Final Major Project Research and Content Development Olivia Watson c3496523 Word Count: 2021 Final Major Project Word Count: 4835
Research For this Final Major Project, the outcome was to write about a topic widely spoke about today, which was women’s body image and mental health. The original proposal for the FMP was for the content of this topic to be written for Spoiled Nation, however as the articles were being written, it became clear that they were not very fitting for the house style of Spoiled Nation. Nordquist (2019), explains how a house style is the specific editing and usage conventions that writers must follow to ensure consistency of a particular publication. As a result, one of the original objectives of writing for Spoiled Nation changed as the content was now being written for a new publication.
Another main objective of this project was to focus and explore the change of women’s body image and the impact of editorial magazines. In a study by Swiatkowski (2016), it is found that magazines have been linked to unhealthy weight management because of their ‘thin ideal’ images used across their covers and throughout their content. The aim of this project was to remove the pressure from the ‘thin ideal’ of editorials and other media platforms. Bell and Dittmar (2011), found that the perceived pressure to conform to a culturally defined body and beauty ideal by idealised celebrities and role models is a huge affect of negative body image.
Competitor and Market research In a study from Statista (2019), the top 5 selling women’s lifestyle and fashion magazines were as followed; Good Housekeeping, Woman & Home, Yours, Cosmopolitan and Hello! What these magazines have in common is that they appeal to the female population and possibly even the older female population. Along with the other 7 of the top twelve ranked in the statistics found, they all have the similarity of talking about lifestyle, fashion, home and gardening, beauty and fitness. These top 5 competitors for women’s magazines showed a gap in the market for a specific type of magazine, which was focusing on topics that women want to be reading about and that are being spoken about. A magazine where each issue would hold a conversation of a different social topic and this first issue would be; body image.
Technology Research A lot of people will agree, that editorial is having a decrease in sales in recent years, due to the online technology of being able to have digital content. Magazines such as Glamour have cut down their issues so solely annually and have began to focus on their online platform. With Hornett (2019), explains that since 2000, the sales and advertising figures of the UK’s top 100 magazines have declined by more than half. This project is bringing a new publication into the editorial industry, one that doesn’t offer fashion tips or gardening ideas or that of new fitness regimes women should try out. The project wanted to focus on body image and solely that topic, so with each issue of this new magazine would come a new topic of content. It is not accompanied by a digital platform as having an authentic, editorial magazine feels more personal and people can connect with it more.
The proposal for this FMP read that there were going to be three interviews with three different girls, aged 20, speaking to them about body image and their own opinions on it. However this proved difficult as the three girls who were going to be interviewed were unable to spare the time when needed. Fortunately we were able to speak to both a stylist and a social media influencer to find out their point of views on the subject of body image.
The project focused on the 1950s to this most recent decade when looking into women’s body image as the proposal stated it would. However, it did not specifically speak about the impact that editorial magazines to this, the project went on to speak about each decade and its differences. By having the opinions of both a stylist and an influencer also gave the content some personality, the opinions of people that are exposed to the talk of body image daily.
Focusing on body image was the purpose of this project and to speak of the different everchanging views in which women see and hear about. In the proposal for this project, it stated that the topic of mental health would also feature, however as the project and the content began to grow it seemed more fitting to focus this issue solely on body image. In a study by Harper and Tiggemann (2008), there is a statistic of out of 69 women’s magazines in America, that 94% of these 69 displayed a thin-idealised body image, that of a celebrity or famous figure, on their cover. This FMP had the aim to drive away from the stereotypical editorial content of body image when it is spoken about, and show women what it has been like throughout history. It took an approach of beginning with the 50s and ending with the 2010s, this current decade to educate women on the mounting pressure they have had out on them for years and that this day and age shouldn’t have to let me continue with it.
As the proposal of the project began to edit itself as it went along, this then made changed to the timeline. With the three girls who were being interviewed no longer available, both the stylist, Victoria, and influencer, Sophie had to be contacted. This pushed back the deadline for these interviews to be done which changed the order.
Another fault in the timeline is that of a questionnaire needing to be produced. The original idea for the magazine was to have a questionnaire on the two final pages to see what decade women felt they would feel more comfortable in, body image-wise. It became clear quite early on in the production of the magazine that a questionnaire would not fit the style and the content of the publication. As adding the opinions of both Sophie and Victoria helped give a different perspective to the content and to the readers as the other content is speaking of each individual decade.
Content Development Johnson (2017), acknowledges that content development is driven by a cycle of theory, execution, iteration and analysis. Throughout this Final Major Project the content began to change itself as the house style and particular type of content of the publication became more clear. Before any content was written, a flat plan was drawn out to ensure the production of the magazine went smoothly. “A flat plan is a map of a magazine,”(Whittaker, 2008, p74).
The flat plan has a very particular layout of where pictures and then the text of each decade is going to be put in the library. The end result of the project did also stick to this layout of having two double-page spreads per decade, however the interviews were planned to be consecutive and after they were discarded from the magazine its layout differed slightly. The interview with stylist Victoria Watson replaces the double page of the first interview, which then bringscontinues with the next decade, which is the 1980s. A positive of having removed the three interviews, was that of being able to broaden the content of Victoria and Sophie’s interviews which breaks down the content to make it more appealing to read.
When referring to the flat plan, there are a few double-page spreads with ‘advertisement’ written across them, but as the production of the magazine began and the content was written it was seen as there would be no room for advertisements as the content would fill the pages. The final double-page spread before the back cover of the magazine were to be filled with a questionnaire asking women of their opinion of what their preferred decade was in relation to body image. A selection of magazines, particularly women’s lifestyle, will have readers thinking about the content of the magazine, but rarely include questionnaire’s and results of these readers. To allow more content to be produced for the topic of the magazine. The questionnaire was removed and replaced with a double-page spread speaking about women’s body image as a whole; in society, the media and different cultures.
Senic (2011), explains how each spread of the magazine should be designed logically and to that of the magazine as a whole. The way a magazine is lay out and designed is one of the most important parts of a new publication as it will be what the reader’s will use to differentiate this publication from others. The design of the publication was originally that of a magazine template from Adobe; the house style, page colours and both the image and text layouts. As the content began to be put into the design, it became clearer that this magazine was looking more like a book with the way the layout had been put together. There were not enough house styles being brought to the pages; subtitles, pull quotes, body copy and headlines. Another issue was the colour scheme, it did not have the feel of a magazine to it as the pages were all different shades of pink. The magazine needed to have a raw affect to it, a raw image with the publication being ‘RAW’, and that magazine layout did not fit its content or design. The style of writing as the content continued to be written, was beginning to lose its journalistic feel to it. Until the interviews with both Victoria and Sophie where the journalistic style began to come back through the writing, so to make this publication connect with the audience, the content talking about each decade was read through and rewritten.
Final Outcomes The final outcomes for this project were to create a new quarterly publication that will feature a new topic of content each issue. ‘RAW’ is a publication filled with real content, discussing a real topic that is spoken about on a daily basis within society and something that women do not really discuss in detail. Bell and Dittmar (2011), believe that the beauty ideals within the mass media are airbrushed to create these ‘perfect body image’, but the readers of these publications will not know this and, therefore, go on to think that this body image is achievable. RAW publication reassures their readers that these are not real body images to be idolising, that they cannot idolise something that does not exist. The content of the interview with Sophie, she talks about the use of photoshop and other ‘editing’ tools used across social media and the backlash people can get for using them, and often not using also. Another outcome of this publication, to have real opinions and views on this particular topic, as it is spoken about so often between women in society today and for decades now.
The decision to begin from the 1950s was due to the fact that this was the era that women were really beginning to notice such drastic changes within body image. The images used throughout the publication show a fluctuation, both up and down, of size and shape throughout each decade up to today’s ‘idealised body image.’ The final outcome of this was to show women that is not just nowadays that have had conflicting ideas of what a woman’s body should look like, what society’s preferred body image is. A new publication must have something to allow it to stand out from its competitors, whether that be its design, layout or content. Brach (2015), explains how readers start from the front cover and work their way to the very back of a publication, the components to make an industry standard magazine should make readers want to look at every page and read every single piece of content throughout the magazine. The outcome of this FMP works to these industry standard, its content is unique and not that of its competitors, by speaking solely on the topic of body image it allows the readers to engage with it personally.