teen magazine essay

To what extent should magazines be held responsible for the social ramifications of the representations they offer?

This essay will be focused around teen magazines designed for young girls, it will also cover the way that teenage girls are represented in these magazines and the effects these representations have.

If you were to look at a range of teen magazine covers, one of the most obvious things that you may notice about these magazines is the blatant and consistence references of sex and beauty. Currently, the legal age for sex in the United Kingdom is 16 years of age, yet magazines such as Sugar and Shout (all with a target audience ranging from 12 year olds to 16 year olds) continually feature articles relating to relationships, sex and "sexiness".

 

You may suggest that, in a way, these magazines are educating a younger audience about sex, but do we really want 12 year old girls dressing to try to be "sexy" like these magazines suggest in many of their articles? There is growing evidence that premature exposure to adult sexual images and values has a negative impact on the psychological development of children, particularly on self-esteem, body image and understanding of sexuality and relationships, so you may ask; Why is it exactly, that these magazines seemingly advertise such subjects to such a young audience?

 

These themes are often associated with the portrayal of girls and women as passive sexual objects, never once do teenage girl's magazines discuss the topics of career choices and education in their cover stories, quite literally suggesting that work and education is less important than beauty and relationships. So are the girls that read these magazinez, if they are as influenced as teenage girls are suggested to be, destined to feel as though they are not adequate if they do not have "beauty" or a "boyfriend"?

 

In an age when women have equal rights to men, you would expect girls to seize this oppertunity to become successfull in whatever walk of life they choose. But what hope do they have if from an early age they are brainwashed in to believing that they must dress to impress members of the oppsite sex and to follow trends and fashions because if they did not, they would be social outcasts and rejects.

 

An element of fear and propaganda also effects the way young teenage girls enterpret the articles featured in these magazines, with images of teenage models dressed to look as "sexy" as humanly possible, it is easy to see how young girls may feel as though they should be doing the same.

 

But it would be unjust to suggest that teenage magazines are wholly to blame for the effects of the representations they offer, this is because the importance of appearence is thrown in one's face wherever you go, you only need to walk down the high street to understand this. Sultry, beautiful looking models are plastered all over billboards and posters to advertise clothes, products that claim to make you look more beautiful or sexy, and even perfumes that make you smell "sexy". Sex sells it is said, and quite rightly too, because it obviously does. I'm not saying that it is good or bad, that is for you to decide, but what I mean is; If you seek to blame something or someone for the consequences of the representations of girls in teenage magazines, you would have to blame 21st century society and attitudes as a whole.

 

I think that teenage girls magazines should at least mention something about future careers or opportunities in education to their readers, so that young girls could actually understand the opportunities that they have and what they could do with their lives instead of believing that beauty and relationships are the most important part of a teenager's life.

 

 

magazine cover analysis

Magazine Cover Analysis

For my magazine cover analysis I decided to use an Elle Magazine cover, this is because I read Elle Magazine so I have a good idea of the kind of audience Elle is read by.
The magazine targets women of around 16 years and older who are interested in fashion and the clothing industry. Elle is usually condsidered to be a "stylish" and "sophisticated" magazine, this can be seen in the layout of the front cover; the font used is quite formal and suggests class and sophistication. The colours used in the background are quite plain which projects the cover star: Lindsay Lohan into the attention of the viewer.

Women who have an interest in the fashion industry would be attracted into buying this magazine due to the way that the articles are displayed on the cover "High street & designer buys we love" shows that the magazine is also trying to appeal to people who buy high street clothing as well as designer products. Fashion magazines are beginning to feature more high street shops as well as designer brands due to the recession, editors adapt their magazines so they don't lose readers as styles, movements and era's change. The use use of italics in this heading exhaggerates the fact that the fashion editors of the magazine considered the products in their feature to be worthy of their love, so readers would want to see what these pieces are.

"Fashion Rocks" also gives the reader a general idea of what the style for the next season would be. This, alongside the dark background and moody image of Lindsay, suggests that generally the next movement of the fashion industry would be moving into "grungier" styles and designs. Readers would want to know this because they would want to gain inspiration for their next clothing buys and ideas for outfits in general.

 

magazine terminology

Magazine terminology

1. The Masthead is the title of the magazine, it is placed at the top of the magazine cover in a large font. 
2. Strapline a slogan 
3. Puff usually stands out from the other text on the page, normally in bright colours. They usually show promotional offers.
4. Plug this would normally contain the price, logo or promotion offers inside the magazine, this would normally be placed on either the top left or right of the magazine. Because of this, these normally get called the "ears" of the magazines.
5. Buzz Words "Exclusive" "wow"= Example of buzz words
6. Copy main story of magazine
7. Headline the title for the main article, would normally be catchy
8. Banner text which will normally be on a colourful background so that it stands out. The banner is usually positioned at the top or bottom of the magazine.

Things you can do with blogger

Things you can do with blogger:

• view blogs
• post photos
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• follow other blogs to find out about news in different industries.

How I think blogger will be useful for my coursework:

• I can access it anywhere
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