Student Resources
Lifestyle Magazines and Television Programmes
Website Activity 11.1: Magazine Reading habits
Working with a small group of your peers carry out a survey about people's magazine-reading habits. You could look at:
- what magazines people read
- how much they spend on magazines
- how they choose which magazines to buy
- when and where they read them
- why they read them or, if they do not read magazines, why not
- which parts of the magazines they read first
- which parts of the magazines they find least interesting
- how much influence they think the magazines have on their ‘lifestyle’; for example, do the features or advertisements influence the products they purchase?
- their ‘history’ in terms of magazine-reading — what magazines and/or comics have they read in the past?
Do any patterns emerge? Is there any significant difference between the sexes in terms of magazine consumption?
Access some the magazine websites to see how they describe their readers, to what extent do these descriptions ‘fit’ with the readers you have interviewed? How would you account for any anomolies?
Ask a selection of your peers how they ‘consume’ magazines.
- Do they have a particular pattern to how and when they read?
- Does it vary for different types of magazine?
You may wish to ask them if they read magazines aimed at the opposite sex.
- Do men ‘confess’ to reading women's magazines? Which ones? Which, if any, particular aspects of the women's magazines do they look at?
- Do women read men's magazines? Which ones? Again, which particular features interest them?
- Are women or men influenced by the articles supposedly addressed to the opposite sex?
It might also be interesting to ask men and women if they buy magazines for their partners and, if so, which ones and why.
According to the Periodicals Publishers Association:
- On average each magazine is actually read for a total of 54 minutes
- 82% of all women regularly read a consumer magazine
- 69% of men regularly read a consumer magazine
- On average each person in the UK buys a magazine every 18 days
Design a small research exercise to test the validity of these claims.
Re-read the section on representation and then conduct an analysis of the ways in which either men or women are represented in magazines such as Nuts, FHM, or Cosmopolitan. It would be particularly interesting to consider how women are represented in men's magazines or vice-versa. This can be done by looking at the images of men and women in the magazines, starting with the front covers but also looking at the articles and editorials to see how the opposite sex is discussed as well as considering images contained in the adverts.
You might then wish to compare your conclusions with a colleague who has looked at a different genre of magazine to see if there is any difference in the ways in which men's and women's magazines represent the opposite sex.
Design a short, ten minute, presentation of your main findings.
Website activity 11.2: Worksheet for analysing magazines
Consider the following features.
The title of the magazine:
- Why is it called that?
- What are the significant words?
- What connotations do they have?
The publisher of the magazine:
- Who publishes the magazine?
- What other magazines (if any) does it publish?
- What other media interests (if any) does it have?
- How much does the magazine cost?
- How often is it published?
- What is its circulation/readership?
- Does the magazine have a website or other media ‘platforms’?
The target audience for the magazine:
- What type of reader is it targeting?
- How do you know this (look at types of articles and advertisements)?
- How does the reader ‘interact’ with the magazine?
The cover of the magazine:
- Analyse the images on the cover; the types of facial expressions, body language, clothing, and so on.
- What do they tell us about the target audience for the magazine?
- What else appears on the cover?
- Why are particular items in the magazine featured?
- Explain why particular typefaces, types of graphics, colours and other notable stylistic features are used.
- Does the cover look similar to other magazine covers? If so, why? If not, how does it look different?
The ‘style’ of presentation of the magazine:
- What do you notice about the magazine's presentation?
- Does it look cheap or expensive?
- How does it compare with other similar magazines?
- How does it use colour, print style, artwork and other visuals to convey an overall effect?
The ‘mode of address’ of the magazine:
- How does it address its readers?
- How and when are readers allowed to address the magazine?
- What types of articles/features does it contain?
- What subjects are covered?
The advertisements that appear in the magazine:
- What are the main types of products being advertised?
- What is their price range?
- Who are they aimed at?
- Why are these products featured particularly?
- What percentage of the overall magazine is taken up with advertisements?
- How do the models featured in the advertisements relate to the target audience?
Representations in the magazine:
- How are men and women represented? (Look at both the images and the text.)
- Are there conflicting representations? If so, why is this?
- How do these representations relate to the readership?
- Is there a limited range of representations for men and women? If so, what are they and why?
- What groups do not appear in the pages of the magazine? Why?
- Are celebrities featured in the magazine? If so, what kinds of celebrities? Why have they been chosen?
The competition for the magazine:
- What other titles are in competition with it?
- What are their circulation/readership figures?
- How much do they cost?
- What are the similarities/differences?
Finally:
- What do you think are the reasons for the magazine's popularity (or otherwise)?
- What does the magazine offer its readers?
- What ‘values’ or ideologies are implicit in the magazine?
Website activity 11.3: The ‘Grey market’:
Access the keynote report on the ‘grey market’.
Countdown is a Channel Four tea-time quiz, which is supposedly popular with the ‘grey market’ television audience. It is useful to look at the Countdown website to see how the programme is presented. Look particularly at the way in which Richard Whiteley, a past compeer, is remembered and the types of banner advertising on the website. Look also at the Des O'Connor website to see how he presents himself. Countdown has been one of C.4's most popular shows since the launch of the channel in 1982.
- How do you account for the show's success?
- What other types of adverts are shown around programmes such as Countdown that are aimed at this type of audience?
- Which other celebrities are seen on television either in advertisements or in the programmes themselves promoting certain types of lifestyles, products or brands to the over-45s market?
There is also an increasing number of magazines aimed at the affluent ageing consumer. Re-read the section on lifestyle magazines and consider how these types of magazines promote a particular lifestyle and what, if any, codes and conventions they have in common with each other.
Website activity 11.4: ‘Pitching’ a new magazine
You have been commissioned to design a pilot issue of a new magazine aimed at teenagers. The company you are working for is part of a larger group that already has several teenage titles and will need convincing that there is an opportunity to launch a new title, so your magazine must be distinctive but meet readers' needs and expectations. You may wish to work as a group and allocate different tasks to different people as in a real magazine production process.
- You need to decide upon the target audience and, using Hartley's and Fiske's ‘subjectivities’, draw up a profile of a ‘typical reader’ that also includes ‘lifestyle’. Choose a name and price for the magazine. You could create a media pack for your magazine.
- Design a front cover.
- Consider what types of products and brands the readership would be interested in and then make a list of possible advertisers and crosspromotional features. Consider how you would ‘sell’ the magazine and its readers to potential advertisers.
- Draw up a list of the types of articles and features that should be included in the magazine. For the pilot you may wish to write up one or two of the features and design some advertisements. You could also write an editorial, from the editor to the readers, explaining what the new magazine offers them.
- Produce an advertising campaign for the launch, detailing where the advertisements for the magazine will appear. Again you may wish to produce a finished version of one of the advertisements.
- Consider what else, if anything, you should be doing to convince your company of the viability of the new magazine. You will need to work to a deadline and justify all your decisions and choices. You could present your findings to a selection of the target audience and ask them to vote on the probable success (or otherwise) of your magazine.