Module 1- Exam Practise

Seventeen- Magazine Front Cover

The Purpose of a teenage girl magazine front cover such as 'Seventeen' is to give the target audience an insight into what the magazine contains and to persuade them to purchase it. 'Seventeen' is an American magazine published by Hearst corporation which Rupert Murdoch originally owned (then called Triangle Publications).

The main image is a medium shot of well-known actress/singer Beyonce with a big smile on her face and wind coming towards her making her hair blow away. The use of this celebrity endorcement by the magazine not only help to persuade the audience to purchase the product but also creates a non-stereotypical definition of a desired female shape. The caption next to the image of her says: "Beyonce: 'I was like enough of this- I'm eating'", which signifies the idea of a curvey woman being independant and with a high self-esteem as she would simply rather eat than diet. This subverts the media's portrayal of a perfect woman and therefore subverts Mulvey's theory of women being passive and controlled by males giving the ideologies to the audience of being happy with their body size.

On the other hand, the use of Beyonce and the represenatations that follow are contradicted with the "Make-over tips" covering Beyonce's chest at the bottom of the page as it shows a long shot of a woman who is fat and then thin in another image with the title "Get the body you want" as well as "look hot like a model" and "shiny hair secrets". This representes women to be very self-concious and gives out the idea of omwan having to look perfect not only with the "model" body size and shape achieved by dieting but also with "shiny" hair thus getting rid of the represenations associated with Beyonce. This contradiction is very harmful because not only would the target audience, consisting of female teenagers with C2-D socio-economic grading already want to aspire to be like celebrities including beyonce but they may already be self-concious about their weight and this magazine's mediated represenations forces it upon them even more.

The use of the neutral colours including orange, cream, yellow and green challenge the idea of a female audience as well as them being subjected to the female gaze. On the other hand, it creates a new look on the feminine atributes. Also, this issue was in Januay therefore it can also be associated with a new beginning.

The slogan of the magazine, which is written at the top of the page is "9 ways to become his girlfriend!" and so makes the audience want to feel belonged to a man. The style of the diction used in this portrays the female gender not be independant and want to be "his girlfriend" instead of him being "her boyfriend". This contradicts with the independant ideologies associaed with Beyonce.