What do I need to study? Key Questions and Issues
Media Language
The magazine front cover and specified content should be analysed in terms of the composition of the images, positioning, layout, typography, language and mode of address etc. this will then provide detailed evidence for application of the other theoretical frameworks. Oh Comely uses a deliberately alternative design to other magazines aimed at young women and this is evident from the front cover and throughout the magazine.
Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
Narrative and Genre
The genre conventions of the magazine cover will need to be studied. While narrative may be more familiar to students as an approach to apply to moving image forms, it can also be very
productively applied to print media as a way of examining audience targeting, positioning and interpretation.
• Consider the way the front cover creates a narrative about character and lifestyle in order to attract an audience
• Oh Comely uses a minimal aesthetic for its cover design. It clearly values design as part of its identity.
• The way in which the cover stories create enigma and anticipation for the reader – to be fulfilled by reading on.
• Structuralism including Lévi-Strauss
• Narratology including Todorov
The cover and specified content can be analysed in the context of genre in terms of conventions of layout and composition – which will overlap with analysis of visual language – but also as part
of the genre of women’s fashion and lifestyle magazines.
• Genre study would include an analysis of the conventions of magazine front covers – a study which would overlap with visual analysis and audience positioning.
• Students should extend their genre approach by analysing the conventions of content of the magazine.
• Genre theory including Neale
Media Representations
Clearly the key areas of representation suggested by the magazine are to do with gender, primarily femininity but also how this affects the representation of men.
- Oh Comely constructs a representation of femininity with its focus on creativity and quirkiness.
- The focus is on women as artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and musicians and female empowerment is a major theme.
- The absence of men as part of the representation of masculinity in Oh Comely magazine.
- Representation of social groups: Oh constructs a lifestyle through its focus on culture and the environment. This analysis would offer the opportunity to question some of the messages and values constructed by the magazine.
- Therefore it is possible to apply feminist critical thinking to this CSP for example theories of representation including
- Hall
- bell hooks
- Van Zoonen
- gender performativity – Butler
Media Industries
An alternative Institutional structure?
In contrast to Men’s Health magazine, Oh Comely is an independent magazine published by Iceberg Press, a small London publisher which publishes only one other title.
- So this is a case study of Iceberg as an independent media company.
- Which shows how developments in new technology mean that small companies can also use the internet to communicate and target audiences.
- Niche audiences can then be targeted more precisely.
- Presenting new strategies for institutional development and creative working practice. As well as suggesting ways for keeping print popular and relevant – Iceberg’s branding includes a commitment to print over other media forms.
Media Audiences
As ever the theoretical framework of audience intersects with the study of visual codes and genre crucial to analysing mode of address and techniques of persuasion with the front cover functioning as a form of advertising.
• The mode of address can be analysed through the visual and written codes.
• Study of target audiences in terms of demographics and psychographics for magazines – publishing companies provide a great deal of data online in relation to their audience research for specific publications.
• Oh Comely has a niche target audience of young women (average age 27) with high disposable incomes, who are not addressed by other magazines. The publisher defines the magazine as ‘a genuinely alternative read for creative young women.’
• The way in which different audience interpretations over time reflect social, cultural and historical contexts.
• Reception theory including Hall
Social and cultural contexts
Oh Comely is part of a development in lifestyle and environmental movements of the early twenty first century which rebrand consumerism as an ethical movement. Its representation of femininity reflects an aspect of the feminist movement which celebrates authenticity and empowerment.
Revision help:
https://quizlet.com/gb/411307054/oh-comely-flash-cards/