Teen vogue–

American online publication

TEEN VOGUE

The young person’s guide to conquering (and saving) the world. Teen Vogue covers the latest in celebrity news, politics, fashion, beauty, wellness, lifestyle, and entertainment.

HESMONDHALGH –

Talks about the cultural industries being a risky business in his book ‘The cultural industries’ , businesses need to attract their target audience to earn profit and be successful

Teen vogue is a online magazine produced by Conde nast in January 2003, targeted at teenagers as a sister publication to Vogue and moved online on November 2017 because of new media, online is easier to access and for free on some magazine websites. Teen vogue talks about fashion, culture, politics.

New media:

New media is more interactive

Stuart halls reception theory:

ENCODING AND DECODING:

His reception theory describes how produces use various signs to encode a programmes meaning, according to ideologies and resources, which is then decoded by the viewers, which is decoded by the viewers, who have their own framework of knowledge

Application: BBC is a public service broadcaster that is heavily dependant on license fee money in order to support its output

it is regulated by Ofcom and it needs to fulfil certain obligations, promoting education and learning, the news programmes are supposed to offer an unbiased look at the main stories of the day

the relations of production refer to the different crews involved in the programme. Hall is drawing our attention to how messages are encoded by the producer , newscaster, content editor, camera operator and other technicians who help to broadcast it

clay shirky end of audience:

clay shirky argued audience behaviour has progressed from the active consumption of media texts to a much more interactive experience with the product of each other.

new technologies and social media has made us connecting and collaborating incredibly

Passive audience:

Broadcast media used to deliver their products to their mass audiences to those who were mostly disconnected

semiotics –

sign = something that can stand for something else

signifier = the item of code we read

dominant signifier = the main sign in a picture, audiences eye is drawn towards

signified = A concept that is portrayed then interpreted by the audience

dominant signifier = the main sign in a picture, audiences eye is drawn towards

icon = the thing that is being represented

index = shows evidence of what is being represented

code = the system of signs that create meanings

symbol = something that can stand for something else

ideology = a body of ideas or set of beliefs that people have regarding different technologies

anchorage = words that accompany a sign and help to provide context and meaning associated with the sign

syntagym = a sequence of signs that work together to create meaning

paradigm = a set of signs that work together to create meaning

ROLAND BARTHES :

signification: the representation or conveying of media

denotation: the literal meaning of the sign

connotation: the inferred or representational meaning of the sign

myths: Something that is made up in cultural or political context

propps character types:

Stock characters

The villain

The donor

The helper

The princess

The dispatcher

The hero

The false hero

Narratology

Narrative Codes =

Narration =

Diegesis =

Quest narrative =

‘Character types’ =

Causality =

Plot =

Master plot =

Neale–

Genre

Repetition and difference

sub genres / genre hybridisation

Strauss–

Binary oppositions

encoding / decoding

Todorov–

Narrative theory

3 Part structure: Equilibrium, Disruption, New Equilibrium

plot / sub plot

ideological meanings – power of stories lie in deeper meaning

flexi narratives

CSP –

Video games

Tomb raider anniversary

Metroid

Sims free play

Advertisements

Maybelline: that boss life – social, cultural

score – historical

film

Blinded by the light

music videos

Ghost town – historical, social, political, economic, cultural

letter the free – social, political, economic, cultural

Television

No offence

The killing

Radio

Newsbeat – social, cultural

War of the worlds – historical, social, cultural

Newspaper

The daily mail – social, political, economic, cultural

The I – social, political, economic, cultural

Magazine

Men’s health

oh comely

Websites

Teen vogue

The voice

media representation

Gauntlett:

identify: constructed, fluidity, negotiated, collective

Heternormativity

Butler:

Gender as performance

Distinction: sex / gender

repeated acts

post modernism :

pastiche

bricolage

intertextuality

implosion

uses of gratification

most uses and gratifications theorists argue that audiences are active consumers of media texts – selecting products that help fulfil a range of predefined needs.

uses and gratifications theorists suggest audiences are highly aware that they are selecting products that provide those experiences

social needs: using the media to strengthen family bonds or to cultivate friendships in the real world. Media texts might be used, for example, as discussion talking points

David hesmondhalgh

Hesmondhalgh has written extensively about the constant tension between shareholders and creatives in the cultural industries

H

Laura Mulvey

Influential 1975 essay, visual pleasure and narrative cinema, further scrutinised the contrast between ‘passive / female ‘ and ‘active/male’ reflected on screen and wrote of a world ‘ordered by sexual imbalance’ it is important to continue to scrutinise films through a feminist lens, in order to identify the sometimes more subtly negative and disappointing portrayals of women in film

ghost town

‘The political / social context of the song didn’t really materialise until the brixton / toxteth / handsworth riots in July 1981 by which time the song was No.1 in the singles chart’

Media representation and media language, The mise – en – scene and cinematography are crucial to the mood evoked in the video.

the use of twilight and dawn to help to create an uneasy hinterland between night and day and when the dark has really fallen later in the video.

Judith butler feminist theorists

Judith Butler, author of gender trouble, argues that to assume a none heteronormative identify is incredibly difficult because heteronormative ideals are so deeply embedded in our culture

Butler argues that dominant narratives about what being a women is like come to appear ‘natural’ or ‘common sense’ through their repetition in the media

Livingstone and Lunt

livingstone and lunt outlines as the UKs consumer-oriented regulatory approach – an approach that places decisions regarding the consumption of difficult content in the hands of the audiences

The reluctance by successive goverments to introduce a harder regulatory approach , Livingstone and Lunt tells us, has been given

The sims freeplay is a free game developed on mobile devices. It can be downloaded from app stores and is compatible with iOS (Apple) and Android. It is an example of the genre of stategic life simulation games and is one of a series of sims games. The sims freeplay was first made available on iOS in 2011 and all other operating systems by 2013.

Publisher / ownership: EA (Electronic Arts) Maxis is an American video game developer and a division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by EA in 1997. Maxis is best known for its simulation games, including The Sims, Spore and SimCity.

The game has seen 200 million downloads since 2011 – remarkable success.

Target audience

• The Sims franchise has demonstrated there is a strong and lucrative market in female gamers.
• Main target age 10 – 40. However the recommended age for the game is for players aged 12 and over.  The app gets its rating due to fantasy violence, partial nudity, sexual/suggestive content, and crude humour.
• When The Sims was first pitched by creator Will Wright he described it as a ‘doll house’. 
• The development company Maxis weren’t keen because ‘doll houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play videogames’. EA then bought Maxis, saw potential in the idea and one of the most successful ever videogame franchises was born.
• Expansion packs available for The Sims FreePlay reinforce the view that the target audience is predominantly female.
• It was found that women were more likely to play games on their smartphones with a strong preference in casual games.

• The Sims franchise is one of the best examples of Henry Jenkins’ concept of participatory culture.
• Since the very first game in the franchise, online communities have created, suggested and shared content for the game.
• ‘Modding’ – short for modifications – is a huge part of the appeal of the game. Modding changes aspects of the gameplay – anything from the strength of coffee to incorporating ghosts

What elements of gameplay are shown?

• Character customisation – a range of races and ethnicities
• House decorating
• Playing with pets (furry friends)
• Finding true love and getting married
• Having children
• Dancing
• Sim Town
• Volcano
• Creative possibilities- painting, guitar, etc.

social media accounts where you can see new updates or information on the sims freeplay:

Website: https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-freeplay

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesimsfreeplay/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSimsFreePlay?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Media industries

The sims freeplay was developed by EA mobile and firemonkeys studios.  Firemonkeys is an EA Studio focused on bringing the greatest, most innovative entertainment experiences to mobile game players, Its an Australian video game developer. Electronic arts maximise profit by commodifying their products. Its is free to download but includes the possibility of in – app purchases. It is regualary updated offering players new content and the opportunity to interact with events and enter competitions.

Theories

David Hesmondhalgh argued companies involved in the cultural industries, such as EA, were just like any other business who wanted to minimise risk and maximise profit. The basic version of The Sims Freeplay is available to download for free and there are standard items and hobbies which can be unlocked as you progress through the game. in 2021-2 fiscal year, the company received $3.91 billion in revenue from extra content sales.

David Gauntlett argues the media and technology play a significant role in shaping our identities and provide us with new ways to express ourselves and connect with others. For instance, the choice of skin tones available at the start of The Sims FreePlay is a recognition of the racial diversity of the audience.

Regulation

Computer games in the UK are rated and regulated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). They classify games according to age groups, taking account of a number of factors, including the game’s themes, language, violence, and content. The Sims FreePlay is rated 12 because it “may contain themes that are not suitable for younger children, such as the potential for violent fist fights and “woohoo”.

These content descriptors are designed to help consumers make informed choices about the games. This is particularly important for parents who want to ensure the well-being of their children. It is illegal to sell or rent a video game to someone who is below the age rating on the game.

EA made the game unavailable in some countries in 2018 because of “regional standards”. Many users were quick to suggest the ban was implemented because of the possibility of establishing same-sex relationships in the virtual world. If you want to play the game in places such as China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, you need to use a VPN and change your location.

• Ownership (INSTITUTION) =
• Conglomeration, vertical and/or horizontal integration
• Cross-media titles / products (= INSTITUTION)
• Income / Expenditure (= INSTITUTION)
• Advertising, marketing, product placement etc – in terms of revenue and type of products featured in Vogue (INSTITUTION & AUDIENCE)
• Primary target audience (= AUDIENCE)
• Uses and Gratifications (= AUDIENCE)
• Messages sent (encoded/decoded) ie the values, attitudes and opinions of this CSP (or ideology / political & social bias) (= REPRESENTATION)
• Use of new technology / relationship to old technology (= LANGUAGE)
• Layout, language, style, design, words, images, symbols, connectivity (=LANGUAGE)

Publisher / ownership: Condé Nast – Condé Nast is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Centre in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan.

Target audience: Teen Vogue is an American online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to Vogue, targeted at teenagers.

“Teen Vogue is the young person’s guide to saving the world. We aim to educate, enlighten, and empower our audience to create a more inclusive environment (both on- and offline) by amplifying the voices of the unheard, telling stories that normally go untold, and providing resources for teens looking to make a tangible impact in their communities.” – From Conde nasts website about Teen vogue.

“Teen Vogue is the destination for the next generation of influencers. We educate, enlighten, and empower young people, arming them with all they need to lead stylish and informed lives. Teen Vogue, launched in February 2003, delivers 27 million-plus monthly impressions through a combination of TeenVogue.com, multiple social media platforms, and a robust video channel.” From Conde nasts website about Teen vogue.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

• website http://www.teenvogue.com/
• Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/teenvogue/
• Twitter feed https://twitter.com/TeenVogue

Teen vogue talks about Fashion, culture and politics. One article that was recently published about Andrew Tate with the headline as “Andrew Tate and the “Manosphere” Show How Far Hating Women Can Get You” by Lexi mcmenamin, 19th January 2023. The article includes links when you press on it, it takes you to an relevant article to help the reader to get a better understanding on the Topic.

Income:

Teen Vogue’s Annual Revenue = $14.0 Million

The average employee at Teen Vogue makes $43,053 per year.

80% of Teen Vogue employees are women, while 20% are men.

• The most common ethnicity at Teen Vogue is White (58%).
• 18% of Teen Vogue employees are Hispanic or Latino.
• 12% of Teen Vogue employees are Black or African American.

Teen vogue was founded in 2003

DIGITAL – 5.4 million

SOCIAL – 13.1 million

VIDEO – 24.4 million

Teen vogue covers the latest in celebrity news, politics, fashion, beauty, wellness, lifestyle and entertainment.

Some themes and discussion points from Great Hack:

• The Exchange of Data
• Search for Truth
• Behaviour Management
• Propaganda / Persuasion
• Regulation

> Who Owns the Future? (2013)

In his book Who Owns the Future? (2013), Lanier posits that by convincing users to give away valuable information about themselves in exchange for free services, firms can accrue large amounts of data at virtually no cost. Lanier calls these firms “Siren Servers”, alluding to the Sirens of Ulysses. Instead of paying each individual for their contribution to the data pool, the Siren Servers concentrate wealth in the hands of the few who control the data centres.

> Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (2018)

As the name implies, Lanier is concerned about the influence of social media. In essence the claim is that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have made their users cruder, less empathetic, more tribal. Lanier worries that reliance on social media platforms is reducing people’s capacity for spirituality, and that social media users are in essence turning into automated extensions of the platforms

AI :

AI can Replace Human Workforce

Around 1,160,000 people are out of work in Canada alone. Although AI helps reduce business costs, it’s set to create some significant problems. As per The Guardian, customer service jobs (85%) will face the highest AI threat by 2021.

 

AI will Become Smarter than Humans

AI can learn anything quickly, meaning its intelligence is increasing. In 2013, AI had the same intelligence as a 4 year old. By 2029, AI will have the same intelligence level as adult humans.  

To start off with I would like to prioritise the notion of CHANGE & TRANSFORMATION as a way of thinking about NEW MEDIA which can be linked to the key ideas of a media syllabus. For example,

1. the transformation of social interaction (audiences);
2. the transformation of individual identity (audiences and representation);
3. the transformation of institutional structures (industry); and the changes in textual content and structure (language).
4. The transformation of audience consumption

access

communication

speed

storage

sharing

publishing

time

space

information

connectivity

history

participation

knowledge

discover

retrieval

	share	active	creative	host
example or comment	Sending photos / videos with other people
	story 	re-connect	personalise	stream
example or comment				Streaming websites allow you to catch up on all your favourite tv shows
	experience	store	scale	immerse
example or comment
	interface	live	adapt	binge
example or comment		Something happening right at the moment that you can watch on your screens instead of having to be there		Netflix have binge worthy shows to watch
	conversation	re-perform	circulate	endless 
example or comment	Being able to talk to with people online

Marshall McLuhan

“Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication” 

“The medium is the message” is a phrase coined by the Canadian communication theorist Marshall McLuhan and the name of the first chapter in his Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964. 

The central theory behind “the medium is the message” is that the medium through which content is carried plays a vital role in the way it is perceived.

McLuhan’s most famous idea is that “the medium is the message”. By which he means that the important thing about media is not the messages they carry but the way the medium itself affects human consciousness and society at large

TOPIC	NOTE / COMMENT
The Printing Press (Gutenburg) in the Medieval period mid 1400’s	the impact of new technology
Impact of new technology in South Korea as a result of promoting greater digital interaction (speed, connectivity, spread etc)	mental health internet addiction? Choices made? ‘A world without consequences’ ‘Senses over meaning’
On-line / digital connection stats	There are 5.07 billion internet users and 4.7 billion social media users. https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/ Facebook is the most used media app 15.6 Million new Netflix users
Theodore Vail	The Network effect
Norbert Weiner Loop Theory	Loop Theory – predictive behaviour But is behaviour shaped and altered through networking and digital communications (pushing / pulling) Issues around privacy and individual psychology (mental health / wellbeing) and the environment Virtual worlds / virtual identities (hypperreality, simulation, implosion – Jean Baudrillard) (Judith Butler ‘gender performance / David Gauntlett, Anthony Giddens etc ‘fluid & multiple identities’ The
Robin Dunbar – The Dunbar Number	The Dunbar number suggests that connectivity for individuals, communities or groups is typically 5 o 6, with an upper limit of 150. So who benefits from greater connectivity? Companies, organisations, institutions – ‘small elites dominate’ (Andrew Kean)
Clay Shirky	Clay Shirky is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies and journalism.
Vannavar Bush	associative not linear thinking the demise of long form reading So changing rules for logic, rationality, truth, understanding, knowledge. Baudrillard implosion (a culture imploding in on itself rather than expanding and developing?)
Tim Berners–Lee	the inventor / creator of the World Wide Web – developed and given to everybody for free?!! Why? What did he hope it would achieve? Is he satisfied or disappointed with how it has developed and made an impact on society?
Marshall McLuhan	The Global Village – ‘a sophisticated interactive culture’
B.F. Skinner	The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. He discovered the power of positive reinforcement in learning.  Positive Reinforcement, Positive Punishment, Negative Reinforcement, and Negative Punishment.
	The impact on political and economic decision making
Conclusions, suggestions, reflections and predictions

Narrative structure – Beginning / middle / end

• Equilibrium

• Disripution

• New equilibrium

Vladimir’s propp characters STOCK CHARACTERS theory to structure stories:

1: Hero

2: Helper

3: princess

4: Villain

5: Victim

6: Dispatcher

7: Farther

8: False hero

Freytag’s theory:

• Freytag’s pyramid
• Beginning / middle / end
• Exposition, Climax, Denouement
• Rising action, falling action

Todorov’s theory

• Equilibrium, Disruption, New Equilibrium
• Frame stories (stories within stories)
• Single character transformations: The idea that characters follow a journey that leads to a realisation, changed personality. Linking to Ancient Greek narrative structures:

Postmodernism:

• It’s an approach towards understanding, knowledge, life, being, art, technology, culture, sociology, philosophy, politics and history that is REFERENTIAL  (in that it often refers to / copies other things)
• RE-IMAGINING= To recreate or form a new conception of by recreation
• PASTICHE= A work of art, drama, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist.
• PARODY= A work or performance that imitates another work or performance with the use of irony and humour.
• COPY
• BRICOLAGE= construction of media with a diverse range of available things ‘involves the rearrangment and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’(Barker & Jane, 2016:237)

Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary Oppositions)

Creates a dominant message (ideology) of a film. However, as mentioned previously, the way in which individual students / audience members decode specific texts, is also contingent on their own individual ideas, attitudes and beliefs

1. Pastiche = A copy that could be art, literature or tv, in a serious way
2. Parody = Something that mocks art, literature or the media, made for comedy purposes
3. Bricolage  =  a technique or creative mode, where works are constructed from various materials available or on hand
4. Intertextuality = a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style.
5. Referential = relating to a referent, in particular having the external world rather than a text or language as a referent
6. Surface and style over substance and content =
7. Metanarrative = a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a master idea.
8. Hyperreality = hyperreality captures the inability to distinguish “The Real” from the signifier of it. This is more prominent in technologically advanced societies.
9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) =
10. Consumerist Society =  one in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, resources and thought to “consuming”. The general view of life in a consumerist society is consumption is good, and more consumption is even better
11. Fragmentary Identities =  is an multidisciplinary collaboration, involving visual communication, performative arts and fashion. It is an exploration of the fragmentation and reconstruction of identity in the modern age, and its effects on the relationships between individuals.
12. Alienation =  is a person’s feeling of disconnection from a group – whether friends, family, or wider society – to which the individual has an affinity.
13. Implosion = consumer age of information, media, and mass media has ushered in an accelerated and coercive hyperproduction of meaning and information to the “irrational” and “terroristic” extent that all meaning
14. cultural appropriation = Cultural appropriation is the inappropriate or unacknowledged adoption of an element or elements of one culture or identity by members of another culture or identity
15. Reflexivity = eflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect, especially as embedded in human belief structures

parody – “in this era every women were called vera or lyn”

parody – the story of the boy raised by the dingoes