Introduction to the magazine industry

Media forms and products in depth

Introduction To Magazines:

- Component 2 is much more detailed to component 1

Questions:

- Media Language: Editing, analysis, deeper meaning of something

- Audiences: Stuart hall reception theory

- Representation: Definition: The producer of a media product shows something again: Every media product is a representation of something: stereotypes, 

- Media industries: Regulation, BBFC

Evaluate the validity of this claim with reference to the set editions of woman and adbusters and the historical contexts in which they are produced

Explore how the generic conventions of the magazine industry has changed over time.

Roland Barthes - Semiotics 

Genre: Type of media product

Genre conventions are the things which make up a genre

 Action films:

- Themes of goodies and baddies

- Fighting

- Explosions

- Fast past editing

- CGI

- Less of emphasis on dialogue

- Muscle

- Fast past dramatic music

Sub Genre - Genre within a genre

Hybrid Genre - Combination of two or more genres

Semiotics - How meaning is created through signs and symbols. 

- symbols, language and code

Code - Anything in a media product that means something

- Semiology is the study of meaning

Codes:

• Hermeneutic code - Anything that makes the audience question something. Also known as an enigma code. Mystery that hasn't yet been solved. 
• Semantic code
• Proairetic code- anything that suggests that something is going to happen 
• Action codes - 
• Symbolic code - Something which means something else or has a deeper meaning. For example: Rose is a symbol of love
• Referential code- Something which makes reference to something else

Intertextuality - Media that references another form of media

Roland Barthes Theory - Media has a deeper meaning 

Claude Levi- Strauss

All media products have an underlying structure, and knowledge of this structure helps us to analyse them.

Structure of narrative 

Narrative - The way in which a story is told 

• Binary oppositions: where two things in a media product conflict with one another. Conflict is interesting to audiences

Binary Opposition - Conflict, Conflict is interesting to audiences. Helps audiences understand that one is the goodie and one is the baddies

Levi Strauss = Our entire life and entire perception of the world is based on binary opposition  

Two things in a media product conflict with one another 

Why don't we buy magazines

•  - Competition from digitally convergent media 
• - Environmental issues
• - Can be expensive, much cheaper to buy online (if not free) to access similar media online. If something is free then you are being sold.
• - Inconvenient to buy
• - Lack active engagement
• - Audiences live more of an active environment
• - Buying a magazine involves leaving the house 
• - Shift to free magazines 
• - Doesn't contain relevant information to audiences 
• - Target a middle aged audience 

Why people do buy magazines

• However magazines do sell to a dedicated audience. Magazines are written by professional journalists
• Magazines are physical products and are extremely high quality. Getting a luxury product, can collect. Can be sold for huge amounts of money

• Magazines can be a status symbol 

What makes a magazine a magazine:

• - Specific types of information
• -Different genres and sub genres
• - Better quality to the newspaper
• - Brighter colour, bigger pictures
• - Less informal. Potential more formal 
• - Different font types, different colours
• - Include interviews and reviews
• - Tend to be more expensive - target a higher class audience
• -Tend to be less political
• - Celebrity recognition
• - More diverse subject matters
• - Tend to follow the season. 

Representation - How something is shown again by the media

Producers re-presentation of a reality 

• Airbrushed skin, whitened teeth. In order to display convection. This has been done to represent what the ideal women should look like
• Short hair was the stereotypical hair style of women from that generation. 
• Portrayal of the stereotypical woman through the phrase ' For your kitchen' This is enforcing the stereotype that women are expected to be housewives 
• Woman are still being oppressed through this stereotype
• Sans serif font, more informal as woman are seen as being less educated. To reinforce patriarchal hegemony
• Font creates an informal mode of address. Also the audience to relate with the magazine and context
• Simple and straight language on the poster suggesting a working class audience is being targeted
• 'For YOUR kitchen' direct mode of address which targets the audience 
• Colour purple used in the background is a  romantic, feminine colour to help target the audience
• Large close shot up of the woman's face directly in centre may be connotated of by power and importance 
• Older woman featured suggests that this is targeted towards an older audience
• Lexis of are you an a-level beauty, functions as a hermeneutic code which encourages the audience to find out. The lighting is delicate an bright which suggests women should be delicate, bright and optimistic
• Selection of model clearly informed people of a conventionally attractive woman
• Her clothes are traditional and feminine, this reinforces hegemonic rules about the way the women dress
• The women looking straight at the audience is a mode of direct address 
• Consistent use of anchorage: title of the magazine, selection of the model and choice of language
• Cover lines reinforce a very clear target audience 
• Preferred reading that the female target audience is supposed to identify with and feel comforted with the direct mode of address
• Fake smile - Modest and quiet mode of address may have appealed to a contemporary audience. (Audiences from 1964)

 This reinforced patriarchal hegemony and keeps men in charge and keeps women in a 

• Published by a company called IPC media. 
• First published in 1937
• Set edition: 23rd - 29th August 1964, weekly newspaper
• Price was 7d (7 old pennies, approx. 80p in 2018)
• Woman magazine became very popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960s, sales of women's magazine reached 12 million copies per week, Women's sales alone were around 3 million copies per week in 1960s.

Anchorage = when media is weighed down

Magazines are DISPOSABLE MEDIA

Women gained more independence after the war making women's magazines more popular.

After world war 2 women started being magazines 

THE CONTENTS PAGE:

Content page clearly reflects the ideology of the producer and also reflects the hegemonic expectations of the time.

Knitting:  

• Extremely stereotypical. 'made for romance ' two for you, one for him
• Done at home

Fashion - Dressing for other people or dressing other people. Expected to make other peoples clothes

Beauty - 'Makeup to work miracles' Assumption that women who don't wear makeup are unattractive 

Heteronormative - the assumption that everyone featured in a media production is straight

- No sports, no exercise, no gym featured

- No reference to sex 

Women's liberation movement - Looking for equal pay, Destroy the expectation that women should get married, Get rid of martial rape

Woman magazine is not a progressive magazine. It is a highly conservative magazine

A present for your kitchen - page analysis

This article is symbolising that the article is a treat for your kitchen, this is reinforcing the ideology that women should not only be in the kitchen, but they should be happy about this. 

This article is boring and straightforward which reinforces certain ideologies about women

The audience are not passive. Audiences are not passive 

David Gauntlet - Gauntlet (glove) Audiences are not passive, but we can create our own identities.

'Pick and mix' Audiences pick and mix which ideologies suit them, and completely ignore the elements of the product which they do not agree with.                       

Sub-cultures - A group of people who have the same interests (Goths & punks)

'So any girl can assemble it quickly' - Ideology that they will reject as it is reflects gender stereotypes that women are weak and unable to do things themselves

- 'Any girl can do it' Condescending mode of address Not referring to them as women.

'Get the man in your life to glue'

'Heteronormativity - The assumption that everybody is straight. Assumption in this article that women will buy choose this themselves and will be unable to do things themselves

Article is written by a women

Picture of women and her son cooking together. - Boy is helping his mum doing the cooking 

Picture of women washing up - Very happy reinforces the ideology that not only women should be in the kitchen but they should be happy whilst doing it.

- Fashion, hair and makeup advice

Audiences can completely reject the dominant ideology.

Interview with Alfred Hitchcock: - Famous director,

Having a feature with Alfred Hitchcock in this magazine generates exposure creating lots of viewers 

' To me they're the most unobtrusively seductive creatures in the world'

' After years of selecting, grooming and directing some of the most beautiful actress in the world'

'I quickly snapped her up thirty-nine years ago' 

' The first signs of indifference in a wife is when her cooking suffers'

'Perhaps its because I'm such a happily married man that I can look at women quite objectively' 

'The time I spent grooming actresses has never been wasted' - Predatory way of viewing women reinforces his significant position of power he is in. Fair example of objectivating women. Grooming women to present them in a way that is appealing to different audiences 

By referring to his wife is another example of patriarchal hegemony 

"They're like snow-capped volcano" 

On the outside British women are cool and soft on the outside but passionate and sexual on the inside. 

Alfred Hitchcock positions his audience into an uncomfortable position.

The assumption that the middle age target audience would not be interested about the technical information abut his films.

Instead the assumption is that women are more interested into how men perceive them.

"Britain, of course, is a male dominated society" - a clear admission of patriarchal hegemonic norms. Audiences are, of course, supposed to accept this dominant ideology

"I've come to these conclusions after years of selecting and grooming some of the most beautiful women in the world" - the symbolism of the word 'grooming' is problematic. While it may OK to groom a horse, this is a clear example of objectification. Additionally he sees his job as more finding, raising and rearing women that anything to do with film making...

"naturally I chose an English girl for a wife..." - Hitchcock referring to his older wife as a 'girl' is condescending and potentially predatory. It also infers and reinforces the idea that men have the power in selecting a wife... another example of patriarchal hegemony

"this variety of sex appeal provide the ideal complement to the other thrills" - clear example of sexualisation!

"they're like snow capped volcanoes" - here, Hitchcock is inferring that British women are sweet and innocent on the outside, yet are sexually promiscuous and daring on the inside. An example fetishism, an obsession with race and nationality

"Personally, I find this far more intriguing than the Latin brand of sex appeal that puts everything in the shop window" - here Hitchcock suggestions that Latin (presumably Mediterranean women?) are far more overtly sexually promiscuous than British women, which is an explicit example of stereotyping 

"The time I've spent grooming actresses has never been wasted" - lexis of the word 'grooming' creates a connotations of a predatory, and at least dismissive relationship with women. It reinforces the significant position of power that Hitchcock is in. This is a clear example of objectification (a process of comparing a person to something that is not human, usually used to belittle)

"perhaps it's because I'm such a happily married man I can look at women objectively" - an admission of objectification? 

• The anchorage provided by the caption reinforces the view that Kelly's success was purely down to being discovered by Alfred Hitchcock
• Grace Kelly is represented as being powerful, and even intimidating. 
• A direct mode of address is presented, with Kelly literally 'looking down' on the audience, inferring her superiority and status
• Grace Kelly was at this stage a princess, a glamorous role that only really be achieved by marrying a certain man
• MES of makeup, the shininess of the lip-gloss and the pouting open lips are symbolic of sex, and a proairetic code, inferring that she is about to kiss someone 
• Kelly is an aspirational figure of sexuality and glamour for the target audience
• This reinforces the notion that in order to be successful, women should be hegemonically beautiful and sexually available to appeal to rich and powerful men (like Alfred Hitchcock)

Reinforcing hegemonic norms - Constructing representations of feminity

- Mise-en-scene of makeup. Creates expectation women should wear makeup. Binary opposition seen between the women on the front cover, and Grace Kelly's makeup. 

Reinforces the ideology that women should behave in a certain way. To reinforce patriarchal hegemony, so engraved into society that makes women write these articles 

By telling women that they are basic/straightforward is constructing a audience 

Constructing an audience - Reinforcing an ideology towards them to create and shape an audience. 

How does Woman construct and appeal to it’s target audience? What choices have been made as to how women are represented?

- Constructing a binary opposition between men and women. 'Getting to know them' Use of the word them shows that there is a difference between the two. This feature is appealing to heterosexual women as it is giving them tips on how they can attract men. This image can be appealing to women in power. Highly polysemic image (many meanings) which may appeal to multiple audiences. Has fetish like connotations. This is a classic example of a negotiated reading where audiences can pick whatever ideology suits them (Pick and mix theory)

- The lexis of the phrase 'Getting to know them' constructs a binary opposition between men and women. Reinforces the idea that men are different and hard to understand and this is potentially pleasurable for audiences, infers that if the female target audience understands men then they might even have power over them. Advice given highly sexist given the assumption that if a man talks about women then it will be in a disrespectful way.

Feminism ideology that seeks equality between women and men

Intersectionality - When different parts of someone's identity cross over

- Sexuality - Not every women is straight or gay 

-Religion and beliefs

- Social class 

- Political beliefs