https://www.teenvogue.com/story/junk-kouture-2023

This is an in-depth CSP and needs to be studied with reference to all four elements of the
Theoretical Framework (Language, Representation, Industries, Audience) and all relevant
contexts.
Selection Criteria
Online, social and participatory: Fashion, lifestyle, political and campaigning website and social
media sites. The different sites should be studied in detail including the home page of the website
and the ‘Culture’ section.
What needs to be studied? Key Questions and Issues
This product relates to the theoretical framework by providing a focus for the study of:
Media Language
How are the codes and conventions of a website used in the product? How are these conventions
used to influence meaning?
The website should be analysed in terms of:
• the composition of the images, positioning, layout, typography, language and mode of address
The application of a semiotic approach will aid the analysis of the way in which the website
creates a narrative about the world it is constructing – often to do with age, beauty and social and
political issues.
The genre conventions of websites will be studied and the genre approach should also include
reference to the content of lifestyle websites.
Narrative in the context of online material can refer to the way that the images and the selection
of stories construct a narrative about the world – one which is likely to be ideological.
Media Representations
The choice of this online product provides a wide range of representational issues. These include
the representation of the target audience of young women in the United States but also globally.
The focus on representation will build on work done in the analysis of visual images and can also
be used to explore target audiences and ideological readings
• Representation of particular groups (age, gender, race), construction of a young female identity.
• Who is constructing the representation and to what purpose? (Stuart Hall)
• The focus on politics, social issues and technology (in addition to fashion and celebrity)
suggests a new representation of young women.
• Analysis of the construction and function of stereotypes
• Representation and news values – how do the stories selected construct a particular
representation of the world and particular groups and places in it? (‘Rise, Resist. Raise your
Voice’ is the slogan for the website).
Media Industries
Teen Vogue is a commercial media product but could also be seen as fulfilling a public service
through its political reporting and social campaigns. The website also demonstrates the way that
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publishing institutions (in this case Conde Nast) have developed their reach through new
technology and convergence.
• Teen Vogue’s web and social media sites show how institutions respond to changes in
consumption
• The use of digital platforms to expand the output and reach of the products demonstrates how
institutions have responded to the impact of new technology
Media Audiences
The close study product provides an example of a clearly targeted, primary audience through
demographics of gender and age which should encourage the study of issues of identity. Related
to this would be a discussion of the changing relationship between producers and audiences in
the context of participatory media. (Clay Shirky ‘End of audience’ theories).
• Definitions of mass and minority or specialised audiences.
• Debates around the idea of targeting specialised audiences (by age, gender, lifestyle etc.)
and how successful that targeting is.
• Differing interpretations by different groups – those belonging to and outside the primary
audience. (Stuart Hall – reception theory)
• Opportunities for audience interactivity and creativity.
Social, political, cultural and economic contexts
Teen Vogue is culturally significant in its marrying of the political with fashion and lifestyle to target
a young female audience more traditionally seen as interested in more superficial issues. Its
explicit feminist stance and reporting on the Trump presidency has made it a relatively radical
voice in the context of mainstream US media. The social and economic contexts can be
addressed in terms of how the product has been received and how it has succeeded when other
magazines (online) are struggling to maintain audiences.

Post Modern Theory

Many Films and Television Programmes exhibit postmodern traits. Descriptions of the most significant Postmodern themes in Television and Films are below:

pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist

parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) was a French sociologist, cultural theorist, author, political commentator. His best known theories involve hyperreality and simulation. Baudrillard described hyperreality as “the generation by models of a real without origin or reality”.

What is Baudrillard theory?

Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is a simulation of reality.

Hyperreality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in advanced postmodern societies. Hyperreality is seen as a condition of what is real and what is fiction are blended together so there is no clear distinction to where one ends and the other begins.

What makes a text postmodernism

Criticism of metanarratives – postmodern texts usually try to distance themselves from traditional ways of making meaning, and will break the rules of existing metanarratives such as religion or science

Rejection of high culture – postmodern texts will often use a deliberately ‘trashy’ aesthetic

Breaking rules – postmodern texts often break fundamental rules of making media, for example by ‘breaking the fourth wall’

Intertextuality – postmodern texts often routinely make reference to other texts, cultures and times

Style over substance – surface meanings are seen as more important in a postmodern text than any deeper meaning

Peripeteia – a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances.

Anagnorisis – where a character recognizes or discovers another character’s true identity or true nature.

Catharsis – the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.

1. Bricolage  – Bricolage is a technique or creative mode, where works are constructed from various materials available or on hand, and is often seen as a characteristic of postmodern art practice.
2. Intertextuality – can be a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style.
3. Referential –
4. Surface and style over substance and content –
5. Metanarrative – theory that tries to give a totalizing, comprehensive account to various historical events, experiences, and social, cultural phenomena based upon the appeal to universal truth or universal values.
6. Hyperreality – something that give a representation of characters that aren’t socially normal or acceptable. eg disney world. exaggerated otherness
7. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’)  – an image or representation of someone or something
8. Consumerist Society – a society in which people often buy new goods, especially goods that they do not need, and in which a high value is placed on owning many things.

What is postmodernism?

1. Pastiche – a piece of art that imitating something previous
2. Parody – a piece of art that is mocking imitating something previous
3. Bricolage – something constructed or create from a different diverse range of things
4. Intertextuality
5. Referential
6. Surface and style over substance and content
7. Metanarrative
8. Hyperreality
9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) 
10. Consumerist Society – a society who are more invested in people buying and consuming different things
11. Fragmentary Identities
12. Alienation
13. Implosion
14. cultural appropriation
15. Reflexivity

In this sense, postmodernism works in terms REITERATION, so in the example of The Love Box in your Living Room it is a reiteration of the documentary work by Adam Curtis.

1. Quality of acting
2. Escapism
3. Good script
4. Good plot twists
5. Interesting characters
6. Good representation of media
7. Suspenseful
8. Explores real life issues
9. Inflectional
10. Cinematography

Broadcasting – Presenting something to a wider larger audience with common intrestst

Narrowcasting – Presenting something is a lesser audience with a more specific intrest

what is the ethos of the BBC – The public service ethos of the BBC to inform, entertain and educate

what’s the distinction between populism and paternalism

BBC ethos – to inform, entertain and educate

Populism – what the audience want – freedom

Paternalism – what the government want – regulation

bbc charter – signed each year

Grace whyndham goldie,

lord reith

notes from seaton :

in 1982 the hunt report on the introduction of cable television could begin to modify the principles of balance and quality even further

broadcasting in Britan in the past has a considerable degree of autonomy from other institutions, it has not in any simple sense been biased.

1. Oh Comely magazine is a bi-monthly British magazine published by Pirates Ahoy! a subsidiary of Iceberg Press, publisher of The Simple Things magazine
2. The first issue of Oh Comely was published in 2010 and co-edited by Des Tan and Liz Bennett, with Rosanna Durham and Dani Lurie as art and music editors. 
3. The CSP Oh Comely has changed its name to Oh. The update on the magazine’s website states: ‘Oh is a reimagination of Oh Comely magazine and is still a place to meet new people, hear their stories and hopefully leave you looking at life a little differently.
4. Oh Comely magazine is a niche women’s lifestyle publication with a strong feminist perspective. It launched in 2010 and publishes six issues a year
5. 98% of readers are female averaging age of 27