Magazines Social/Cultural Contexts Question
Explain how social and cultural contexts can affect representations in magazines. Refer to the Big Issue to support your answer. (10 marks) The magazine industry as a whole relies on star power and advertising to guarantee sales, reflecting the celebrity-focused cultural context the products are released into. In particular, fashion and lifestyle brands like Vogue and GQ place a large focus on the celebrities they feature in order to generate further profit by appealing to fans of those celebrities, often leading to certain demographics being represented more often and more accurately than others. Consumerism also plays a large role in the magazine industry as the social context surrounding it is one of capitalism with a focus on profit generation, leading to product placement and aspirational advertising which often also leans into the celebrity culture that dominates the media today. The Big Issue goes against, or at least subverts, many of these conventions, largely due to its stron...