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?
Teen Vogue refer to their audience as 'woke'. “Woke”, a slang term, as “a byword for social awareness.”
7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?
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?
- They have very bright colours to attract their readers.
- They have a menu bar which is also a key convention.
- They do cookies which allows Teen Vogue to know what the readers are doing on their website.
- They have all the recent new updated news first which could attract their audience.
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 (in the Identity section) and answer the following:
1) What are the items in the top menu bar for the Lifestyle section?
- Careers
- Campus Life
- Food
- Decorating ideas
- Tech
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.
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.
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.
Focusing on politics, activism and feminism, the magazine has developed a reputation for high-quality journalism while recruiting millions of socially-conscious, educated readers.
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?
The article was about 'Donald Trump gas lighting America'.
2) When was the original Teen Vogue magazine launched and what was its original content?
The original Teen Vogue was launched in '2004' and their focus is on the standard cocktail of fashion must-haves and celebrity worship.
3) How did editor Elaine Welteroth change Teen Vogue’s approach in 2015?
The editor Elaine Welteroth changed up the topics they did politicial view points and how to empower females.The editor moved away from the conventions attached with females and stereotyped.
4) How many stories are published on Teen Vogue a day? What topics do they cover?
Between 50-70 stories are published everyday. They cover topics from the fashion and entertainment side to the politics and world affairs that may be happening.
5) What influence did digital director Phillip Picardi have over the editorial direction?
Phillip Picardi is the digital director so his role would be to direct them in that section.
6) What is Teen Vogue’s audience demographic and what does ‘woke’ refer to?
Teen Vogue refer to their audience as 'woke'. “Woke”, a slang term, as “a byword for social awareness.”
7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?
Welteroth says. “What I find is that when young people find a brand they relate to, that they feel speaks to them, they want it in every format they can get.”
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?
"Identity is big. We want to help make them feel better about themselves, whether that’s giving beauty tips, or empowering them with political information to have smarter conversations and feel they can stand up for themselves.”
9) What social and political issues have been covered successfully by Teen Vogue?
Teen Vogue was seen to embody the most bland type of media aimed at young girls; commercial, safe, focused on shopping and body image. As part of a backlash of sorts, the writer and editor Tavi Gevinson set up Rookie magazine in 2011, when she was 15, a website that was explicitly feminist and complex.
10) What do Teen Vogue readers think of the magazine and website?
'16-year-old Paige Wagner, who says truthfulness and trust are the main reasons she reads it, since “most of what I read on social media is unreliable”.'
Teen Vogue textual analysis and example articles
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?
- They have very bright colours to attract their readers.
- They have a menu bar which is also a key convention.
- They do cookies which allows Teen Vogue to know what the readers are doing on their website.
- They have all the recent new updated news first which could attract their audience.
2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement?
It will allow the readers to know any updates about their favourite celebrity perhaps as it has been shown by the layout that is the first thing the reader sees is any recent celebrity updates.
3) Where does advertising appear on the homepage?
Advertising is appeared to the top below the menu bar and if you scroll down it is to the right side of the reader.
4) What are the items in the top menu bar and what does this tell you about the content of Teen Vogue?
The menu bar includes style, politics, culture, identity and summit. That they are a unique website and they challenge traditional print magazines towards females.
5) How far does the homepage scroll down? How many stories appear on the homepage in total?
The homepage scrolls down a lot which shows there is a lot of time and effort used in it to produce the content they do and attracting their target market.
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?
- Careers
- Campus Life
- Food
- Decorating ideas
- Tech
2) How is the Lifestyle section designed to encouragement audience engagement? Think about page design, images, text and more.
For the text the audience engagement is done through by having a lot of different topics that the audience can engage with.
3) What do you notice about the way headlines are written in Teen Vogue?
The headlines are written as a shirt description that the audience can read and it is not like a normal headline that is short and bold.
4) What does the focus on education, university and ‘campus life’ tell you about the Teen Vogue audience demographics and psychographics?
They are aiming for an educated audience that can be informed about that sort of stuff and they can find it helpful.
5) Choose three stories featured in the Lifestyle section – why do they fit the Teen Vogue brand?
'21 Under 21 Class of 2018'
Five key articles
Read the following five notable Teen Vogue features then answer the questions below for EACH feature.
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?
This article allows the people with a much broader idea to be engaged in the article.
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
The writer for this article is called Lauren Duca. This article is about how Donald Trump is making Americans have very less freedom in the country.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
The article talks about how Donald Trump is manipulating the people in America.
3) Why is this article significant?
This article is significant is significant as this was very unconventional for a fashion and beauty magazine.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
This article allows the people with a much broader idea to be engaged in the article.
This article allows the people with a much broader idea to be engaged in the 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?
Teen Vogue 'woke' brand- have a voice
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
The writer is called Alexis Manrodt, The article is about activism on the internet.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
The article used Todorov Equilibrium as they are trying to make a new progressie world for the upcoming generations.
3) Why is this article significant?
The article is significant as it helps readers and Teen Vogue's audience to understand the power if and how effect it really is.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
Teen Vogue 'woke' brand- have a voice
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?
Teenagers making positive changes.
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
The writer for this article is Lincoln Anthony Blades. This article is about
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
It has been on social media the past few years till this day.
3) Why is this article significant?
This article is significant as the teenagers as the ones that get impacted by this so if they realise the reality of it they will be prevented from that. This could have a very positive change.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
Teenagers making positive changes.
Teenagers making positive changes.
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?
This article empowers female characters.
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
The writer for this article is De Elizabeth. This article is about how Netflix is making female stereotypes be challenged.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
This article shows the stereotypes linked with female stereotypes.
3) Why is this article significant?
"They're [changing their minds] about the system and how broken it is, changing their minds on religion, or what it means to be transgender…. This show has really hit it when it comes to dealing with female [characters] in" television."
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
This article empowers female characters.
This article empowers female characters.
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?
This article reflects this as they show that they are supportive of the social changes that are happening which they encourage towards their readers as well.
1) Who is the writer and what is the article about?
The writer for this article is Samantha Riedel. This article is about Samantha Riedel explains how everyday actions and words can enforce an archaic gender binary, and how you can stop doing that today.
2) How does the article use narrative to engage the reader? Try and apply narrative theory here if possible.
Sex and gender should have better ideologies attached with them.
3) Why is this article significant?
This article significant as this allows people to see the social changes and encourage them.
4) How does this article reflect the values and ideologies of the modern Teen Vogue?
This article reflects this as they show that they are supportive of the social changes that are happening which they encourage towards their readers as well.
This article reflects this as they show that they are supportive of the social changes that are happening which they encourage towards their readers as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment