Teen Vogue: background reading and textual analysis blog tasks
Teen Vogue: background reading
1) The article that announced (T.V) as a more serious, political website was the one that 25 year old Lauren Duca wrote about Trump 'gaslighting' America.
2) The original Teen Vogue magazine was launched in 2003 as a print magazine, know as the "little sister" to Vogue and was about fashion and beauty.
3) Elain Welteroth chnaged TV buy subverting traditional conventions of magazines- "But beginning with the August 2015 issue, the team, including then beauty editor Welteroth, engineered a shift. That issue featured three unknown black models on the cover, seemingly breaking all the rules (that you should have a famous person; and that having no Caucasian faces on the cover is a commercial risk)." Also, exapnding their content to ideas of activisn, feminism and pro-choice etc.
4) Approx 50-70 stories are published on Teen Vogue a day. They range from topics, such as politiocs, fashion and entertainment.
5) Phillip Picardi is the digital director, thanks to him there has been a significant rise in online content as there was a decrease in print. "Between January 2016 and 2017, Teen Vogue’s online traffic rocketed from 2.9m US visitors to 7.9m. The magazine then surpassed 10m unique users later in 2017. In addition, the magazine has 6m Facebook likes, 3.5m Twitter followers and a huge following on Snapchat."
6) Teen Vogues audience demnograohic is:
- "Although the brand name suggests a teenage audience, the typical Teen Vogue reader has evolved in recent years. The move to more political content has broadened the appeal and changed the genre – young women now expect more from their media.
The ‘Campus Life’ section in Lifestyle also suggests an older readership. However, the audience is still interested in celebrity content and beauty – which Teen Vogue addresses by featuring the ‘opinion leaders’ (two-step flow) of social media."
Teen Vogue considers itself a ‘woke’ brand
- "Woke definition: a political term of African American origin that refers to an awareness of issues concerning social justice.
- This means Teen Vogue covers issues of politics, racism and gender identity… and amazingly has expanded the appeal and reach of the brand while doing do."
7) Issues that are most important to T.V readers are:
- Pro-feminist
- Pro-gender fluidity and gender identity
- Supports LGBT equality
- Pro-multiculturalism
- Supports Black Lives Matter
- Pro-environment (accepting science on climate change)
- Pro-choice (abortion)
8) She suggests that the relationship between the Teen Vogue brand and their audience has become stronger- refelcted through the summits, they are a committee, a team and a movement. This concept links to Clay Shirky's theories relating to accountability journalism, as is taps into the idea of being able to acknowledge and then challenge different viewpoints - for example challenging stereotypes relating to beauty and body image.
9) Social and political issues:
- Gun control
- Gender identity
- Uni life
10) Teen Vogue readers think that the magazine and websie is very informative. It balances the fashion and beauty with politics, suggesting you can love and be interested in both, which reflects the diversity.
Teen Vogue textual analysis and example articles
Homepage analysis
1) Key conventions:
- Menu bar
- Search button
- Colour scheme
- Most popular stores
- Subscription
- Social media
2) The page design encourages audience engagement because it has a cluster of news stories, each of them are realted to a different topic. Also, the color scheme is conventional in the way that its eye catching. They also have a trending section so people like to know up to date gossip/news stories.
3) Advertising appears in a less extravagent way, quite minimal, but at the top and the side.
4) Items on the top menu are:
- Fashion
- Entertainment
- Beauty
- Lifestyle
- Wellness
- Homecoming
- This reinforces how their values have shifted and the impact of the digital age.
5) The homepage scrolls very far down and has over 20, around 28 storeis in total-spanning different categories including: TV, fashion, videos, politics and music.
Lifestyle section
1) The items in the top menu bar for the Lifestyle section:
- Tech
- Campus Life
- Careers
- Decorating ideas
- Food
2) The Lifestyle section is designed to encouragement audience engagement by:
- Strong visual focus - aestheticism of the website is reflected through the minimalist style. There are lots of articles but isn't congested.
- Pictures - engaging, more for effect.
There is a range of stories from all 5 of the categories shown in the top menu. This provides the consumer with a sample/taster of what kind of content is posted in this section of the website.
3) The headlines are almost written as short descriptions to make it informative enough to read.
Each headline is followed up by a short excerpt such as "watch her full review and then add it to your holiday list." This creates a more informal, casual tone and allows the content to be received by the reader in a more conversational, two-dimensional way, rather than just feeding content to the audience for them to consume passively.
4) The focus on education, university and ‘campus life’:
- Demographics - mainly young people who are particularly well-educated. ABC1 audience demographic mainly, both males and females.
- Psychographics - Aspirers, Achievers, Succeeders - those who are interested in bettering their education and knowledge of various different things.
5) Choose three stories featured in the Lifestyle section that fit the brand.
- "Teen Vogue - 21 Under 21"-Focuses on the idea of encouraging young people to step up and make a change, suggests that age isn't a barrier-female empowerment. Reflects the focus that Teen Vogue have to empower young people across the globe to have a great impact on their world.
- "This Is The Only College Packing Guide You Need" -helps teenagers who are going back to college, prblems they may face, the kindof people they will meet, how to maintain good organistaion and study skills.
- "Three Cities We Have Our Eyes On"- aims to aspirers. Wants to encourage the younger people to make it big.
Article 1: Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America
What it's about
Writer: Lauren Duca
What it's about
- The impact that Donald Trump's presidency has had on America and how people have started doubting themselves as well as their own beliefs
- How it has weakened America as a whole - making people question their perspectives
- Encouraging people to think twice about his action/what he tells them
Narrative
- Highlights the widely shared view that Donald Trump relies on his ability to manipulate.
- Discusses the concept of politics being in a stage of post-truth and having an alternative focus - i.e. Trump lying about the number of immigrants in America in order to persuade more people to agree with his propositions
- Encouraging liberal, progressive ideas, accepting of followers from all backgrounds and races rather than supporting division between different demographics.
Article 2: The new face of teen activism
Writer: Alexis Manrodt
What it's about:
- About the role of digital media and the internet in social activism
- Using the internet to raise awareness on underrepresented topics/issues
Narrative:
- Todorov's Equilibrium theory - Teen Vogue are a movement attempting to recreate a new, more progressive world for future generations.
Significance:
- Enables the reader to understand the power of the internet and how powerful things like a simple 140 character tweet can be.
Values & Ideologies of Teen Vogue:
- Teen Vogue as a 'woke' brand
- Progressive nature of Teen Vogue and them attempting to encourage others to join the movement.
Writer: Lincoln Anthony Blades
What it's about:
- The ongoing struggle for teenagers to get the gun control that is becoming increasingly necessary in America. Started becasue of the shootimg in a schol in Florida.
- The fact that this fight has been going on for a long time and that it stems beyond the past few years of campaigning
Narrative:
- Equilibrium - has been constantly reported in the news and in magazines/newspapers for years
- Propps- Hero- Student, villain- guns, opinion leaders- donor
- New equilibrium: Students were able to rally and vote with lawmakers - resulted in banning semi automatic guns and large capacity magazines in the state
Significance:
- How teenagers and the youth can have a significant impact on society. What groupos can do, the impact of a movement, how much medi ait generates.
Values & Ideologies of Teen Vogue:
- Teenagers and young people campaigning for something they really believe in.
Article 4: Netflix and strong female leads
Writer: De Elizabeth
What it's about:
- The role that Netflix has played in helping to change the stereotypical way that we view women.
Narrative:
- Discusses the impact of stereotypes.
Significance:
- Identifying the fact that people tend to classify women into two distinct categories - "prim and proper" women are good, "sassy women" tend to have "daddy issues."
Values & Ideologies of Teen Vogue:
- Attempting to empower young females and show them that they are powerful, canbe however they want, giving them the independance they need.
Article 5: How to Break Away From the Gender Binary
Writer: Samantha Riedel
What it's about:
- Trump attempting to disregard the concept of gender/sexuality being a spectrum rather than fixed binaries that cannot change
Narrative:
- Provides 6 distinct ways on how to help dispel the myth/fixed ideology that sex and gender is only focused on transgender people/that everything relating to sex and gender needs to be standardised in order for it to make sense.
- Cis people seen as enimies.
Significance:
- Teen Vogue encouraging social change
- Be confident in your identity.
Values & Ideologies of Teen Vogue:
- Progressive and supportive.
Comments
Post a Comment