Teen Vogue: Audience and Representation blog tasks

Audience

1) The Teen Vogue mission statement is "the young person’s guide to saving the world. We aim to educate, enlighten, and empower our audience to create a more inclusive environment (both on- and offline) by amplifying the voices of the unheard, telling stories that normally go untold, and providing resources for teens looking to make a tangible impact in their communities."  
This suggests that the target audience is the youth, in particular teenage girls (and boys) who see themselves as strong, independent and like to have a different perspective on life. , however young males too.  audience pleasures would be include, Uses and Gratifications- Blumler and Katz 1974; Diversion- contains entertaining stories/fashion/celeb gossip, Personal identity- one of menu titles on the homepage is 'Identity' so people can really relate and empathise with the stories they read about, Personal Relationship- the audience is able to have a bond with the writer perhaps by agreeing their perspectives etc/ also they have summits, see themselves as a "movement", and Surveillance- they learn a lot from reading these stories, topics on news and politics really informs them. 

2) The target audience for Teen Vogue are teenagers who see themselves as powerful, independent and strong. I would say that more girls are attracted as many of their stories are to do with feminism/women empowerment.- "21 Under 21", "Ask A" and "Pop Feminist" are targeted to younger females who seek empowerment. In terms of demographics I would say ABC1, it contains a mix of hard and soft news so can reach out to all types. I think that Reformers (Ask A), Aspirers (21 Under 21) and Succeeders (A Seat At The Table)  would be attracted to this as it contains liberal content, and these groups see themselves as independent and free minded, they all have a mix of interest. 

3) Audience pleasures or gratifications can be found in Teen Vogue: 

Blumer and Katz 1974: Uses and Gratifications: 

• Surveillance - learning about a range of opinions and perspectives so that the audience can be made aware of the issues present in their society. This highlights Teen Vogue as a "woke" brand
• Personal relationships - the ability to make connections with those who have similar views/issues to them - i.e. LGBTQ+ people being able to connect and discuss things with people who will be able to relate to them. 
• Diversion- Celeb gossip/fashion/beauty articles- "Social Covers"- contains Snapchat and instagram links which many younger people would be attracted to because they are the generation which engage more with social media.
• Personal Identity- In particular, the "Ask A" in the video series as nowadays the concept of gender fluidity is much more openly discussed and accepted upon the youth, and the fact that it will be on YT is an advantage as younger people engage more with new and digital media. Younger people find it easier to find information on gender fluidity online, through social media. 

The gratifications of traditional print-based magazines:

• Aesthetic appeal- some people like the copy infront of them.

4) The audience is positioned to respond to political news stories in a reactive response. Teen Vogue readers are responsive, and open-minded about what they think about politics, they will respond in a confident and liberal way.- they will speak their mind and won't be afraid to hold back their opinions.

5) 

• Teen Vogue digital/video series to encourage people to interact with each other- creates an online community. 
• New and fresh way to news.

Representations

1)  The ‘tentpoles and editorial pillars’ (key events and features throughout the year) suggests the representation of women and teenage girls on teenvogue.com are:

• alternative
• empowering
• they can impact society
• seen as powerful leaders
• role models

2) Issues of gender identity and sexuality are represented in Teen Vogue by:

• having a liberal mind about it- progressive- they see themselves as a "movement".
• represent them in positive ways
• inclusive

3) The representations of appearance or beauty in Teen Vogue challenges traditional stereotypes. This is because the models you see aren't just size 0 models, they are of all shapes and sizes and have a natural look to them. It makes women inclusive by representing every type. An example is Skai Jackson and her photosjoot with her African afro, suggesting tht beauty is within.

4) The patriarchy is an idea which suggests that men dominate the society and women are seen as marginalised and subordinate. Teen Vogue challenges this idea as it celebrates the successful women and empowers the women to go out there, be strong, independent and make a change! They succeed by empowering the younger generation to explore.

5) Teen Vogue challenges the typical representations of celebrity to a large extent as they don't gossip about them but link them to significant issues such as 'transgender'. However, they reinforce them by having articles, such as Bella Hadid's coat.

Feature: how Teen Vogue represents the changing nature of media aimed at women

Read this Quartz feature - The true story of how Teen Vogue got mad, got woke, and began terrifying men like Donald Trump - and answer the following questions:

1)  The Teen Vogue op-ed on Donald Trump was received on social media is a well response. It generated a lot of publicity for Teen Vogue so advantageous- seen as having controversial opinions towards Trump.

2) Newspapers and magazines generally categorise and target news by gender in many ways. Women have fashion/beauty and celeb gossip and men have sports,cars and politics. 

3) This gender bias is still presented in the modern media landscape because there are still magazines that are being made which target female (Vogue) or males (GQ) only. However, is in slow decline- Oh Comley. 

4) The impact the alternative women’s website Jezebel had on the women’s magazine market was successful as it created diversity within news, it mixed soft news with hard news so meant that women can read both. 

5) I agree with the writer that female audiences can enjoy celebrity news and beauty tips alongside hard-hitting political coverage to a large extent as in the end it all comes down to preference, a lot of women like to know what is going on in politics however due to stereotypes people assume that they are only interested in soft news. This explains the recent success of Teen Vogue as it combines both and celebrates it. 

6) The writer suggests that feminists used to be represented in the media as sex objects and seen as more interested in soft news. 

7) The more modern representation of feminism is 4th wave, bing able to call out on issues that degrade women and being able to stand up for one another. In my opinion I don't think this makes feminism ‘stereotyped as fluffy’ because its only women being intersted in other topics because they prefer it and they know what they are talking about. 

8) Contrasting audience pleasures for Teen Vogue that are suggested by the writer in the article as a whole:

•  "Fluffy topics"
•  "Serious topics"
• Women are liberated to do what they want. 

9) The writer suggests that this change in representation and audience pleasures for media products aimed at women has emerged from the feminist-blog movement. This can be linked to Clay Shirky’s ‘end of audience’ theory because it relates to the idea of mass amateurisation, we are no longer just consumers but produce it as well. Projecting opinions on the feminist blog etc

10) "Is Teen Vogue simply a product of the Trump presidency or will websites and magazines aimed at women continue to become more hard-hitting and serious in their offering to audiences?"

• Yes- most of their content is about Trump and his presidency and political opinions, which has generated a lot of buzz for them. 
• No- women have become more liberal and independent as time has progressed, so this will continue.