Help with your audience assignment

Year 12

Below is an example of what I'm looking for in your audiences assignment. 

Audience Assignment Example: Closer Magazine

The ‘audience’ is a term used to describe the people who consume media texts. Many theories have been devised which seek to explain why we consume certain media texts.  Other theories deal with how far the media can influence our opinions or behaviour (known as effects theories).

I am going to use audience theory to analyse the UK magazine ‘Closer’. It is a celebrity gossip magazine aimed at a young female target audience. It offers a number of gratifications but also could be seen to effect audiences in a negative way.

Maslow

Closer magazine does not fulfil any basic human needs. It does not enrich the mind as the language used is quite simplistic and the topics covered do not provide any kind of education or creative opportunities. This means it cannot provide any self-fulfilment needs.  However it could be argued that it provides esteem needs. Many of the stories are negative and focus on problems in the personal lives of celebrities or seek to pick out their flaws. It could be argued that these stories boost readers’ self esteem by making them feel better about their own lives. They may compare themselves to the celebrities in a positive way.

 

 For example, this front page features stories about celebrities’  love life issues and a story about a celebrity’s problems with diet pills. Knowing that these celebrities have problems may boost your own self esteem. Other common stories are ‘Stars without make-up’ and stories about celebrities having cellulite or gaining weight.

Uses and Gratifications

Magazines like Closer can generate discussion and this can be used to develop personal relationships, especially amongst females. It is common for young women to swap magazines or flick through them in social situations. In the same sense they are often a source of diversion,it provides lightweight reading material with a large image to text ratio. It offers the chance to escape into the celebrity world and forget reality. Readers may also identify with the celebrity stories. The stories are always about the personal lives of celebrities rather than professional, and people may identify with their personal problems and feel ‘they’re just like me.’ The personal identity strand of the theory also suggests we compare ourselves with celebrities and often aspire to be like them. Closer offers a chance to do this. Finally, the magazine offers surveillance in the chance to catch up with celebrities, however the magazine is only useful for surveillance in the celebrity world as it doesn’t cover current affairs.

Effects theories

It could be argued that the magazine tries to inject messages into its audience and affects them in a negative way. The stories tend to focus on celebrities’ bodies, what they eat and how their relationships are going. The weight gain and loss of celebrities is scrutinized – see below.

This image from ‘Closer’ is Claire Richards from Steps, whose weight gain and loss is frequently documented by the magazine. The details of extreme celebrity diets are given. Women above a size ten are described as having ‘curves’ which seems to be a nice word for ‘fat’ and the ideal size seems to be an 8 – celebrities below this size are reviled for being too skinny or gaunt.

The front cover on the left demonstrates this. TOWIE star Billie’s weight gain is pointed out whilst Big Brother star Josie’s weight loss is demonstrated in an obviously airbrushed bikini shot. The focus is on bodies and relationships in all of the stories.

If readers start to believe that size 12 is too fat and that having a good body and relationship are the most important things, it could be argued that the hypodermic needle theoryapplies. Female readers are being made to think a certain way without questioning what the magazine says.

Some of the celebrities in the magazine could be viewed as role models. Social learning theoryargues that audiences copy the behavi our of role models. If this is true, Closer readers may try extreme diets in order to look like celebrities and this could encourage eating disorders. However according to temperament theory this may only be the case if it is in the reader’s nature to be effected. It’s thought that extroverts, for example, detach themselves from what they see and don’t try to copy it. Finally, if read by young girls the magazine could have a desensitisingeffect, where readers are no longer shocked by images of skinny celebrities and begin to think that what they are being presented with is normal.

Many journalists and celebrities have criticised Closer magazine for influencing its readers in a negative way, presenting stories in a misleading way and obsessively covering diet and exercise. This article from the Guardian is an example: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/29/closer-magazine

The article has been shared on Facebook and Twitter. The French edition of the magazine, published under a different licence, has been criticised by many opinion leaders for publishing topless photographs of Kate Middleton. However the magazine remains popular. This suggests that the 2 step flow model does not work in this case. The negative views of opinion leaders do not dissuade people from buying the magazine.