Essay

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

I think magazines are partly responsible for the social ramifications of the representatives they offer, as they can sometimes be misleading to teenage girls and sometimes even teenage boys. Even though many of the magazines target mainly teenage girls they do also attract a young male audience and teenage boys feel just as pressured as teenage girls to look a certain way and act in a specific manner in order to “fit in” with today’s culture. Many of the magazines offered articles that contained explicit and mature themes, such as “More” magazine which reads clearly on the front page ‘sex, fashion, celebs’. Although sex isn’t viewed as a taboo topic anymore, the magazine throws the word around and makes it seem as if it’s a regular occurrence. It also contains a naked picture of the celebrity Rhianna on the front, which is giving the impression that in order to be sexy and appealing you must be naked. Making teenage girls think that in order to gain attention this is what they should do, it also has a reverse effect and makes teenage boys think that girls have loose morals and low self-respect.

  of the other magazines that gained my attention was “Bliss” with ‘Holiday Horrors’ written in bold underneath ‘Raped on the beach’, I think that teenage girls should be taught that the world we live in isn’t always a safe place and ways to prevent and deal with incidents like rape and sexual assault, but I think there should be a more subtle and delicate approach to the situation as it may confuse and frighten some teenagers. Some teenage girls may also find that they are not ready to hear about the details of the topic yet. 

The Selena Gomez edition of “Shout” magazine also got me thinking, on the left third magazine it gives the introduction to the article ‘Make him fancy you’, in young teenagers magazines a majority of the magazinesassume that all teenage girls are heterosexual and include articles on boys. I would like to see more controversial topics included in young people’s magazines like being: gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual. Also to cover more race and religion related topics. If more of the listed subjects were covered and introduced to children from a young age there would most probably be a lot less discrimination, racism and homophobia etc. As children will be able to relate from a young age and learn that everyone is different and there is no right or wrong religion, race or ethnicity. 

I also would like to see teenage magazines encourage that not everything is based on how you look and that show you feel is more important. Magazines pick specific celebrities for their covers, the image of the celebrity is usually reflecting the magazine or magazine articles, or just plainly an endorsement as we are more inclined to buy a magazine with our favourite celeb on the front cover. But the celebrities on the front are usually seen as having the ‘perfect body’ and there isn’t a lot of variation of body types. And teenagers may think that if their body type isn’t there that it isn’t right.

Overall, I think that magazines are partly to blame but there are also other contributing factors like Television the fashion industry, music and social networking sites.

Teen Magazines are Sexualising Readers

• A study by The Sunday Telegraph of several magazines aimed at teenage girls found that they contained sexually-explicit material which was potentially in breach of the industry's editorial code.
• Campaigners have attacked the magazines' self-regulatory body as "toothless" and have called for an independent organisation to monitor the publications, which are read by children as young as 11.
• The move comes after Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, ordered a review into whether young girls are being sexualised through fashion, music, computer games and other industries.
• Bliss magazine, whose readers have an average age of 15, features on the front of this month's issue the cover lines "The Sex Factor, your questions answered on p46" and "Gang raped – for a mobile phone."
• April's Sugar magazine, with readers aged 14 on average, features a spread entitled "Is it a crush or are you gay?". This month's Top of the Pops Magazine, with readers aged 11 to 15, is sold with a set of "Kiss Me!" stickers.
• It features photos of shirtless male celebrities and a picture of Justin Gaston, an underwear model, who appears to be naked except for a panel covering his private parts.
• • Bliss's website has previously invited girls to send in photographs of themselves to be marked on "looks and pullability" in a contest called "How Sexy Am I?" while Sugar has an annual modelling competition for girls asking: "Want fame, freebies and fit lads?"
• • The Teenage Magazine Arbitration Panel (TMAP), the industry's self-regulatory body whose members include publishers and editors, is supposed to ensure that "the sexual content of teenage magazines is presented in a responsible and appropriate manner".
• • The very blatantly sexual ethos expressed in them is becoming normalised among young girls. Then we wonder why we have such high teenage pregnancy rates and a booming ladette culture.

5 Magazine Covers Aimed at Teenage Girls

The typical conventions of a teenage girls magazines consists of young celebrities as the main image, the celebrity shown is 99% of the time female, only with occasional exceptions. They are also very particular with the celebrities that are chosen to be on the cover, making sure they give off the right 'image' for their magazine. They are all very airbrushed making them appear to have spot and blemish free skin, and are slim or curvy. With no in-between. Which can make teenage girls feel under pressure, to look like the celebs on the front page of their favourite magazine.

Also, they all feature stereotypical topics that they think all teenage girls are interested in such as: Fashion, Make up, Beauty, Boys/Sex.  Tagline's like: "Boys, Boys, Boys" or "Make him fancy you", "Boys mates and style sorted". Are frequently used on all of the magazines, which makes an assumption that all teenage girls are hetro-sexual. And that if they're not then theres something wrong with them, it also makes the assumption that by that age they're interested in boys and encourages them to seek relationships, when in fact it may not be the case. 

Majority of them always include the colour pink on the cover to attract a young female audience, as pink is a connotation for girlie and being feminine.

Magazine and Audiences Part 2

This magazine features the typical codes and conventions of a women's magazine, by including a masthead written in bright pink font signifying it is trying to capture a female audience. Pink is a connotation for girlie and it is an assumption that all women like the colour pink, it features a catchy tagline "Britain's Number 1 Women's Magazine" implying again its for women. The masthead is very recognizable and always uses the same font and the way it is set across the page however, the colour of the masthead can sometimes vary according to the magazine topic. 

The main image is Amanda Seyfried she is used to not only as a celebrity endorsement to capture the audiences attention, but to be a representation. The left third of the magazine talks about sex articles like “The only thing he really wants in bed” and her body language promoting a promiscuous image to match the topic, also her hands placed behind her head makes her look inviting and girlie. She is also wearing a pink dress, which is stereotypically associated with women. The main image is usually related to the feature article in which case this does.

The magazine uses plugs and puffs such as, “720 HOT LOOKS” and “must read. The shock new threat to your body” and underneath it is written, “Read page 91 and fight back”. Making the audience want to read it to find out this ‘new threat” and find out all of these “hot looks’, magazines practically always use figures on the front in the hundreds to grab the audiences attention by thinking “wow 720 hot looks that’s loads”. And can automatically make them want to purchase the magazine, they also like to include statistics on the front as we as a nation are more likely to believe something if it sounds like a fact, even if we know it may not be entirely true. The magazine uses a clear date and website address.

Also, on the cover it uses a specific “Sans Serif” font, which is usually associated with a younger audience in comparison to a broadsheet which may use “Times New Roman” to appeal to an older audience. The key words of the cover page are also all written in bold like, ‘Men, Men, Men” and “720 HOT LOOKS”, so a potential buyer when skimming the magazine shelf will be drawn to these specific words.

The Amanda Seyfried article also has written on top of it “No Hollywood BS here!’ to indicate that it’s all truth and the reader should believe the magazine, it also says “Amanda Seyfried getting over her ex (thanks to her new Brit crush)”, which leaves the question… Who is her new Brit crush? Making us want to buy it as it is relevant to Britain. It also implies that if Amanda Seyfried can get over her ex everyone can and that they should read what she has to say.

The right third of the magazine, which is usually the side presented to us on a magazine stand is crammed full of plugs and puffs. And on the left third of the magazine the articles are more explicit as they are usually hidden, they may have done this to prevent offending anyone. 

The Magazine Genre Notes

Magazines are popular media texts
Magazines have very specific audiences in mind (niche) and are clearly differentiated
Despite sharing the same codes and conventions it is obvious that a men's magazine has a different target audience to a woman's magazine.

Magazine front covers always have strong generic elements:

Price, bar code and issue number/ date

A photograph directly related to the feature article

A recognisable masthead

Various plugs and puffs on the front cover to entice the audience to buy the magazine

A thematic link between the colours used and the month of publication as well as colour links between images and text, for example.

Magazine front covers are carefully designed to attract the target audience and be easily identified.

Genre:
Lifestyle
Fashion
Music
Film
Motoring

Audience is categorised by:
Age
Gender
Class
Sexuality
Representation

IDEOLOGIES (powerful ideas)

Women's magazines contain many ideologies about femininity.

Mens Magazines contain ideologies about masculinity.

Examples from Good Housekeeping Magazines:
40-60 Women
House Wives
Middle class
Price of Magazine indicates audience.

Marie Claire:
Women Late 20's to early 30's.
Working Class.
Slim, Toned.
Powerful Beyonce is iconic.
Positive.

Magazines and Audiences.

15 examples of terminology associated with magazine design:

• Masthead
• Sub headline 
• Date
• Price
• Barcode
• Top line
• Website
• Left third
• Middle third
• Right third
• Issue number
• Bottom third
• Top third
• Cover lines
• Typography