Pride Magazine
Explore how the print advertisement for Pride Magazine uses media language to create
meanings:
Text: Masthead of the magazine: ‘pride’ encourages the audience to feel good about themselves as well as the magazine, which conveys a positive feeling in the reader furthermore encouraging them to engage with the magazine. ‘Pride’ also has connotations of positivity for minority groups, such as the LGBTQ or ethnic minorities, therefore it suggests that these minorities have previously been underrepresented throughout media in the past and this magazine wants to take pride in and celebrate their identities. The strapline ‘celebrating 24 years at the top’ connotes the immense success of the magazine, and makes the audience view them as high quality and well respected. Many of the coverlines connote the importance of a woman’s appearance which is a common ideology which conforms to Mulvey’s male gaze theory and other gender stereotypes. However this lifestyle magazine is unconventional in the way it talks about women and their bodies, rather than talking about how to improve a women’s appearance they talk about the objectification of women’s bodies, “Objectified, sexualised, mocked”, to shine a negative light on the sexualisation of women. The coverlines act as enigma codes to engage the readers by teasing them with interesting ideas and about the articles inside. The rhetorical coverline suggests beauty can be improved and is something you should aspire to have. inclusive language ‘we’ helps engage the reader and makes the reader feel like they are part of a wider discussion
Images/visual codes: The cover star, Naomi Harris, portrays her confidence through her gestures codes, such as her hand on the hip which is commonly seen as a power stance to convey her strength, and the use of direct address engages the audience and allows them to see her courage. However, the hand-on-the-hip gesture code could also be seen as a tool to direct the audience’s gaze to her body shape and sexualise her, which is a common goal for the representation of women in the media.
Colour: The Colour palette is mostly red, white and black which are quite powerful and strong colours suggesting that the magazine is strong itself and empowering for the reader, it also suggests its target audience to be confident and strong women. In some ways, the colour palette could be seen as quite masculine showing the magazine to be challenging ideas about gender, subverting Mulvey’s male gaze theory and distancing women from the stereotypically feminine colours, such as pink.
Layout/design: The masthead being positioned just behind Naomi Harris’ head is a common convention for lifestyle magazines as it signifies that the branding is well known and will be recognised regardless. It also connotes the star on the front of the magazine as important and the main focus of the magazine to entice readers.
Genre conventions:
Explain how political/social contexts influence magazines. Refer to (insert set text) to support your points.
The use of current political issues, such as Pride magazine’s ‘FGM on Harley Street’ stands for Female genital mutilation connotes how some magazine use their platform to tackle some serious political topics just like Pride magazine has used their front cover to present women’s issues. Due to black women often being underrepresented in the media, magazines such as Pride challenge that idea by having strong black cover stars and cover lines which mention black women, however, this could reflect the idea that when they are represented, they are only aimed at themselves and women in general, which could be seen as marginalising them further in the media.
Explain how contexts influence newspapers. Refer to (insert set text) to support your points
Explain how cultural/social context influences film posters. Refer to (insert set text) to support your points.
many coverlines reflect social and cultural contexts in terms of issues that are affecting black women in Britain and other countries. These issues might be relatable or interesting to discover. ‘wig revolution’ suggests to hide natural black beauty, and even the cover star who would normally have more African textured hair has her hair straight, this could connote that western beauty standard are seen as ‘more attractive’ and more ‘mainstream’, which fais to represent natural black beauty which many of their readers would have. It reflects magazines’ ‘consumerist’ existantce and purpose to sell an audience products by creating ‘aspirational’ representations for an audience.
Explain how historical context influences print advertisements. Refer to the print advertisement for (insert set text) from the set products to support your points.
Explain how gender context influences print advertisements. Refer to the print advertisement for (insert set text) from the set products to support your points.
Explain how genre conventions influence print advertisements. Refer to the print advertisement for (insert set text) from the set products to support your points.
compare representations
-representing a typically underrepresented demographic
- wig revolution suggests black women should hide their natural hair
- the choice of the cover tar reflects society’s dominant ideas about female beauty, clear skin, slim body, pretty face