Representations of Men & Women in the Media

Class Notes;
Sex- Biological & physiological characteristics that define men & women.
Gender- Socially constructed roles, behaviours & attributes that society considers appropriate for men & women.

Representation of Men in the Media;
- Strength- physical & intellectual.
- Power.
- Sexual Attractiveness.
- Physique.
- Independence.
- Represented as isolated (Lone Hero) as not needing to rely on others.
- Male physique is becoming a more important part of representation.

Representation of Women;
- Beauty (Within narrow conventions)
- Size/Physique (Narrow conventions)
- Sexuality.
- Emotional.
- Relationships (As opposed to independence/freedom)
- Women represented as being part of a context & working/thinking as part of a team.
- In drama, they tend to take the role of a heroin.
- Passivity extends to victim-hood.

Misogyny- Hatred or dislike of girls/women, sexual discrimination, denigration of women, violence & sexual objectification of women.

Misandry- Hatred or dislike of boys/men, sexual discrimination, denigration of women, violence & sexual objectification of men.

Challenges Facing the Media Industry

Challenges Facing the Industry;

Some of the challenges that the media industry include; having to adapt to the new technological age in which communication has changed dramatically. They are having to survive in a world in which paid media strategies have been replaced by a combination of paid, owned and earned media. Moreover another challenge that the industry as a whole faces is trying to find new interesting news to present to their audiences. The internet is often so up to date that, by the time many magazines have been published, more up to date news has already been released. As a result of this many magazines have had to set up online websites in a bid to keep their readership loyal and feed them the most recent news possible. Overall the main challenge to the media industry in modern times is the internet and having to adapt around the internet in order to keep attracting readers.

Class Notes; Representations of Age & Sexuality

Representation of Age in Media

How is Age represented in these Clips?

1)      Accused; Teenager. Fits in with the criminal, violent, drugs, lazy, liar, rebellious & outlandish stereotypes.

-          Shown as weak & pathetic.

2)      Barrister; Middle Aged. Fits in with the in control, sensible, mature & aggressive stereotypes.

3)      Barrister; 20-30’s, has a softer approach.

Age Stereotypes in the Media;

1)      Children; young, innocent, naïve, pure, sweet, helpless & powerless.

2)      Teenagers; aggressive, moody, lazy, criminals & hate school.

3)      20-30’s; parties, fun, making money, glamorous & attractive.

4)      Middle Aged; past it, unattractive, uncool, boring, dominant over others & grumpy.

5)      Elderly; unattractive, slow, weak, ill, confused, pathetic, powerless, not important, dependant on others.

Sexuality;

Stereotypes;

1)    Heterosexual Male; tough, protector & a leader, higher in society, dominant figures of state, in their 40’s & in high paying jobs.

2)    Heterosexual Female; weak, girly, feminine, damsel-like & emotional, subordinate figures.

Stereotypes about homosexuals;

1)      All gay men will die of AID’s.

2)      All gay men are feminine.

3)      All gay women are butch.

4)      Gay men can’t marry nor have children.

5)      Homosexual Male; camp, girly, promiscuous, feminine looking clothes & loud.

6)      Homosexual Female; Butch, feminist, short hair & hate men.

-          Heterosexuals; monogamous, the ‘norm’, straight couples have kids etc.

-          Stereotypes are used in TV because they give people broad views of people’s sexuality.

-          They are used to make TV more interesting & are most likely found in the genre of TV dramas.

-          60’s- gay was banned so men had to cover up their homosexuality.

-          In the 50’s homosexuals were sent to asylums to be ‘cured’ of their homosexuality as it was considered a disease.

Front Cover after Feedback

Front Cover before Feedback

Music Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Music Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Cover Model/Central Image;

For my front cover I decided to use a darker, striking image because I wanted to attract the reader’s attention straight away and also having a darker image allows the text to stand out clearer, it also links with the darker theme of rock music. The image is the first thing a person looks at on the cover and I wanted to make sure mine was eye catching enough for them to pick up the magazine.

Colour Scheme;

The colour scheme that I used for my cover was a mixture of white and red. I chose this colour scheme because I thought that they combined well together to make the text stand out clearer and be more effective at catching the eye. I put the masthead in a bold red because I wanted the house name to stand out and be one of the first things the reader notices, this not only informs them what magazine it is but it is more likely to stay in their head.

Additionally I made key words such as “Exclusive, You, Latest” stand out as these are the words that sell the cover lines to the audience. I want them to be drawn in by an ‘exclusive interview’ so that they read further into the magazine.

Font;

On the cover of my magazine I included different font sizes and colours. I did this because I wanted to add variety to the cover and I did not want it to become repetitive in its style. For example I increased the font size of the Masthead, Anchorage and key words in the Cover lines, I did this because I wanted these words and letters to stand out from the page and catch the reader’s eye. I also changed the colour of the letters at the start of the artist’s names; I wanted to do this because it makes the cover line appear more important than it may appear at first. Also I felt that it added some variety to the text rather than having one block colour all the way through.

Lifestyle Questionnaire Results

Lifestyle Questionnaire Results

I asked 3 people to carry out my lifestyle questionnaire, two girls and one boy and these were the results;

-       2/3 people said they bought music from ITunes.

-         2/3 said that they listened to music on the go.

-         2/3 stated Rock was their main genre of music.

-         2/3 listens to Rock music regularly.

-         2/3 said they go to between 6-10 Rock concerts per year.

-         Most of the participants buy music weekly.

-         Most of the people listen to daily to music for 4-6 hours.

-         2/3 people have 1000+ songs on their iPod/music player.

-         Most of them invest in good quality headphones.

-         All of them thought the magazine’s cover photo was great.

-         All of the people stated the colour scheme of the cover was great.

-         2/3 thought the price of the magazine was not expensive.

 All in all I am very happy with the feedback I have received from the questionnaire. I now know that the cover model I have used for my front cover is very effective and that the colour scheme that I am using combines well with the image. The answers also indicate that my cover is appropriate for my target audience and that all of the people taking part in the questionnaire fit in with my ideal reader.