Magazines and Representation

By end of lesson you will: understand the representational issues of your chosen magazine genre

Representation and Ideology

1. 2. 3. Representation is the physical form of an abstract ideology Ideology is A broad set of ideas or values Concerned with power in society Believed by a large number of people EG Western ideology suggests that to be beautiful women should be slim, tanned, have large eyes, symmetrical face, full lips etc. While this is widely agreed upon Who creates this ideology, audiences or institutions?

Questions to ask of representations

1. What is the producers intent? 2. Who is the target audience? 3. What is the genre of the magazine?

PRODUCERS INTENT
To inform To educate To change opinion To entertain To promote To attract advertisers / readers

TARGET AUDIENCE
The audience can respond either 1. Passively (they receive the representation without questioning the meanings behind it or the process of its construction) 2. Actively (they recognise the representation and the process of its construction and are invited to interpret it) 3. Positioned by the media (they are manipulated into seeing a limited point of view)

Representation and Magazine Genres

SOME MAJOR REPRESENATIONAL ISSUES

Lifestyle and Fashion Gender Beauty Celebrity Wealth Class Social Groups

Music and Film Image/Identity Artistic Values Celebrity Social Groups Gender

Task

Analyse the front cover and cover feature from a representational perspective
Look at Images, captions, writing, layout 1. What is the producers intent and how can you tell? 2. Describe the ideology behind the representation 3. How has it been constructed? 4. How does the target audience receive the representation? (actively/passively/positioned) 5. What representational issues does it raise?