OSP - Teen vogue background and textual analysis
Teen Vogue: background reading and textual analysis blog tasks
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?
The article that announced Teen's vogue shift from the 'glossy teen magazine' to a more serious and political website would be the piece by Lauren Duca with the article "trump is gaslighting America."
2) When was the original Teen Vogue magazine launched and what was its original content?
The original Teen Vogue was launched in 2004 as the little sister to US Vogue, their original content was about fashion tips and celebrity gossip.
3) How did editor Elaine Welteroth change Teen Vogue’s approach in 2015?
The editor Elaine Welteroth changed Teen vogue's approach in 2015 as she started to cover more feminist views as main articles and she had put three unknown black women as their main cover models which was never done before in Teen Vogue.
4) How many stories are published on Teen Vogue a day? What topics do they cover?
They would usually publish 50 to70 stories on Teen vogue that would be about fashion, current affairs and entertainment.
5) What influence did digital director Phillip Picardi have over the editorial direction?
Phillip Picardi had a major role as a digital director as he had influenced the drastic change into political would affect their media platform but he was able to incorporate these changes into their social media platform.
6) What is Teen Vogue’s audience demographic and what does ‘woke’ refer to?
Teen Vogue's audience demographic would millennials and young adults between 18 - 24 who are into activism and want to make a change. The word "woke" refers to the idea of being aware about social issues around the world.
7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?
The most important issues to Teen Vogue readers would be social issues, gender identity, culture and fashion.
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 internet has this feature which is used by mostly the Gen z's to hold people especially influencers accountable for certain things they do, this could be linked to Clay Shirky as it would people expressing their viewpoints and sharing their opinions through the media.
9) What social and political issues have been covered successfully by Teen Vogue?
The social and political that has been successfully covered by Teen Vogue would be gender identity, black lives matter and climate change.
10) What do Teen Vogue readers think of the magazine and website?
Teen vogue readers would be in appreciation for the magazine as it helps inform and entrain them in various articles, this is because the magazine and website are easier to access and understand.
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?
The fact-sheet suggests that Teen Vogue had drastically but successfully moved to an inline, social and participatory product because they have gained over 5.4 million readership online and their online traffic rocketed from 2.9 million to 7.9 million users just between 2016 & 2017.
2) Look at the screenshots and details on pages 3-4 of the Factsheet. What does Teen Vogue offer its audience?
Looking at these screenshots I can develop this idea that Teen Vogue offers their audience an insight to many different genres and topics such as fashion, culture, identity and politics.
3) Who is the typical Teen Vogue reader?
A typical Teen Vogue reader would be someone between the ages of 18 to 24 who are interested in activism and with sticking to their roots fashion too.
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.
- We could argue that Teen Vogue is a postmodern text, using a bricolage of existing media products to create a hybrid.
- There style of typography for their articles would be striking images and "click-bait" headlines to get readers to click on those articles.
- "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."
-"The order in which the different sections appear signifies the branding
priorities: the amalgamation of ‘beauty’ and ‘fashion’ into ‘style’
reflects an attempt to position the audience within the new brand."
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?
The range of representations that can be found in Teen Vogue would be based on their headlines such as "7 young activists", this means they uses indexical signs such as political pins, megaphone and a background with nature.
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 key websites conventions that you can find on the Teen Vogue homepage would be the title being "Teen Vogue" in all caps in red and white also the menu bar, the main stories and articles.
2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement?
The page creates audience engagement through having "click-bait" stories and targeted advertisements such as "amazon $50 dollars off on your next purchase."
3) Where does advertising appear on the homepage?
The advertising would appear on the top of the page and around some articles.
4) What are the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content of Teen Vogue?
The main items in the top menu bar would be "Style, politics, culture, identity and summit", this tells me that these are their appeal focus.
5) How far does the homepage scroll down? How many stories appear on the homepage in total?
The homepage scrolls down very far as the more you go down the older articles appear on the screen so you as the audience have lots to read and which will generate more traffic as more adverts will appear too.
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 main items of the lifestyle menu bar would be "Heath, sex and relationships, wellness, horoscopes and voices."
2) How is the Lifestyle section designed to encouragement audience engagement? Think about page design, images, text and more.
The lifestyle section encourages audience engagement through their bold colour usage for the headlines and the page layout is easy to access in terms of the scroll and the articles being in rows.
3) What do you notice about the way headlines are written in Teen Vogue?
The headlines in Teen Vogue are written in way which is bold and straight to the point. This means they often use click-bait titles to help generate traffic for their articles.
4) What does the focus on education, university and ‘campus life’ tell you about the Teen Vogue audience demographics and psychographics?
These titles tells me that their demographics are young people who starting college/university or plan on going as their appeal are for these people. This means that they fit the psychographics of reformers and explorers.
5) Choose one story featured in the Lifestyle section and explain how reflects the Teen Vogue brand.
One article that is featured in the lifestyle section would be "16 best reusable water bottles to stay hydrated and save the planet.
Teen Vogue: Five key articles
Read the following five notable Teen Vogue features then answer the questions below.
1) What do you notice about the content and style of these articles? What do they have in common?
The content and style of these exams would link to politics and fashion and they all write impartially except the opinion editorial.
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?
The articles use Todorov's narrative theory as they talk about certain articles to attract an audience and would link to their personal life
3) Pick a quote from each article that illustrates the political, 'woke' ideology of Teen Vogue and paste it here.
"Yes you can help out today"
"The US Department of Health and Human services reportedly intends to pursue the narrowest definition of sex and gender"
4) What effect on the audience are these articles hoping to achieve?
The effect on the audience they hope to achieve is a mindset of empathy and change so their audience to act on what they read onto their daily life.
5) How do these article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
Yes, they do reflect the values and ideologies of modern Teen Vogue as they still talk about these topics and some can even say more due to the current climate.
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