OSP: Teen Vogue- background and textual analysis

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Teen Vogue: background reading and textual analysis blog tasks


Work through the following tasks to complete your first case study on Teen Vogue.

Teen Vogue: background reading

Read this Guardian feature from 2017 on Teen Vogue and answer the following questions.

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

Trump gas lighting America

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

Launched in 2004 as a little sister to US Vogue, Teen Vogue used to focus on the standard cocktail of fashion must-haves and celebrity worship. 

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

Increased focus on feminism and empowerment

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

The team publishes between 50 and 70 a day present a typically mixed bag of fashion, entertainment and current affairs

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

Picardi wanted to offer the target audience being young girls what they wanted to read

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

Teen Vogue's audience demographic is between 18-24

Woke definition: a political term of African American origin that refers to an awareness of issues concerning social justice

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

Contemporary issues particularly focused around social activism
 
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?

She believes the internet has created an “accountability culture”, where the relationship with readers is closer and more transparent, and says brands have had to respond to that. “It is in their best interest to subvert expectations of teen girl magazines,” Gevinson says. We can link this to Shirky's work because audience members now have power and have thus become the producers of the products they consume.

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

Gender activism, Racial activism and Trump's election

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

Paige Wagner, who says truthfulness and trust are the main reasons she reads it, since “most of what I read on social media is unreliable”. For her, “The recent presidential election brought to the surface a lot of important issues that weren’t getting as much attention as they should have: women’s rights, LGBTQ community rights, immigration.” 

Teen Vogue: Factsheet Part 1

Read Media Factsheet #200 Teen Vogue - Part 1. 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) The Factsheet suggests Teen Vogue has successfully made the transition to an online, social and participatory product. Why? What platforms is it now available on?

As it reflects the challenges facing print products, and reinforces ideas about a changing media landscape and audience expectations. It is available on twitter, facebook, youtube, instagram, pinterest and the teen vogue website

2) Look at the screenshots and details on pages 3-4 of the Factsheet. What does Teen Vogue offer its audience?

A variety of news related to fashion, lifestyle, female empowerment and social activism articles, entertainment and current affairs

3) Who is the typical Teen Vogue reader?

The reader of TeenVogue in traditional terms is the 18-24 demographic, millennials with an interest in popular culture, current affairs and issues of identity and lifestyle.

4) Read the content analysis of the Teen Vogue website on page 5 of the Factsheet. Pick out three key examples of how meanings are created in Teen Vogue and what is communicated to the audience.

The site combines both news and lifestyle webpage conventions. We could argue that TeenVogue is a postmodern text, using a bricolage of existing media products to create a hybrid

The use of headline and standfirst with striking images follows the Buzzfeed style journalism – there is a direct address that verges on ‘click-bait’ to encourage you to click on the different reports

There may be a greater diversity in the topics and politicisation, but many of the images on the site are hyper-realistic representations (Baudrillard) in that they are heavily mediated to offer an aspirational representation.

5) Finally, look at pages 6-7 focusing on representations. What range of representations can be found in Teen Vogue and what does this suggest regarding Teen Vogue's values and ideologies?

A diverse range of genders and ethnicity focusing on female empowerment and a positive representation of activism

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?

Masthead
Menu Tabs
Pop out menu
Header image

2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement?

An easily accessible and straightforward but effective layout that entices readers to click on the articles. The bold background with a red,white and black colour palette also entices readers. Furthermore, the use of news website convention adds validity to the shift in focus of TeenVogue’s reporting

3) Where does advertising appear on the homepage?

At the top of the homepage

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

Style
Politics
Culture 
Identity
Summit

This tells us that the content of Teen Vogue covers a wide range of topics and focuses heavily on social activism and articles correlating to current affairs but also not neglecting the fashion and lifestyle element of the online publication like it was when it first came to be

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

 It scrolls down quite far suggesting that they offer many articles to readers and that there is lots to do thus keeping readers busy and hooked

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?

Fashion
Beauty
Shopping
Features
Prom

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

The front image is bold which makes readers scroll down and as they do so, more pictures follow as well as titles for articles that perhaps may be what readers want to read about. The font is simplistic and welcoming

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

They tend to be either questions or statements that make the reader question something

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

The audience demographic is between 18-24 i.e students and the psychographics could be aspirers and reformers

5) Choose one story featured in the Lifestyle section and explain how it reflects the Teen Vogue brand.

"James Charles hinted his own beauty brand could be launching soon". This reflects Teen Vogue's interest in subject matters such as identity and gender

Teen Vogue: Five key articles

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

Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America
The new face of teen activism 
Black Teens Have Been Fighting for Gun Reform for Years
Netflix and strong female leads 
How to Break Away From the Gender Binary

1) What do you notice about the content and style of these articles? What do they have in common? 

They all have bold front images which make the articles more visual and creative for young readers

2) How do the articles use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible - what makes the reader want to click or read more?

3) Pick a quote from each article that illustrates the political, 'woke' ideology of Teen Vogue and paste it here.

4) What effect on the audience are these articles hoping to achieve?

To enlighten young readers about the current affairs taking place and maybe resulting in them speaking out

5) How do these articles reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?

They all reflect the subject matter that they focus on such as social activism, political activism and black female empowerment

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