Magazines: Reveal CSP case study

Reveal is our second magazine Close Study Product. We need to study the media language and representation of people and groups on the front cover of Reveal April 2017.

Here are Thursday's lesson videos:

Representation:

Social and cultural contexts:

This was the Tuesday lesson video covering media language in Reveal:

The key notes on Reveal are here:

General

• According to publisher Hearst: "Reveal is the reader’s best friend: fun, gossipy and full of advice on everything from fashion and beauty to diets and cocktails. We know who's dating whom, who has fallen out with their best friend, whose relationship is in tatters and who's finding motherhood hard. Our high-street fashion is affordable…"
• However, Reveal closed in September 2018 after it stopped making a profit.
• Reveal’s tag-line was ‘Talking with you, not at you!” which implies that the magazine wanted to be seen as a friend to its readers,  sharing secrets about the lives of famous celebrities. It was released weekly and cost 99p.
• The Editor claimed: ‘It delivers glamour, gossip and giggles’ which reinforces the magazine’s identity as a ‘girl’s best friend’. 
• Star Appeal: The magazine consistently used images of celebrities - paparazzi shots as well as posed shots for authenticity. 
• It focused on celebrity relationships and fashion and beauty tips for ‘every day’ women (for example testing high street brands which are more affordable for readers.)
• The magazine itself was affordable at only 99p so it wanted to maintain an audience who could afford to buy it regularly and whenever they see something eye-catching on the cover. 
• The demographic who bought Reveal were mostly adult women, aged 18-34. Unlike Tatler, which is London and South of England-centric, Reveal was bought by women all over the country. Its readership also spanned a much wider set of social classes, from ABC1-C2DE. Psychographic groups for Reveal would largely have been strugglers or mainstreamers.

Media language

• Typography / Fonts:  Sans serif fonts are used to make the magazine feel modern, informal and offering the latest gossip. Handwritten fonts are also used to make the magazine more personal – the reader’s ‘friend’.
• Cover lines: Indirect address favoured by celebrity gossip magazines so it seems like you have just seen them yourself – emphasises the gossip feel. Informal language ‘stuff the diet’ and ‘yay’ make this magazine youthful and accessible.
• Colour scheme: Red, yellow and pink. Bright colours to attract attention – important with no main central image. Gossip magazines tend to be busier and more packed with images to suggest issues that are bursting with different stories.

Representations

• The people represented on the cover are mostly celebrities and well known actors, reality television stars and music artists. Why?
• Celebrities are presented as important and desirable – but the photography is designed to make them look like ‘normal’ people.

Social and cultural contexts

The cover lines in Reveal focus on a few key areas:

• Domesticity and families: ‘baby bump’, ‘mum’ 
• Relationships: normative and subversive as words are used such as‘stalker’, ‘secret meetings’ and ‘sex’. Focus is on relationship breakdowns. 
• Beauty: Diets and skin care are mentioned but these take into account ‘normal’ people since the focus is on previously thin celebrities giving up diets and enjoying treating themselves and, instead of promoting expensive products, the skin care is ‘one simple trick’.
• Advice: Socially, this magazine wants to be like a ‘friend’ in terms of gossip and advice. It also is keen to relate to its working class, mainstream audience and not alienate them by featuring unaffordable, luxury items.

Reveal: case study blog task

Work through the following tasks and questions to build a detailed case study for Reveal - 18 March 2017 (below). This will give you plenty of background information to use in an exam question on print magazines.

Media language

1) How many of the 12 magazine cover key conventions feature on this edition of Reveal? List them with specific reference to the convention on the CSP edition of Reveal.

2) What is the font choice used on the cover and what does this choice connote? Here's a blog to help you with this as we haven't been able to complete the Photoshop typography lesson yet due to Covid-19.

3) How do the cover lines appeal to the Reveal target audience?

4) What are the connotations of the Reveal colour scheme on this particular front cover?

5) How are images used to create interest in the magazine? Find three reasons for your answer. (E.g. mise-en-scene such as props, costume and make-up, body position, facial expression).

6) What differences can you find between the use of design and typography between Tatler and Reveal? List at least three and explain the effect on audiences.

Representations

1) What type of celebrities appear on the front cover? How are they represented in Reveal? (Positive? Negative? Reinforcing or challenging stereotypes?)

2) How are women represented on the cover of Reveal? Think about both images and cover lines here.

3) How do Reveal and Tatler represent social class? (E.g. middle/upper class and working class)

4) What would be the preferred and oppositional readings to this cover of Reveal?

Social and cultural context

1) What aspects of British life are reflected in Reveal? How does this compare to Tatler?

2) What do the cover lines in Reveal suggest about the issues and lifestyle of Reveal readers?

3) Find three other front covers for Reveal. What issues or features regularly appear in Reveal? 


Grade 8/9 extension tasks

1) How does the front cover engage audiences with possible narratives? Look for stories, cliffhangers, dramatic cover lines etc.

2) What are paparazzi images and why are they crucial to the front cover of Reveal? 

3) How does the front cover juxtapose text and images to create contrast and narrative on the front cover of Reveal 18 March 2017?

4) What do these two magazines suggest about representations of social class in the British media?

Complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.

Magazines: Tatler CSP case study

Print magazine Tatler is our first Close Study Product. We need to study the media language and representation of people and groups on the front cover of Tatler (April 2017).

Here's Thursday's lesson focusing on Tatler and cultural contexts and brand identity:

Here's the lesson video for Tuesday 19 January - focusing on media language analysis of Tatler:

Some of the key notes from the lesson are here:

General

• Tatler is Britain’s oldest magazine (founded in 1901).
• Targeted at upper classes and upper-middle classes.
• Lifestyle magazine with focus on fashion; high society events such as balls and celebrities such as the Royal family and members of the aristocracy (people with inherited wealth, titles and land.)
• There are versions in Russia, Hong Kong and Indonesia.
• Over the years, Tatler has remained interested in the lives of the Royal family, but has tried to re-invent itself as more ‘edgy’ and modern in recent years, to try and target a younger audience. 

Watch this trailer for BBC's Posh People - a documentary about Tatler, the oldest magazine in Britain.

 


Media language

• This refers to how the producers communicate their message to the audience through the media text. 
• Mise-en-scene: what you see - remember CLAMPS (Costume / Lighting / Actors / Make-up / Props / Setting)
• Typography / Fonts: serif title and sans serif cover lines. 
• Words used and their connotations. 
• Colour schemes: usually two or three in a magazine. Sometimes title matches or is juxtaposed with colours elsewhere on the cover.

Representations

• Tend to reflect dominant representations/stereotypes on cover image: predominantly white, female, wealthy (or associated with wealth such as this actress who plays a role in Downton Abbey).
• Average age of reader is 41 but the cover tends to focus on celebrities or models who are younger than this (due to dominant ideals of beauty in the Media).
• Cover lines (stories inside) tend to focus on preoccupations of upper classes e.g ‘How to get your son into Eton’- an exclusive and very expensive private school.

Social and cultural contexts

• The issues that Tatler is concerned with tend to be political but not in a particularly gritty way because the magazine is more interested in fashion, merchandise, beauty and ‘lifestyle’ rather than dealing with news in any depth. 
• The preoccupation with parties, private schools, luxury holidays and exclusivity (the ‘Tatler Privilege Club’) assumes a high level of income and an elitist attitude which may alienate or offend people from a different social class. 81% of the readership has an above average income. 44% buy shoes or clothes more than once a month so the cultural context of the magazine could be judged as ‘niche’ (for the few) rather than ‘mainstream’ (for everyone).
• Some of the stories can be seen as out-dated as they are concerned with riding, hunting and shooting which are pursuits generally only enjoyed by higher classes. 

Here's an annotated copy of the cover of Tatler to help you:

Tatler: case study blog tasks

Work through the following tasks and questions to build a detailed case study for Tatler issue April 2017 (below). This will give you plenty of background information to use in an exam question on print magazines. First, create a new blogpost called Tatler CSP case study.

Introduction - Tatler Media pack

1) Look at the Tatler Media Pack. Go to page 2: how does the editor introduce the magazine?

2) Now go to page 4 of the Media Pack. Focus on the print magazine (NOT tatler.com - the website). List the key demographic details: age, gender %, ABC1 % (social class), HHI (Household Income), % of those living in London and the South East. What do these demographic details suggest about the average Tatler reader?

3) Look at page 6. What do Tatler readers think about fashion? How much do they spend?

4) Go to page 10. What are the special editions of Tatler that run throughout the year? What does this suggest about the Tatler audience? What about the pyschographic audience group that best fits Tatler?


Media language

Revise the 12 magazine cover key conventions and check how many feature on this edition of Tatler.

1) What different examples of typography can you find on the cover of Tatler? What are the connotations of the serif and sans serif fonts? Here's a blog to help you with this as we haven't been able to complete the Photoshop typography lesson yet due to Covid-19.

2) How do the cover lines appeal to the Tatler target audience?

3) What are the connotations of the Tatler colour scheme on this particular front cover?

4) How is the central image designed to create interest in the magazine? Find three reasons for your answer. (E.g. Mise-en-scene such as props, costume and make-up, body position, facial expression)

Representations

1) What different groups of people are represented on the cover? (E.g. men/women/white people etc. Look at the image and text/cover lines to help here)

2) What do the cover lines suggest about the lifestyle of rich people in the UK?

3) Are there any stereotypes being reinforced or subverted? How? Why?

4) What would be the preferred and oppositional readings to this cover of Tatler?

Social and cultural context

1) What aspects of British life or people are NOT reflected in Tatler? (Watch the clip above again if you need help with this - the clue is in the title 'Posh People')

2) Tatler runs special issues on holidays, spa breaks, cosmetic surgery, watches and jewellery and private schools. What does this suggest about the magazine's representation of life in Britain?

3) What audience groups might be offended or insulted by the front cover of Tatler April 2017? 

4) Find three other front covers for Tatler from different months. What issues, subjects or people are regularly featured in Tatler?


Grade 8/9 extension tasks

1) Are there any misrepresentations or under-representations of certain groups? What might this suggest about the target audience?

2) How does the front cover engage audiences with possible narratives? Look for stories, cliffhangers, dramatic cover lines etc.

3) What does the costume and make-up in the central image suggest about the character featured on the front cover of the April 2017 edition of Tatler?

4) Read this Guardian article on the BBC documentary about Tatler called Posh People. What does the article suggest about the people who produce and read Tatler?

Complete for homework - due date on Google Classroom.

Magazines: Representation and social contexts

Representation is a vital key concept in Media Studies: how are people, social groups, places and issues represented in the media?

We need to able to analyse media texts and discuss whether representations are fair, accurate, stereotypical or unusual based on our knowledge of the media and the way texts are constructed. We will be looking at how certain groups are represented in the magazine CSPs we are studying this half-term - in particular how women, celebrities and social class is represented in Tatler and Reveal.

Tuesday's lesson video:

Thursday's lesson video:

Introduction to Representation

What is Representation?

• The way the media portrays the world. 
• The media takes a story/set of facts and (re)presents them in a certain way. 
• In Media Studies we are particularly interested how the media portrays events, issues, individuals and social groups.
• Some groups are misrepresented (represented inaccurately) or under-represented by the Media.

It is the combination of media language choices that construct the representation audiences see. Indeed, everything we see in the media is a re-presentation because the media intervene or stand between the object they are presenting and the audience and therefore they affect or ‘mediate’ every text we see! 

Stereotypes

• Media messages have to be communicated quickly which often means relying on stereotypes. 
• A stereotype is a standardised, oversimplified picture of a person, group, place or event.
• Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their gender, class, ethnicity or race, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.

How are representations created?

• In print media (news and magazines), a picture editor selects the photo from a whole series of images to be used to illustrate a news story. The image may be cropped, resized and, in some cases, photoshopped so it does not reflect reality.
• A news editor will decide on the way the news story will be presented, and the use of captions to affect the meaning of the image. 

Glossary words

• Conventional: typical, the usual, expected representation. 
• Subversive: untypical or unexpected representation, differing from the norm. If a representation in the media is NOT what we expect, we say this subverts the usual stereotype in the media. 
• Stereotype: A ‘set’ idea that people have about what someone or something is like (not necessarily accurate).
• Mediation: process by which texts are presented and received.
• Representation: how groups or events or individuals are presented / portrayed.

Social and cultural contexts

Another aspect we have to consider whenever we study a media product is how it reflects British society and what message it may be sending to audiences. Our exam board AQA calls this 'social and cultural contexts' and those words will appear in several exam questions in our final exams. Similarly, when we study media products from history later in the course, we will also need to consider historical contexts - how the media product reflects the time period in which it was created. These are the key questions to ask:

Social contexts: How do media products influence or affect people in society?

Cultural contexts: How the media reflects the typical ideas, opinions and beliefs in society and the media industries.

Historical contexts: How has society (and the type of media product) changed over time?

Looking at this front cover of Closer magazine, we can discuss how celebrity magazines such as this reinforce the importance of celebrities in British culture by placing them on the front cover and revealing details of their lives and relationships. As Closer is aimed at a mainly female audience, the emphasis on appearance, dieting and motherhood reinforces the stereotypical representation of women in the media and puts pressure on women in society to conform to these expectations.   

Representation and stereotypes: blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Magazines: Introduction to Representation'.

Look at the magazine cover for Closer that we studied last week:

Answer the following questions on your blog:

1) Write a definition of representation in media studies. Clue: The answer is in the notes above!

2) Now look at the cover of Closer magazine above. List all different types of people and groups represented on the front cover. E.g. women, celebrities, race/ethnicity etc.

3) What does the representation of women on this front cover suggest female audiences are mainly interested in?

4) Are there any stereotypes you can identify? E.g. women and motherhood; celebrities etc.

5) Is there anything on the cover that subverts typical stereotypes in the media?

6) What is the preferred reading of this magazine cover - what do the producers want audiences to think when they see it?

7) What is the oppositional reading of this magazine cover - how might someone criticise this magazine cover or be offended by it?

8) What are the social and cultural contexts to this magazine cover? What effect might this magazine have on readers or society?

Optional extension: Think about some of the specific social and cultural contexts on the Closer magazine cover in more detail. 

1) Is British society now obsessed with celebrities? 

2) Is the representation of women in the media changing or do stereotypes of appearance, weight-loss and motherhood still dominate? 

3) How might the Closer cover line regarding the 'UK's first gay dad' offend readers today?  

Due date for these tasks is on Google Classroom.

Magazines: Introduction and conventions

Our next Media topic is Magazines.

This term we will be studying Magazines. This is a targeted topic which means we have to study our Magazine Close-Study Products for two key concepts - Language and Representation. The two magazine covers we have to study in depth:

1) Tatler magazine - a monthly magazine aimed at upper-middle class people, discussing lifestyle issues such as parties and holidays and fashion. It is more niche (aimed at a certain demographic and psychographic).

2) Reveal magazine - a weekly celebrity magazine focused on gossip about famous people and stories like real life, dating, diets and affordable fashion. Aimed at working class people - a mainstream (large) audience who want to buy a cheap magazine.

Lesson video part 1:

Lesson video part 2:

Introduction to Magazine conventions: Blog tasks

Create a new blogpost in your GCSE Media blog called 'Introduction to Magazine cover conventions'. Next, read this handout explaining the key conventions of magazine covers. You'll need to log in using your Greenford Google login. Then, complete the following tasks: 

1) List the three most important magazine cover conventions in your opinion and explain why for each one.

Now study this cover of Closer magazine:

2) Identify as many of the magazine cover conventions as you can and write a list of where they appear on this cover of Closer. As an extension, you could also write about the preferred reading for the convention - what the magazine is trying to communicate to the audience.

Example: The title of publication is 'Closer' and appears in the top left of the magazine cover in large white text on a pink background. The connotation of the pink background is femininity which suggests the producers are aiming this at a primarily female audience and perhaps want the magazine to appear friendly and warm.

Optional extension task:

One of the aspects we will need to write about to get a 7+ grade in GCSE Media is social and cultural contexts. We will be discussing this in more detail next week but today's extension is to analyse the cover of British men's lifestyle magazine GQ below:

1) What does this GQ magazine cover suggest about masculinity in Britain - in other words, what does GQ suggest British men are interested in? What does it mean to be a man?

2) Why do you think GQ chose David Beckham as the cover star for GQ? 

3) What do you notice about the construction of the cover? Think about the camera shot, costume, lighting, colour scheme etc.

Due date for these tasks is on Google Classroom.