Blog 24: November 27, 2020

            Today I decided to start analyzing past fashion magazines so I can have a better understanding of common trends and conventions in cover pages, double spread pages, and a table of contents. Down below, I did an analysis on a cover page from the brand "Marie Claire" which is a magazine that has information on fashion, style, hairstyles, beauty, careers, health, and relationships. I specifically choose this magazine because it includes fashion which will be my future magazine genre and it features my favorite artists BTS.

Blog 23: November 26, 2020

               I am beginning my first preliminary task for this course, which will be to create a practice cover page using a platform called "Canva" that my teacher assigned me to use.  Hopefully, by doing this task I will get more comfortable with using Canva to create my future fashion magazine and will give me more ideas of what I can do with my magazine. In this blog post, I'm going to list what I plan to do with my practice cover page. 

           1.  I hope to create a similar color palette for this practice task to the one I plan to use in my final magazine, which will be pastel colors.

           2. To use a sort of fun and bubbly font and texts to make it look appealing to my target audience. 

           3. Use my own photos on the cover page since I will have to gain more experience taking good quality photos.  

           4. Arrange the photos and texts in a well-balanced way so the text isn't overbearing and the photos aren't underwhelming. 

            

            After I create the practice cover page I will evaluate the process and my results in the next blog post. See you then!

Blog 22: November 25, 2020

        Hello there, in this blog post I've decided to list my future planning for my preliminary task, which is to create a sample magazine gain more experience and knowledge on creating one before I make my final fashion magazine. I genuinely am excited to improve my skills, especially taking high-quality photos, and gaining a better understanding of creating a professional magazine. Down below will be a sort of order I hope to stick to so I can get my sample done efficiently. 

• Create the cover page first, making sure its genre is fashion, and do the proper prep such as doing a cover page analysis and taking photos. Then evaluate the results and write about future expectations. 
• Furthermore, I would like to practice my editing skills and write the process it takes me to get to my end result practice photos.
• Then create the table of contents, and once again do prep such as a table of a contents analysis. Then evaluate the results and what I would like to change for future reference.
• Lastly, I would do another analysis this time on a double-page spread and then I would create my sample double-page spread. And then I would evaluate the results and will give my own criticism.
• I could also then evaluate how the sample cover page, table of contents, and double-page all came together as an edition and if they look compatible and things of that nature.

    I hope everything goes to plan, I will see you guys next time!

Blog 21: November 21, 2020

   

     I have determined the two models that will be showcasing the outfits I pick out in the future, it was a little difficult to determine out of the people I know who could model for me since we are in the middle of a pandemic. But thankfully my two very close friends are able to model for me so here is their introduction. 

Name: Elizabeth Lopez 

Page: Cover and Double Page Spread

Age: 18 years old

Build: Tall and thin

Hair Color: Copper Red 

Eye color: Green

Ethnicity: Hispanic 

                                                                              Picture: 

Name: Jadan Cedeno

Page: Content Page and Double Page Spread

Age: 17 years old

Build: Short and thin

Hair Color: Dark Brown

Eye Color: Light Brown 

Ethnicity: Hispanic

                                                                            Picture: 

Blog 20: November 20, 2020

        Today I started to brainstorm ideas for different components of my fashion magazine and have come up with a couple of good ideas and concerns. 

        Firstly I thought about what sort of fashion my magazine should be focused on, and after taking my survey results into account I plan to make mine solely about different fashion trends and styles that have evolved and changed between time periods. Based on my survey results it seems like my audience would prefer to see trendy clothing over any or type like high fashion. I also choose this sort of style because it would be easier to recreate different outfits of trends than it would be to recreate an alternative or high fashion look. Not to mention I actually look forward to the idea of going to different thrift stores to create different styles of looks. 

       Which led to my brainstorm of naming my Magazine as its brand. And after randomly making up names for 20 minutes I thought about the essence of my magazine. Which will be different stylish and trendy looks. So I decided on the brand name "LookBook"  since I will be covering multiple different looks that represent certain trends. 

       In terms of concerns, I have begun to map out when I will start taking photos of outfits and models, even though I don't know what trends I will write about yet. But despite that, I plan on doing my photoshoots in January my issue is finding models who will agree to meet me in person in the middle of a pandemic. So, I will have to choose at least two close friends and hope that their parents will agree to us meeting up for it. If not I'll have to get creative and find a different way to showcase the looks I create. 

Blog 19: November 19, 2020

        Now that I have my Fashion Magazine survey results I will be evaluating my target audience and how I will make my content appealing to them.

        From the 17 responses I received, it seems that 100 percent of my audience is actually female, and they are all between the ages of 16-18. Although this means my audience lacks diversity, this can be seen as a positive since I will not find it easier to relate to them is that I am also female and 17 years old. That being said the results show that the larger majority of my audience would rather see a female model on the cover page of my magazine rather than a male which is good news because I plan on having two female models for my photoshoot of outfits. Furthermore, they would find a pastel palette for texts and background colors over any other assortment of colors like neon. So, I will definitely be using a lighter color palette for my magazine.

      Moreover, I have learned from my survey that my target audience would like to see trendy clothing on a model over anything else like revealing clothing. This is helpful because my fashion magazine will most likely be about differing clothing style trends and eras. Also, they would want to read fashion polls and opinionated articles instead of interviews. I am actually quite excited about creating an opinionated piece in my magazine. 

     Lastly, I learned that an overwhelming amount of my audience would like to read a playfully written magazine rather than something serious like an argumentative one or historical one. Which suits me just fine since that is one of my preferences as well. Also, I learned that the majority of my audience read magazines sometimes but not often and an equal amount of them read the magazine physically and digitally. 

Blog #18: November 12, 2020

                   I finally have the results of my magazine survey results and in the next blog, I will explain how the results are going to shape some of my fashion magazine's components. 

    

Blog #17: November 9th, 2020

 

                    I've finally created a survey for my AICE Media Studies class that will allow me to assess who my target audience is for the fashion magazines that I will be creating. It is important I gather a good amount of responses from my peers so my data will have reliability.         

                    Down below will be the link to my survey, anyone reading this can feel free to take the survey as well, I would really appreciate it! The next blog will go into my results and how they will help me decide the overall style and content of my magazine.

My Survey Link:    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSelfOKDVqCTtVqVKfAVvqD5c0Ozofn_nL9TjKMKksqpVpyWIg/viewform?usp=sf_link 

Blog #16: November 6, 2020

                 Continuing my research on representation media I have found that there is a gender equality issue in relation to media as a profession as well as to media content. Regarding media as a profession, women are under-represented in media ownership, information production, and decision-making positions. Gender inequalities are even more blatant in media content: women are under-represented from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective.

                    Media often times will use women's bodies and exploit them for views. Content about women is largely comprised of subjects concerned with entertainment, tabloids, and sexuality. Women are being objectified every day without there any visible efforts to reverse it. Such content is sometimes dressed up and marketed as emancipatory for women, though instead they merely repeat the problematic portrayals seen in the past. For example, how the media portrays women as victims to then introduce a male main character as the hero.

                This same sexist representation repeats itself with every news article, despite repeated criticisms and debate. Hopefully in the future women will be represented equally in all productions of media.

Blog #15: November 1,2020

                    On the topic of representation in media, I discovered how different ethnic groups are stereotyped and underrepresented in it. Mass media have a huge reach in society and are a key filter through which people learn about each other, yet countless studies demonstrate that these media continue to reproduce ethnic and racial stereotypes, with often harmful effects. Which is why now then ever media productions are trying to be more inclusive for ethnic roles in shows, movies, and cover photos and sections in magazines. 

                    Mass media plays a role in shaping collective identities and intergroup attitudes and, by typecasting certain groups, distort the picture that audiences see of different groups. Moreover, media representations can not only promote public hostility toward other ethnic groups but also lower ethnic minority individuals’ self-esteem and pressure them to try to fit in with such stereotypes.

                   For example, Asians are often invisible in narratives, playing trivial roles without much depth or substance. One of the most dominant and pervasive portrayals of Asians in contemporary television is that of the highly accomplished yet passive "model minority". Such as how television and movies predominantly depict Asian-Americans as diligent workers in business settings rather than focus on their family or social life. The model minority stereotype is not as positive as it sounds reports suggest that it's closely related to a long-standing stereotype of Asian-Americans as all being nerdy, strict, and smart.

               It is because of stereotypes like this that ethnic groups are underrepresented and categorized into certain roles and looks. And not chosen for modeling gigs and big roles in magazines as often as white Americans. In my magazine, I plan on using a wide variety of my friends to model outfits for me, and will obviously avoid any dressing stereotypes.