To what extent is Teen Vogue constructed to respond to the demands of various interested groups?
In your response you should consider groups which have influence online, for example consumers, advertisers and competitors.
150 is the Dunbar number and suggests that that is the stable number of social interactions that people have with others.
Companies like Teen Vogue are a subsidiary of the conglomerate Conde Nast and they sell on their users data.
Teen Vogue makes money because it asks companies to pay them to sell them data to help them attain an audience.
Teen Vogue appeals to their teenage girl target audience by using colloquial language and covering different sectors that stereotypical appeal to teenage girls, such as fashion and beauty and through the use of social media influences that the target audience might recognize.
Teen Vogue will appeal to their target audience as they are available on the internet, which will appeal to their target audience as stereotypical teenagers like to use the internet and are “glued to their phone screens”
Teen Vogue uses very informal and colloquial language in order to appeal to their target audience by building a relationship with the target audience through using language that they are familiar with and language that they will be able to understand (ie slang words)
The Network effect explains the effect that the user of a service or product has on the value of the product or the service.
Can you remember what ‘feedback loop theory’? (Norbert Wiener) 21 mins into video
Also known as cybernetics, Norbert Wiener explains that cybernetics is the scientific study that looks into how humans, animals and machines communicate with and can control each other.
It emphasizes how there is predictive behavior in humans
What is the Dunbar number? (Robin Dunbar)
The Dunbar effect is also called the rule of 150 and is the number of stable social interactions that somebody can have, when in reality, it is only really 4, 4 or 6 stable social relationships.
Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals? Refer to ‘loop theory’ and the ‘Dunbar number’
I personally think that big businesses benefit from a digitally networked society because the Dunbar number is 150 and a business can take the data from that 150 people that someone knows and sell it onto other businesses with the 150 people that people related to the original person know. For example if Sally Smith knows 150 people on Twitter and is interested in tea towels and her friend Bob White likes books, then they can sell the data onto other businesses in order to create lots of business
Q: How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behaviour. Write out an answer in your own words.
Businesses benefit massively because they sell data onto other businesses, which helps them to make money. They can then predict what to target advertising wise. For example, in the summer an AI can predict that more people will click on an ad link to their site for swimwear and beachwear rather than if it was advertised on a website during the winter.
Marshall McLuhan released a book called “The Medium is the Message”, however, after a typing error, the book was published with the name “The Medium is the Massage.
However, McLuhan liked the name of the book as it could be determined as “The Medium is the Mass Age”, indicating that the new mass age is an indicator of how we absorb our media.
– the internet – social media – broadcasts (satellite or terrestrial) – radio broadcasts – videos – posts on a website/blog – emails – advertising – Wi-Fi – IP address – VPN – Cinemas – Live streams – Applications – USBs – Memory sticks – books – music
– phones – televisions – DAB’s – tablets – applications – YouTube -USB – Hard drives – SD cards – VR – The Intenet – Internet of things (IOT) – headphones/earphones – computers – cinemas
Key words associated with New Media
Personalise:
With new media, you can edit things and change things easily and instantly to everyone.
However, with old media, you couldn’t change things easily, instead the publisher would have to collate all of the media and then distributed the edited version
Conversation:
With old Media, people used to engage in conversation and talk to each other, which created a very social atmosphere.
However, now people are glued to their new technology devices and appear to be fairly anti-social.
Endless:
With old media, things would have an end and you couldn’t do anything else (ie the end of a book)
However, with new media, people are able to finish something and endlessly find out more information, such as you could finish a book and then find a forum where people are discussing it.
Live:
With old media, people couldn’t watch an event in real time and instead had to wait until someone had published it, which could be a few hours or days later.
However, new media allows you to see events live and on demand.
This article is an interview with Annie Jean-Baptiste: Google’s Head of Product Inclusion, Research, and Activation at Google
Young female audience more traditionally seen as interested in more superficial issues
I this is superficial because in this article, a women is influencing women to get into tech industries by sharing her personal experiences.
This article is superficial because it is well known that the technology industry is currently an industry that is more male dominated and that there are established “Women in Tech (WIT) groups which are aiming to entice more females to get into the STEM businesses (Science, Technology, Engineering and Music).
The codes and conventions of a website
The article indicates that is is aimed primarily at females over males as identified by the cover image of Annie Jean-Baptiste.
The caption to this article on the website is ” Google’s Head of Product Inclusion takes us behind the scenes ” which is enticing to females as it follows the common stereotype of children/teenagers – that they have an interest of seeing things that they may nit be allowed to.
The caption for this article is enticing to click the link as it can show you what her job is like as a female at Google and they have used Google as it is the most popular search engine, therefore the target audience will have the previous knowledge of Google, therefore they could understand the article more thoroughly than if they used a not so famous search engine, such as DuckDuckGo.
The key words in the article (such as “speaking”) are written in a different colour to stand out and they have hyperlinks to direct the audience to relevant articles that may interest them. These hyperlinks to other articles include advice, as well as political and social issues that are unfortunately currently happening around the world (such as racial discrimination and sexism)
How does the story construct a particular representation of the world
The article is fairly political as it in emphasises the large proportion of males compared to females in an industry that is stereo-typically associated with males.
This article is very radical as it is enticing more females to get into the STEM industry and goes against the ideology of males can dominate the STEM industry
This article is also fairly empowering to females as it gives them a sense of place and makes them feel inclusive to the industry as the article emphasizes how a woman, in one of the highest roles at what is the most famous and well known internet company that provides search engines, prove that the jobs in the STEM industry are not subjective to your gender.
The article also covers an interview with a black woman, being all inclusive and also emphasise racial equality, thus making this article both social as well as political orientated.
Young female audience more traditionally seen as interested in more superficial issues
This is not a superficial article because it is about an issue that is very important and would appeal to teenage girls.
The codes and conventions of a website
The caption of this tweet is “ENERGY” and this can appear quite radical because it is giving empowerment to the females and in today’s society, men are seen as more powerful.
The cover image displayed on the link to the article is quite empowering and is enticing the target audience to click on the link because the posters about the climate strike highlight the important issue which will be covered in this article.
The cover image has no stereotypical assets that will appear to certain genders (such as a female on an article aimed at females) therefore it is being all inclusive and emphasizing how this article as aimed at anyone because it is such a big political and environmental issue at the moment
How does the story construct a particular representation of the world
This article highlight an important social issue that needs to be addressed and therefore it is empowering more people to help create a change in the world.
This article is very political and is showing the extremities of what climate change is doing and therefore announcing how people are able to get involved.
The strikes have been advertised on the Teen Vogue website because it is radical as it is trying to influence people to change and get involved in the strikes, however it is highlighting a political issue which has been big in the news recently.
It has also been an article on the Teen Vogue website because the website attracts a large audience of teenagers, therefore it is educating people on important events that are happening around the world.
Teen Vogue’s Parent company is Conde Nast, which is a subsidiary of Advance Publications.
Advance Publications have published and maintained well known and famous magazines such as Vanity Fair and Vogue.
It was led by Vogue beauty director Amy Astley and was also created under the guidance of Anna Wintour, who has been the editor-in-chief of Vogue and in 2013, became the editor publisher of Vogue.
Teen Vogue is a magazine aimed at Teenage Girls.
In 2015, it experienced a decline in magazine sales, therefore it moved all their content online.
However, in November 2017, Teen Vogue discontinued their printed magazine issues and instead moved all their media to online, where it is accessed more by teenagers.
The articles on the Teen Vogue website are a mix of fashion, politics, entertainment and current affairs news articles.
One of the main editors of Teen Vogue is Elaine Welteroth
Since Elaine Welteroth has become the editor for Teen Vogue, the previous magazine issue covers involved women of different skin colours (all inclusive) and Welteroth included articles and stories that are about the new faces of feminism and cultural appreciation
In January 2018, Elaine Welteroth left Teen Vogue and on February 5th 2918, Samhita Mukhopadyhy became the Executive Editor for Teen Vogue
The digital editorial director of Teen Vogue’s website is Picardi.
Some Figures for Concept…
Anna Wintour, the main editor of Vogue is estimated to have a net worth of $35 million USD.
Teen Vogue has a net worth of $34 million USD and the parent company, Advance Publications have a net worth of $2.4 billion USD
It is estimated that around 7.9 million people visited the Teen Vogue website in January 2017, compared to around 2.9 million the previous year (January 2016)
The media team on the Website publish around 50-70 articles a day, thus keeping the users of the website up to date with articles that would appeal to the target audience.
Teen Vogue had 8,341,000 around visitors in May 2017 and 4,476,000 in 2018.
Around 1.7 percent of their May 2018 audience was 17 or younger, while around 2.6 percent were 18 to 24 years old, indicating that their average age of their target audience are teenagers.
Teen Vogue’s media sites have attracted a large audience, with around 6 million Facebook likes, huge followings on their official Snapchat and around 3.5 million followers on their Official Twitter profile.
Explain how the social, political and cultural contexts of media influence how audiences may interpret the same media in different ways. Use Common’s Letter to the Free to support your answer.
Universal Music Group (UMG) is a major music conglomerate, which own the smaller subsidiaries, Viviendi, DefJam and Vevo.
UMG has a horizontal integration, as it owns multiples music labels.
However, “Letter to the Free” follows vertical integration as it is a song, has a music video attached to it , the song is part of the soundtrack to a film, Common talks about the song on a YouTube video and also because the song is available on Vevo.
Companies like UMG make loads of money because they track the target audiences with what type of music they most commonly search through cookies and say for example the user really likes rap and political music, it will find more music that is related and will cater to their interest in order to get them to click onto the link to watch their video.
As well as by getting artists to sign for their record label, UMG makes loads of money by advertising fees, because it is a relatively large conglomerate, it will cost quite a lot in order to advertise your business just before or after a music video released by UMG.
UMG owns Vevo and in the music video for Letter to the Free, the Vevo logo is diplayed in the bottom left hand corner of the music video in order to entice the customer to visit the Vevo site and to discover more music. This is because they are being repetitively shown the Vevo logo, therefore they will want to click it because it is there and it also is a reminder about Vevo, therefore the customer will remember Vevo.
What is unusual is that Common is a multi-millionaire, but there are many famous artists with a higher net worth and as a multi-billionaire monopoly, why can’t UMG help stop slavery?
Common
His real name is Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn, however, he is better known by his stage name, Common.
Common is an American rapper, actor, writer, activist and philanthropist.
He was born in South Side, Chicago (Illinois) on 13th March 1972
Illinois is a place which is known for being a poverty area.
He has completed his Doctorate Degree.
His music is influenced by culture as he wants to spread awareness of racism.
Common has a net worth of approximately $45 million
Letter to the Free (Music Video)
It is from an album called “Black America Again” which is the 11th studio album that was produced by Common
It is a song that is under the Hip Hop and Rap Genre
It was a low budget music video
The video is all filmed in black and white bringing a message that having a colour is less important as everyone is equal
It is a predictable hip hop and rap music video.
The music video is hosted by VEVO.
There is no main story to compliment this music video.
The black box that features in the music video is a symbol that black things can represent infinity and something that the audiences need to know about.
It appears to be quite a radical music video because it challenges the dominant ideology
As suggested by the title “Letter to the Free” the free are the white people and Common is trying to show that everyone should be treated equally, no matter the colour of their skin.
The prison setting represents how the black people are “locked away” as if they are criminals, however in reality they are the same as white people.
What to mention in my essay:
George Gurbner’s cultivation theory states that the more you release over time, the more likely their ideas, views and beliefs are to be changed.
The video is in black and white to show the authenticity and to also mimic old fashioned videos in black and white, indicating how long slavery has been happening
The title “Letter to the Free” and the music video setting of an old prison emphasises how the black people in the prison are sending a “letter”, which is them try to communicate with the free (white people). It is not a literal letter it is a metaphor as stereo-typically ‘prisoners’ communicate to people outside the prison (ie their family) by sending letters.
The repetition of “Freedom” creates a sense of urgency and the repetition also helps the listener to remember the message due to how much it is repeated. According to psychology, the brain remembers things after 3 cycles, so they are repeating “freedom” over 3 times in the song to ensure that the listener will remember the message being delivered through the song – Black Lives Matter and to end slavery!
Common has released his video with Vevo (UMG) because it can help get his message across due to the large amount of audience that UMG/Vevo attracts daily.
Before I began creating my coursework, I closely studied gaming magazines that are currently on the market and noticed that games characters are predominately male and there are not many gaming magazines aimed at females. Therefore, I have decided to create a front page, contents page and double-page spread aimed at getting teenage girls (11-18 years) into gaming, an industry that is currently more male dominated.
The language I have used is predominately colloquial because of my target audience’s age and understanding of more formal language that adults may use. I have also used colloquial language in order to attract my target audience as my magazine will serve as a source of escapism from school and life. This is also reflected in the cheap price of my magazine, which will allow my target audience to buy my magazine with their weekly pocket money. I have thought carefully about the sizing of my magazine and decided a size that is smaller then A4 is most suitable for my target audience as it will easily fit into their school bag.
I have followed a very simplistic style model for my magazine and its contents and followed a colour scheme of stereotypical female colours (pinks and purples) as these colours are the reactionary colours that occur on girls magazines aimed at older children/teens. However, the contents of my magazine will appear radical, such as the cover image of my magazine and images included in my magazine going against the dominant ideology of females having an hourglass shaped body and define feminine features. I have purposely created the women in my magazine to appear radical in order to create a message that women and men are equal, which is shown by me purposely not including makeup on any of the females within my magazine. The no make-up wearing females produce a truthful message and will bring more confidence to women, who may wear make-up in order to hide themselves, whereas my magazine is showing that the beauty is who you are, not what you look like. I have also included drop caps, columns and page numbers for every page within my magazine, as I am following the style model of a professional gaming magazine already out there on the market and I want my magazine to appear similar quality to those that are already sold in supermarkets and bookshops.
The cultivation theory says that by creating more media challenging the dominant ideology, you will be able to change people’s theories. Within my magazine cover, double-page spread and contents page, I am cultivating the idea of equality for both males and females which is shown by the common occurrence of females doing more male orientated activities, such as Marian (a female) on my front cover being a rally driver and the woman appearing on both my contents page and front cover is an Army Veteran. I am also cultivating the idea of equality towards males and females by strategically making the female games characters included within my magazine wear clothes which are strategically covering their bottom, as a majority of the famous games covers out on the market that involves a women character has them wearing clothing which is ‘revealing’ in order to emphasise their feminine features.
I have also included the magazine’s social media usernames, as around 94% of teenagers have social media and 71% of that percentage used more than one social media site. While designing my magazine, I have thought carefully and from my own experiences as a teenager, I have included things that would appeal to my target audience, such as interviews with professional streamers, as it has been reported that 75% of children aged 6-17 had said they would like to become a “YouTuber” or Games Streamer. I have also included pages that are based around games of every genre, in order to widen my audience and attract more consumers to buy the magazine due to its coverage of games of their preferred genre.
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