PAPER 2 ONLINE Media Text 2 : Attitude

Using the above links , explain the following elements about the Attitude website Text: Analyse the design, layout, use of colour and content of the website...who do you feel is the target audience ? Consider sexuality, age, gender , ethniciity, class ? Are there any ways for the audience to feed back and interact with the website ? The design, layout, use of colour and content of the website is directed towards homosexual older men. The colours of the website include red, orange, pink, yellow, blue and green which are colours associated with the LGBTQ+ community. The target audience is gay older middle-class caucasian (white) men. The audience can't feed or interact back with the website, subscribe is the only interaction available. Comments are unavailable on each article making the website provide direct information with no feedback. (Passive audience, doesn't contribute, they accept what they're given. Opposite of active audience.) Representation : How is masculinity and sexuality represented in the website ? Are certain stereotypes or elements foregrounded or given higher priority and focused upon more than others ? If so, why? Masculinity is represented as dominant, assertive and dramatic through the muscular men presented in the images on the articles, specifically in the 'Boys' section. The titles on the website are portraying the masculinity as subtle and more gentle as opposed to the article representation. Stereotypical elements used are the muscular men being more domianant and having relations with more youthful, weaker, feeble men. These sterortypical labels are given higher priority in this website perhaps to attarct the gay community by the dominance associated with men. They are focused upon more than others conveying importance and relevance towards men in the LGBT. Target Audience : Sexuality, gender, age, ethnicity, nationality , location , class ? The target audience is gay older middle-class caucasian (white) men. As previously stated. In Britain, gay men’s lifestyle magazine launched in 1994. Britain’s leading gay magazine. Homosexuality in the 1990s and this magazine being published in the 1994 gaining recognition for the LGBT Industry: How does the website make money ? The website makes money through each subscription each person pays to get magazines and more recieve articles. How closely linked is the website to the Attitude magazine in terms of ownership, content and style ? Being the website for a gay magazine (aimed at men), Attitude is great for analysing representations of homosexuality. Which link the website with the magazine as both representations are targeted at homosexual men. The website is closely linked to the magazine in terms of sexuality, ownership, content and style. An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it. Parasocial: one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other's existence. Which are associated with celeb's. (Fake relations). Theory : summarise these theories and explain how each one can be related to the text and audience of Attitude THEORY TO USE : Hall : stereotypes Gauntlett : identity theory Butler : gender performativity Shirky : End of audience Gerbner : Cultivation theory Hall's theory explains stereotypes in the media to represent inequality such as men being 'stronger', power/ dominant groups control sterotypes which make 'Attitude' less representative for homosexuals as they're seen as a deprived subculture. Gauntlett's identity theory explains how people use the media and internet to gain their own identity, as the audience. This links to homosexual indivduals who have been marginalised in society and had to create their own identity through other inspiring memebers in the LGBTQ in the media. The Attitude magazine is an exmaple of the this for members of a media audience. Gerbner's theory explains that the more we see the same representation and messages the more we will believe they are true. This could link to the LGBT fighting for equality because they are equal to other groups in society just with a segregated sexual orentation. Shirky's theory explains that we are most liekly going to use the internet and other technologies to respond to texts, including creating our own work. Which suggests that Attiutde representing homosexual men outcasted result in new sectorew of work being created such as a project, magazine or article etc.