OSP: Teen Vogue - Audience and Representation

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 Audience focus


1) Analyse the Conde Nast media pack for Teen Vogue. What is the Teen Vogue mission statement and what does this tell us about the target audience and audience pleasures?
  • Teen Vogue is the young person's guide to saving the world
  • They aim to educate, enlighten and empower their audience to create a more inclusive environment
2) What is the target audience for Teen Vogue? Use the media pack to pick out key aspects of the audience demographics. Also, consider the psychographic groups that would be attracted to Teen Vogue: make specific reference to the website design or certain articles to support your points regarding this.
  • Young people:18-24
  • 63% of their audience is GEN Z/ MILLENIALS
3) What audience pleasures or gratifications can be found in Teen Vogue? Do these differ from the gratifications of traditional print-based magazines?

Personal identity- audience members may see themselves reflected in the content that Teen Vogue publish for example if an individual is part of the LGBTQ Community then the identity section of their online blog may appeal/resonate with them

Personal relationships- From the celebrities and influencers featured in their posts

Surveillance- information about fashion, lifestyle and political activism/ female empowerment 

4) How is the audience positioned to respond to political news stories?

Through:
  • Activism
  • Social Media
  • 'Clickbait' and first-person headlines
  • Events- Teen Vogue Summit
5) How does Teen Vogue encourage audiences to interact with the brand – and each other – on social media? The ‘tentpoles and editorial pillars’ section of the media pack may help with this question.
  • Young Hollywood: Q1
  • Acne Awards: Q2
  • Back to School Awards: Q3
  • A seat at the Table: Q4
Representations

1) Look again at the Conde Nast media pack for Teen Vogue. What do the ‘tentpoles and editorial pillars’ (key events and features throughout the year) suggest about the representation of women and teenage girls on teenvogue.com?
  • Pop Feminist (digital series)
  • Thigh-High Politics (digital series)
  • feminists- female empowerment 
2) How are issues of gender identity and sexuality represented in Teen Vogue?
  • Gender identity- gender is becoming more fluid and there are alternative representations of gender today which teen vogue addresses in their identity section of their website as well as their focus on gender identity and multiculturalism
3) Do representations of appearance or beauty in Teen Vogue reinforce or challenge traditional stereotypes?
  • It both reinforces and subverts traditional stereotypes
  • Reinforces- through the westernised white models and celebrities that feature in their lifestyle/ beauty section
  • Subverts- Teen Vogue are pro-multiculturalist and so there are many models and influencers who are of colour that are featured who have attributes that are not conventional such as Skai Jackson and her afro hair hence why traditional beauty stereotypes are not presented. Elaine Weltherworth is a woman of colour and is also the editor-in-chief for Teen Vogue.
4) What is the patriarchy and how does Teen Vogue challenge it? Does it succeed? 

5) Does Teen Vogue reinforce or challenge typical representations of celebrity?

Challenges typical representations of celebrities because when they publish an article related to a celebrity, they usually talk about them with a link to political activism and gender identity

Teen Vogue: Factsheet Part 2

Read Media Factsheet #205 Teen Vogue Part 2 - Application of theory. You can find the Factsheet in our Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive in school or download it here using your Greenford Google login. Answer the following questions: 

1) How does the Factsheet apply David Gauntlett's ideas about gender and identity to Teen Vogue? 
  • We see identity as being more fluid and changeable
  • Therefore, TV editorial teams offer content that feeds into modern teen identity
2) David Gauntlett has also written about the importance of role models. How can this be applied to the Teen Vogue CSP?
  • Magazines- offer role models whose behaviour, looks and lifestyle is idealised 
  • Reflect the dominant values of the culture
  • TV- moved from rep. of women as passive and dependent on men
  • Role models on TV- focused on active and dynamic role models
3) bell hooks suggests that profit-seeking media industries reinforce patriarchal values and power structures. How can these ideas be applied to Teen Vogue? Try and argue both sides - that Teen Vogue both empowers women but also arguably reinforces some hegemonic gender stereotypes.
  • For example from the feature of Greta Thunberg- Positioning her as a damsel in distress (Propp) reinforces patriarchal values (hooks) that see females as weak and helpless (Van Zoonen)
  • However, another reading of this article could be to see Thunberg as a challenge to patriarchy (hook). Some of her attackers on social media are powerful men whose sometimes verbally violent attacks on the activist reflect the threat she appears to pose to some aspects of patriarchal power
4) List the key points on van Zoonen's gender theories in the Factsheet. How can we apply some of these ideas to Teen Vogue?
  • The media tends to reflect hegemonic ideas about gender
  • Women tend to be valued for their looks and apparent sexual availability
  • Women are shown to be passive
  • Women's bodies are often commodified
5) Read the Greta Thunberg case study on pages 3-4. How does the Factsheet use media theories in the analysis of the special 2019 print edition of Teen Vogue? 
  • For example from the feature of Greta Thunberg- Positioning her as a damsel in distress (Propp) reinforces patriarchal values (hooks) that see females as weak and helpless (Van Zoonen)
  • However, another reading of this article could be to see Thunberg as a challenge to patriarchy (hook). Some of her attackers on social media are powerful men whose sometimes verbally violent attacks on the activist reflect the threat she appears to pose to some aspects of patriarchal power
A/A* Extension feature: how Teen Vogue represents the changing nature of media aimed at women


1) How was the Teen Vogue op-ed on Donald Trump received on social media?

When Lauren Duca’s excellent Teen Vogue op-ed on Donald Trump’s psychological manipulation of America went viral last Saturday, social media exploded with praise—and with baffled reactions. The piece, one Twitter user noted, had “big words for a magazine about hairstyles and celebrity gossip.”

2) How have newspapers and magazines generally categorised and targeted news by gender?

Lifestyle sections covered all topics deemed feminine: cooking, fashion and beauty. This dichotomy is simplistic and sexist

3) How is this gender bias still present in the modern media landscape?

This bias is still reflected in how journalists are assigned stories. Women have been attending and graduating journalism school more often than men since the 1970s; by 2010, 64% of J-school graduates were female. Yet as of 2015, 65% of political journalists, 67% of criminal justice reporters, and 62% of reporters covering “business and economics” were male. Even in the lifestyle section, women can only pull even; the gender split there is precisely 50-50.
4) What impact did the alternative women’s website Jezebel have on the women’s magazine market?

5) Do you agree with the writer that female audiences can enjoy celebrity news and beauty tips alongside hard-hitting political coverage? Does this explain the recent success of Teen Vogue?

Yes, because TV does a bit of both. It features beauty and lifestyle articles as well as addressing the political aspect

6) How does the writer suggest feminists used to be represented in the media?

Throughout the 2000s, a combination of loathing for former US president George W. Bush and the increased accessibility of blogging platforms led to the emergence of feminist blogs. Some, like Feministe, launched as early as 2001. By 2004, major players like Feministing and Shakesville had joined the scene.

7) What is the more modern representation of feminism? Do you agree that this makes feminism ‘stereotyped as fluffy’?

That same tradition spearheaded by the early feminist blogosphere holds that femininity is not a form of stupidity. Call it Dworkin’s Curse: For decades, feminists struggled to overcome the perception that they were sexless, grim bra-burners, uninterested in pleasure or aesthetics. Now that feminists are finally willing to talk about makeup and Beyonce, we get stereotyped as fluffy.

8) What contrasting audience pleasures for Teen Vogue are suggested by the writer in the article as a whole?

9) The writer suggests that this change in representation and audience pleasures for media products aimed at women has emerged from the feminist-blog movement. How can this be linked to Clay Shirky’s ‘end of audience’ theory?

Audience members can consume, share and produce content and so feminists are now producing their own blogs who may not be professionals

10) Is Teen Vogue simply a product of the Trump presidency or will websites and magazines aimed at women continue to become more hard-hitting and serious in their offering to audiences?

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