Institution

Owner – Hearst UK – 74% of the years circulation is physical print copies, whereas 26% is digital copies. A study showed that a lot of the people who buy the magazine are women – I think that this would be bought for men who would only read it if it was delivered, which shows the target audience of the product.

Alongside print copies of the magazine, Hearst have incorporated digital copies into their sales. This links to David Hesmondhalgh’s idea of the media industries as a “risky business” and this helps to mitigate that risk by appealing to a wider digital audience.

Language

Levi Strauss – Binary Oppositions – Link’s to Men’s health in that there is a clear disparity set in place between the Healthy/Unhealthy men (those who follow the guidance of the magazine and those who don’t).

Barthes – Stereotypical male representations in the magazine – men working out shows use of proairetic code to do with motion and movement. This serves to get the reader motivated for improving their own lifestyle.

Representation

Laura Mulvey talked about “The Male Gaze” which is a theory which relates to media products being produced to appeal to a heterosexual straight male’s viewpoint – PAGE 148 is an example of the male gaze as a strategy to appeal to the male audience. Shows women in the background, posed in a suggestive manner, of the dominant signifier – the man who’s wearing the Givenchy aftershave. This creates an unrealistic representation of reality for impressionable men reading the magazine.

Audience

Stuart Hall – Theory of preferred reading – accepting or rejecting the dominant reading – powerful media producers can enforce their opinions towards cultural minorities to spread their agenda. Men’s health – Some may accept the dominant reading of exaggerated physical features (as shown with the dominant signifier on page 18) and use it as motivation. However, some may reject this and see it as unrealistic expectations to compare themselves to and feel bad about. This also relates to Lazarfelt’s Two Step Flow model in that the message conveyed by Hearst through Men’s Health is subject to error or misinterpretation.

James Gerbner – Cultivation theory – the more we as an audience are shown a representation the more we associate it with reality and accept it. This suggests that the audience is passive and it will become mainstream in the media and among an audience. This links to Men’s Health in that, for example the front cover states tat men should “#Slay Winter Blues”. The use of a hashtag means that Hearst is trying to promote the spread of information around the product via social media. This viewpoint, combined with all the other comments on the front cover and inside the magazine with exaggerated physical features, has become a staple of the product and men working out to make them more confident and happy has become mainstream.