Wednesday, October 16, 2019

OSP: Teen Vogue - background and textual analysis

1) What was the article that announced Teen Vogue as a more serious, political website – with 1.3m hits and counting?

The article was "Trump is gaslighting america" by Lauren Duca 

2) When was the original Teen Vogue magazine launched and what was its original content?

The original Teen Vogue was launched in 2004, and it mainly contained content about fashion and celebrity gossip

3) How did editor Elaine Welteroth change Teen Vogue’s approach in 2015?

Welteroth decided to break the rules of what was established would sell, she did by creating a front cover that featured exclusively black unknown models. She was told it won't sell, it became their highest selling issue that year 

4) How many stories are published on Teen Vogue a day? What topics do they cover?

They post around 50-70 issues a day, which can vary from the political or beauty tips/fashion 

5) What influence did digital director Phillip Picardi have over the editorial direction?

I believe he was a very dominant force when it came to the editorial direction of the magazine

6) What is Teen Vogue’s audience demographic and what does ‘woke’ refer to?

Teen Vogues audience demographic is unapologetically young with a main focus on Gen Z and millennials. The word woke refers to someone being socially aware 

7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?

Teen Vogue user interest I imagine can be quite varied; some will be more interested in something than someone else e.g. some would be more interested in fashion that another one would while same goes for politics etc. But given the fact that being "woke" has become a trend of fashionable, an underlying interest in awareness when it comes to what's going on around you may be more common than we may think.

8) What does Tavi Gevinson suggest regarding the internet and ‘accountability culture’ with regards to modern audiences? Can you link this to our work on Clay Shirky?

Gevinson suggests that the bond between Teen Vogue and their audience has become stronger in recent years, this could be due to the barrier of producer and audience has slowly been picked away with the internet, making feedback far more accessible than before. 

9) What social and political issues have been covered successfully by Teen Vogue?

Broad question, first you have to understand that success would be relatively broad in this context due to political opinions varying what it means to be successful, but if we were to take a liberal, left-wing approach; it can be argued that Teen Vogue has been quite successful, this is evident with how they have approached Trump and the LGBTQ community. Examples of this being done would be the gaslighting article and the overall inclusion of the LGTBQ community.  

10) What do Teen Vogue readers think of the magazine and website?

I think most if it's readers see Teen Vogue has accepting, modern, truthful and I'm sure some would consider it as inventful and inspirational

Teen Vogue textual analysis and example articles

Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of the Teen Vogue website and read notable Teen Vogue articles to refer to in exam answers. 

Homepage analysis

Go to the Teen Vogue homepage and answer the following:

1) What website key conventions can you find on the Teen Vogue homepage?

The website is divided into different sections, all of which can be clicked and viewed. Along with that, there are ads present on the sides of the website; a convention of, particularly modern websites.

2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement?

It's clear to read, that combined with the fact that there is content everywhere results in a website that is easy to engage with. The design is also just quiet attractive in general 

3) Where does advertising appear on the homepage?

The advertising appears on the sides and top of the website 

4) What are the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content of Teen Vogue?

It's a clear view of their brand "Thigh-High Politics" a combination of both fashion and politics


5) How far does the homepage scroll down? How many stories appear on the homepage in total?

28-29 articles can be seen on the homepage if you scroll right to the bottom, and it scrolls down quite far, more than I assumed it would 

Lifestyle section

Now analyse the Lifestyle section of Teen Vogue (in the Identity section) and answer the following:

1) What are the items in the top menu bar for the Lifestyle section?

The top menu section of lifestyle doesn't seem to exists anymore, but when looking at the Identity section, the different sections include, Health, sex and relationships, Wellness, horoscopes, Lifestyle and Voices.

2) How is the Lifestyle section designed to encouragement audience engagement? Think about page design, images, text and more.

Almost all of the articles on the lifestyle section include examples of people needing something to make their lives better, e.g. "This is the Only College Packing Guide You Need" is an instance of Teen Vogue trying to make people feel like they need something. 

3) What do you notice about the way headlines are written in Teen Vogue?

They are quite clickbait esk, this can be seen with as the before mentioned example of the articles stating that we the audience need what they're saying 

4) What does the focus on education, university and ‘campus life’ tell you about the Teen Vogue audience demographics and psychographics?

It shows two things; the increased focus on education is either a shift towards catering for an older audience that may have grown up on Teen Vogue, or an honest attempt from Teen Vogue to better educate their audience. Either way although it an acknowledgement on Teen Vogues part on the changing nature of their target demographic 

5) Choose three stories featured in the Lifestyle section – why do they fit the Teen Vogue brand?

"


"Amazon Is Making It A Lot Easier to Stock Up On Dorm Room Essentials

Get your checklist ready!"

An example of Teen Vogues focus on trends and fashion

"Traveling After College: 6 Reasons You Should Travel After Graduation

Don't rush into the "real world" just yet."

An example of Teen Vogues brand new focus on helping teens with their eductaion




Five key articles

Read the following five notable Teen Vogue features then answer the questions below for EACH feature.


For each article:

1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?

Donald Trump is gaslighting America:
Laura Duca- How Trump is emotionally controlling America

The New Face of Teen Activism:

Alexis Manrodt - The effect of digital media and the internet on activism.

Black Teens Have Been Fighting for Gun Reform for Years:

Lincoln Anthony Blades - About the struggle teenagers have had when it comes to getting gun control.

Netflix and Strong Female Leads:

De Elizabeth - About the changing stereotypes of women in media and how there are more strong female leads nowadays

How to Break Away from Gender Binaries:

Samantha Riedel - a guide to breaking away gender classifications and the nature of binary gender



2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.

Often times a similarity between the different articles is that it paints the readers as either a victim/princess that needs saving or a hero that needs to save someone or something. I used propps theory of narrative to help give me examples, and I feel like it's the most relevant one to use. 

3) Why is this article significant?

Again to round up all the articles into one paragraph, each article highlights very real and very present issues that face the (in this case American) population; when I say American I mean to specifically point out the guns reform article, the article is a clear example of a serious issue that physically targets the American population, but is mentally relevant at an international scale by reflecting both guns and the nature of racism globally 

4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?

Modern Teen Vogue is unapologetically left-wing, even if they claim not to be. It's one thing to allow debates that bring to light different ideologies, but it's an entirely different thing to claim unbiasedness to the left wing with articles such as a guide to anal sex 

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