Magazine Industry Component 2 Section B

Section A - Television
Section B - Magazines
Section C - Online Media


Could be a 30 mark question in which you compare texts, or a 15 mark where you conduct a singular textual analysis. This could also be two 15 marks.

The 15 mark questions could be about different elements, such as audience, industry.

How exactly is the magazine industry regulated, and who does it? [15]

Magazine regulatory board: ipso // Independent Press Standards Organisation

"A self regulatory body that monitors press standards"

"The Independent Press Standards Organisation is the independent regulator for the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK. We hold newspapers and magazines to their account for their actions, protect individual rights, uphold high standards of journalism, and help to maintain freedom of expression for the press."

They use a guideline called the Editors' Code of Practice.

IPSO was founded in 2014. Before the inception of IPSO, the regulatory body used was the Press Complaints Commission, PCC, founded in 1990. The PCC closed amidst the phone hacking scandal.

Press Council was the regulatory board formed in 1953. This was voluntary, done through guidelines and quite loose in terms of its own regulation. Women magazine (1964) and our set edition was released within the rule of the Press Council, and this reflects the content in the magazine at the time. 

This does not mean that regulation now is completely enforced, as fake news and other rule breaking content emerges. 

Sonia Livingstone and Peter Hunt:

The increasing power of global media corporations together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformation in the production, distribution, and marketing of digital media, have placed the traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.

"Save The Planet Kill Yourself" article in Adbusters.

Use both texts to discuss the development and changes in regulation between the two texts 1964 - 2016. The shift to digital distribution, production, convergent technologies, rise of media corporations.

What economic factors have affected this product? How financially successful was it? Was it made commercially or for profit? [15-30] 

If 30 marks write a comparison, if 15 write about 1. 

Woman:

IPC / Now TI Media owns Woman magazine.

TI are a conglomerated, horizontally integrated media company. This means that they are made up of many different smaller companies that have made up the conglomerate. Horizontally integrated means that they own a lot of companies in the same sector. They own a lot of magazine brands from the likes of NME, Yacht magazines, T.V. Guides, and any other specific niche hobby interests.

Since its launch, Woman has competed with Woman's Own, and Woman's Weekly to e the top selling title. These merged to become IPC, the sales peaked in 1959. In 1937, Oldhams, now IPD, opens printing in Watford Herts, using gravure process for colour. Woman launched weekly with a low cover price, 2 chillings for a full colour magazine. Within a year, the title was selling 500,000 copies a week.

IPC sells many lifestyle magazines, aimed at the working class. The amount of magazines they own echo the theory of Curran and Seaton, power in media industries. All of their magazine covers look quite stale and copy the same formula because they know it sells. Media concentration limits variety, creativity, and quality. 

Adbusters:

Owned by Adbusters Media Foundation, essentially self owned.

Canadian based, ancap, not for profit pro-environment organisation founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Shmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia. Adbusters describes itself as "A global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators, and entrepeneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age."

Economic Factors:

Ancap

Anti-consumerist

Not for profit

Anti-commercialist

Independent

Self-Ownership

120,000 circulation, considered successful economically.

Reinforces CUrran and Seaton's theory regarding power and industries:

Its creative, diverse, original, pluralistic, and isn't formulaic.

Can Adbusters be truly anti-capitalist in a late stage capitalism society.

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