online media - attitude magazine CLASSWORK












Attitude = gay magazine

 gay men = pretty small proportion of population - 10% of males 

 How are gay men represented on attitude online?
- how it is constructed
- the producers ideology 

 - all gossip news - stereotyping them as people who would read and enjoy this news
- men are being sexualised 
- there are separate parts of the website for style, travel and active - assumed that gay men    care about these things 
- article featuring drag queen Ru Paul's represents gay men in an atypical fashion,                  indicating that there are many possible representations of gay men included in this article
- the 'boys' tab allows users to access hypersexualised images of men. Straight men such      as Daniel Craig are presented in a startlingly homoerotic way, directly addressing the            audience with a voyeuristic and confrontational mode of address - additionally in                    comparison to mainstream 'straight' magazines there are a number of highly sexualised        and objectified images of men
- In general, sexually attractive men are represented as being so through                                  hyper-masculine features chiselled abs, huge muscles and tight underwear
- gay men are also represented as being particularly interested in style and fashion, a              highly stereotypical representation of gay men - additionally the prices of clothes and            electronic products in these articles seem to suggest the target gay audience are                  independently wealthy - 'the pink pound' 
- Gay men are also represented as being stereotypically sensitive, cultured and even              feminine - there is a big emphasis on theatre, drama and theatrical productions such as        musicals 
- every news, entertainment story, regardless of its subject features a 'gay' angle 
attitude.co.uk is the companion website to the UK's best selling gay magazine - attitude 

 Conclusions:
1 - attitude is a simple and straight forward website for a simple and straightforward audience 
2 - attitude presents stereotypical and straightforward representations of gay men 
3 - attitude online solely exists to promote the magazine 

 to what extent can it be argued that Attitude represents a singular, stereotypical and reductive representation of masculinity and why? 
- appealing to a mainstream gay audience - can appeal to a wider gay audience 

 - by constructing a stereotypical gay audience it allows attitude.co.uk to sell                              advertising revenue - this works and they were selling copies which is why they continued

 - targeting holidays specifically to gay clients is a big thing 

 - it provides a sense of inclusivity - gay men may feel like they need a sense of belonging - 

attitude magazine is still being bought the same amount it was in the 90's

production values are low because they are using the same articles from last year 



  • What representations of masculinity are constructed in this front cover? Make explicit reference to the toolkit for textual analysis.
very hairy arms, moustache, green jacket has connotations of the army, short hair with gel in it
  • To what extent does this cover subvert hegemonic representations of masculinity?
nail polish, makeup especially around the eyes, pose is very feminine - hand on hip
  • How is anchorage provided by the cover lines of the magazine cover?
"masc survey" shows this issue is about masculinity vs non masculinity, exactly what this person is showing - "busting the myths around masculinity and race"
  • How does the print version of Attitude demonstrate digital convergence?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Attitude and Zoella: applying key theory

Media Language 1 - Semiotics - Roland Barthes - identify one particularly persuasive proairetic code for both Zoella and  Attitude Proairetic code for Zoella is her thumbnails - she holds up items and pulls expressions which are proairetic codes for what is going to happen in the video Attitude - the article photos, draw people in as some of the thumbnails for the articles suggest action 4 - Structuralism - Claude Lévi-Strauss - Demonstrate an example of how a diametric opposition reinforces a dominant ideological perspective for both Zoella and  Attitude Zoella -  A clear binary opposition is constructed between Zoella, who is particularly small, and Alfie, who is significantly larger. This binary once more constructs a binary opposition            between gender  Attitude - a clear binary opposition between the boys tab and the other tabs on the website - the boys tab is primarily full of men in very little clothing yet the rest of the website is simple news and fashion article
Read more

Adbusters - initial analysis

Image
Example of deliberately challenging, subversive and upsetting material =  . Why has this been concluded? What ideological message does this construct? To what extent is this unconventional for magazines? This picture has been concluded to be deliberately challenging, subversive and upsetting due to the fact it shows the harsh reality of some people's lifestyles. It is subversive because the lexis beneath the photo portrays it to be an advert that readers would normally want to buy yet its showing that people have had to make flip-flops out of old water bottles instead. This image is deliberately challenging to the audience of the magazine because it makes them think about the differences in lifestyles and it brings to light the struggle.  The ideological message constructed through this image is that many people aren't aware of what some  people have to live like and that consumers of adverts are unaware that they are able to buy expensive items from high-end brands wherea
Read more

Audience

Image
Component one section A = Analysing media language and representation Component one section B = Analysing media industries and audiences Media language = analysis -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Audience =  why is media studies so preoccupied with audience?  - The audience is essential to any part of media due to the fact that without the audience it's not a media product - Audience expectation - every media product is created for a specific audience  - Media products influence their audiences - example of media amplification - when something is blown out of proportion - it's assumed that audiences are prone to manipulation Target audience = the specific group of people a media product is aimed at e.g. age range and gender.  Secondary audience = the group of people who may also watch/listen etc. a media product but it's not specifically aimed at them.  Producer w
Read more