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.