1) SELF Magazine
2) consumer magazine
3) $3.99 per issue/$16.00 per one-year 12 issue subscription
4) 80 pages out of 145 total/ 55%
5) Eat, Weigh, Move is one woman's story about her journey through a twenty-pound weight loss and deep self-exploration. Kathy Ebel, a free-lance writer and wife, describes to the audience her experience with leaving behind her emotional eating habits to find love for herself.
6) The readers of SELF Magazine are people who care about their health, their looks, and their overall personal well being. The magazine probably targets women ages 20-45, in relationships or of appropriate dating age, are interested in exercise and healthy eating.
7) The main products advertised in this magazine are beauty products, clothes, exercise equipment and health food lines; many of the products advertised are offering a more affordable alternative to designer lines and/or are tied to some charitable organization. Yes, I think the magazine reaches its intended audience through advertising.
8) 15 men/boys; 135 women/girls
9) Men are typically seen in the background of pictures, often times pictured as an assistant or helper to the women. They are never the focus.
10) No, no, and no. Almost all the women pictured, both editorial and in advertisements, are white or light-skinned, ages 20-30, and upper-middle class.
11) I would suggest that their magazine feature pictures and articles of and for a more diverse audience; I would suggest more marketing toward Latina and black women, and possibly toward a wider age range. I would make the models in the magazine more relateable to average women.
12) Not really. I have already considered cancelling my subscription to SELF Magazine solely because of the ridiculous amount of advertisements. It is overwhelming to see name brands and prices in every other line of print. I am unimpressed with the magazine's placement of advertisements and think that it is insulting to the intelligence of their audience to attempt such blatant thought manipulation on the part of those who stand to profit from the magazine sales. I suppose that if there were anything surprising to me about this study, it would be the lack of diversity in the models of the magazine. I never really noticed how little ethnic diversity there was among this group, or how those models who were supposed to represent a minority group were so light-skinned.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Blog 3
The three most influential books in my life are: Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury; The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding; and The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a novel that was given to me by my mother. Bradbury has a flowery, descriptive way of writing that I have found to be beautiful. He is also talented at writing spooky tales, which appeal to me. I am a fan of everything I have read of Bradbury's, but this is my favorite of his works.
The Lord of the Flies was part of my high school required reading. I was impressed by the fact that it was able to make such a great social statement while simultaneously conveying such beauty and character development. I couldn't put it down.
The Lovely Bones is one of my favorite books for pure enjoyment. It is one that I have read 5 or 6 times. I picked it up from a bestseller pile in a bookstore; I had never heard of it at the time. I love the way that the main characted is speaking from beyond the grave.
I think that I gravitate more toward the classics than the bestsellers. I find today's popular novels to be shallow in comparison to the classics, with little more to offer than a cheap thrill. Today's novels generally qualify as murder mysteries or medical thrillers. I prefer something with a little more meaning, a little more cryptic; I like to work a little harder to decipher what the author is trying to say.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a novel that was given to me by my mother. Bradbury has a flowery, descriptive way of writing that I have found to be beautiful. He is also talented at writing spooky tales, which appeal to me. I am a fan of everything I have read of Bradbury's, but this is my favorite of his works.
The Lord of the Flies was part of my high school required reading. I was impressed by the fact that it was able to make such a great social statement while simultaneously conveying such beauty and character development. I couldn't put it down.
The Lovely Bones is one of my favorite books for pure enjoyment. It is one that I have read 5 or 6 times. I picked it up from a bestseller pile in a bookstore; I had never heard of it at the time. I love the way that the main characted is speaking from beyond the grave.
I think that I gravitate more toward the classics than the bestsellers. I find today's popular novels to be shallow in comparison to the classics, with little more to offer than a cheap thrill. Today's novels generally qualify as murder mysteries or medical thrillers. I prefer something with a little more meaning, a little more cryptic; I like to work a little harder to decipher what the author is trying to say.
Blog 2
I think the two theories in Chapter two that are most helpful in understanding the affects of media in our daily lives are cultivation theory and agenda setting theory.
Cultivation theory states that the media will shape and distort how people view the world. Media are backed by large sums of money and therefore are able to create sophistocated strategies for attracting certain demographics. They put a lot of energy into creating advertisements and content that will appeal to very specific groups of people. Therefore, we as viewers are -- sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly -- drawn to consume certain media. In this way, we lose some control over what media we choose to consume and therefore inadvertantly limit our view of the world. Thus, cultivation theory shows us that media will shape and distort how we view the world.
Agenda setting theory states that the mass media influence what you think about and your perception of what is important. Media are put in place for the same purpose as any other business is put in place: profit. Magazines, television shows, movies, radio programs, are all businesses trying to make money. That is their agenda. Sometimes, those in control also have a political or social agenda to run. As stated earlier, mass media are backed by large sums of money and therefore have a lot of control over who they are marketing toward, and they often use emotional appeals as a marketing strategy. Maybeline, for example, is a large cosmetics company that sponsors many television programs. They want to sell their products in order to be profitable. In order for this to happen, viewers must believe that looking good is important. Maybeline's marketing team, then, might bombard viewers with images of beautiful people living wonderful lives. As a result of that, viewers begin to internalize on a deep level that looks are important. This lays the foundation for Maybeline to pitch their product as an important purchase. In this way, agenda setting theory shows us that mass media influence what we think about and our perception of what is important, and allows us to make a more educated decision about what media to consume.
Cultivation theory states that the media will shape and distort how people view the world. Media are backed by large sums of money and therefore are able to create sophistocated strategies for attracting certain demographics. They put a lot of energy into creating advertisements and content that will appeal to very specific groups of people. Therefore, we as viewers are -- sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly -- drawn to consume certain media. In this way, we lose some control over what media we choose to consume and therefore inadvertantly limit our view of the world. Thus, cultivation theory shows us that media will shape and distort how we view the world.
Agenda setting theory states that the mass media influence what you think about and your perception of what is important. Media are put in place for the same purpose as any other business is put in place: profit. Magazines, television shows, movies, radio programs, are all businesses trying to make money. That is their agenda. Sometimes, those in control also have a political or social agenda to run. As stated earlier, mass media are backed by large sums of money and therefore have a lot of control over who they are marketing toward, and they often use emotional appeals as a marketing strategy. Maybeline, for example, is a large cosmetics company that sponsors many television programs. They want to sell their products in order to be profitable. In order for this to happen, viewers must believe that looking good is important. Maybeline's marketing team, then, might bombard viewers with images of beautiful people living wonderful lives. As a result of that, viewers begin to internalize on a deep level that looks are important. This lays the foundation for Maybeline to pitch their product as an important purchase. In this way, agenda setting theory shows us that mass media influence what we think about and our perception of what is important, and allows us to make a more educated decision about what media to consume.
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