Moral Panic

A moral panic is an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. The media sometimes label celebrities as "Folk Devils", this is basically singling out certain people who have done something wrong and could make a huge impact on kids behaviour for the worse as they celebrities are supposed to be role models and set a standard and are someone for people to look up to. The statement 'Folk Devil' was made in 1972 by a great sociologist named Stanley Cohen.

Chris Brown is a very good example of a 'Folk Devil', after attacking the singer Rihanna, there was a big impact on his career and he made an impact on behaviour in some cases. This particular magazine on the inner pages it contains the interview where Chris Brown admits to it and tries to get people to forget about the incident and feel sorry for him, and it doesn't help since the magazine cover has "NO MORE APOLOGIES" Written on it.

These reasons make me disagree completely with what the media do with todays magazines, they don't care about the impact they have on children who look up to folk devils, yet they still put them on their magazines because alls they care about is gaining profit and making more and more money of all the wrong causes.

The following image is the image of the musical artist Rihanna, after she was attacked by Chris Brown, this is what he put her through, and publishing it on magazines makes it much worse as it will make young children think that its alright to do, which WILL make an impact on their lives, this is why the media need to stop posting pictures of folk devils on their magazines.

Questionnaire Results.

These are all of my results so far on my questionnaire.

This is the summary of my results in bullet points..

- The majority of my answers on my questionnaire so far were mainly male.

- The majority of people who answered my questionnaire are aged between 14-20.

- From my results so far, there are more people that don't read music magazines than do read them.

- From the multiple choice options that i gave for the question " Why do you read music magazines?",  the majority of people who do read them said they read them because they're interested in music.

- Out of the people who answered this questionnaire, most of them prefer rock music to any of the other options.

- There are more people who answered this that have ticked "Other" for there favourite music magazine.

- There are more votes for the option "No" for the question "Do you think this name for a rock magazine is suitable? "Snap, Crackle & Rock!".

- More people ticked the checkbox "Other" for why they don't read music magazines, the second highest was "Not interesting enough".

- More people who answered the questionnaire think that music magazines are overpriced.

Feminism

In this blog post I will be analysing a music magazine cover and referring to feminism through out the analysation.

This is the music magazine I will be analysing, the title of the magazine is "BLENDER", the star on the cover is Katy Perry who is a famous pop star.

Feminism started to evolve around the time that woman got the right to vote. This is when woman started to campaign for change. They wanted more equal rights, especially with the fact that woman got less pay than men, such as if there was a male teacher and a female teacher doing exactly the same job, the male teacher would get paid more. Woman started to campaign for this to change through protesting and taking part in marches. In 1975 the sex equality act was passed where women were equal in terms of pay and conditions.

After this feminism gradually grew and changed the way woman were represented in terms of their appearance started to change in the eye of the public view. 

Katy Perry, she's always got a different style of clothing on every photo shoot she does, whether that be a modelling photo or a magazine cover photo. This helps attract audiences to sell more copies of the product and to get more attention and probably make more money. In reference to Laura Mulvey's male gaze, in this photo of her she's showing a lot of skin and not wearing a lot of clothes. A lot of men will find her attractive and will view her as something to look at in reference to their own personal objectification. Women will buy the magazine to read about her, and to try and identify themselves to her, maybe to copy her style. Relating to feminist theory males will gaze at her in reference to her appearance. The fact that she is not wearing hardly any clothes can be seen as "fetishism" which is the media technological word for the slang term 'eye candy'.

NME Institutional Research

The following link will take you to the 'Inky Fingers - The NME Story' - Inky Fingers - The NME Story


The 'New Musical Express' is a famous music magazine which is known as 'NME', this was created by a man names Theodore Symthson and was first published in March 1952. It was originally a music newspaper but then after some time was changed to a magazine format  in the year 1980.

As the NME entered the 70s they found themselves no longer dominating the musical media market due to their rivals the Melody Maker overtaking them. This was because of the NME not being able to keep up with the pace of rock music. Alan Smith was made editor and was given a short period of time by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure. It was changed around extremely fast as they started to develop a new type of music magazine that allows journalists and fans / readers to express their feelings honestly without any criticism towards themselves.

The start of 1990 made a change in the paper in the thick of the Manchester scene, and covering the new British indie bands and shoegazers.
By the end of 1990, the Manchester scene was dying off, and NME had started to report on new bands coming from the US, mainly from Seattle. These bands would form a new movement called Grunge and by far the most popular bands were Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

This is my questionnaire, please take the time to fill it in, thank you.

My Questionnaire.     <== Click for the questionnaire.

Analyse a front cover of a music magazine.

In this blog post i will be analysing the Kerrang magazine which features the rock band Nickelback.

This magazine is constructed to it’s target audience of any age and any genre who are interested in the music genre – Rock. It’s constructed in a way to get the targeted audience’s attention as it has a huge font sized mast head saying “Kerrang!”, but  half the name of the magazine is covered by Chad Kroeger’s head although since the magazine is the biggest Rock genre magazine most people who buy it will know what it say’s. On the magazine cover it also has written in cappital letter’s “NICKELBACK” Who are one of UK’s biggest rock band’s which is eye catching, along side the fact that there are lyrics on the front of the magazine which is interesting and is from one of Nickelback’s songs “Rockstar” which was one of there biggest hits in the early 20^th century. The magazine will  catch eyes of the targeted audience since there are huge band’s names on the cover such as “Foo Fighters”, “Iron Maiden” and “The Blackout”. People who are a fan of rock may also be a fan of these bands and want to read about them, there for will want to buy the magazine.

There are also smaller images on the cover of the magazine in the lower left hand side, people may also want to read about these bands such as “Kiss”, “Lostprophets” and “The Offspring” these are known as “Puffs” which is basically a small box on the cover promoting some features inside the magazine its self.

The main image in this magazine only really suits the targeted audience because of its surroundings such as the quotes, puffs and smaller images, without all these for someone who didnt know who the man was (Chad Kroeger) or the magazine mast head “Kerrang!” they may not realise that this is a rock magazine and may just by pass it and move on to another magazine.

The choice of font on this magazine cover will attract the buyer sicne Rock music has always been loud and shouting in a way (Only sub genre’s dont do this, such as “Soft Rock”), and the capital letters and like huge font size suit this because it seems as if it were to be said it would be shouted, also the use of exclamation marks on the mast head also seems as if it’s shouted if said.

The articals that are featured on the cover of this magazine are suitable for the targeted audience as it’s all about rock e.g the writing under “NICKELBACK” says “HOW THE HELL DID THEY BECOME THE UK’S FAVOURITE ROCK BAND?” , this may catch the targeted audiences attention as it shows that there is an artical all about the rock band making there name big and becoming more and more famous as time goes on through their career.

‘Kerrang’ magazine in the UK is around the price of 20 – 50 pence, i feel like this is a perfect price as it is the worlds biggest rock magazine and they will always make profit because of the ammount they sell. Also it is a perfect price considering there are many, many more popular magazines such as NME.

Magazine Terminology.

Sell Line – sell line is text on the cover that helps to sell the magazine to the audience.

Headline – a headline on a magazine is the title of the main story in the magazine.

Anchorage Text – this is the way in which text helps to pin down the meaning of a picture and vice versa.

House Style- the house style of a magazine is a magazine's distinctive design that distinguishes it from its competitors.

Copy – a ‘Copy’ of a magazine is the main text.

Strap Line - memorable phrase that is recognisable to a brand.

Drop Capitals – a ‘Drop Capital’ of a magazine is really big letter, which starts off an article.

Lead – the lead of is an introductory paragraph of an article. Usually written in bold or capitals.

Puffs – ‘Puff’ is colourful boxes promoting features inside the magazine.

Caption – a ‘Caption’ to a magazine is description of an image.

Banner – a ‘Banner’ of a magazine is the text that stands out because it's on a coloured background.

Pugs – ‘Pugs’ are  placed at the top left and the top right hand corners of the paper and are known as the 'ears' of the page. The price of the paper, the logo or a promotion is often positioned there.

Slogan – a ‘slogan’ is a motto.

Buzz Words – ‘Buzz Words’ are "Wow", "Exclusive" and "Free" are all examples of this.

Masthead – a ‘Masthead’ of a magazine is the name of the magazine.