The Gentlewoman: Audience and Industries

1) Media Magazine feature: Pleasures of The Gentlewoman

1) What does the article suggest is different about the Gentlewoman compared to traditional women's magazines? 

The gentlewoman doesn't follow conventions of traditional women's magazines but instead follows a very minimalist approach with no crazy cover lines and the only text being the brand name in lower case.

2) What representations are offered in the Gentlewoman?  

The gentlewoman presents a wide variety of representations of women.

3) List the key statistics in the article on the average reader of the magazine. 

85% Female readers 

61% Aged 28-46

47% A or B 

Average Income £87000

4) What is The Gentlewoman Club? 

Society of sophisticated men and women who demand quality and originality from their agenda of cultural happenings.

5) What theorists does it suggest we can apply to the Gentlewoman's club?

Shirky - end of passive audiences 

Jenkins - fandom 

Gauntlett - identity 

Baudilard - Hyperreality

6) What does the writer of article suggest they are getting out of their relationship with the magazine?

They suggest that the readers are getting a 'glimpse into the world of high fashion' and good value for money.

7) Who are the team behind the magazine?

Jonkers and van Bennekom - publishers

Penny Martin - editor in chief 

8) How does the Gentlewoman use their website and social media to promote the magazine? 

They use these platforms to post teasers of the magazine and engage with their readers.

9) What are the 'creative collaborations' in the magazine? How do they 'spill over into real life'?

They collaborate with brands who use their magazine to promote their products and also sometimes use their editors/photographers to market their products. This 'spills over' into real life at the events they host together in collaboration with these brands.

10) How does the article sum up the audience pleasures of the Gentlewoman? 

It summarises the audience pleasures through the use of words such as 'Inclusive, diverse,community', it also talks about the exclusivity being a factor as the club is only available to select readers.

2) The Gentlewoman Media kit

1) How does the Media Kit introduce the magazine?

It was introduced as the 'definitive style title for the modern woman'.

2) On the 'Digital' page, what different sections of the website are there and how do these offer opportunities for audience engagement and interaction? 

Library, Club, Magazine, Collaborations, and Shop

3) What are the audience demographics for The Gentlewoman?

85% female 15% male 

median age: 32

47% A/B

average income £87255

4) What is The Gentlewoman Club and what does it offer readers?

International society of readers who demand quality and originality. It offers them access to events and special content.

5) What Creative Collaborations

Delfina Delettrez: The Cocktail Needle

COS: Glimpses of the Future architectural tours of London and Los Angeles.

Chanel: a six-page portrait series with Lucia Pica

3) D&AD Award Winner feature

1) How is the magazine described?

'The Gentlewoman celebrates modern women of style and purpose, offering an intelligent perspective on fashion through ambitious journalism and photography'

2) What does it say about the content and design of The Gentlewoman?

It offers an intelligent perspective on fashion and treats readers a intellectual participants not consumers. Its design consists of high quality photography and innovative editorial design.

3) How are the readers described?

Readers are described as confident intelligent and stylish.

4) Business of Fashion website feature

1) What events are listed as part of The Gentlewoman Club?

Club card night at saville club and Durslade farm trip

2) Why does it suggest the magazine has managed to 'cut through the clutter'?

Focuses on taking an intelligent approach to fashion rather than throwing in whatever brand pays them the most.

3) How are Gentlewoman Club tickets given out? 

They're distributed by invite only.

4) What does the article say about The Gentlewoman's relationship with its audience? 

The Gentlewoman has a strong relationship with its audience through its events and social media.

5) Why are Club events valuable from a digital perspective? 

It allows them to meet with like minded wealthy people.

5) Website and social media research

1) Visit The Gentlewoman's website. How does it promote the magazine? 

It promotes it by posting sneak peeks of the cover.

2) Visit the magazine page of the website. How much of the magazine is available to view online? Is this a smart marketing technique to sell print copies or is it giving content away for free? 

On the magazine page it shows all the past covers and provides some information about the magazine. 

3) Look at The Gentlewoman's Twitter feed. What content from the magazine or Club events can you find on there? 

They’ve posted fashion shoots and pictures from the club events.

4) Go to The Gentlewoman's Instagram page. How does it encourage the audience to engage with the magazine? 

They encourage comments by posting and adding captions which invite conversation in the comments. 

5) What representations of fashion and gender can you find on their Instagram page? 

They mainly post women and these women are being represented as strong rather than objectified as many brands often do. 

The Gentlewoman - Language and Representations

 Gentlewoman front cover 

1) What do the typefaces used on the front cover suggest to an audience?

Lower case sans serif text communicates the elegance and modernity of the magazine.

2) How does the cover subvert conventional magazine cover design?

The cover subverts from conventional magazine covers by having a close up as the main image, no cover lines and the overall design makes the cover look more like a book cover than a magazine cover. 

3) Write an analysis of the central image.

The central image is a close up of a celebrities face with a lot of unnatural makeup (red lipstick and purple eyeshadow) which shows the magazines goal of not objectifying women by not showing her body. The image could also be empowering her in a way through the use of a low angle shot and having her look down at the camera. 

4) What representations of gender and celebrity can be found on this front cover?

The cover challenges traditional feminine representations by not sexualising the actress. However I believe the cover follows celebrity representations by trying to make her stand out and give her an abstract look which many celebrities are seen to do. 

5) What gender and representation theories can we apply to this cover of the Gentlewoman? 

Mulvey, Male Gaze - The cover resists the male gaze 

Butler, Gender as a performance - The cover shows how gender is not natural but rather performed through the use of exaggerated makeup. 

Feature: Modern Punches

1) How does the feature on Ramla Ali use narrative to engage the audience? Apply narrative theories here.

It uses her story as an enigma code to create questions about her past and make the reader want to find out more about her life. 

2) What representations can you find in this feature - both interview and image?

It goes against stereotypical representation of women as we see her boxing which subverts from ideas of women being innocent and fragile. 

This feature also shows positive representation of cultural diversity by celebrating her Somali heritage.  

3) What representation theories can we apply to the Modern Punches feature? 

Hall, representation - Ramla challenges dominant stereotypes of women in media 

hooks, intersectionality - Discusses how her experiences cone as a result of her gender, race and religion not just one thing 

Feature: Isabella Tree interview

1) Why is this feature unconventional for a women's lifestyle and fashion magazine? Comment on the use media language in these pages. 

This feature contains a picture of a tree rather than a person or clothing which are more likely to be featured in a fashion magazine and rather than talking about fashion they talk about her rewilding projects. 

2) How does the Isabella Tree feature reflect the social and cultural contexts of contemporary Britain? Think about AQA's discussion of lifestyle, environmental issues and ethical movements.

It reflects growing concerns about climate change and its effects as readers are making lifestyle changes to live more sustainable lifestyles. 

3) What representations of nature can be found in this feature?

Representation of nature as powerful and respected.

Feature: Stella McCartney and vegan fashion

1) How does this feature reflect contemporary social and cultural contexts?

Cultural shift towards ethical fashion, people desire vegan fashion as they become more conscious consumers.

2) Comment on the typography and page design in this feature.

Minimalist fonts with a modern layout where there’s large spaces between words and changes in font size.

3) What representations can be found in the image accompanying this feature? 

The photo doesn’t look like a regular fashion shoot, it doesn’t focus on her appearance but rather depicts her doing something and focuses on her achievements which is Penny Martins goal. 

Representations

Read this Business of Fashion interview with The Gentlewoman editor Penny Martin. If you don't want to sign up to the website (free) then you can access the text of the article on Google Drive here (you'll need your Greenford Google login). Answer the following questions: 

1) What type of magazine did Penny Martin, Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom want to create? 

They wanted to create a magazine that readers actually read rather than just looking at things that were supposedly interesting to women as they believed there was a death of intelligent perspectives in fashion. 

2) What representations of modern women did they try to construct for the magazine?

They wanted to represent women as intelligent, capable and stylish by focusing on how women actually live not only celebrity glamour.  

3) What examples of cover stars reflect the diversity in the magazine's content? 

Angela Lansbury, 88 years old which shows the age diversity of the magazines content. 

Beyoncé, shows racial diversity and the cover is authentic and empowering by her doing it without makeup which is unconventional for a magazine cover shoot. 

They also represent people from non fashion professions such as gardeners, boxers and entrepreneurs.  

4) What is Penny Martin's view on feminism and whether the magazine is feminist?

She doesn’t label the magazine as a feminist magazine as she doesn’t want to make feminism an aesthetic but she does say that the people behind it are all feminists so the magazine naturally conveys feminist ideas. 

5) Look at the end of the article. How does the Gentlewoman help readers construct or reflect their identity by engaging with events and spaces beyond the magazine? 

The Gentlewoman helps readers do this through the use of their Gentlewoman Club which they use to hold events for their readers in person to allow engagement between both the editors and readers but also other readers so they can meet like minded people and express themselves. 

Media Paper 1 learner response

1) Type up your feedback in full (you do not need to write mark/grade if you do not wish to).

WWW: There is a lot of good wok here and just a couple areas to push up to B+

EBI: Q6 Blinded by the light 

Grade: C (1 mark off a B)

2) Read the mark scheme for this exam carefully, paying particular attention to the 'indicative content' for each question. This is some of the best analysis you can do as it gives you an idea of what the exam board is expecting. For your LR blogpost, identify ONE point you could have added for the first three questions in Section A:

Q1: This advertisement makes heavy use of what Neale describes as ‘instances of repetition’, where
familiar tropes and imagery are used to engage with audience expectations around media products.
The advert works by explicitly connecting the watch to these well-worn ideas with the notion of
‘difference’ perhaps coming from the unusual foregrounding of the watch in the image which is
presumably a new model for the audience to desire.

Q2: Both products appear to reinforce Van Zoonen’s notion of patriarchy with men represented as a
dominant force to a greater or lesser extent, reinforcing stereotypical ideas about the nature of male
identity to the audience

Q3: shadowy images of what seem to be young men fighting in the streets reinforce negative
stereotypes of youth built around delinquency and criminality

3) Now focus on Section B. Section B began with two questions testing your knowledge of industry terminology. Make sure you know the answers to these (get the answers from the mark scheme if you have to):

Benefits of horizontal integration: Larger audience, less competition, larger market share

Vertical integration: control over production and distribution, higher profits, faster production

4) The Section B CSP focus was on Blinded By The Light. Look at the mark scheme and write a definition of traditional marketing with examples.

Traditional marketing refers to strategies used before the rise of social media, such as: posters, trailers and print adverts.

5) Finally, identify three things you plan to revise before your next Media assessment or mock exam (e.g. terminology, particular theories or CSPs etc.)

I need to revise theorists and the blinded by the light CSP. 

 

GQ - Audience & Industries blog tasks

 Audience

Look through the GQ Media Kit and answer the following questions: 

1) How does the media kit introduction describe GQ?

It described GQ as being the ‘flagship of men’s fashion and style in Britain’ and ‘progressive and cutting edge”.

2) What does the media kit suggest about masculinity? 

It suggests that masculinity is evolving.

3) Pick out three statistics from the data on page 2 and explain what they suggest about the GQ audience.

61% ABC1: Readers are mainly well educated and successful people.

£138k average HHI: This is considered a high income in the UK which suggests GQ appeals to professionals/other highly paid people. 

£7.7k annual spend on fashion: This suggests the average reader has a high interest in fashion and are likely very conscious of their style.

4) Look at page 3 - brand highlights. What special editions do GQ run and what do these suggest about the GQ audience?

GQ Heroes: panels and live performances bringing together gamechangers, creative radicals, deep thinkers and cultural icons. This suggests the GQ audience are educated and appreciate listening to intelligent discussions.  

GQ Hype: in-depth profiles of stars who are considered opinion leaders in media and cultural discussions. This suggests the audience are engaged in celebrity culture and stay up to date with celebrity’s lives.

Men of the year awards: High profile event attended by popular celebrities and receiving 9.8 billion views. This is an extremely exclusive event with many big names making an appearance with red carpet coverage which suggests the audience are attracted to the glamour and status being represented, possibly due to it being something they chase themselves.

5) Still on page 3, what does the video and social series section suggest about how magazine audiences are changing? 

Audiences are starting to become mainly digital as people expect short form content which they can share with friends at the click of a button.

Media Magazine feature: GQ

Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on GQ (MM82 - page 12). Answer the following questions:

1) What are the elements that go into choosing a cover stars for GQ? 

The person should be someone that’s: currently in the public eye, has cultural relevance, willing to do something new for the cover, exclusive to GQ and someone the audience aspires to be.

2) How is the magazine constructed to serve the target audience? 

It serves its target audience by having a focus on men’s fashion, trying to be unpredictable and having a good balance of content.

3) What does the article suggest about GQ's advertisers and sponsorships - and what in turn does this tell us about the GQ audience? 

The advertises are mainly luxury brands which sell high end items which tells us the readers of GQ must be wealthy as the advertisers choose to promote their product (which not many can afford) to them. 

4) What is GQ Hype - and how does it reflect the impact of digital media on traditional print media?

GQ Hype is a weekly celebrity cover/profile which is exclusively online. Being digital gives it a higher chance of going viral and being consumed by many more people than a print version would’ve. This reflects how digital media has expanded the possibilities of what audiences have access to. 

5) Finally, what does the article say about additional revenue streams for print magazines like GQ?  

They can earn money from advertising, sponsorship and their in person events where they charge large amounts for tickets to attend.

Industries

Your industries contexts are divided into three areas - Conde Nast, GQ's website and social media content and the impact of digital media on print industries.

Condé Nast

Read this Guardian news article on editorial changes at Condé Nast and answer the following questions: 

1) Who was previously GQ editor for 22 years? 

Dylan Jones

2) What happened to the 'lads' mag' boom magazines such as Nuts, Maxim and Loaded? 

They were closed down or went online due to circulation fails. 

3) What changes have been taking place at Condé Nast in recent years and why? 

They’ve been trying to focus on digital media more in recent years due to the rise in digital products and the decline in magazine readers.

Read this Press Gazette article on Conde Nast. Answer the following questions:

1) What does the article suggest about Condé Nast's recent strategy? 

They’ve merged global editorial teams to prevent duplication of content as they move towards a digital first approach.

2) How does chief executive Roger Lynch describe Condé Nast and why? 

He believes it’s no longer a magazine company as they have only 70m people reading their magazines each month but they have 300m on their website and 450m interacting with their social media. 

3) What does Adam Baidawi say about Condé Nast, GQ and culture? 

He believes they need to evolve with culture in order to stay relevant and not lose their audience.

Read this FIPP feature on Condé Nast diversifying into video and streaming content. Answer the following questions: 

1) How is Condé Nast moving away from traditional print products?

Conde Nast are investing heavily in streaming content and video instead of traditional print. 

2) What examples are provided of Condé Nast's video and streaming content?

GQ sports (the super bowl) and exclusive access to relaunch the met gala. 

3) What does the end of the article suggest modern media audiences want? 

It suggests that modern audiences want to be actively involved in the media they're consuming rather than just sitting back and absorbing it.

GQ website, video and social media content 

Visit the GQ website, Instagram and YouTube channel. Note that some of these may be blocked in school. Once you have looked over GQ's online content, answer the following questions:

1) What similarities do you notice between the website and the print edition of the magazine?

Both the print and magazine have a central image as the cover to do with fashion however the website has a video rather than a still image. They both have designer/luxury adverts such as the rolex advert promoting high end items and they both contain the same type of content. 

2) Analyse the top menu of the GQ website (e.g. Fashion / Grooming / Culture). What do the menu items suggest about GQ's audience?

The menu suggests that the audience are culturally aware, concerned about their appearance and aspire to live a luxury lifestyle/already do . 

3) What does GQ's Instagram feed suggest about the GQ brand? Is this appealing to a similar audience to the print version of the magazine?

The GQ Instagram features similar images to those on the covers on their magazines (high quality celebrity feature photos) but they also have clips from their online content and events which shows they’re trying to appeal to a wider (probably younger) audience.

4) In your opinion, is GQ's social media content designed to sell the print magazine or build a digital audience? Why?

I believe their social media is being used to build a digital audience rather than generate sales for their magazine. This is because they don’t directly promote the magazine but rather just use the platform as a place to engage with their audience and build their brand image.

5) Evaluate the success of the GQ brand online. Does it successfully communicate with its target audience? Will the digital platforms eventually replace the print magazine completely?

I believe GQs online presence has been a success as they have kept the same brand image from their print which has gained them millions of followers and helped them build a stronger relationship with their audience. I believe they’re not going to entirely replace print but I do think that print will become a lot more niche and they will follow in the steps of the gentlewoman who publish their magazine only twice a year for their more sophisticated audience who prefer print over digital as it means they’ll likely make more profit knowing they have a more exclusive product. 

Advertising assessment: Learner response

 1) Type up your feedback in full (you don't need to write the mark and grade if you want to keep this confidential).

Revise key theories, terminology and CSPs.

2) Read the whole mark scheme for this assessment carefully. Identify at least one potential point that you missed out on for each question in the assessment.

Armani ‘Diamonds’ advert constructs a traditional, hyper-masculine message – fiercely heterosexual. Suit, white shirt, tie – classic masculine mise-en-scene. Brand logo – serif font, links to monochrome colour scheme, style, sophistication, tradition. Understated, placed in bottom-left. Product not specified – about brand ‘feel’, aspiration rather than actual product details.

Traditional representation of masculinity more in keeping with 1960s or 1970s; Reinforces glamorous James Bond style of masculinity. Aggressively heterosexual representation perhaps shows male insecurity in light of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967.

Cultural conviviality: This refers to the real-world multiculturalism and racial harmony that most people experience on a day-to-day basis. It is in stark contrast to the racial disharmony and binary view often presented by the media. ‘Othering’ or racial otherness: Paul Gilroy suggests non-white representations are constructed as a ‘racial other’ in contrast to white Western ideals.

3) Look at your answer and the mark scheme for Question 1 (Diamonds advert unseen text). List three examples of media terminology or theory that you could have included in your answer. 

Man as the hunted, looked-at object; objectification of men (Gill – female gaze).

Promise of irresistible appeal – ‘sex sells’ (common narrative in men’s grooming; Barthes’ action code).

Costume barely visible for female models – flesh on display. Heavily made-up faces constructed/Photoshopped image. Links to Kilbourne’s analysis of women in advertising.

4) Look at your answer and the mark scheme for Question 2. What aspects of the cultural and historical context for the Score hair cream advert do you need to revise or develop in future?

The legalisation of gay marriage and the end of colonialism

5) Now look over your mark, comments and the mark scheme for Question 3 - the 9-mark question on Sephora Black Beauty Is Beauty. List any postcolonial terminology you could have added to your answer here.  

Othering, racial otherness, racial essentialism, double consciousness, cultural conviviality 

Magazine Cover Practical

My 3 options for which magazine i would do were: HYPEBEAST, i-D and Highsnobiety as all these magazines focus on youth culture and fashion. 

I decided to do i-D as the other options were heavily focused on Brands and Fashion whereas i-D was focused more on the individual and their identity which was being represented in a single frame. 

1) In your blogpost, write your main cover line (also called the 'main flash') - this is the main cover story that links to your central image. It must be 100% original - all your own words.

From my research I've found that i-D magazines don't usually have a main cover line and instead they focus on the image and the contents of the magazine.

2) Briefly plan the image you will need for the cover - model, costume, make-up, lighting etc. At this point, simply describe the image you need to capture.

A full body shot photo focused on the outfit and a wide shot to show the setting.

3) Write the cover lines and any additional text you need for your magazine cover.

For my text I'm taking a a more humorous approach and decided to make the names and the contents centred around how amazing I am. I did this by using the text in the top right where it usually discusses models/the names of people the magazine stories are focused on to write my own name multiple times: "The amazing Dennis" "The Iconic Dennis". Then for the contents information I followed the same idea by focusing all the stories on me: "Why Denis is so amazing" "Why 2007 is the greatest year in all of history (Dennis was born)".

 

As I wasn’t able to do a photoshoot I had to improvise and find a picture which matched the magazine I had chosen. I chose this image because i believe it reflects youth culture with the city background and the outfit being the focus.

I believe I did well with what I had to work with and the cover i made isn’t exactly perfect but i do think it looks somewhat professional. I took certain aspects from different existing cover i saw such as the teared paper effect to uncover big names included in the magazine and having an insight into the contents on the left which i saw on majority of the existing covers. I tried to use the same fonts as the originals but I had to settle for something similar as I wasn’t able to find them. 

If I had to do this practical again I’d have waited and used the in school equipment to do a photoshoot as I believe that would’ve made my work look much more professional and it would’ve allowed me to be more creative with my editing and let me choose where I want to place things. This is because the magazine logo is usually on the left in the real magazines but with my image it had to go on the right to not make the left too crowded and cover up the image. 

Advertising and marketing Index

 1) Advertising: Introduction to advertising

2) Advertising: the representation of women in advertising

3) Advertising: Gauntlett and masculinity
4) Advertising: Score hair cream CSP

5) Advertising: Introduction to Postcolonialism
6) Advertising: Sephora Black Beauty is Beauty CSP