Tom Cruise - Representation in the Media

Image No. 1

In the 'People's' magazine, Tom Cruise is represented as a sex icon, this is shown by the copy "The Sexiest Man Alive" which clearly establishes Tom Cruise as a sex icon to its female audience. We know the magazine is targeting the female audience by the use of the more feminine pink colour, as well as the fact that talking about the 'sexiest man' would not appeal to the usual heterosexual male audience. The photograph of Cruise is flattering with soft light accentuating his features and a medium close up allows the shot to be aesthetically comfortable for the audience.

Cruise is represented as being important in the movie industry and in society. The use of the medium close up shot tells us that Cruise is important by isolating anything in his surroundings, thus placing importance on him. The image of Cruise and the associated copy also take up more space than a line raising a question about an important social issue: abortion. This infers that Cruise is more important than strong issues in society, or perhaps that the audience cares more about Cruise than important social issues such as abortion. Part of Cruise's apparent importance is his costume, Cruise dons a classic black and white tuxedo, implying he is of a higher social class than most people, thus giving him more importance. Cruise is represented as being important in the movie industry due to the copy "can make a hit by just showing up", implying that he is a star who can move audience members into theatre seats. The tuxedo also carries connotations of being important in the movie industry, a classic symbol of the hollywood 'elite'.

Image No. 2

In this magazine cover, Tom Cruise's representation of being important and special is diminished heavily in this magazine cover. The image of Cruise that anchors the copy is much smaller and the shot is a medium shot rather than a close up, showing how he is simply a normal person. The advert simply refers to him as 'Tom', making him seem like just another person and places more importance on the daughter, this is apparent as she takes up more space on the cover and even partially covers the masthead of the magazine. Suri's face takes up the the upper third of the magazine cover, implying that she holds importance and power over 'Tom' whom takes up less space than the women on the other side of the cover.

Cruise is called 'Daddy' in the image and this carries an almost ironic nature as he has 'abandoned' his child. The language used in the text also implies that Cruise is a bad father by saying that "Suri is left heartbroken as Tom suddenly shuts her out". This casts Cruise in a negative light and emasculates him by portraying him as a bad father. This is contrasted with the last representation of Cruise being masculine and symbolic of the 'perfect man', showing how he his representation has been changed through public opinion.

Cruise is also represented as being almost delusional in his beliefs regarding Scientology. The image shows him raising him both arms with fingers spread, this is symbolic of a passionate religious man who is preaching his beliefs. However, this is juxtaposed with the negative representation of Cruise as a bad father and the public perception that Scientology is wrong and delusional. This creates an image of Tom Cruise being insane, delusional and wrongly passionate in his beliefs.

Image No. 3