Assignment 4: Magazines

Name of magazine

SMART PARENTS

Concept

Nowadays, more and more parents are concerning about the future of their children. Some of them may even start planning their children’s life since they were born. So, I would welcome the parents to send me emails to let me know what they want to know. And also, I would set up a blog for freelance editors to give me some information, and then I will choose few of them and post them out. For example, some parents may want to know some information about Homestead High School. Thus, readers can give me the information through the blog. Interviewing some famous schools in Bay Area, introducing some new extracurricular activities, covering some healthy recipes and explaining some educational issues are some of the topics I would like to include in the magazine.

Target readers

As implied in the name of magazine, target readers would basically be the parents. But also, those who are majoring in child development or working in this field would be the target readers as well.

Competitors

Magazine PARENTS. It is a monthly magazine but mine is weekly. But there is a big competition as its first issue was October 1926, so PARENTS must has an excellent reputation, and also it has won several rewards last year. Therefore, magazine PARENTS is my major competitors.

Advertisers

1) Supplements for children (Eg. NUTRILITE)

2) Summer programs for children (Eg. YMCA)

3) Restaurants especially those who provided kids meal (Eg. McDonald’s)

4) Toys (Eg. TOYS R US)

5) Book Stores (Eg. BORDERS)

Cover

With a photograph for background, basically, it will be a photo that related to parents and children or the main topic. The major topic for that week will be BOLD, and it has a bigger font size than those subtopics. This can attract and draw the readers’ attention. The subtopics are below the major topic, and I would choose two to three of them from the magazine which are more attractive to readers. 

Sample cover

Assignment 3: Books

Although I am not a bibliophile, I still read a few books a year and these three had quite influenced me a lot.

1) Harry Potter    Author: J.K. Rowling

At first, I didn’t really like to read Harry Potter when the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was released in 1997. Some of my schoolmates had even formed a "Harry Potter Fans Group" at that time as they thought it was really good, and addicted to it immediately. But still, I was not interested in it until I watched the movie of its first novel. I was about nine when I watched the movie, and as a simple kid, I didn’t have much knowledge up in my mind. I thought it was amazing when I saw the characters are attending a magic school. After finished watching the movie, I started reading Harry Potter series. I thought the plots of Harry Potter are excited which some of them are can’t be imagined. As time goes on, I knew magic is impossible to exist in the world, but I still love to read Harry Potter series. I have already finished reading the last novel, it is great! And the most important point is reading the novels is even exciting than watching the movies, and I can improve my English as well.

Click here for the link of "Harry Potter series"

2) Charlotte’s Web    Author: E.B. White

I read it when I was in 7^th grade, and was the required novel I needed to read in the English Literature class. Teacher read with us when we were having class, she explained the important parts of it, and so I could understand the novel deeply. It tells a story between a pig named Wilbur and his relationship with a spider named Charlotte. Charlotte writes a message praising Wilbur in her web in order to persuade the farmer not to kill him. It is a touching story that telling friendship is one of the important stuffs in our lives. Friends will give us a helping hand if we are in a trouble. Helping with each other, just like Wilbur and Charlotte, is what we should do as a friend. I can still remember the plots inside the book although I read it long time ago.

Click here for the link of "Charlotte's Web"

3) The Kite Runner    Author: Khaled Hosseini

It became one of my favorite novels after I finished reading this in my READ 211 class last quarter. The plots were very remarkable that make me won’t forget them. It tells about friendship and betrayal, price of loyalty. Themes of love, honor, guilt, fear and redemption are all included in this fabulous novel. I felt boring when I was reading the first few chapters until the first climax appeared. I learned not only vocabulary and sentence structure, but also some experience in my life. It taught me a lot. I am sure I am going to read it again later. This is a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED novel! 

Click here for the link of "The Kite Runner"

Assignment 2: Media Impact

Having a skinny body shape is an image of women, especially teenagers in these years. Nowadays, there are many advertisements in magazines promoting skinny body shape on girls. So, they will try their best to follow the trend of getting slim. Why people want to become slimmer? Some of them follow just because of the trend; they may think that they should follow it as everyone is following. Some may even think that they can become models and famous if they are skinny. But actually, is it really good to have a SKINNY body shape? We should pay attention to the difference between SLIM and SKINNY. According to dictionary, SKINNY means very thin, but SLIM means gracefully thin. Why people want to have a skinny body shape? Are they having an unhealthy lifestyle to become skinny? Are these magazines which promote skinny body shape making a positive or negative effect to us?

According to www.chacha.com, a "healthy weight" for a woman who is 5'9" is 129-169 pounds; an average 5'9" model's weight is somewhere around 110-115 lbs. This shows models in these days are too skinny, and this actually is making a negative impact to the society and a bad model to us.
http://www.chacha.com/question/what-does-the-average-5'9''-supermodel-weigh

Isabelle Caro, a well-known model in France, died on Nov 17, 2010 because of Acute Respiratory Infection after she finished working in Japan and back to France. A designer told her she needed to lose ten kilos (22 pounds) if she wanted to model when she was only twelve, and she suffered from Anorexia since thirteen. In 2006, she strived for healthy lifestyle after escaping with bare life. Since Isabelle’s body has been badly damaged from Anorexia, she got only 42 kilos when she died.

Here is an interview of Isabelle Caro by singer Jessica Simpson

Jessica Simpson Brought To Tears By Anorexic Model Isabelle Caro

In my point of view, these advertisements in magazines bring out negative effects more than positive effects. Readers would easily to follow the trend of getting skinny body shape by having an unhealthy lifestyle, like control weight by not eating anything. This is really dangerous as we can see from the example of Isabelle. Can these magazines employ some models with a SLIM body shape instead of a SKINNY body shape? And they should also promote some appropriate ways for losing way! These are the better ways to advertise some up-to-date trends. 

Assignment 1: Media Autobiography

Communication is critical to everything we do. Those 8 types of mass media – books, newspapers, magazines, movies, recordings, radio, television and internet are always related to our daily life. They can help me to get the latest news and to know things around me and the world.

Books can help me in doing assignment, for example doing some research. I would prefer to do the research in the library sometimes although it is not as convenient as the internet. Because I would feel tired when I focus on the computer for a long period of time. And also, I may not access to internet all the time. So, I can bring those books everywhere I want. I seldom read books, but I found The Kite Runner is a really good book to read. I love the story, and I could even imagine I was one of the characters inside the book.

I read newspapers or magazines everyday in the library when I got a gap between classes. I probably get the latest news from the newspapers, but the reason that I dislike newspaper is my hands would become dirty after I finished watching it. I know this may be a stupid reason, but it is hard to find the restroom to wash my hands sometimes. However, I can keep the information from the newspapers or magazines if I want. I may lose the webpage or files in the internet easily. It will be more secure if I want to keep some important information.

Movies can also give me some previous news or events, like the movie After Shock which I watched in the last summer. It was a great and powerful movie that was about the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. I got much more details of the earthquake from the movie.

I seldom listen to the radios, but I know I can get the news from radio as well. The radio programs here seem to be boring as I always hear the same song. However, I think radio is a good way to produce advertisement because many people listen to the radio while they are driving.

Television is one of the things that I can’t live without it. I love watching dramas that produce by the US, such as The Mentalist, CSI and The Pretty Little Liars. As an international student, I need to improve my English. So, I can improve it by listening more of it. Besides, I think television is also the good way to produce advertisement, as same as radio.

Internet, which is the best invention in the world, becomes much more important in these days. It is the fastest way to spread the latest news. I can search the materials I need for assignment through the internet. Google and Wikipedia are the common search engines that I use. I am using the internet every day; for instance, check the weather information and e-mail and update my facebook. It is convenient to communicate with people around the world through MSN or skype too.

We can’t live without media since it is important to the modern world. I have decided communication as my major, and I am planning to transfer in the coming fall. I have applied to UCLA, UCSD and UCD, and I would like to work in public relations or advertisement industry for my future career.