Teen Vogue: background reading and textual analysis blog tasks
Work through the following tasks to complete your first case study on Teen Vogue.
Teen Vogue: background reading
1) What was the article that announced Teen Vogue as a more serious, political website – with 1.3m hits and counting?
Donald Trump gaslighting America.
2) When was the original Teen Vogue magazine launched and what was its original content?
Teen Vogue was launced in January 2003 and it started off as a fashion, 'glossy' magazine.
3) How did editor Elaine Welteroth change Teen Vogue’s approach in 2015?
Elaine Welteroth diverted teen vogue from the typical teenage girls beauty magazine and took a risk and dived into politics.
4) How many stories are published on Teen Vogue a day? What topics do they cover?
Approximately 50-70 stories are published every day. These cover a range of topics from fashion to entertainment and even current affairs and politics.
5) What influence did digital director Phillip Picardi have over the editorial direction?
Phillip Picaardi;the digital director helped teen vogue grow online as they started seeing declines of sales with their print editions.
6) What is Teen Vogue’s audience demographic and what does ‘woke’ refer to?
They are aimed at a teenage audience as there name suggests and to be more precise, they are mainly aimed at female audience. The term 'woke' refers to being aware of what's happening.
7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?
More than the fashion and beauty side, their political, identity and in a way raising awareness side is more important.
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?
She suggests that the relationship between teen vogue and their audience is becoming stronger and more 'transparent' which also supports Clay Shirky's theory of end of audience.
9) What social and political issues have been covered successfully by Teen Vogue?
- The rise of transgender models in fashion
- Gun control in the states
- Articles relating to homecoming, graduation and careers
- Racially-charged attacks and action from the police
10) What do Teen Vogue readers think of the magazine and website?
The new and digital media is a lot more efficient for teen vogue audience as they're now able to access it online whenever and wherever they like especially as many teenagers prefer to do things digitally and it also saves paper; being more environmentally friendly.
Teen Vogue textual analysis and example articles
Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of the Teen Vogue website and read notable Teen Vogue articles to refer to in exam answers.
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 top has a menu bar and a search engine
- Consistent basic, yet eye-catching colour scheme
- Use of images and bold texts; making it easy on the eyes
2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement?
Offers a sign up page within a couple of seconds of entering the page.
Has different genres for audience to choose e.g. fitness, identity
3) Where does advertising appear on the homepage?
Right at the top; one of the first things you see before going onto reading articles.
4) What are the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content of Teen Vogue?
The different types of topics they have to offer and how they're giving audiences the choice of what to read; attracting a broader audience.
5) How far does the homepage scroll down? How many stories appear on the homepage in total?
They have 5 articles at the front of the page and then several more to choose from as you keep scrolling down as they offer a lot for their readers to choose from.
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?
- Tech
- Campus Life
- Careers
- Decorating ideas
- Food
2) How is the Lifestyle section designed to encouragement audience engagement? Think about page design, images, text and more.
- The visual design; it's very simple yet visually appealing making the visual experience better and more attractive for audience.
- Use of images; before opening the articles there are more images than text which makes it more attractive for audience.
3) What do you notice about the way headlines are written in Teen Vogue?
Headlines are more of a summary what the article is about rather than a snappy subheading like most magazines and newspapers tend to use.
4) What does the focus on education, university and ‘campus life’ tell you about the Teen Vogue audience demographics and psychographics?
There demographics are teenagers/young adults and more specifically teenage girls; in their late teens.
5) Choose three stories featured in the Lifestyle section – why do they fit the Teen Vogue brand?
Five key articles
Read the following five notable Teen Vogue features then answer the questions below for EACH feature.
Donald Trump is Gaslighting America:
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
LAUREN DUCA
The article is about how Donald Trump being president has weakened America as a whole. The term gaslighting means manipulating someone.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
The article focuses on how Donald Trump uses his power to manipulate people and reinforces the whole idea of Trump being a terrible president.
3) Why is this article significant?
Discusess the concept of politics; the first article to be published under this genre for Teen Vogue which then ended up being a massive success.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
This shows the new political side that doesn't just focus on glamour and celebs, it also shows 'acceptance' of other colours because it used to mainly be based on whites and Caucasians.
The new face of teen activism:
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
ALEXIS MANRODT
The article focuses on how the internet and digital media has played a role in social activism and the idea of using social media to raise awareness on unspoken topics.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
Todorov's equilibrium; the issue they're addressing is the disequilibrium and making society aware of this and attempting to come to a conclusion eventually would be the new equilibrium.
3) Why is this article significant?
It addresses the impact social media has and speaks about the pros of having social media as a lot of people have a bad idea of social media and think it's only used for things like communicating with one another.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
As it speaks about a topic that teen vogue traditionally wouldn't address and also reinforces the importance of technology and digital media which is ironic as they now also publish their magazine articles digitally.
Black Teens Have Been Fighting for Gun Reform for Years:
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
The ongoing struggle for teenagers to get the gun control that is becoming increasingly necessary in America.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
It's based on teenagers protesting against something which reaches their target market well as they're aiming it at teenagers and they're more likely to be interested in something they can potentially relate to.
3) Why is this article significant?
The article is significant because it challenges stereotypes of teenagers and more specifically black teenagers as it is about how they're fighting for something positive that people in America would benefit from rather than causing chaos how they're stereo typically thought of.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
How they're focusing on other ethnicity's and working on challenging stereotypes in society.
Netflix and strong female leads:
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
It is about how Netflix are working on challenging stereotypes of women we have in society.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
The article discusses the impact of stereotypes e.g. how stereotyping makes the scenes more 'familiar' to audience making it easier for them to understand. It also discusses the female stereotypes we see on television and the media that feminists from around the world have been talking about.
3) Why is this article significant?
It is significant to discuss the way women are portrayed in the media and how feminists have been fighting against these negative stereotypes over the years from all around the world and there's finally beginning to be change in these things.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
It reflects modern teen vogue as teen vogue is a magazine mainly aimed at females and their traditional genres were on fashion and celebrities and potentially even reinforced these stereotypes in the past, to now seeing the shift of them supporting feminist beliefs and issues in society which women can also have an interest in.
How to Break Away From the Gender Binary
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
SAMANTHA RIEDEL
The article is based on Trump and his thoughts towards gender binaries; he sees gender binaries as a spectrum rather than fixed binaries.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
This article helps understand and show acceptance that there are more to gender differentiation than just transgenders and the idea that anything on sex and gnder needs to be standardised.
3) Why is this article significant?
It is significant as it shows the acceptance in society over the years about the topic of LGBTQ+ and how it is now the people that aren't supportive that are looked down on rather than those who are part of the community as it would've been a couple of years ago.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
It shows how teen vogue is more than just fashion and beauty and how they're aimed at all types of females/teenagers and not just the typical 'elegant' girl and how they are accepting of these changes in society.
