Assignments: Batch Two: Assignment Twelve

Offer a semiotic analysis of the front covers of magazines, comparing different magazines targeted at demographic groups representing different combinations of these factors: male/female, straight/gay or lesbian.

Guidance

For general guidance about what is expected in your essays for this module, see the general criteria.

What Key Features Do I Look For?

  • Familiarity with relevant texts
  • Evidence - the stronger the better
  • Argument - coherent and balanced
  • Theoretical discussion - relation to relevant theories
  • Understanding of relevant concepts
  • Reflexivity - reflections on methodology
  • Examples - insightfully analysed
  • Style - readability and effective presentation

Please remember to avoid footnotes and to include an alphabetical list of 'References' which have been cited in the text (not a Bibliography of anything you have read for the essay). This list should include author's names, date, book titles (in italics), place of publication and publisher. Within the text always cite author's surname, date and page number. Double-space your text and number your pages. For more detailed notes on writing essays in this department, click here. For examples of essays by UWA students click here.

Check the links at the Media and Communication Studies Site.

Advice for this particular assignment: The most relevant lecture for this topic is Lecture 7.

The primary focus here should be on the detailed comparative analysis of well-matched magazine covers. Compare/contrast several issues of two different magazines representing one pair of contrasting readerships, e.g.: straight male compared with gay male; straight male compared with straight female; lesbian compared with straight female; lesbian compared with gay male. Try to keep other target demographic factors (such as age and disposable income) as similar as possible. Try to obtain recent statistics on the demographics of the target readership of each magazine (e.g. from the National Readership Survey). Remember that contrasting specific pairs of images can help you to notice features. The issue of 'who is looking at whom' (and how) should be explored - see my notes on 'The Gaze'. Make it explicit which demographic groups the magazines you are comparing are aimed at - e.g. 'A comparison of the front covers of magazines targeted at straight adult males with those targeted at straight adult females'). Decide whether to focus on a specific issue - such as the stance and gaze of depicted figures - or more generally on an issue such as layout. In your analysis of examples you are expected to demonstrate your understanding of relevant semiotic concepts. These are likely to include codes, markedness and the commutation test. For instance, you may comment on what effect it might have if a particular element of one magazine's cover were to appear on the other one (this is a commutation test): where such substitutions feel most strange you have touched on a key signifier. Do not waste space explaining concepts with which the reader can be expected to be familiar. In the way in which you use the term 'representation' demonstrate your understanding of this problematic concept. Do not slip into a naive gender essentialism. What do the contrasts you have noted reveal about the construction involved in representation (e.g. the construction of gender)? If you (or friends) happen to have a collection of relevant magazines, you may include some reference to patterns of representation which can be observed in a whole series of such images over time. Does there seem to be a 'formula' for such covers on a particular magazine? Feel free to discuss your observations with friends who read the same magazines. Where possible, include the covers themselves (or reproductions of them) at least as appendices to your text (you may scan covers into your document). You may also find it helpful to make some of your points by including cropped close-ups of different aspects of the covers.

Some suggested reading

Note: Treat with extreme caution sources labelled with this symbol!


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