Mid-Way NEA Peer Review

 Mid-Way NEA Peer Review

COVERS

These are the covers I have created so far, I believe both the images to be very striking and powerful and I'm happy with how they look within a magazine composition. I think my covers fit the mental health theme very well through relevant coverlines and the bold typography. The consistent, modern house style and pop culture references will appeal to my young adult audience. To improve I will refine spacing and alignment for a possibly clearer layout.

Contents

At this stage, I have prioritised composition , so page numbers and article titles are not yet included. I have selected additional images that work well with my mental health theme, although I worry the two contents pages look too similar. The images are also concentrated in the middle of the page but I am unsure whether this suits my magazines layout.

Website

My Website

My website is incomplete but it is already developing the strong stylised, alternative aesthetic I want for my mental health magazine. I want to establish a base of images and text first before introducing movement, animations and interactive featured to make the website more engaging and visually exciting.

 

MORE NEA PHOTOS

For my NEA, I look some photographs of my male friend to represent men’s mental health. His serious and moody facial expressions create a slightly dark and emotional atmosphere. The direct eye contact makes the image feel personal and allows the audience to focus on his emotions. The simple background keep the attention on him, while the close framing makes the photograph feel intimate. I could link this image to an article about men’s mental health and how men may struggle to express or communicate their emotions. His Jamaican heritage also fosters a sense of inclusivity and suggests mental health and race do in fact intersect.

 

MORE NEA IMAGES

For my NEA, I have taken a series of portrait photos of my friend to represent emotions and personal experiences. This image focuses closely on her facial expression and uses natural lighting to create a personal and reflective mood. The contrast between the bright wall and her beautiful deep skin tone, enhancing her natural glow. She is looking at the camera with a calm, thoughtful expression. As a black woman, I can connect the photographs to articles exploring the relationship between race, identity and mental health. The images will help make the magazine feel more personal and visually communicate the emotional themes discussed in the article.

PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO FOR NEA

Here are some photos I have taken for my women’s health magazine front cover, for the mental health edition. I took many photos and the one on the left is the one I find particularly emotive and striking. Her direct address is powerful and intense and the greyscale colour pallet I have further experimented with is particularly ‘moody’ and effective. The empty background contributes to the authentic magazine look, allowing for room to add cover lines without looking busy. 

I then experimented with layering and selected two images. I turned the opacity down on one and put it on top of the full opacity one. This was a convention seen often in mental health inspired photos. I like this effect and it will probably be one I use for the contents page rather than front cover as it may be too busy and the effect will be lost. 

   

These are some of the many images I chose, I ensured I got a range of angles and expressions so I had enough content for the inside pages and a successful cover. 

Social, Cultural and Political Context of Europe and the US in 1983

 Social, Cultural and Political Context of Europe and the US in 1983

Research Infographic

 

Here, I have produced a infographic on the development of music videos deepening my contextual knowledge. 

Music Video Research

 Music Video Research 

https://youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914&si=1Qoa7hCZAo7LByPC

The music video for “Take On Me” by a-ha (1985) is a highly iconic example of 1980s media, using innovative rotoscoped animation combined with live action to reflect the decade’s fascination with new technology and visual experimentation. From a media studies perspective, the contrast between the black-and-white animated fantasy world and the full-colour real world creates a clear binary opposition between escapism and reality, a common theme in 80s pop culture. The video follows a clear narrative structure rather than simply showcasing performance, which was unusual at the time and helped audiences emotionally engage with the song. Representation of gender aligns with many 80s conventions, presenting the male character as active and heroic while the female character begins as passive but ultimately shows agency by choosing to enter danger for love. Overall, the video reinforces the 1980s emphasis on romance, optimism, and spectacle, while also demonstrating how music videos became more cinematic and story-driven during the decade.

CREATING MY OWN BIG ISSUE COVER

 

Shelter - Our House It’s Not a Home

I chose the Shelter campaign video “Our House. It’s Not a Home” because it uses the Madness song intertextually, creating a striking contrast between the nostalgic, comforting tone of the music and the harsh reality of overcrowded, insecure housing, which immediately engages viewers emotionally. The narrative represents homelessness not as an individual failure but as a systemic social injustice, encouraging empathy and prosocial behaviour, reflecting altruism by motivating viewers to feel moral responsibility and consider action. From an A-level media studies perspective, the video can be analysed through Parasocial Contact Theory, as it humanises marginalised individuals and reduces psychological distance. The advert also includes Social Responsibility frameworks, which demonstrate how media can activate societal awareness and moral engagement. The intertextuality of the song amplifies emotional impact, drawing on cultural memory to make the audience reflect on what it truly means to have a home, while prompting both affective and potentially active responses to social injustice.

Dixon’s analysis of Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory 

Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory chapter in the Media Theory for A Level: The Essential Revision Guide has changed how I think about media and my extra reading around his work has deepened this even further. Hall’s theory pushes representation beyond the idea of media simply “reflecting” reality, arguing instead that meaning is actively constructed through systems of signs. He also suggested that producers encode preferred meanings which audiences then decode in different ways. Through reading more about his encoding/decoding model and his ideas on preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings, I now understand audiences as active interpreters whose social and cultural backgrounds shape how they respond to texts. Additional reading on his work on stereotyping and power has also strengthened my grasp of the theory, as I now see stereotypes not just as clichés but as tools that can “fix” certain marginalised groups into narrow, negative meanings that support dominant ideologies. Overall, combining my original understanding with wider academic commentary from Dixon’s theory book has helped me to apply his theory more confidently in my own analysis, making my interpretations more critical, nuanced and aware of the power dynamics behind seemingly ordinary media representations.

 KERRANG! INTERVIEW WITH STUART WILLIAMS

To broaden my understanding of different media industries, I recently read an article in Media Magazine about Kerrang!. As someone with a strong passion for alternative music scenes and subcultures, the idea of one day working for Kerrang! really appeals to me. The article was an interview with Stuart Williams, publishing director of Kerrang!, in which he discussed his career in the media industry and how he secured his current position. His story helped me see the media as a cultural industry in the way Hesmondhalgh describes, balancing creativity with commercial pressures. The article made me more aware of how institutions carefully construct and maintain a distinctive brand identity. I was particularly interested in how Kerrang! represents its audience as part of an ‘outsider’ community, which links to Gauntlett’s ideas about identity and how media texts allow audiences to explore who they are. It also made me think about Hall’s representation theory, especially how certain groups and subcultures are encoded and then decoded by different audiences. Reading this interview has motivated me to research career paths within the media industries and has strengthened my ambition to become an editor, particularly in a role where I can shape representations and narratives around music, youth and alternative culture.