OSP: The Voice - blog case study

Our second Online, Social and Participatory CSP is the Voice newspaper website - a niche publication targeting the black British community.

The Voice has a significant place in the social and historical context of race relations and representation in Britain, launching in 1982 in the wake of the Brixton race riots. It is also the perfect case study to further develop our understanding of Paul Gilroy's postcolonial theory we studied last lesson.

The Voice - background and notes

The Voice, founded in 1982, is the only British national black weekly newspaper operating in the United Kingdom. It is owned by GV Media Group Limited, and is aimed at the British African-Caribbean community. The paper is based in London and is published every Thursday. 


The first issue of The Voice was printed to coincide with the Notting Hill Carnival in August 1982. Its cover price was 54 pence, and was only sold in London.

You can read more of this background from the original source - the Voice website About Us page.

The Voice: social and historical context

In 1981, the Brixton race riots shone a spotlight on race relations in Britain. 

The Voice emerged in 1982 partly as a result of these riots – both due to the need to offer a voice and representation to black Britons and also due to a business loan from Barclays Bank. The bank was keen at the time to improve their reputation with the black community due to investments in Apartheid South Africa.

Social context - The Battle for Brixton documentary

The Voice analysis: production values

The Voice offers a strong contrast to Teen Vogue with significantly lower production values across its digital operations – website design, video content and social media. However, the growth of digital technology means that the Voice can effectively compete on the same playing field as Teen Vogue, albeit targeting a niche audience.

Watch this video on influential black women in business and compare it to Teen Vogue’s video content – similar in ideology but very different in production values (note the view count too):

The Voice: representation

The Voice was launched to cater for the interests of British-born black people. Applying Gilroy’s work on “double consciousness”, it could be argued that the Voice was launched to give black audiences an opportunity to see the world through their own eyes rather than through the prism of white, often-racist mainstream British media.

The Voice: industries

The Voice is owned by Jamaican media organising the Gleaner company and published in Britain by GV Media Group. It is a significant contrast to Teen Vogue and the international giant Conde Nast.


The Voice: case study blog tasks

Language and textual analysis

Homepage

Go to the Voice homepage and answer the following:

1) What news website key conventions can you find on the Voice homepage?

2) How does the page design differ from Teen Vogue?

3) What are some of the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content, values and ideologies of the Voice?

4) Look at the news stories in the Voice. To what extent does the selection of news stories fit Galtung and Ruge’s News Values theory?

5) How is narrative used to encourage audience engagement with the Voice? Apply narrative theories (e.g. Todorov equilibrium or Barthes’ enigma codes) and make specific reference to stories on the homepage.

Lifestyle section

Now analyse the Lifestyle section of the Voice and answer the following:

1) What are the items in the sub-menu bar for the Lifestyle section and what does this suggest about the Voice audience?

2) What are the main stories in the Lifestyle section currently?

3) How does the Lifestyle section of the Voice differ from Teen Vogue?

4) Do the sections and stories in the Voice Lifestyle section challenge or reinforce black stereotypes in British media?

5) Choose three stories featured in the Lifestyle section – how do they reflect the values and ideologies of the Voice?

Feature focus

1) Read this Voice Lifestyle feature on the first black photographer to shoot the cover of Vogue magazine. Why would this appeal to the Voice’s audience?

2) Read/watch this Lifestyle interview with The Hate U Give star Amandla Stenberg. How does the interview reflect the values and ideologies of the Voice? What do you notice about the production values of the interview?

3) Read this feature on ‘buying black’ for Black Friday. What does this feature tell you about the values and ideologies behind the Voice? Does this viewpoint reflect Gilroy’s theory of the ‘Black Atlantic’ identity?

Audience

1) Who do you think is the target audience for the Voice website? Consider demographics and psychographics.

2) What audience pleasures are provided by the Voice website? Apply media theory here such as Blumler and Katz (Uses & Gratifications).

3) Give examples of content from the website that tells you this is aimed at a specialised or niche audience.

4) Studying the themes of politics, history and racism that feature in some of the Voice’s content, why might this resonate with the Voice’s British target audience?

5) Can you find any examples of content on the Voice website created or driven by the audience or citizen journalism? How does this reflect Clay Shirky’s work on the ‘end of audience’ and the era of ‘mass amateurisation’?

Representations

1) How is the audience positioned to respond to representations in the Voice website?

2) Are representations in the Voice an example of Gilroy’s concept of “double consciousness” NOT applying?

3) What kind of black British identity is promoted on the Voice website? Can you find any examples of Gilroy’s “liquidity of culture” or “unruly multiculturalism” here?

4) Applying Stuart Hall’s constructivist approach to representations, how might different audiences interpret the representations of black Britons in the Voice?

5) Do you notice any other interesting representations in the Voice website? For example, representations or people, places or groups (e.g. gender, age, Britishness, other countries etc.)

Industries

1) Read this Guardian report on the death of the original founder of the Voice. What does this tell you about the original values and ideologies behind the Voice brand? 

2) Read this history of the Voice’s rivals and the struggles the Voice faced back in 2001. What issues raised in the article are still relevant today? 

3) The Voice is now published by GV Media Group, a subsidiary of the Jamaican Gleaner company. What other media brands do the Gleaner company own and why might they be interested in owning the Voice? You'll need to research this using Google/Wikipedia.

4) How does the Voice website make money?

5) What adverts or promotions can you find on the Voice website? Are the adverts based on the user’s ‘cookies’ or fixed adverts? What do these adverts tell you about the level of technology and sophistication of the Voice’s website?

6) Is there an element of public service to the Voice’s role in British media or is it simply a vehicle to make profit?

7) What examples of technological convergence can you find on the Voice website – e.g. video or audio content?

8) How has the growth of digital distribution through the internet changed the potential for niche products like the Voice?

9) Analyse the Voice’s Twitter feed. How does this contrast with other Twitter feeds you have studied (such as MailOnline or Teen Vogue)? Are there examples of ‘clickbait’ or does the Voice have a different feel?

10) Study a selection of videos from the Voice’s YouTube channel. How does this content differ from Teen Vogue? What are the production values of their video content?


Homework and deadlines

There is plenty of work here - at least 3 to 4 hours - but this is the only blog task on the Voice and covers all four of the key concepts.

Finish for homework - due first lesson back in January (you'll need this for the January assessment on Online, Social and Participatory media).

OSP: Paul Gilroy - Diasporic identity

There are several important theories we need to learn and apply to our Online, Social and Participatory media unit.

These include Clay Shirky's End of Audience theories, Stuart Hall's work on representation and reality and Paul Gilroy's postcolonial theory of black diasporic identity.

Notes from the lesson

Stuart Hall: representation and reality

Stuart Hall suggests individuals each have their own conceptual map – effectively what we use to decode and understand media texts.

Building on this, Hall outlines three approaches to understanding the relationship between reality and representations: 

Reflective approach: the media simply mirrors (or reflects) the real world. This is a limited approach that minimalises the power or complexity of the media.

Intentional approach: the producer of the text constructs the world as they see it and the audience accepts those values encoded in the text. This is effectively the dominant or preferred reading (reception theory) and leaves no room for the negotiated or oppositional reading.

The constructivist approach: this was Hall’s preferred approach and closely matches reception theory with preferred and oppositional readings. This suggests concepts and signs do have some shared meanings but they are not all inherent and can be interpreted by the audience in a number of ways (dependent on their own ‘conceptual map’).

Paul Gilroy: black diasporic identity

We first explored Paul Gilroy’s theories of black diasporic identity when studying music video.

This is the idea that black identity is informed by diaspora – literally the ‘scattering of people’ across the world. He suggests this creates a “liquidity of culture” that means black identity is formed by journeys across seas, not the solid ground of a home country or culture.

Importantly, Gilroy sees this identity as impossible to reverse – there can be no return to the place of origin as the experience of slavery and displacement can never be “rewound”.

Gilroy: black British identity

The Voice newspaper was formed in 1982 to create a voice for the black British community. Gilroy wrote of the dominant representation of black Britons at that time as “external and estranged from the imagined community that is the nation”.

Gilroy suggests diaspora challenges national ideologies and creates “cultural tension”. This tension helps to create the diasporic identity but often comes with negative experiences such as exclusion and marginalisation. 

More succinctly, Gilroy sums this up as the white racist’s question to BAME people: “Why don’t you just go home?”

Paul Gilroy and Russell Brand

In 2017, Paul Gilroy took part in Russell Brand’s Under The Skin podcast, exploring ideas and modern culture. Watch the following two extracts and consider how Gilroy’s ideas reflect recent events and media culture.

Extract 1: 17.50 – 25.45
Extract 2: 44.30 – 48.08

Paul Gilroy - blog task

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet 170: Gilroy – Ethnicity and Postcolonial Theory. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets

Read the Factsheet and complete the following questions/tasks:

1) How does Gilroy suggest racial identities are constructed?

2) What does Gilroy suggest regarding the causes and history of racism?

3) What is ethnic absolutism and why is Gilroy opposed to it?

4) How does Gilroy view diasporic identity?

5) What did Gilroy suggest was the dominant representation of black Britons in the 1980s (when the Voice newspaper was first launched)?

6) Gilroy argues diaspora challenges national ideologies. What are some of the negative effects of this?

7) Complete the first activity on page 3: How might diasporic communities use the media to stay connected to their cultural identity? E.g. digital media - offer specific examples.

8) Why does Gilroy suggest slavery is important in diasporic identity?

9) How might representations in the media reinforce the idea of ‘double consciousness’ for black people in the UK or US?

10) Finally, complete the second activity on page 3: Watch the trailer for Hidden Figures and discuss how the film attempts to challenge ‘double consciousness’ and the stereotypical representation of black American women.

We normally set this work for homework but have deliberately kept this week's work to a minimum so you can complete it in your exam class lessons. This will allow you to use your Media homework time this week to ensure everything else is up-to-date on the exam side. Since half-term this includes the following:

1) Clay Shirky - End of Audience tasks
2) Teen Vogue - background and textual analysis
3) Teen Vogue - audience and representation
4) Teen Vogue - industry and social media

Make sure all of the above - including today's work on Gilroy - is complete for Monday 10 December.

Coursework: upcoming deadlines

We should now have finished our print research and planning and posted it to our blogs.

This is vital work to ensure that our film posters meet the brief and match the quality of our video work.

Now that research and planning is complete, we need to complete rough cuts/drafts of our coursework.

Upcoming deadlines

Rough cut of video trailer: Thursday 6 December 
Three draft film posters: Thursday 13 December 

The video requires an exported 90-120 second film trailer rough cut for the film outlined in your Statement of Intent.

The film posters require three completed JPEGs posted to your blog (one for each film poster - aimed at males, females and fans of the genre).

You will then be given final tutorials on these rough cuts and drafts prior to the final deadline after Christmas.

Important note: Media Awards

The Media Awards this year has been pushed back to Tuesday 26 March and will feature YOUR film trailers. However, in order for your work to be eligible for the Media Awards, you will need to meet the final coursework deadline after Christmas.

OSP: Teen Vogue - Industry and social media

The final aspect of our work on Teen Vogue involves an industry case study and textual analysis of the magazine's social media presence. 

Industry is the final key concept to address in this in-depth study. It's important to remember that the exam question could cover anything from how Teen Vogue makes money to what attracts audiences to their social media pages. This means we need comprehensive knowledge across the board.

Notes from the lesson

Industry: Conde Nast

Teen Vogue is owned and published by Condé Nast, an American media organisation that publishes around 20 magazines including Vogue, GQ and Wired. The company targets a wide range of different audiences – 164 million consumers across its brands.


In March 2018, Condé Nast announced the launch of Influencer Platform Next Gen, a digital campaign that links advertisers and content creation. The goal is to “connect to a new generation of audience”.

Income sources

Teen Vogue’s main source of income is through selling advertising space online – adverts that are targeted using browsing history. 


However, they also monetise their customer data and loyalty, encouraging readers to register online for updates, offers and access to the ‘Insider’ area of the website. This data can then be sold to other companies or used to attract ‘advertorial’ or sponsored content. 

Teen Vogue also makes money through YouTube with plenty of 1m+ views on their video content. This is an example of digital convergence – a traditionally print-based product moving into multimedia and accessible on one device.


Finally, they run events such as the Teen Vogue summit and US tour.


Teen Vogue: fashion industry player

Although Teen Vogue has been creating headlines for its political content in recent years, it is also an important part of the fashion industry. Both editorial content and advertising is designed to create a strong desire in their audience for products featured. This links to Condé Nast’s role as a major media company interested in maximising profit.


Some argue that Teen Vogue’s more diverse coverage offers a form of public service through its political coverage. But are features criticising capitalism hypocritical when the brand is owned by a media giant like Condé Nast?

Teen Vogue: Industry and social media blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Teen Vogue Industry and social media' and work through the following tasks to complete the final aspects of your Teen Vogue case study:

Industry: Condé Nast

1) Research Teen Vogue publisher Condé Nast. What other magazines do they publish and how much money did they make last year?

2) What are Teen Vogue’s main sources of income?

3) How are traditionally print-based products like Teen Vogue diversifying to create new income streams?

4) Why is sponsored content and ‘advertorial’ particularly important in media linked to the fashion industry?

5) Do you view Teen Vogue’s content as a form of public service media or is Condé Nast simply interested in clicks and profit?


Closure of print edition research

Read the following short articles to learn the background to Condé Nast's decision to close the print edition of Teen Vogue in 2016 and then answer the questions below:

BBC: Teen Vogue: How will going online-only affect readers?
New York Times: Condé Nast Ends Teen Vogue’s Print Run
Folio: Your Teen Vogue Hot Takes Are All Wrong

1) Why does the BBC suggest “Teen Vogue’s digital game is strong”?

2) What does the BBC suggest is responsible for the Teen Vogue website’s success?

3) How did Teen Vogue justify the closure of the print magazine?

4) In the BBC article, David Hepworth suggests there is a risk to going digital-only. What is it?

5) How do online-only publications make money?

6) What does Sarah Penny suggest regarding audience consumption for print and digital – and how might it be changing for Generation-Z?

7) What does the New York Times say Conde Nast is known for?

8) The New York Times states that Conde Nast expects to bring in less revenue in 2017 than 2016… by how much?

9) The Folio article also looks at the switch from print to digital. Pick out a statistic that justifies the digital-only approach.

10) Finally, Folio also highlights some of the aspects we have studied elsewhere. Pick out two quotes from the article that link to our work on the Teen Vogue audience, representation or design.


Social media analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Teen Vogue's social media presence:

1) Look at the Teen Vogue Twitter feed (you don’t need to sign up to Twitter to see it but may need to log-in at home). How many followers does Teen Vogue have?

2) Now look at the content. Classify the first 20 tweets you can see using the sections on the Teen Vogue website: News & Politics, Fashion, Entertainment, Beauty, Lifestyle, Wellness and Homecoming. What does the Twitter feed focus on most? Does this differ to the website?

3) How are the tweets and headlines written? Can you find examples of clickbait?

4) How does the Twitter feed use videos and images?

5) Analyse the Teen Vogue Facebook page. How many ‘likes’ and ‘follows’ do they have?

6) Click on the Videos link on the left-hand menu. What type of content do the videos feature? Does this differ to the website or Twitter feed?

7) Now look at the Events tab to explore past events. What are these events and what do they tell us about how audiences interact with the Teen Vogue brand?

8) Go to the Teen Vogue Instagram page. How many followers do they have on Instagram?

9) How does the Instagram feed differ from other social media channels?

10) What examples of digital convergence and synergy can you find on Teen Vogue social media including the Teen Vogue YouTube channel? (E.g. opportunities to engage with the brand across different platforms). 

This is your final set of blog tasks for Teen Vogue and will complete your comprehensive case study for this in-depth CSP. Complete for homework - due on Monday 3 December.

OSP: Teen Vogue - Audience and Representation

Teen Vogue offers a huge amount to discuss and write about for the concepts of audience and representation.

The exam could focus on anything from the changing nature of digital audiences to how certain groups or issues are represented in Teen Vogue online.

Notes from the lesson

Audience

Although the brand name suggests a teenage audience, the typical Teen Vogue reader has evolved in recent years. The move to more political content has broadened the appeal and changed the genre – young women now expect more from their media.

The ‘Campus Life’ section in Lifestyle also suggests an older readership. However, the audience is still interested in celebrity content and beauty – which Teen Vogue addresses by featuring the ‘opinion leaders’ (two-step flow) of social media.

Generations

Generation X: Born between 1965 – 1980
Millennials / Generation Y: Born between 1981 – 1995
Generation Z (or iGen): Born 1996 – 2010

Teen Vogue: political positioning

Teen Vogue generally takes a liberal, left-wing political stance and positions its readers to become active in their support:

• Pro-feminist
• Pro-gender fluidity and gender identity
• Supports LGBT equality
• Pro-multiculturalism
• Supports Black Lives Matter
• Pro-environment (accepting science on climate change)
• Pro-choice (abortion)

Teen Vogue: audience interaction

How does Teen Vogue encourage audience interaction?

• Activism
• Social media
• ‘Clickbait’ and first-person headlines
• Events – Teen Vogue summit

Representation

Changing representations

Feminist bloggers and websites such as Rookie and liberal blog Jezebel have been credited with changing the representation of women and feminism in the digital age.


This can be linked to Clay Shirky’s ‘end of audience’ theory with digital influencers changing the media landscape for women – and established mainstream brands like Teen Vogue are following to stay relevant.

Teen Vogue: Audience and Representation blog tasks

Create a new blogpost called 'Teen Vogue Audience and Representation' and work through the following tasks to complete the audience and representation aspects of your Teen Vogue case study:

Audience

1) Analyse the Conde Nast media pack for Teen Vogue. What is the Teen Vogue mission statement and what does this tell us about the target audience and audience pleasures?

2) What is the target audience for Teen Vogue? Use the media pack to pick out key aspects of the audience demographics. Also, consider the psychographic groups that would be attracted to Teen Vogue: make specific reference to the website design or certain articles to support your points regarding this.

3) What audience pleasures or gratifications can be found in Teen Vogue? Do these differ from the gratifications of traditional print-based magazines?

4) How is the audience positioned to respond to political news stories?

5) How does Teen Vogue encourage audiences to interact with the brand – and each other – on social media? The ‘tentpoles and editorial pillars’ section of the media pack may help with this question.

Representations

1) Look again at the Conde Nast media pack for Teen Vogue. What do the ‘tentpoles and editorial pillars’ (key events and features throughout the year) suggest about the representation of women and teenage girls on teenvogue.com?

2) How are issues of gender identity and sexuality represented in Teen Vogue?

3) Do representations of appearance or beauty in Teen Vogue reinforce or challenge traditional stereotypes?

4) What is the patriarchy and how does Teen Vogue challenge it? Does it succeed? 

5) Does Teen Vogue reinforce or challenge typical representations of celebrity?

Feature: how Teen Vogue represents the changing nature of media aimed at women

Read this Quartz feature - The true story of how Teen Vogue got mad, got woke, and began terrifying men like Donald Trump - and answer the following questions:

1) How was the Teen Vogue op-ed on Donald Trump received on social media?

2) How have newspapers and magazines generally categorised and targeted news by gender?

3) How is this gender bias still present in the modern media landscape?

4) What impact did the alternative women’s website Jezebel have on the women’s magazine market?

5) Do you agree with the writer that female audiences can enjoy celebrity news and beauty tips alongside hard-hitting political coverage? Does this explain the recent success of Teen Vogue?

6) How does the writer suggest feminists used to be represented in the media?

7) What is the more modern representation of feminism? Do you agree that this makes feminism ‘stereotyped as fluffy’?

8) What contrasting audience pleasures for Teen Vogue are suggested by the writer in the article as a whole?

9) The writer suggests that this change in representation and audience pleasures for media products aimed at women has emerged from the feminist-blog movement. How can this be linked to Clay Shirky’s ‘end of audience’ theory?

10) Is Teen Vogue simply a product of the Trump presidency or will websites and magazines aimed at women continue to become more hard-hitting and serious in their offering to audiences?

There is plenty to work on here as this needs to cover two of the key concepts for this in-depth CSP. Complete for homework - due on Wednesday 28 November.

Lecture opportunity and textbooks

If you are applying to university (or thinking of doing so next year) then there are plenty of extra-curricular activities that will elevate your application above other students.

One of these is attending free lectures at London universities on topics related to your subjects or potential degree. The other is reading academic books related to your subjects to demonstrate that you read around the subject.

Gresham College lecture: Has the Internet Changed News for Better or Worse?

Gresham College is running a FREE lecture aimed at media and journalism students on how the internet has changed news. Year 13 students have just studied this topic (and continue to study online, social and participatory media) and Year 12 students will be covering this later in the course.



The lecture is free to attend - you simply need to turn up to the venue, Barnard's Inn Hall, 30 minutes before the start. You can find directions here. Remember you'll be in a professional, academic environment and need to act accordingly. It appears that it will also be broadcast live over YouTube from the link above so that's another way to engage with the lecture.

Reading around the subject

Reading books by some of our media theorists is a great way to expanding your knowledge across A Level Media. The books on the bookshelf in DF07 will give you an introduction to the type of books you could read - something like Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody is accessible and relevant - but you'll need to get your own copy as we unfortunately can't lend out the media copies of the books. The library has some of these books available to borrow and the librarians can point you in the direction of the Media and Film section.

A Level Media Textbooks

As previously advertised, there are now two textbooks available for the new specification AQA A Level Media Studies course. We would strongly recommend you buy both textbooks as collectively they cover the whole course in terms of subject content and also feature many of the CSPs that will come up in the exams. We now have copies of these books in school so you can see what they're like.

The details:

AQA MEDIA STUDIES FOR A LEVEL YR 1 & AS: STUDENT BOOK

• NEW SPEC: AQA Media Studies for A Level Yr 1 & AS: Student Book 
• AUTHOR(S): Stephanie Hendry, Elspeth Stevenson 
• AWARDING BODY: AQA 
• LEVEL: A Level Year 1 & AS 
• ISBN: 978-1-911208-03-7 
• SUBJECT: Media Studies 
• PAGES: 272pp 

AQA MEDIA STUDIES FOR A LEVEL YEAR 2: STUDENT BOOK

• AQA Media Studies for A Level Year 2: Student Book 
• AUTHOR(S): Stephanie Hendry, Elspeth Stevenson 
• AWARDING BODY: AQA 
• LEVEL: A Level Year 2 
• ISBN: 978-1-911208-09-9 
• SUBJECT: Media Studies 

Ongoing homework: TWO news stories a week

As you know, in Year 13 you have an ongoing homework EVERY week of the year without fail: to find, read and post TWO news stories on your blog.

For this half-term, we will focus on our Online, Social and Participatory CSPs - Teen Vogue and The Voice website.

The details: every week you must find, read, summarise and comment upon one news story from Teen Vogue and one news story from The Voice (A*-B candidates will do more). 

You'll also find stories related to the media linked from our Twitter account, @blogmacguffin (access it online here if you don't have the Twitter app) so make sure you're following that too.

Most importantly, you need to do the following on your blog for each story...

1. Provide the title and weblink;
2. Include a relevant image, graphic or screenshot;
3. Summarise the story in your own words: is this is an example of hard news or soft news?
4. Explain how or why this story appeals to an audience (use media terminology and theory here).
5. Comment on the story: to what extent does it reflect the values and ideologies of the website? Is this an example of quality journalism or simply clickbait? 

You'll be presenting these to the class each week (we'll randomly select a student and you'll be expected to present from memory, so make sure you come prepared) and this will ensure you build up an archive of stories from across the media to widen your media knowledge base and provide examples to use in exam questions and essays. Indeed, by the end of the year, you'll have over 50 stories to demonstrate your knowledge of the wider media.

What will this look like? Although this was for a slightly different task for the old specification Year 13 exam, this blog post from one of our previous Media students gives you an idea of what a valuable resource these stories quickly become.

Due: EVERY week - no excuses. Exact day set by your exam class teacher.

OSP: Teen Vogue - background and textual analysis

Our first Online, Social and Participatory CSP is Teen Vogue - the former print magazine turned online sensation.

Teen Vogue has generated a huge amount of coverage (and attracted a significant audience) by re-positioning the magazine as a socially conscious political hub for young women.

Notes from the lesson

Teen Vogue: background

Teen Vogue was launched in 2003 as a print magazine ‘little sister’ title to US Vogue. It focused on fashion and celebrity and was a conventional magazine aimed at teenage girls.

In 2015, in response to declining sales, the magazine cut back its print distribution and focused on digital content. After single-copy sales dropped 50% in the first six months of 2016 alone, the magazine went quarterly (four issues a year) before announcing the closure of the print magazine completely in November 2017.

Online growth
Led by digital director Phillip Picardi, the Teen Vogue website grew substantially as the print magazine declined. 

Between January 2016 and 2017, Teen Vogue’s online traffic rocketed from 2.9m US visitors to 7.9m. The magazine then surpassed 10m unique users later in 2017. In addition, the magazine has 6m Facebook likes, 3.5m Twitter followers and a huge following on Snapchat.

Evolution and activism

The spectacular digital growth of Teen Vogue has been credited to the editor Elaine Welteroth and digital guru Picardi leading the magazine in a radically different direction to traditional teenage magazines.

Focusing on politics, activism and feminism, the magazine has developed a reputation for high-quality journalism while recruiting millions of socially-conscious, educated readers.

'Woke'
Teen Vogue considers itself a ‘woke’ brand.

Woke definition: a political term of African American origin that refers to an awareness of issues concerning social justice.

This means Teen Vogue covers issues of politics, racism and gender identity… and amazingly has expanded the appeal and reach of the brand while doing do.

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

Read this Guardian feature from 2017 on Teen Vogue and answer the following questions.

1) What was the article that announced Teen Vogue as a more serious, political website – with 1.3m hits and counting?

2) When was the original Teen Vogue magazine launched and what was its original content?

3) How did editor Elaine Welteroth change Teen Vogue’s approach in 2015?

4) How many stories are published on Teen Vogue a day? What topics do they cover?

5) What influence did digital director Phillip Picardi have over the editorial direction?

6) What is Teen Vogue’s audience demographic and what does ‘woke’ refer to?

7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?

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?

9) What social and political issues have been covered successfully by Teen Vogue?

10) What do Teen Vogue readers think of the magazine and website?

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?

2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement?

3) Where does advertising appear on the homepage?

4) What are the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content of Teen Vogue?

5) How far does the homepage scroll down? How many stories appear on the homepage in total?

Lifestyle section

Now analyse the Lifestyle section of Teen Vogue and answer the following:

1) What are the items in the top menu bar for the Lifestyle section?

2) How is the Lifestyle section designed to encouragement audience engagement? Think about page design, images, text and more.

3) What do you notice about the way headlines are written in Teen Vogue?

4) What does the focus on education, university and ‘campus life’ tell you about the Teen Vogue audience demographics and psychographics?

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

The new face of teen activism 

Black Teens Have Been Fighting for Gun Reform for Years

Netflix and strong female leads 

How to Break Away From the Gender Binary

For each article:

1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?

2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.

3) Why is this article significant?

4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?

There is plenty to work on here - you will need to complete the majority for homework due to the cinema trips over the next couple of weeks. Due date: specified by your exam class teacher.

Coursework: Film poster research and pre-production

With our film trailers in production, we need to turn our attention in class to the second half of the brief - print.

The three film posters are as important as the trailer in terms of marks so it's vital we properly research and plan our print production work.

What do you need to produce?

You should create three posters to help promote the same feature film. You should identify the typical placement locations for each poster.

Each poster should be different and target a specific segment of the target audience. Specifically:

• Fans of the genre
• Females
• Males

The posters will be used to promote screenings of the film at a local film festival and the layout and design of each poster should be appropriate for its intended location.

Each poster should use a different image but the advertising campaign should appear coherent. Audiences should recognise each poster as being part of the same campaign.

Minimum requirements

• Appropriate layout and design choices for each poster
• Three different posters, each identifying a specific segment of the target audience
• A common visual style to the overall campaign creating a recognisable brand for the film
• At least three original images across the three posters with a different dominant image in each poster – these must be images generated specifically for the posters
• Images should be created and chosen to appeal to the specific segment of the target audience
• Appropriate choice of tagline for the film and each poster
• Appropriate choices of font, type sizes and colours to create meaning
• Appropriate consideration of the industrial context of production

Film posters: Research and planning tasks

Create a blogpost called 'Film poster research and pre-production' and work through the following tasks to complete your research and planning for the print side of the brief:

Film poster conventions

Do some generic research on film posters.

1) List the key conventions of a film poster.

2) What makes a film poster instantly recognisable?

3) What are regarded as some of the best film posters of all time? Why?

4) Look back at your statement of intent. What are you planning to produce in terms of your film posters? Can you take inspiration from your research above?


Film poster research - genre

Go back to the five film trailers you researched in your chosen genre (and additional films if you wish). For each film, find at least three different film posters for the film and analyse the following:

1) What conventions are the same on each poster for the same film (i.e. the film's consistent branding)?

2) What differences can your find between the alternative posters for the same film?

3) What target audience do you think each poster is targeting and why? How can you tell?

4) What can you use from these posters in your own film poster planning and production?


Planning and sketching

1) Create a spider diagram or bullet point list of everything you plan to include in your film posters AND all the ways you could target the three target audience segments outlined in the brief: fans of the genre, males, females. Make sure you also create a local film festival in order to meet this aspect of the brief.

2) Produce an A4 sketch for your first film poster, adding significant detail in terms of text and planned images (you don't need to draw the image if you don't want to - but must offer a detailed text-based description if not). Clearly label which segment of the target audience you are aiming for with this poster and where the poster will be displayed (outside location, magazine or newspaper etc.) Remember that each poster can either be landscape or portrait and also needs to link to the local film festival that will be screening the film (see details in brief above). When you have sketched the poster, scan or photograph it and add it to your blogpost.

3) Produce an A4 sketch for your second film poster, clearly identifying the segment of the target audience this poster will be aiming at. Pay particular attention to details you will either keep consistent (to create a brand identity and cover the local film festival aspect) or change (to alter the target audience). When you have sketched the poster, scan or photograph it and add it to your blogpost.

4) Produce an A4 sketch for your third film poster, clearly identifying the segment of the target audience this poster will be aiming at. Pay particular attention to details you will either keep consistent (to create a brand identity and cover the local film festival aspect) or change (to alter the target audience). When you have sketched the poster, scan or photograph it and add it to your blogpost.


Photoshoot planning

1) Which of your characters will appear on each poster? If the characters will be the same on each poster, how will you differentiate the images?

2) What images do you need for each film poster? Write a detailed description.

3) Write a shot list for the photoshoot(s). Make sure you plan a variety of camera shots you will look to capture (medium shots, close-ups etc.) to give yourself flexibility when designing the posters in Photoshop later. Will the photoshoot be out on location or in school with the white backdrop and lighting?

4) What costume, props or make-up will you require for the photoshoot(s)?

This planning should take around a week - perhaps slightly longer if you are currently filming. However, it is absolutely critical that you complete this pre-production work if you are to create three professional-level film posters.

Print planning deadline: Friday 23 November