Narrative,Genre and Audience

Masthead- The name of the magazine

Strapline- A line to give more information about the magazine

coverlines- The main articles included in the magazine 

lead article- The main article in the image 

puff- A promotion that adds value to the magazine 

left third- The prime space of a magazine front cover

primary image - The main image

Oh Comely

What do Oh Comely covers have in common:

• All of the covers feature women
• Very young
• 20-30s
• Little to no make up
• Casual compared to other magazines like cosmopolitan 
• Have mastheads
• Don't have strap lines. They are more like slogans
• Primarily image
•  Minimalist
• Neutral Image (Bright colour)
• All images are in the center

Minimal aesthetic - Something that looks minimal (simple)

Enigma - Something that is mysterious or difficult to understand 

Narrative - story

Lifestyle-   

Capitalist ideas - every man for himself

 five stages to every narrative (story): 

• Stage 1 – The Equilibrium – Life is just as usual 
• Stage 2 – The Disruption – A problem happens
• Stage 3 – The Recognition – Think about how to resolve the problem 
• Stage 4 – The Repair – Go ahead and resolve the problem
• Stage 5 – The Restoration/New Equilibrium – Life returns to normal or to its new state after the events. 

If we apply it to a magazine, then the disequilibrium is the person picking up the magazine and starting to read

Narrative|:

• Consider the way the front cover creates a narrative about character and lifestyle in order to attract an audience 
• What are they trying to sell
• Lifestyle-not mainstream that you can adopt  
• More natural look 
• Abstract concept 
• What do we learn about the feature star from the cover/ How might this relate to our own lives?
• Natural, alternative lifestyle 
• Hipster
• Relaxed
• "Power and poise" - not really seen in women. Mainly seen in male gesture.
• The jewelry could represent how we perceive women  
• The way in which the cover stories create enigma and anticipation for the reader-to be fulfilled  by reading on 
• What enigma codes  (clues and hints) are used? Why will they appeal? What are  the magazines offering that we may not get elsewhere?
• No strap line
• It is very vague 
• Minnilistic 
• The font style is mainly used 
• neutral colour scheme
• The magazine focused on the girl and the background is blurred out 
• We do not know who the girl is (no name) 
• The way she is posing suggests 
• Her facial expression has many meaning 
• The 3 phrases at the bottom of the magazine has no meaning, they do not have any link (really cryptic)
• Cryptic - having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure.
• Narratology including Todorov

Binary opposites - Two things that are completely opposites to each other.




Analysis of the cover:

• The person in the image looks miserable and confused 
• The colour scheme in the background are very dull and does not symbolize something happy.
• Teen gossip - ' who are the new generation of teens - Older audience might have questions or might want answers about on teenagers 
• Her pose and facial expression represent an average teenager. Her pose seem that she doesn't care or what are you doing. Her facial expression could be disappointment 
• It can also be a mirror pose
• Teen Gossip,Acting,Vintage- represents the what addition the magazine cover is
• Who - it is interrogative and wanting the older generation to reflect their teenage life.
• The price is hidden in the bottom left corner and it is blending in with the colour scheme 
• Expensive - Steady enough job, disposable income 
• Middle class
• Probably because the magazine is published every other month (6 months a year) so it might have detailed 
• Homely setting - could be a metaphor with the confusion of adolescent 
• Binary oppositions - Dark vs Good ( The background compared to the model). That could represent the highs and lows. It can also represent the conflicts and emotions teenagers go through.
• Other women covers usually have the models pose in a sexy way but this cover does not oppsoe that 
• Reformers, Explorers, Succeeds 
• Propps theory - Dispatch  

Compare the specific choices that have been made in the representation of gender in your product. In your answer, you must consider:

• how gender is represented through processes of selection and combination 
• the reason for the choices made in the representation of gender
•  the similarities and differences in the representation of gender
• how far these representations are influenced by historical,social and political contexts of the media

Men's Health 

Oh comely



Men's health analysis

• In men's health Vin Diesel is being represented as some the new equilibrium/ want him to aspire others to look like him 
• The blue texts associated with men -Masculinity colour 
• Female gaze theory
• Exaggerated language 
• Large text -exaggerated language but also trying to hook you in 
• Colour palette of Blue, White and black
• Vin Diesel looks confident and overpowering (body language and stance)
• All about health and physical appearance 
•  Message portrays strength and power
• Hero shot - confident and power
• Direct eye contact - shows intimidation (he wants to fight you) but also challenges the reader achieve their physical appearance 
• 'Blast' and ' Demolish' can been seen as a violent language 
• Vin Diesel represents traditional masculinity 
• Emphasis for males to look a certain way  
• Aspires  
• Todorov's theory
• Propps -Vin Diesel is seen as a hero 

Oh Comely



Similarites and Difference

• The differences between the two covers is the facial expression. The person in the men's health magazine cover looks so confident whereas the lady in the oh comely cover looks confused and disappointment.
• targeting different demographics and psychographics 
• 'Oh comely is targeting reformers whereas 'Men's health' is targeting Aspires
• If we look at the magazine at first glance, we can see that men's health is very factual and informative whereas oh comely is very vague 
• Men's health is very traditional whereas oh comely is very progressive  

Historical, social and political context of media

• Men's health Social - every 
• Men's health  Historical - Concept of male traditional made to look like that 
• Men's Health politival 
• Oh comely historical - They have not been stereotypical. This could be showing that teenagers are ignoring tradtions

Oh comely publisher - Iceberg

How do the aims of 'oh comely' differ to more mainstream women's magazine like 'closer','glamour','heat'?

• 'Oh comely' does not offer entertainment content like Celebrities. 'Oh Comely' does not offer content like makeup, hair and fashion. It is more personal 
• 'Oh comely does not advertise products on there website compared to other mainstream women's magazine.
• The stories that 'oh comely' are non-gender specific whereas other women's magazines are biased to particular gender
• Oh Comely are promoting acceptance whereas the other mainstream women's magazine offers change    

How do the aims of 'oh comely' differ to 'men's health'? what are the attitudes to gender stereotypes?

• Once you look at the men's health website then you come across a video which features an all male cast focusing on health. 
• The main gender attitude of men's health is to say that all male should look a particular way 
• 
  

Iceberg Press fact file:

• The company was create 5 years ago
• Their aim was to create and publish better magazine 'where the readers were as important as the advertisers, where the paper quality and design were valued and where the words and pictures weren’t always trying to sell stuff, didn’t portray perfection, didn’t tell people what to do and made them feel better, not worse.;'
•   Created by 3 friends: David, Lisa, Guy 
• Lisa worked for the Sunday times 
• They create 2 magazines ; Simple things and Oh Comely 

Lisa Sykes
David Parker
Guy
Hall's reception theory

• Dominant reading - agrees with what the values of oh comely 
• Negotiated reading  -
• Oppositional reading  - 

Representation:

• She is represented as very laid back 
• Very natural in her normal form 
• Empowerment of women 
• Natural Beauty
• Represented causal
• She is encourages tradition and positive body image  
• Not being sexualised ( we can't apply male gaze theory)

Barthes semiotics:

• Bright neutral colour scheme 
• Everyday colours
• Token of femininity
• Dark and Light - Binary opposites 
• Light reflects the cover lines   
• Lack of make-up = truth and honesty 
• Traditionally women would not been seen as "power and poise" 

Narratology:

• Enigma codes - the cover lines are very vague and we do not know what they are about  
• changes women perception of themselves 

Halls Representation Theory:

• Dominated - Agree with the cover lines 
• Negotiated
• Oppositional
• Women 20-30s 
• Women from creative background 
• More left wing 
• Right wing -Tradition and Left wing- Creativity 

Theories that are most prevalent for Oh Comely:

• Barthes:
• Semiotics 
• applied to any sign, including language and image, to examine connotations and ideology
• Draws attention to the naturalizing effect of ideology in any text - this applies particularly to newspapers and magazines, as headlines typically assume a shared view of the world with the readers in order to be easily understood.

• Neale 
• Gender Theory
• Applied to any media product that has genres and links together media language, audiences and industries
• The concept of genre as a shared code explains how genres can change (e.g. the 'quality' press becoming more like tabloids) and hybridse (e.g. the middle-market tabloids, such as the Mail, that follow both 'tabloid' and 'broadsheet' conventions 
• Baudrillard
• Everything in media is a constructive of something 
• Reality vs artificial 
• Loss of reality 
• World of artifical 
• Heightened reality
• Artificial copies = simulacrum 
• Simulacra become hard to tell from the reality = hyper reality 
• A simulacrum is a copy of something that has no little or no link to reality 
• Example - Orange - Orange Juice -  Fanta - Chocolate Orange 
• In Oh Comely, you do not really know the character's real life 
• Hall - Recpection theory 
• Representation theory
• Applied to any media product
• Applies particularly to the way in which headlines try to fix the meaning of a representation, both the copy and the photographs
• Draws attention to the role of representations both the general distribution of power in society and the power of the print media as an institution - but also the power of the audience to decode representation in different ways. 
• Draws attention to the role of power in representation both the general distribution of power in society and the power of the print media as an institution - but also the power of the audience to decode representation in different ways. 

• Gauntlett
• Identity
• Applies to the sense of identity that a newspaper or magazine can offer its readers - e.g. the identity of a liberal, progressive Guardian reader or a patriotic, hard-headed mail reader; a Royalist Hello magazine reader or left-leaning Big Issue or Private Eye reader
• Applies to the way different sections of print media offer diverse and sometimes contradictory media messages to audiences, thus offering a range of points of identification. 
• Van Zoonen 
• Feminism
• Can be applied to any media product, especially representation of gender 
• The concept of patriarchy may be applied to the ownership and control of print media companies, the recruitment and ethos of their professional, news values, and the representation of gender, especially the representation of women's bodies 

Egalitarian - Equal society 

Patriarchy- When male takes over the world and women's are left out
Matriarchy - When female takes over the world and men's are left out





How does the front cover create a narrative about character and lifestyle?

One way that the front cover create a narrative about character and lifestyle is the way that the way the cover lines are written; ‘power and poise’, ‘words of hard-won wisdom’ and  ‘surprisingly strong things’. Honestly these 3 cover lines could mean anything and they are very cryptic which could interest the audience into looking through the magazine to see what it is about.

Another way that the front cover create a narrative about character and lifestyle is the model herself. First of all there is no information on who the model. There is no name of the model neither is her age or anything else about her. Another thing to note about the model is this at she has lack of make up on which shows her natural beauty as well as it could mean truth and honesty. The model's facial  expression

Personally i think what this magazine cover is trying to show is a lifestyle where people can adopt unlike mainstream magazine cover where they expect the target audience to look a certain way.

How does the magazine challenge traditional representation?


One way that the magazine cover challenge traditional representation is the way that the female is posing on the front cover. Mainstream magazine covers such as cosmopolitan usually represents female in a way that appeal to male gaze society for example the model posing in sexy way, the models would also have full make-up on and the outfits would appeal to the male gaze.


Another way that the magazine cover challenge traditional representation is how the cover lines reflect the image for example traditionally women (especially in the older days) would not be seen as  'power and poise' and the

The front cover is very minimalist