Teen Vogue: background reading and textual analysis blog tasks
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?
It was launched in 2004 and focused on "the standard cocktail of fashion must-haves and celebrity worship".
3) How did editor Elaine Welteroth change Teen Vogue’s approach in 2015?
They featured 3 unknown black models on the cover which "seemingly broke all the rules".
4) How many stories are published on Teen Vogue a day? What topics do they cover?
Between 50 and 70 stories a day.
5) What influence did digital director Phillip Picardi have over the editorial direction?
He thought it was important to discuss reproductive rights, gender and dig deeper into politics and the news cycle. As a result, within a year and a half, traffic increased by 200%
6) What is Teen Vogue’s audience demographic and what does ‘woke’ refer to?
Their "sweet-spot" audience is 18-24. Woke is a slang word which refers to social awareness.
7) What issues are most important to Teen Vogue readers?
The most important issues to the readers is mainly identity. Teen vogue tries to make their readers feel better about themselves by giving beauty tips, empowering them with political information and career advice.
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?
She suggests that the relationship between readers and media companies has become "closer and more transparent" which brands have had to respond to. This relates to Clay Shirky as now media companies have to adjust to what the audience want and cater for what they want they want to read as the readers are also able to create their own content.
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
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 a navigation bar with the different sections and large images for articles to create clickbait
2) How does the page design encourage audience engagement?
The large images make it impossible to miss a story. Each article takes up quite a large space of the web page, also with a large font making it easy to see. The summit section encourages audience engagement as it allows audience to actively participate in the events.
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?
News & Politics, Fashion, Beauty, Wellness, Lifestyle, Entertainment and Summit.The fact that News & Politics is the first shows how the values and ideologies of Teen Vogue have changed, becoming more politically orientated and literate. They showcase a centre left wing approach.
5) How far does the homepage scroll down? How many stories appear on the homepage in total?
There is a total of 27 stories before you reach the bottom. However, the sizes of the articles on the space vary.
Lifestyle section
Now analyse the Lifestyle section of Teen Vogue and answer the following:
1) What are the items in the top menu bar for the Lifestyle section?
Tech, Campus Life, Careers, Decorating advice, Food
2) How is the Lifestyle section designed to encouragement audience engagement? Think about page design, images, text and more.
The first article is "Teen Vogue 21 under 21 class of 2018" which shows how they recognise and celebrate success of young females which are in a similar demographic to their target audience.
3) What do you notice about the way headlines are written in Teen Vogue?
They are written in a friendky, informal way, making it seem more like a friend giving advice rather than them reading a formal article.
4) What does the focus on education, university and ‘campus life’ tell you about the Teen Vogue audience demographics and psychographics?
The audience is between 16-24 and are educated. They probably belong to the explorer, aspirer, or reformer psychographic groups
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.
For each 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?
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