Reception Theory - Week 4

Cosmopolitan is an international woman’s magazine, wrote by women for women. The editor Joanna Coles explores themes of lifestyle, fashion, love, beauty and these underlying messages are conveyed in on average under 100 pages making the ideal target audience member for this magazine a 'mainstreamer'. This is because the consumer’s expectations are met every time, as they know that the same reoccurring themes will appear in each monthly addition. As I have already mentioned, this media text is targeted towards women, with the mentality of wanting to look better and achieve a perfect lifestyle. Cosmopolitan offers people an insight into an ideal lifestyle and what many people think life ‘should’ be like. Upon reading this publication and exploring it more, I discovered it fulfilled my need for personal identity and viewed me as an active audience member. Many issues talked about, I found I could relate and as a female I assume others would too. This magazine gave me a sense of gratification overall.

I have found that the preferred reading of the text is for the encoders to connote how the stereotypes of women are changing. The preordained stamps, that we have been printed with are finally beginning to shift. The cover of the February 2016 Cosmopolitan addition is blue, just the simple colour of the background displays how as a generation we are moving out of the normally considered pink equals femininity. This being said, some stereotypes still remain today and in this front cover it is clearly emphasised. It says “Marry me? Is it your boyfriend proposing inside” this is reinforcing that the men are expected to propose to women? It’s as if the magazine is promoting moving forward, yet in the process is taking one step back and we can clearly see that the past still has a big impact on present day.

One ideology that appears is that women are independent. Taylor Swift stood on the front cover helps to illustrate this, by her stance. She looks dominant and would make women feel empowered by this, she is also using direct address, looking straight into the camera representing defiance and therefore celebrating women as strong people. Cosmopolitan also uses Taylor to address the target audience’s mentality of wanting to look better and achieve a perfect lifestyle and does this by using anchorage of the text “30 best makeup buys under $20” and placing this next to her face. People who take a preferred reading can both identify and agree with what is being said, again fulfilling their need of personal identity. Mainstreamer's who take this specific reading, will again understand and agree with topics discussed, as well as feeling a sense of security as similar subjects are always debated.

The oppositional reading for Cosmopolitan could be taken from a male’s perspective. Men aren’t subjected to the same things as women and they both have very different life experiences. This means that some men could completely ignore the ideologies and intentions of the text, purely because they wouldn’t know what makes a woman feel independent or empowered. As females are the target audience for the media text, the visual aspects of using women on the cover might be the reason men look at that, over the message trying to be depicted. They can recognise some of the parts of the preferred reading, for example the use of blue and changing stereotypes, however they choose to reject it and provide their own alternative structure. This means that the signifier (Taylor Swift) may have different connotations to both genders. While, as I have said, it denotes confidence and empowerment to women, men could take a completely different view and add an alternative framework for what the signifier represents to them.

The negotiated reading could be taken from the perspective of someone who practices an extreme religion and could take offence to the ideologies and messages. People who have a different cultural background and religion could think that women shouldn’t have a say and that they should cover up, making their reading of Cosmopolitan completely different to a preferred reading and offensive.  The message that women are independent that is being decoded doesn’t correspond with their own ideologies. They can agree with parts of the preferred reading, perhaps the traditional view of men having to propose, but they do not agree with all of what the magazine has to say. For example, a hijab is worn by Muslim women as a symbol of modesty and privacy, meaning that the positive intentional message that Cosmopolitan editor Joanna Coles was trying to send out about independence and defiance doesn’t correspond with the decoded message Muslims take from it, as they could take offence from Taylor essentially ‘showing off’ her body.

Overall, different audience groups may read the text differently. Some may completely see the intentional ideologies, understand and agree with them taking a preferred reading (typically mainstreamer's), while others with different cultural backgrounds and life experiences reject the message being conveyed and view them negatively. Alternatively, another audience group can accept the meaning behind what is written, however take a completely different perspective from it.



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