MAGAZINES: GQ - LANGUAGE AND REPRESENTATION

Language: Media factsheet

1) What are the different magazine genres highlighted on page 2 and how do they link to our magazine CSPs?

- General Interest 

- Special Interest 

- Professional 

2) Look at the section on GQ on page 2. How do they suggest that GQ targets its audience?

- Top Gear and Driven

- Women are both magazines about driving and an interest in cars. Top Gear clearly identifies its male audience by using iconography of the spy and action genres; elements such as James Bond and his iconic car the Aston Martin are included along with CGI explosions and a palette of red, yellow and

black that create an intense and dramatic effect to the visual codes. This constructs a stereotypical representation of masculinity. Driven Women, however, takes the stereotypical idea that only men drive fast cars and subverts it slightly. Clearly aimed at women, it uses a stereotypical attractive model dressed in gym gear, leaning on the drivers-side door.

3) What does the factsheet say about GQ cover stars?

- GQ selects their cover stars very carefully. 

4) Pick out five of the key conventions of magazine front covers and explain what they communicate to an audience.

- Masthead: is at the top, using a sans serif font type for maximum impact.

- Puffs are place in the left or right-hand corners to catch the eye of the reader, often inside a graphic element

- The main coverline is not related to the image but offers different content of interest, with varying size, colours and styles of typography.

- Pull quotes invoke humour and perhaps shock, but also appear to give insider knowledge. This creates a close, albeit illusory, relationship between the reader and the

star.

- The use of sensationalism and language of true crime and or gossip magazines are intertextualised to create and emotional response.

5) What is a magazine’s ‘house style’? How would you describe GQ’s house style? 

- The house style of a magazine refers to its conventional “look” in relation to its writing and formatting. 

Language: CSP Analysis:

1) Write a summary of our annotations on the media language choices on the cover of GQ - e.g. colour scheme, typography, language, photographic codes etc. 

- traditional masculinity

- two cover lines more in keeping with traditional masculinity.

connotations of aggression but not typical of GQ.

2) Identify three specific aspects/conventions/important points (e.g. cover lines, colour scheme, use of text, image etc.) from each page/feature of the CSP that you could refer to in a future exam. Explain why that particular aspect of the CSP is important - think about connotations, representations, audience pleasures, reception theory etc.

Front cover: Robert Pattinson image - Art & Fashion issue

Inside pages: Jonathan Bailey feature and fashion shoot

- blue/black backgrounds show traditional masculinity

-image creates representation of old and new masculinity.

- elements of traditional masculinity in mode of address.

- "roles don't seem defined by sexuality" - tells us something about representations of sexuality in the media.

 

3) Apply narrative theories to GQ - Todorov's equilibrium, Propp's character types, Barthes' action or enigma codes, Levi-Strauss's binary opposition. How can we use narrative to understand the way the cover and features have been constructed?

- Propp's Character Type theory: Pattinson could be identified as a villain due to his looks.

4) Analyse the cover and inside pages of GQ. Does this offer an example of Steve Neale's genre theory concerning 'repetition and difference'?

- yes as it repeatedly has representations of masculinity within it.

Representations: wider reading - GQ and the new masculinity

1) Which GQ issue is discussed at the start of the article and what was notable about it? 

- The imagery, the colors, the psychedelic typeface and the gender-fluid Williams made me wonder, “Is GQ still a men’s magazine?” 

- He told me that GQ is not just written for or by men. GQ’s readers are anyone who has “an interest in seeing the world through a filter of stylishness,”. 

2) How did Will Welch view GQ when he took over as Editor-in-Chief and what did he want to offer readers? 

- When Welch took over as editor-in-chief of GQ in January, he didn’t see the 88-year-old publication, where he’s worked at since 2007, as broken. He saw the need to redefine what a men’s magazine could be. He wanted GQ to help its readers — whether men, women, or gender non-binary — with their “personal evolution,”. 

3) How has publisher Conde Nast responded to changes in the magazine industry and how did this impact GQ?

- Magazine monolith and GQ parent company Condé Nast, has been trying to recoup losses by cutting costs and redefining its business for the digital era. For example, Condé ended Glamour’s print publication last year. It’s continued to invest in digital content, like video, across its brands. In addition to GQ’s two print magazines in the US and several international editions, the brand launched GQ Sports, a YouTube channel.

4) What did the GQ New Masculinity edition feature? 

- Welch has reworked GQ magazine by deemphasizing style guides and other how-to’s. Those pieces now live mostly on the website and in GQ’s newsletters. The idea is that people looking for a new fall coat or a pair of hiking boots probably won’t go to a newsstand and buy a copy of GQ. They’ll turn to Google or maybe GQ.com directly.

5) What did journalist Liz Plank say about toxic masculinity?

-“No matter where I turned, masculinity wasn’t something that was intuitive or intrinsic; it was carefully learned, delicately transmitted and deliberately propagandized. Toxic masculinity wasn’t just a problem in America. I saw it everywhere.”

6) How did Welch respond to suggestions GQ was responsible for toxic masculinity?

- “It’s not like GQ was harmful until I took over. That’s definitely not the case,” he said.

1) What does the article suggest masculinity involved at the start of the 20th century?

- It stood for all the solid, earthy expectations of boys and men: strength, independence, courage, confidence and assertiveness.

2) What social change occurred from the 1930s?

- The UK lost its industrialisation heavyweight status with manual worker jobs, and the masculinity status attached to them, in favour of an office-based deindustrialised economy.

3) What is suggested about masculinity today?

- Masculinity while, yes, housing some admirable traits, is an incomplete human package. Any boy or man who feels that they cannot showcase their emotions or, indeed, a gentleness, is one who needs re-education on what it is to be a man.

4) Why does it suggest these changes are important? 

- For our health, this is key. Positively men are now more attuned with self-care than ever before and actively striving for it.