To what extent should magazine be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representation they offer?

I have chosen 5 different teenage girl magazine covers and from studying them closely and comparing them to each other, I have found similarities and comparisons between them. Alongside this I have found reoccurring conventions between the genre.

The reoccurring theme that stands out the most in the 5 magazines I have chosen is the strong pink theme. It is a commonly known ideology that the colour pink is associated with ‘girly girls’ and a younger generation of girls, therefore by promoting a magazine with these colours the magazine portrays the fact that it is trying to entice and appeal to this audience (young teenage girly girls). Also by using images icons in which young girls idolize such as Vanessa Hudgens and Taylor Swift, they are again aiming to appeal to teenage girls. The fact that the girls have a look of innocence about them makes them more likeable, hence making the magazine more marketable. 

The magazine cover for ‘Bliss’ uses the left third to mention an article titled ‘raped on a beach’. This may show that the content inside the magazine may actually be for a slightly more mature reader as opposed to the young teenage girl it seems to a appear to. This will have a negative affect on the reader as they maybe reading articles that are perhaps to explicit or, as mentioned before, matured for them.  The other main aspect of the cover which will have a negative effect on teenage girls, is how the models on the front seem to be the definition of perfection, the audience (young girls) may begin to idolize the cover model and aspire to replicate their style looks and beauty in their own lives. By doing this the reader may succumb to both emotional and physical problems; although the celebrities and models featured are air-brushed and photo shopped (edited to enhance their beauty) the reader may not be aware of this as they have not reached a certain level of maturity to understand. Problems such as anorexia and low self-esteem in young girls have been caused, to an extent, by aspiring to be like their idol on magazines and television. But is this right?

Publishers are happily enhancing bodies of the girls on their covers then using girl’s self-esteem and weight issues in their articles, it seems as if they are oblivious to the harm they are causing to young girls. Looking at the situation from the audiences’ point of view the company’s publishers should be blamed to a certain extent; my reason being is that if they did not enhance the look of females and praise them for looking like it then the reader will not feel pressured into looking like the girls they have seen.

With reference to personal issues instigated by covers of magazines, there ought to be guidelines and legislations put into practice regarding the enrichments  made to the featured models. By this one means that when there is a niche audience of that of a young teenagers it should be clearly stated somewhere near the images featured that adjustments have been made. This will hopefully re-assure the receiver of the magazine that the girls are not infact perfect and the girls reading do not have to be either.

Vogue Cover Analysis

This magazine has a niche audience. The audience would be a upper/ middle class 'girly girl' who is interested in looking her best and is up to date with current music and fashion; this is displayed by the following:
- 'Vogue' is an expensive magazine, as you can see from the top left hand corner this issue is priced at £4.10. This is quite highly priced compared to magazines such as marie-clare and OK. Also the fact that the masthead is vogue makes it apparent that it is for fashionista's as Vogue is known to be aimed at a higher class, female, fashion conscious audience.
- There is a very clear 'pretty pink' theme. There is an ideology that pink is associated with girls, by making the cover pink based Vogue are trying to appeal more to women than males.
- The editors have used 'the left third' to inform the potential audience of what they can find in the magazine. By including the words 'essential' and 'fashion' the cover is attempting to sell the magazine to  girls interesting in fashion, they are doing this by trying to say that the reader needs it because it is 'essential'. The younger generation of women are perhaps a lot more conscious of how they look and trying to both look and feel better about themselves, on the cover the selling line is 'oh so pretty'; this will entice the conscious reader into buying the magazine. Also by using the word 'princess' the magazine is attempting to make the potential reader feel higher up in the social hierarchy than they actually are.
The model used on the cover of the magazine is singer and songwriter, Lana Del Rey. Lana is and idol too many young girls and is currently one of the celebrity faces of fashion, by using her on the cover it become apparent that the audience the magazine is looking for is that of a young kind who are interested in looking like their favourite musical artists. In her video's and when paparazzi'd Lana always looks very girly and 'pretty' (like used in the selling line), this shows that she will perhaps appeal more to 'girly girls'. The light colours on her dress make her seem more innocent, by doing this the potential audience will idolise her more as there is nothing to say which is bad about her. Also the ideology that flowers are associated with girls make the model more idolising. This is because her lightly coloured dress has a soft and calm flower pattern on and also there is a flower in her hair slide.
Overall the cover represents it's target audience very well and very successfully.

task 2 -examples of terminology

1. Niche audience -specific audience

2. Masthead - title of the magazine 

3. Genre - the type of magazine, eg; fashion 

4. Coverlines -Information about major articles given on the front page of a magazine

5. Plug - Information about the contents of a magazine or newspaper given on the front cover 

6. Left-side third - A lot of important information designed to attract potential readers is placed in the left-hand side vertical third of the front cover page. 

7. Puff - Words or phrases on the cover of a magazine used to boost status 

8. Market Penetration -This term refers to the percentage of potential readers who actually buy the publication 

9. dateline - date of the magazine along with the publication's price 

10. selling line - magazine's motto (if it has one) underneath the masthead

11. main image - biggest picture on the cover of the magazine 

12. bar code - the UPC code scanned by cashiers when they sell the magazine 

13. brand - marketing term for a company or product name or logo that evokes certain 'values' or reactions in customers that encourage them to buy other products bearing the name
14. audience - the receiver of the media text

15. ideologies - powerful ideas

Getting to Know Blogger

Things I can do on Blogger:
.I can upload videos, voice clips, comments and photos

.I can create a profile for people to read including a profile picture and 'interests'

.Other bloggers can comment on my posts

.It is a large step in web development

.Can use it either for personal, business or studying reasons


How do I think Blogger will help me with my project? 
I think that Blogger will be a beneficial with reference to my coursework for the following reasons: 

.I can access Blogger at home and add/edit my posts wherever I am, therefore not having to rely on just using it in college time

.I do not have to print any work off and look after various pieces of paper to hand in

.It is time logged so unlike I would with paper work I will not have to work out what piece of work was done at what time and edit the order of my work. 

.Finally I think it will be beneficial because I use it whenever, so no matter what time it is, if I think of something I need to add to my blog then I can do so