Men's Health Magazine CSP Researh

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Media Language

The magazine front cover and specified content should be analysed in terms  of the composition of the images, positioning, layout, typography, language and mode of address. This will then provide detailed evidence for application of the other theoretical frameworks.

Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
  • Blue signify boys
  • muscles signify masculine strength

Narrative and Genre

The genre conventions of the magazine cover will need to be studied. While narrative may be more familiar to students as an approach to apply to moving image forms, it can also be very productively applied to print media as a way of examining audience targeting, positioning and interpretation.
  • The front cover creates a narrative about character and lifestyle in order to attract an audience.
  • Cover stories create enigma and anticipation for the reader.
  • Binary oppositions by Strauss is used to drive a narrative forward.
  • Todorov's stages of narrative is present in Men's Health
The cover and specified content can be analysed in the context of genre in terms of conventions of layout and composition - which will overlap with analysis of visual language - but also as part of the genre of Men's Health and lifestyle magazine.
  • Genre study would include an analysis of the conventions of magazine front covers.
  • The conventions of content of Men's Health can be analysed to present genre.
  • Neale talks about genre is instances of repetition and difference. Men's Health uses different genre conventions.

Media Representation

Clearly the key areas of representation suggested by the magazine are to do with gender, primarily masculinity but also how this affects the representation of women.
  • The emphasis on male beauty and grooming challenges some conventions of traditional stereotypes of masculinity.
  • The types of images selected refer to concepts of hyper masculinity and gender as performance.
  • Men as object of a homosexual and heterosexual gaze.
  • According to Hall, stereotype is an example of representation. Men's Health subverts masculine stereotypes from old traditional masculine values.
  • Van Zoonen suggests that women are sexualised and objectified in the media but Men's Health do not sexualise and objectify women but they do it to men.
  • By changing stereotypes, the behaviour is not performed but it could be performative.

Media Industries

The main focus for industry is Hearst publishing, the multinational conglomerate which publishes Men's Health and a range of other fashion and lifestyle magazines. This will provide a case study of a commercial media institution where the primary - though not sole - focus is print.
  • Hearst is the conglomerate.
  • Developments in new technology mean that many of their brands are now online as well as in print.
  • Institutional strategies for keeping print popular and relevant in the contexts of developing technology and competition from other brands.

Media Audiences

As ever the theoretical framework of audience intersects with the study of visual codes and genre crucial to analysing mode of address and techniques of persuasion with the front cover functioning as a form of advertising.
  • The mode of address can be analysed through the visual and written codes.
  • Publishing companies provide a great deal of data online in relation to their audience research for specific publications. 
  • Different audience interpretations over time reflect social, cultural and historical contexts.
  • Men's Health uses Hall's reception theory as the producers encode a certain meaning that they want the audience to decode.

Social and Cultural Contexts

Men's Health magazine represents a notable social and cultural shift in expectations of contemporary masculinity. The study of Men's Health can be linked to social and cultural contexts through reference to body image and changes in what society deems acceptable and unacceptable  representations.

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