Media Studies

Advanced GCE in Media Studies H409/03/04 Making media

Statement of Intent

Centre number Centre name

18125 City College Norwich

Candidate number:

Candidate name: Kemal Adams

Brief chosen:

Component 3 - Magazines and Online

How do you intend to use the four areas of the media theoretical framework to communicate meaning and
meet the requirements of your chosen brief?

Product 1
I aim to create a current affairs magazine that appeals to a sophisticated, socially conscious 16-25 age demographic
audience of ABC1 on the socioeconomic scale. I aim to communicate meaning to my audience with use of media
language. In my first edition I will create positive representations of the social groups of young adults and men in the
main image on the front cover. It will be a close up shot of a young male teenager with a serious facial expression
and direct mode of address, with a graphic of a social media platform ‘post’ frame bordering the main image. The
lead coverline below the main image will be ‘Public Enemy Number One’, with the tagline: ‘Cancel Culture – A new
form of Frontier Justice?’. This anchorage is an intertextual reference to the Prohibition Era in the USA of the 1930s,
in which well-known criminals were declared ‘public enemies’ and hunted by law enforcement, with the main image
meant to be a parody of the ‘wanted’ posters of the era to satirical effect. As a result, meaning will be encoded that
the public ‘othering’ that being declared a ‘public enemy’ in the Prohibition era caused is similar to the practice of
‘cancelling’ individuals on social media, communicating to the ‘active’ target audience that it is immoral (Shirkey’s
theory). The target audience will take a preferred reading to the representation of the two social groups being unfairly
and immorally prosecuted due to their core values of sophistication and social awareness.

In my second edition front cover I will represent the social groups of young adult students (Age and Class) with a
mid to long shot main image of a male or female young adult dressed in casual clothing. The lack of a formal
costume connoting youth and their low socioeconomic status as a class. The negative signifiers of ‘roughness’ and
low status will be ‘reclaimed’ to encode positive meaning with my use of anchorage with the lead coverline –
‘Thomas Smith’ – ‘The young activist leading by example’. I will use layout by placing the coverline directly below the
image to encode meaning that despite the model’s low status and youth he is an ideal example for others to follow.
In the mise-en-scene of the shot I will have a background of nature and greenery – with the model directly
addressing the camera, positioned at a high angle. This is to represent him as ‘at one’ with the setting and a figure to
be taken seriously. Overall, my second edition will appeal to the target audience, who as a young socially conscious
demographic will take a preferred reading towards the brand’s ‘concern’ for the handling and care of the
environment, and personally identify with the choice of a ‘star’ that is a part of their social group.
CCS438 – Statement of Intent CCS/H409
Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations
 Product 2
I aim for my website to reinforce the connotations of sophistication and modernity that my target audience will
associate with the magazine brand’s print editions. At the top of my homepage I will have the masthead, with the
brand’s name in white serif font with a red puff around it. Below the masthead will be a banner with topic titles in
sans-serif red typography that redirect to another page. Examples being – ‘News, Politics, Social Issues,
Technology.’ The dominant colour palette for the website will be red and white, and this will be seen throughout the
website. Below the banner will be a lead cover story laid out in a column, with a coverline bold black serif
typography, and a main image in a square-shaped white puff. This will be replicated with other coverlines on the
homepage, which will be smaller to denote their secondary importance. Another feature I will have on my website is
a ‘Editor’s Pick’ sidebar, which will list ten coverlines in order of importance – they will be differentiated from the
other ‘stories’ with red typography. Overall, I aim to create a website that will appear sophisticated yet modern with
use of traditional media conventions and new – such as links to the brand’s social media pages in the banner of the
website.

How do you intend to link your media products to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the
digitally convergent nature of your media production? (approx. 100 word)
I will link my media products together in various ways. I will have a call to action in the contents page of the print
magazine telling the reader to go to the website for an ‘exclusive’ audio interview that will be on the website, in the
format of a podcast audio video – this is popular with my target audience’s age demographic who use digital
platforms such as Spotify and Youtube to listen to podcasts of celebrities and internet personalities. Similarly, the
banner of the website will have a call to action to the print magazine – a graphic of the two print front covers will be
placed below a bold tagline telling the audience to ‘subscribe’ – using an imperative to connote urgency. In the
banner I will also use cross-platform marketing via links to the brand’s social media platforms with iconography of
social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. This will appeal to the young target
audience, who fit the target demographic for these platforms.

CCS438 – Statement of Intent CCS/H409

Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations