to be. I already know that my peers desire to see a luxury vehicle due to its more appealing features and designs, however, the exact manner by which I will portray this vehicle is completely unknown to me. There are three possible ways in which I can make my cover page using a luxury car. Option 1: The Single Vehicle Cover This is perhaps the vehicle magazine cover that is seen the most. It is by far the most popular and used in most car magazines. The reason for this may be due to the versatility and flexibility that is possible when displaying just one car. Possible angles and background can be more creative. Not only this, but by having only one vehicle in the cover, the image of the car may be much larger and therefore, a much more detailed view of the vehicle may be established. Option 2: Two

Survey Analysis: This post will serve to break down the results of my survey in a way that I can interpret it. The reason this is required is due to the fact that I must understand the results thoroughly in order to proceed with a successful magazine. Only half of my peers are interested in a car magazine: This may be due to several factors such as age and sex. Only 1 student has actually read a car magazine which may account for why so few have an interest in this type of magazine Daily driver cars are not a point of interest for any student while exotic, luxury, and muscle cars are found to be interesting for my peers. Two-thirds of my peers wish to see a luxury car in my front cover of the magazine. It seems that more dynamic and general titles are more effective in bringing the reader's attention. There were more females who participated in the survey than males, which may explain why there was not so much interest placed in car magazines since females usually do

Results Question 1: Question 2: Question 3: Question 4: Question 5: Question 6: These free responses mainly consisted of individuals stating that they would prefer to see nice and clean cars on the front cover. Question 7: Question 8: Question 9:

Market Research/Survey Questions: Now that I have established the topic that I will use in order to create my magazine, it is time to create a survey. These questions will be used in order to have a clear basis on where to start. In order to create my magazine, I must understand what will work and what won't work. My survey will be conducted in my class in order for my classmates to complete it. This will give me a better understanding of what my peers like and ways I can improve my magazine to fit a wider range of needs and likes. However, I will take this with a grain of salt because my class is not composed of many students and therefore the results will not be completely representative of everyone. The questions I will ask will be the following: Would you consider an automobile magazine to be a point of interest for you? Have you ever read an automobile magazine? If you have read one before, what type of cars were displayed? Which of the following would you be inte

Final Decision of Magazine Topic: After much research and analysis, I have decided that there is a topic that will better fit my needs and one that will prove to be more successful in my project. Throughout the entire process up to this point, I have discussed almost every basic aspect of a magazine. These aspects include but are not limited to the contents page, title, color scheme, two-page spread, marketing, and even significance of all of these factors. I have gone in-depth on all of these things and even given examples of many magazines that display guidelines by which I can follow. However, along the way, I discovered that I had two topics that would be very interesting. These two topics were fitness and automobile magazines. They were topics that I could research and create with much better success than any other topic. After much consideration and analysis, I have decided to make my magazine about automobiles. Automobile Magazine: The reason I chose the automobile ma

Representation: This is the final blog on how media has an influence on society. However, this blog is not composed of a theory, instead, it is the term representation. Representation refers to the idea that everything that is heard or seen has been constructed. According to Brett Lamb, "Representations themselves can take many forms such as radio segments, newspaper articles, photographs, films and television programs. Just about everything you see in the media is a representation of something. Every day we’re inundated with representations of people, events and ideas. While some media representations – like television news and documentary film – may seem realistic, we have to remember that they’re just constructions. At best, the media can only represent reality. What we see on our television screens or on the front page of our daily newspapers is someone else’s interpretation of reality." This applies to absolutely everything in media. For example, when viewing your f

The Hypodermic Needle Theory: This is the final theory by which I will be discussing, and it also happens to be one of the earliest ways of thinking about mass media's influence on its audience. This theory came to rise in the 1920's and 1930's. This was due to the effects of propaganda during World War 1 events like Orson Welles’ War of the World's broadcast. This theory is essentially a linear communication theory and suggests that the media has a direct effect on all audiences equally. It establishes that every individual thinks the same way and will therefore react exactly the same to media. This theory was very prominent in its time, however, it has now dismissed. According to to Brett Lamb, "This way of thinking about communication and media influence is no longer really accepted. In the 1930s, many researchers realized the limitations of this idea and some dispute whether early media theorists gave the idea any serious attention at all. Nevertheless, The

The Two-Step Flow Theory: The Two-Step Flow Theory is the next theory that I will be discussing. In this theory, it is suggested that people are participants in the communication process. It basically states that influence is caused by the opinion leaders and not the media directly. The opinion leaders are those individuals who influence others through their respective interpretations. In this theory, it is believed that opinion leaders view the media and develop their own viewpoints. These viewpoints are later passed on to people and it is those opinions that truly influence an audience. This theory still remains relevant and credible to this day, in fact, research has been made regarding this theory. In this research, researchers discovered that news finds its way to people through a number of prominent and influential opinion leaders.  References: Lamb, B. (n.d.). Brett Lamb. Retrieved from https://lessonbucket.com/media-in-minutes/the-two-step-flow-theory/#more-303

Reinforcement Theory: The Reinforcement Theory is the next theory that I will be discussing. This Theory was established by Joseph Klapper in which he established that all media does is reinforce all of our previous beliefs. In fact, Klapper believed that Media had no power in influencing our beliefs directly. According to the article in the LessonBucket website, Klapper "thought it was important to move away from the notion that the media has a direct and powerful influence on audiences, focusing instead on how the media works amid other influences in a total situation. Klapper argued that people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviour was more likely to be influenced by their family, schools, communities and religious institutions." Not only this but according to him, media can only influence an audience directly when a new topic or concept is introduced. References: Lamb, B. (n.d.). Brett Lamb. Retrieved from https://lessonbucket.com/media-in-minutes/the-reinforceme

The Agenda Setting Function Theory: The first of the theories that I will discuss is that of the "Agenda Setting Function Theory". This theory essentially states that while media cannot tell you what to think, it can definitely influence your thought process and allow you to understand what to think about.   The Agenda Setting Function Theory was developed by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in 1972 as a result of their study of North Carolina voters during the 1968 presidential election campaign. This study found a correlation between issues that voters believed were important and issues that the media gave prominence to. According to Brett Lamb in his website  LessonBucket, "McCombs and Shaw argued that the media uses a number of cues to indicate the importance of an issue. On the front page of a newspaper, for example, the importance of a story is indicated by the size of its heading. Likewise, a story that appears on the front page is more important than a stor

Representation in Media: Before moving on to my final decision on a topic between fitness and automobiles, I must first consider what I am trying to accomplish through my magazine and the purpose and goal I have in mind. In order to understand all of this, I must understand media as a whole. Media holds the key to all of these answers. Most aspects of media have been covered in my blogs, however, I have yet to cover the influence that media poses on society and groups of people. Usually when making a magazine, one will focus on what people will like to see, but will not pay attention to how this will affect them. Media is, after all, such an important factor in today's day and age, and while a simple magazine may not seem like it causes much influence, It actually does. Representation is a very important factor of how individuals interpret events and societal groups and can be developed in the form of beliefs that are later considered to be correct. Throughout history, there ha