"The magazine industry has survived the coming of the digital age because it has been able to exploit technological advances. Indeed, it has always done so throughout its long history."
The magazine industry has huge competiton from digital advances,such as the internet,portable computers and the advances in mobile phones. Due to these advances, magasine's have found themselves being discontinued or selling a considerable less amount of copies. For examle; In mid-1973, the magasine- NME was selling nearly 300,000 copies per week but today they are only selling 38,486.
Many people today prefer to look at a magazine's website or subscribe to the online copies, as it is more portable, access to it is easy as you do not have to carry it round with you. Also the world we live in at the moment is very concerned with the enviroment, therefore by looking at the magasine on the website, you are not killing trees. Although paper copies of magasines are still avaliable t buy and many people do, therefore showing that they have survived the technical advances.
Although magazines are trying to keep paper copies of their magazines, they are still resposible for exploiting technical advantages. In the 1990's mainstream magazines started to create their own websites, filled with what the target audiences wanted, this showed an increase of interest into the magazine as computers were becoming a 'MUST HAVE' in nearly every house hold. Therefore meaning magazines were exploiting technology, to increase its popularity and readership.
Then came the advantages of internet access on mobile phones and apps for mobies, such as iphones. The first weekend the i phone came out over million bought it, this shows the popularity for the advanced mobile and people therefore wanted the latest apps. Due to this , all major magazines created there own app, which once again exploited their readership and keeping their name a popular and well known brand that people still want to buy.
Therefore all of this is showing that although magazines are facing being dicontinued from our supermarket shelves, they are keeping up with technology advantages and exloiting them as much as they can to keep their popularity and increas thier readership.
Wednesday 29 December 2010
Tuesday 21 December 2010
How are gender and age represened in an episode of EastEnders?
In Mondays episode of Eastenders i looked at how they presented gender and age ,both were reoccurring themes throughout the episode.
At the beginning it showed Ricky, a middle aged man playing on a old games console, possible from the era that he was born. In contrast they then showed Peter, a teenage boy playing COD on his x-box. Therefore showing that no matter what age you are, you have a childish side to you and enjoy a 'younger persons' toy. This also showed that it is mainly boys that play on computer games, to support this the next shot was the boys mother coming in having been shopping, to show that this is a womanly thing.
Age was distinctively shown through the clothing of the characters, Whitney a teenage girl was dressed in 'chav' like clothing, new to the shops and not covering as much flesh as an older person would wear. Where as Jane, an older middle aged lady was wearing more clothing, less up to date and stereotypical 'mum clothing'. Although on the other hand Bianca, a middle aged women was dressed in youth clothing, instead of clothes that you would expect a woman of her age to be wearing; showing that age does not affect the way in which people dress and poses the question should we categorise clothing to specific age groups.
Age reversal was also shown , when the little boy was not excited about Christmas ,but his mother was extremely excited and tried to get the boy excited. This is unusual as you would expect the boy to be excited about christmas and the mother not. Although on the other hand there was a clip of a young boy being taught mechanics by his older relative. Showing how we use age to our advantage and learn form our older peers. Although in this scene Gender is also covered as his wife interrupts and shows that she knows more than she does, mechanics is a stereotypical mans job, and here it is shown that this is not necessarily true, women are just as capable.
Ian, a middle aged man is shown to be having an affair with an older lady, known as a 'cougar' as she is with a younger man. This therefore shows age once again.
Both Jane and her little boy, decorate the tree and have great fun while doing this, showing that age does not influence everything and there are some similarities in the hobbies that different age groups enjoy.
Putting all of these points into consideration, i think we can see that Eastenders deals with Gender and Age often throughout a short, half an hour episode and make us think about the stereotypes and the way that different age groups and gender are represented.
At the beginning it showed Ricky, a middle aged man playing on a old games console, possible from the era that he was born. In contrast they then showed Peter, a teenage boy playing COD on his x-box. Therefore showing that no matter what age you are, you have a childish side to you and enjoy a 'younger persons' toy. This also showed that it is mainly boys that play on computer games, to support this the next shot was the boys mother coming in having been shopping, to show that this is a womanly thing.
Age was distinctively shown through the clothing of the characters, Whitney a teenage girl was dressed in 'chav' like clothing, new to the shops and not covering as much flesh as an older person would wear. Where as Jane, an older middle aged lady was wearing more clothing, less up to date and stereotypical 'mum clothing'. Although on the other hand Bianca, a middle aged women was dressed in youth clothing, instead of clothes that you would expect a woman of her age to be wearing; showing that age does not affect the way in which people dress and poses the question should we categorise clothing to specific age groups.
Age reversal was also shown , when the little boy was not excited about Christmas ,but his mother was extremely excited and tried to get the boy excited. This is unusual as you would expect the boy to be excited about christmas and the mother not. Although on the other hand there was a clip of a young boy being taught mechanics by his older relative. Showing how we use age to our advantage and learn form our older peers. Although in this scene Gender is also covered as his wife interrupts and shows that she knows more than she does, mechanics is a stereotypical mans job, and here it is shown that this is not necessarily true, women are just as capable.
Ian, a middle aged man is shown to be having an affair with an older lady, known as a 'cougar' as she is with a younger man. This therefore shows age once again.
Both Jane and her little boy, decorate the tree and have great fun while doing this, showing that age does not influence everything and there are some similarities in the hobbies that different age groups enjoy.
Putting all of these points into consideration, i think we can see that Eastenders deals with Gender and Age often throughout a short, half an hour episode and make us think about the stereotypes and the way that different age groups and gender are represented.
Saturday 11 December 2010
History of NME
1960’s
During the 1960s the paper championed the new British groups such as The Beatles.
These artists were NME Poll Winners Concert, an awards event that featured artists voted as most popular by the paper's readers.
The concert also featured an awards ceremony. From 1964 onwards they were filmed, edited and then transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place.
1970's
NME had lost ground to the Melody Maker as its coverage of music had failed to keep pace with the development of rock music. which resulted in the verge of closure by its owners IPC.
After sales had plummeted to 60,000 and a bad review, NME had been told to rethink its policies or die on the vine.
As a result the paper's coverage changed radically from an uncritical and showbiz-oriented paper to something intended to be smarter, hipper, more cynical and funnier than any mainstream British music paper had previously been.
In mid-1973, the paper was selling nearly 300,000 copies per week and was outstripping its other weekly rivals.
In 1978 Neil Spencer was made editor, One of his tasks was to oversee a redesign of the paper, which included the logo still used on the paper's today.
1980
In 1981 the NME released the influential C81 cassette tape, available to readers by mail order at a low price.However sales were dropping, and by the mid 1980s NME had hit a rough patch and was in danger of closing. During this period they were split between those who wanted to write about hip hop, a genre that was relatively new to the UK, and those who wanted to stick to rock music. Sales were apparently lower when photos of hip hop artists appeared on the front. The NME was generally thought to be rudderless at this time, with staff pulling simultaneously in a number of directions in what came to be known as the "hip-hop wars".
Initially, NME writers themselves were ill at ease with the new regime, with most signing a letter of no confidence in Alan Lewis shortly after he took over. However, this new direction for the NME proved to be a commercial success and the paper brought in new writers.
1990
The start of 1990 saw the paper in the thick of the Madchester scene, and covering the new British indie bands. Although it still supported new British bands, the paper was dominated by American bands, as was the music scene in general.
Sutherland did attempt to cover newer bands but one cover feature on Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 1999 saw the paper dip to a sales low.
From the issue of 21 March 1998 onwards, the paper has no longer been printed on newsprint, and more recently it has shifted to tabloid size: it has full, glossy, colour covers.
In 2000 the closure of the Melody Maker (which officially merged with the NME) and many speculated the NME would be next as the weekly music magazine market was shrinking - the monthly magazine Select, which had thrived.
2000
In the early 2000s the NME also attempted to broaden its coverage , running cover stories on hip-hop acts such as Jay-Z but as in the 1980s these proved unpopular with much of the paper's readership, and were soon dropped.
in 2002 a high turnover of young writers, the paper slowly began to increase in sales.
In October 2006 NME launched an Irish version of the magazine called NME Ireland
This coincided with the launch of Club NME in Dublin. Poor sales in the Republic of Ireland resulted from competition from market leader Hot Press and free music magazines. This resulted in the magazine's demise in November 2006.
In May 2008 the magazine received a redesign, aimed at an older readership. The first issue of the redesign featured a free seven-inch Coldplay vinyl single.
Circulation of the magazine has fallen continuously since 2003. In the second half of 2009, the magazine's circulation was 38,486, 47% down on a 2003 figure of 72,442.
NME website
What does the NME website offer its audience?
The NME magasine website offers its audience subscription to their magasine, special offers, trial subscriptions and special christmas offers. Therefore trying to get their audience to buy the magasine in bulk, but at the same time identifying with thier audience and what they can afford (4 mags for a pound).
Although the NME website offers its audience the latest news on people in the music industry, exclusive videos and photo's, gig tickets to buy, nme clothing range, the chance to vote for NME award winners, trailors and clips of new movie releases, free downloads, reviews, albums to buy , competitions, weekly newsletter, NME radio, new music or artisists and lyrics to thousands of songs.
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