Essay Content Plan

• P76 – ’49 Best Fitness Classes for men’ (Two step flow, opinion leaders, Lazarfeld. Someone has used their opinion to present this list and are using the magazine as a medium to showcase this list)
• Structure of magazine – (Laswell, being fed the ‘truth’, passive audiences, hypodermic model of media effect, sender, receiver)
• P140-141 – Katz – Uses and Gratification (what is the purpose of the media?)
• P124 – Hall – Different readings, Advert campaign
• P2-3 – Dolce and Gabbana (Gaunteltt, school of life, cool man, stereotype)
• Front Page – Dominant Signifier, what a man should look like (Hall and Butler)
• P101 – Representation of age.
• P17 – Saying that ‘age is just a number’ – diversity of age, breaking down stereotypes of age but lack of diversity for different cultures, abilities and sexuality (Hall)

Audience:

• The structure of Laswell’s ‘hypodermic model of media effect’ mirrors the structure of the magazine from how it is produced, distributed and finally consumed by readers.
  The overall ‘sender’ of Men’s Health is Hearst UK, a conglomerate that produces 21 UK based magazines. The magazine can be accessed through subscription digitally or through print and those who receive the product are typically young men aged 18-45 who are “active, successful and professional.” This creates a contrast to Laswell’s ideas on the passivity of audiences, therefore suggesting that the readers actively engage with the content and make changes to their lifestyles, based upon what they read.

• On page 76, Dan Masoliver gives his opinion on the 49 best fitness classes for men in 2017. This links to Lazarfeld’s theory on the Two Step Flow model in the sense that, the demographic of the magazine could look at this subjective list and take it literally, that his opinion is fact.

• In the early 1970’s, Elihu Katz posed the questions ‘what does media do to people’ and ‘what do people do with media.’ He, along with others, created the theory of Uses and Gratifications to define the different pleasures audiences try to connect with. The producers of Men’s Health try to provide for many different uses and gratifications by including a combination of information, entertainment and escapism from reality. For example, on pages 140-141, factual information regarding weight loss, exercise and fitness is provided to the reader. The article is structured in the form of a quiz, referring to theory, statistics and methods. Through using the rhetorical question ‘Will 2017 be the year you get into shape?’, the writer directly addresses the audience by implying that ‘getting in shape’ is the right thing to do. Perhaps the audience is engaging with the magazine to learn more and deepen knowledge.

• Stuart Hall created ‘Reception Theory’ which encapsulated his ideas on how ideologies are encoded through media products which audience actively decode to find their meaning, influenced by their subjective identity. He defines the difference between the dominant reading; the ideology encoded by the creator. The negotiated is the middle ground and oppositional, the opposite reading. This method of inference is seen throughout the adverts within the edition of Men’s Health. Particularly, on page 124, an outdoor clothing, advert campaign called ‘#MakeYourLifeUnforgetable’ is featured. In the advert, a man wears a coat whilst out in the snow. The dominant reading would be that buying this coat will help equip you for adventure in nature, a negotiated reading might be recognising the dominant view whilst realizing that there are other ways to create a ‘unforgettable’ life. Contrastingly, the oppositional reading would infer that using this coat is the only way to make life one to remember.

Representation:

• ‘The School Of Life’ produced a video called ‘How to be a Man,’ while this is not an academic theory, it nevertheless presents two versions of masculinity: the warm man vs the cool man. It is possible to identify these two versions in Men’s Health. Therefore supporting Gauntlet’s notion of fluid, negotiated, constructed identity. For example, on pages 2-3, an advert for ‘Dolce and Gabbana’ is shown. On the advert, which is set in the cold mountains, a man and woman are standing in the snow. The male character seems like the stereotypical ‘cool man’ with his shirt open, his muscles clearly enhanced through editing with his jumper wrapped around his waist. He is holding the woman in his arms, showing his skills of protection and alpha masculinity.

• Within the magazine, there is evidently a clear collective identity and key audience that the producer want to project to; young males who are physically fit and want to look after their health.

• Through the semantic field of power and strength on the front page, we can conclude that this magazine is written for the ‘stereotypical’ strong and powerful masculine figure. The verbs ‘blast, burn, demolish, detox’ provide connotations of a confident, ‘alpha’ male. Judith Butler theorises that gender is created through “stylized repetitive acts” and that sex is a biological factor. On the front page, all of the text is coloured in different shades of blue: a arbitrary, societally constructed symbol (codes and conventions of print) of the ‘male gender.’ Alongside this, the dominant signifier of Vin Diesel on the front page assimilates to the traditional, stereotypical conventions of what a man should be. In the main image, he seems strong, physically fit and physically intimidating which mirror the masculine traits often portrayed in the media. His muscles are perhaps enhanced or edited to create a ‘re-presentation’ of his real body. Concluding Hall’s idea that the media isn’t a true window into the world.

• Gerbner, who researched the effect of television in the 1950’s and 60’s, created Cultivation Theory which looks at how repeated exposure to the media can distort our perception of what the world truly looks like. The producers of ‘Men’s Health’ continually perpetuate the image of what a ‘man’ should be through their representation of men. Within the magazine, there is a wide range of images that depict straight, young and able bodied, white men. This provides a narrow view into the real world which does not reflect the diversity of life, indoctrinating the reader into believing that this is a mainstream presentation of a reality: which is not the case. This is portrayed as a ‘social and cultural norm’
• if we consume the mainstream, we are forced to cultivate these ideas.

Essay Structure

Possible Questions:

‘Media products often challenge the social and cultural contexts in which they are created.
To what extent does an analysis of the Close Study Product ‘Men’s Health’ support this view?’

‘In a digital world, print magazines have little appeal.
To what extent do you agree with this statement?
You should refer to the magazine Close Study Product ‘Men’s Health’ to support your answer.’

Introduction: Structure of magazine (Laswells model of communication)