Woman's magazine advert

Analysis of Woman's magazine advert:

• Font has completely changed- now full on, gossipy, fun mode of address instead of the naive feel to it 
• Brighter more fun mode of address
• The use of a competition for cars is now an everyday occurrence which is different from 1960's
• High street clothes article shows that the target audience is still aimed at women who are housewives and therefore want affordable clothes 
• Shows it is still aimed at the working class 
• Cookery competition shows there is still the same ideology that women belong in the kitchen therefore its not completely progressive
• "exciting again" shows how they feel that the magazine was previously boring and not very interesting, also shows they have changed which would make the audience want to read it to find out if it is exciting

Woman magazine has hardly changed at all 

BRAND BUZZ:

Here’s some buzzworthy stuff that’s too good not to share.

• Over the past ten years, woman&home has been nominated every year in major industry awards, across a total of 12 categories. During that time, it has won awards in the key categories of brand, editor and publisher.
• Woman&home has successfully launched three independent spin off titles, Feel Good Food, Feel Good You and Eating Smart.
• In 2013 woman&home’s Editorial Director, Sue James, won a CEW Achievers award in recognition of woman&home’s influence within the beauty industry.

Brand Buzz is for their potential advertisers. They are selling audiences

Power and media industries theory- Curran and Seaton

Power and media industries theory: 

Curran and Seaton

• The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power
• Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality
• More socially diverse patterns of ownership can create more varied and adventurous media productions

IPC research task

Industry research task: They publish Woman's magazine 

Time Inc. UK Profile:

Time Inc. UK is at the forefront of creating quality content and brands that entertain and fuel the passions of millions of consumers every day.  As well as compelling storytelling, we inspire people and are a trusted voice for their interests.

Our proud heritage spans over 150 years and includes over 50 of the UK’s best-loved brands including Marie Claire, NME, Wallpaper, TV Times, Ideal Home, Woman’s Weekly, Horse & Hound, woman&home, Country Life and Decanter.

The Suffragette Movement, Two World Wars, the swingin' 60s, Britpop and the digital revolution - we been part of it all

Pinpointing exactly how far Time Inc. UK's (formerly IPC Media) roots stretch back into the midst of publishing history is a complicated business. The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963 following the merger of the UK's three leading magazine publishers - George Newnes, Odhams Press and Fleetway Publications - who came together with the Mirror Group to form the International Publishing Corporation (IPC). And IPC Magazines was created five years later, in 1968. But those three original magazine businesses each had their own illustrious history, having been established in 1881, 1890 and 1880 respectively, with a number of the titles they launched in the late 19th Century still being published today under the Time Inc. UK umbrella. And when The Field, launched in 1853, joined the IPC stable in 1994 following the acquisition of Harmsworth Magazines, it saw our family tree reach back even further. IPC was acquired by Time Warner in 2001 and was renamed Time Inc. UK in 2014 after Time Inc. acquired the company in connection with its spinoff from Time Warner.

As our timeline below reveals, the Time Inc. UK story has taken many fascinating twists and turns throughout a period spanning more than 160 years.

Magazines: Industry

Brand identity:  How a business presents itself to and wants to be perceived by its consumers. It's also a way of differentiating themselves from other brands.

Advantages of a specific target audience:

• When a magazine targets a audience they also construct their target audience.
• 'Brand loyalty' is when you keep going back to a certain brand.
• Another advantage f having a specific audience means you can include specific adverts 
• Demonstrates the ideology 

A magazine will always attract ad target a specific audience, and this makes them specialised.

Brand identity:

             

Comparison:

• Vogue has a simpler more sophisticated cover 
• Vogue has a more glamorous and sophisticated brand identity 
• Vogue is more serious
• Woman magazine is more messy with a sans serif font making it more simple and informal
• The expression on vogues cover is more serious whereas on Woman's magazine its more informal as she is smiling 
• In vogue there is regal connotations with the use of the colour blue- she is well off, superior and middle class 
• The model on Woman's magazine looks naive as she is simply made up and she is smiling because she is a woman and hats what she is meant to do 
•  Clearly a forced smile showing her as a passive person 
• The colour vogue blends in with her head dress which means they are confident with their brand and is well known by their target audience
• The mode of address with vogue is snobby and implies you need to be in with the in to be able to read this magazine 
• Vogue is a high end fashion magazine
• Sofia Loren looks older and more serious and mature whereas the model off woman's magazine looks younger 
• Vogue is exclusionary if you have it then your part of an exclusive club 
• The emphasis is on the cover model with the vogue magazine
• The lexis is restrictive in vogue as you have to be highly educated to understand that cover lines 
• With woman magazine you know exactly what you are going to get whereas wit vogue you don't know until you buy it or pick it up 
• Vogue has a more established brand identity unlike in woman's magazine 
• Woman's magazine is weekly and friendly like someone from down the road

Women's magazine- Representation

What messages about female identity are encoded in to Woman magazine?

• That  women belong in the kitchen 
• That there job is to bring up the children 
• That they should keep the house clean and tidy
• That women should wear make up in order to be attractive

What impact could this have on the target audience?

• The target audience is middle aged hetrosexual women 35 plus It will cultivate the idea that they have to wear make up
• Cultivates the idea that women should become a housewife - to clean the house and raise the children 
• Constructs a target audience

What potential advantages are there for reinforcing hegemonic notions of gender in a primarily female reader base?

• Reflects the society in which it was made
• If you control women then you control society
• Constructs a specific target audience 

Female stereotypes: 

• weak
• incapable 
• emotional 
• useless
• that women should be in the kitchen (cultivation theory)
• looks stereotypically attractive 
• objectified 
• that they don't drink beer 
• passive
• dependent on the man 
• romantic
• gentle 
• purity 
• innocence 

Positives of stereotypes:

• Makes people feel more comfortable especially with makeup 
• Gives people rules to live by for example men are meant to be dominant and strong 
• Makes males more polite for example opening the door for women

Advertising in magazines:

•  Magazines generate revenue primarily through sales of copies(print and digital) and through advertising 

• Advertising accounts for approximately one third of total revenues across the industry. It is, therefore, vitally important that the magazine ad advertising content target the same audience in order that the advertising brands benefit from increased sales as a result of advertising in the magazine 

• High audience engagement

• less distraction likely from other activities

• the ability to target niche audiences

• high production values 

• potential for placement in highly relevant editorial environment 

• non-intrusive (readers can turn the page)

• long shelf life

Representation/ Audience response - advertising in Woman: 

• This is a soap advert which cultivates that women should do the washing and looking after the house
• The word 'darling' is used repeatedly- patronising 
• That women are all sexy and this soap makes them sexier 
• She's not in a bath however she is covered in soap 
• She's all glammed up with immaculate makeup and hair
• Creates the assumption that if you buy this magazine it will help you look like the model 
• The soap provides you will kindness which could represent he man in their lives 
• Closed body language which empowers women as she is controlling how much of her body is on show
• The advert also points out that women can smell as well as males 
• There is binary opposition of being gentle in order to clean, however it is also tough because it is destroying dirt
• The word 'gentle' implies that this is how women should always want to be 

Representation of women - Advertising in Woman:

• Mid-shot emphasises her interest in the make up as she is directly looking at the makeup 
• Implies women are more interest in the makeup than sex and a man
• Mid-shot emphasises that she is putting make up on to look good for the man 
• Her make up is already immaculate yet she is putting more on 
• Patriarchal hegemony  as women are wearing make up which is to look good for the males
• Shows a direct correlation between putting on makeup and attracting men 
• Creates the assumption that women need men

• The man is looking at her in the same way that she is looking at her makeup 
• 'Beauty at a moments notice' implies women who don't wear makeup are lazy and unattractive 
• Could be empowering as the women isn't looking at the man which challenges stereotypical representations of women 
• Challenges stereotypes as she isn't at home she is actually at some sort of station which for women was a big deal during these times
• Stereotypical representation of men in the advert of them being dominant and very shallow liking women for their looks 
• In the advert there is one women surrounded by men
• Men is dressed professionally in a suit 

bell hooks- Feminist theory

bell hooks- Feminist theory 

• Most famous book is "feminism is for everyone"

• Feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women

• Feminism is not a lifestyle choice: it is a political commitment

• Race, class and gender all determine the extent to which individuals are exploited and oppressed

Feminist theory

Lisbet Van Zoonen- Feminist theory
Male gaze theory 

• Gender is constructed through codes and conventions of media products, and the idea of what is male and what is female changes over time.

• Women's bodies are used in media products as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony.
• Gaze- looking

David Gauntlet- Theory of identity

David Gauntlet- Theories of identity:

• Pick and mix theory- Suggested that audiences can pick and choose certain ideologies which suits them and ignores other parts of the products they don't agree with 
•  Audiences are not passive, and media products allow the audience to construct their own identities
• By way of example, what subcultures exists around
• An example would be Punk  the audience listens to certain music and become obsessed and base their lives around it 

Analysis of Woman magazine

Magazines we are studying:

Woman magazine- August 23-29th 1964

• Cheap magazine 80p in todays money affordable/ approachable- a weekly magazine 
• The title is serif font and fancy, which could connote how women are seen
• Has elements of romance and domestication with the handwritten style 
• Purple/pink stereotypically feminine colours 
• There is a strong Z-line with the title and the band at the bottom of the page which draws the audiences attention to the fact that to be a proper women or considered as a proper women you have to be interested in the kitchen. 
• The hand written style masthead is more informal therefore is more appealing to the target audience of females ( middle aged women 30 ish)
• The purple background suggests the wall of a kitchen
• Identifies women as stay at home wives 
• The model is plain and uninteresting which allows the audience to identify with her
• The lightening is delicate, bright and happy as well as optimistic which implies thats how women should be (high key lighting) 
• Not a high end magazine 
• Another audience response is it is a personal response that the magazine is friendly
• Ideology that women should wear makeup as it says at the bottom about being an a-level beauty therefore they believe by reading the magazine they will become beautiful( hermeneutic code)  
• The use of the word 'your' is demanding and tells females what their 'role' is. (direct mode of address)
• Men would of reacted to this magazine as it being for women only therefore they wouldn't buy the magazine
• Men also might find the model sexually appealing which would make women buy the magazine as they inspire to look like the cover model, to please their men.The use of 'seven star'  implies the audience is inadequate and not good enough
• Secondary audience (young girls) would aspire to be like the model when they grow up.
• There is also an element of pride of being British as someone famous says "British women have a special magic"
• Not every women would buy this magazine as there were others around such as vogue who's cover models were more interesting with less plain cover models.
• The models teeth have been air brushed which makes them stand out which is aspirational as she is seen as the perfect woman
• Her outfit is traditional for women which reinforces hegemonic rules in the way in which women dress. The flowers are also very stereotypical to women.
• The large headline could empower women as there is a whole magazine designated to them
• The connotations of the word 'woman' is more of a modern term used for them 
• Direct mode of address with the cover model looking straight at us- creates a affectionate/ friendship kind of look.

Contents page: 

   

• Very feminine related issues such as cooking
• Reinforces the idea of stereotypical housewives 
• Very stereotypical contents page, cooking and knitting
• Heading is called beauty instead of health therefore showing how women look is most important
• 'Make up to work miracles' implies women who do not wear make up aren't very attractive- hegemonic  power 
• Emphasises that women are supposed to be mothers- hegemonic code - another way in which to be a super successful woman

• One response is its a way in which women can express themselves by making up the kitchen 
• The use of 'any girl' makes women seem incapable 
• different audiences might really get into this article while others might find it really boring and no bother reading it
• A sexiest article saying "get the man in your life" suggesting audience are attached to a man 
• This suggests women don't have access to much money in the first place as they have to watch how much money they're spending  if not it will annoy their husbands 
• Positive as it encourages women to do D.I.Y
• Another positive reading is its showing a young male learning to cook which wasn't the done thing during this time
• Could cultivate the ideology that women belong in the kitchen 

Alfred Hitchcock article:

•  Based heavily on how women can please men
• Cooking comes up throughout the article enforcing the ideology that it is important women can cook
• British women are seen as exotic- mysterious and different
• Objectifies women in this article 
• He isn't shown as sexually attractive which is something he played up too
• The four images of him are a symbolic code 
• Grace Kelly looks passive in this image unlike Alfred Hitchcock in his multiple images 
• Monologue- Alfred Hitchcock- suggests his power and importance 
• He also stereotypes women into all being the same 

Representation/ Audience response - advertising in Woman: 

• This is a soap advert which cultivates that women should do the washing and looking after the house
• The word 'darling' is used repeatedly- patronising 
• That women are all sexy and this soap makes them sexier 
• She's not in a bath however she is covered in soap 
• She's all glammed up with immaculate makeup and hair
• Creates the assumption that if you buy this magazine it will help you look like the model 
• The soap provides you will kindness which could represent he man in their lives 
• Closed body language which empowers women as she is controlling how much of her body is on show
• The advert also points out that women can smell as well as males 
• There is binary opposition of being gentle in order to clean, however it is also tough because it is destroying dirt
• The word 'gentle' implies that this is how women should always want to be 

Representation of women - Advertising in Woman:

• Mid-shot emphasises her interest in the make up as she is directly looking at the makeup 
• Implies women are more interest in the makeup than sex and a man
• Mid-shot emphasises that she is putting make up on to look good for the man 
• Her make up is already immaculate yet she is putting more on 
• Patriarchal hegemony  as women are wearing make up which is to look good for the males
• Shows a direct correlation between putting on makeup and attracting men 
• Creates the assumption that women need men
• The man is looking at her in the same way that she is looking at her makeup 
• 'Beauty at a moments notice' implies women who don't wear makeup are lazy and unattractive 
• Could be empowering as the women isn't looking at the man which challenges stereotypical representations of women 
• Challenges stereotypes as she isn't at home she is actually at some sort of station which for women was a big deal during these times
• Stereotypical representation of men in the advert of them being dominant and very shallow liking women for their looks 
• In the advert there is one women surrounded by men
• Men is dressed professionally in a suit 

Magazine 1

In component 1 you will get unseen products, you will be asked to compare and contrast. 

Component one: either film industry, music videos, newspapers, advertisements . Unseen text will also come up

Component two: We know what will come up.

  In component 2:

• Media language
• Representation
• Media industries
• Audience

• Your point of view/opinion needs to come across when answering the questions. 
• There is a historical context to the magazine section which needs to be included.
• You need to interpret and make up the question your self. "In this essay I shall argue..."
• You need to set out how you will be going to answer the question.
• Balanced argument is not needed when answering this question. 
• 50 minutes per question 10 minutes of planning.
• NO SNACKS ALLOWED IN EXAM!!!

Magazines we are studying:

Woman magazine- August 23-29th 1964

• Cheap magazine 80p in todays money 
• The title is serif font and fancy, which could connotate how women are seen
• Has elements of romance and domestication with the handwritten style 
• Purple/pink stereotypically feminine colours 

Women's magazine became very popular in the post-war period and, in the 1960's, sales of women's magazine reached 12 million copies per year. Woman's sales alone were around 3 million copies per week in 1960.

•  Women were objectified during these times, that the women were the cooks.
•  The mens roles were to work and provide for the family. 
• Demeaning consenting representation if women. 
• The stereotypical views of women and what they could do was changing during this time
• Advertisement started including women in their ads suggesting women were gaining more power/ money
• Viewed women had desedable income

Roland Barthes- Semiotics:

• Hermeneutic
• Proairetic 
• Symbolic 

Claude Levi Straus- Structuralism:

Binary oppositions. We see the world through what it isn't instead of what it is.

Codes and conventions of a magazine: 

• Glossy front covers/pages- connotations of quality 
• A lot of advertisements 
• Full page photographs 
• They are much more about the look and design unlike newspapers
• Often come with free gifts/samples 
• Has more of a gossipy mode of address  
• Can take an exclusionary mode of address

Magazines: 

Terrorizer:

Layout and design:
Red- dark
Font- like dripping blood
White- stands out 
Scary cover model- tattoos rings and heavy jewellery 
Gothic theme 

Cultural Capital

Revising the industry theorists:

Power and media industries- Curran and Seaton- The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and domination.

Regulation- Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt- Transformations in the production, distribution and ,marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media restrictions(regulation) at risk. 

Cultural industries- David Hesmondhalgh- Companies try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal interrogation.


Cultural Capital-  The cultural resources of an individual, for example knowledge, qualifications, art, customs and tastes. A form of hegemony.



How does The Daily Mirror speak to it's working class audience?

• large picture 
• sans serif font 
• 65p affordable 
• tram crash- talks about public transport
• capital letters used- straight to the point 
• more news for entertainment than serious news
• simple straight to the point front cover- suggesting they aren't as highly educated (GCSEs level)
• only 1 headline/ main story- suggesting that the audience can't focus on more than one thing at a time
• direct address makes working class feel more included " what it means for you"
• cluttered and crowded layout 
• using a restrictive lexis it could lead to a person thinking they are one thing when they aren't

Clay Shirky- 'End of audience' theorist:

Audiences are no longer passive: they interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of ways.

Newspaper unit: Audience responses

Ideology: The beliefs of a media producer.

Stuart Hall: Reception theory- The ways in which the audience process the ideology of the producer. (P.N.O)

• Preferred 
• Negotiated
• Oppositional 

Anchorage- Where the producer forces the audience in to a particular way of thinking.

Representation- How an individual or a group of people are shown by the producer.

Xmas time:

P- Presents- Giving gifts, Going to church, We all love Christmas 
N- Family time, 
O- Birth of Jesus 


The Cambridge News:

• Tabloid- local news
• older working class target audience 

Too clever for prison:

Responses:

• Pity
• Dislike
• Anger
• Frustration 
• Distrust towards the court system 

Audience are anchored into disliking her as she looks smug in the photo.

Lavina Woodward is represented as smug and middle class someone whose dreams shouldn't be shattered even though she committed a crime.

Her goal is to be a doctor.

She is shown to have mental health and drug/ alcohol dependance.

Ideological assumptions about:

Women:

Crazy 

Hysterical 

Bitch
That they are too good

Tinder:

People you meet are crazy 

Used as a hook up app

You have to swipe left or right 

Desperate

Loose sexual morals (Lavina has)

Oppositional responses to the story:

Could feel completely sorry for her

Pity her

That she is the victim as no one has helped her with her mental health

Power and Media Industries

James Curran and Jean Seaton:

'Diversity is in the public interest- but modern societies suffer from collective attention deficit disorders... the public interest has to work harder to be noticed, and we need agile but resourceful media to do that'

Digital technologies- have access to the internet

Monopoly-  the exclusive ownership or control of something

Conglomerate- A large corporation consisting of multiple smaller companies

Subsidiary- A smaller company owned by a large corporation

Who owns British newspapers?
The Times and The Sun are owned by a company called News International. The owner is Rupert Murdoch. Right winged newspaper

The Mirror is owned by Trinity Mirror.































Disney buying VICE meant they then had access to a wider target audience. People who are wealthy into drugs in their early twenties.
Disney is a huge conglomerate. 

News Corp owns: The sun, National Geographic, Fox News channel, ITV, SKY, 20th century fox, Harper Collins Publishers, FOX (Rupert Murdoch) 
They are close to becoming a monopoly.

Advantages to owning a monopoly:

• Removes the competition 
• Audience manipulation 
• Control
• Extends their range of business and political connections
• Increases  their corporation prestige 
• Distortion of democracy

An issue with a conglomerate owning media companies in different industries means lack of diversity.

Key Facts:

• Having a monopoly means domination of multiple media industries
• If the focus is on creating profit, generally conglomerates don't take risks with the media products they produce (similar films)
• This often results in limited variety, creativity and quality

'Anti-monopoly media regulation is needed not only to maintain fair competition but also to prevent the distortion of democracy'

Alternative of conglomerate ownership:

• A partnership instead of ownership
• Pass a law on how many companies you can own
• Unionisation- where people make their own decisions
• Boycott 
• Make our own media

' Media policy should seek... to create the conditions of greatest possible competition, thus enabling consumers to exercise sovereign control. This produces media that people want, a wide range of choice, and media independence from government.'

 
 
Independent producer- Free from outside control 

Institution- A media industry with its own specific identity