The media is a very powerful force.
The media is a very powerful force. Within the western world we encounter its forces everyday, and whether we choose to be consumed by it or not, it influences our culture and the way we view ourselves. Women's magazines play a huge role in shaping how genders and races are perceived and perceive themselves.
Power, culture and representation are all at play to varying degrees within women's magazines. However, it is the way that these concepts interact, which has the greatest impact on our society. It is the representation of genders and races within women's magazines, and the degrees to which they are empowered or disempowered that ultimately impacts heavily on our culture.
Power is generally defined as a form in which groups or individuals can implement control over other individuals or groups. However, as Michael Foucault argues, power is not an asset which people have; it is something that is exercised within relationships and interactions. (1998: p93)
"Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere....Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with; it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society"
(The History of Sexuality, Volume One: the Will to Knowledge 1998. p93)
Representation is continuously at play within our civilization. Everything we read, watch and hear through the media represents something about our society. It may not adequately represent the reality, but it does represent certain ideals within society. Therefore, it is essential to look at representation in its many forms. As Leisbet Van Zoonen asserts "There is no such thing as a delivered presence or "truth in cultural discourse, but inevitably a re-presence or representation" (Questioning the Media: A Critical Introduction 1995: p 319). Van Zoonen follows Edward Said's suggestion that "analysis must therefore focus on a variety of discursive elements, not the correctness of representation nor its fidelity to some great original" (cited by Van Loonen 1995: p 319)
Culture is the world that surrounds us. It is a set of values that draws a group together and which we grow to understand. Tony Thwaites defines culture as "the ensemble of social practices by which meanings are produced, circulated and exchanged". (Tools for Cultural Studies 1994: p1) However, he is quick to point out that culture does not produce one standard meaning. "Meanings migrate from one context to another, sometimes ending up very far from where they started - they are always getting displaced, diverted, reworked and exchanged. It is the very process of meaning." (1994: p1)
The world has its own culture, countries have their own culture, cities have their own culture, and it is the influences within those boundaries which produce a culture. Gillian Rose uses the metaphor of a watershed encompassing a city to describe the way in which many different beliefs, customs and values are geographically bound to produce a culture in itself. "Cities are a cultural watershed, for in the city there are diverse cultures, customs, beliefs and values"(Gillian Rose; cited in Key concepts in Cultural Theory 1999: p.102).
In today's society it is incredibly important to understand the way the media functions. The media not only provides information, it is a very powerful signifier of who we are as a whole, and has the ability to exert large amounts of influence. Therefore, it is important that we understand and are able to critically examine what is being fed to us everyday and why. By analysing the way power, representation and culture are at play we are able to gain a greater understanding of how the media functions, which subsequently enables us the discerningly evaluate its influence and content.
Despite the fact that within the media, women's magazines generally fall into the same category, the enormous range of titles do not contain the same content and target a diverse set of female audiences. To understand the way power, representation and culture are at play it is essential to look at women's magazines as a whole and individually. Consequently, I will look at women's magazines covering an array of demographics from Dolly to Cosmopolitan to Woman's Day and Vogue.
Power is exerted in many forms throughout women's magazines, from the media corporation owners whom exercise power over journalists, to the journalists whom exercise power over the audience, to the audience whom exercise power over the media. Consequently, varying arguments are needed to establish the different ways power is at play. I will look at Edward Herman (1990: p75) and Rod Tiffen's (2002: p36) arguments in relation to the power Media Giants hold over journalists, Theodor Adorno's (cited by Gauntlett, 2002: pp19 - 25) power of the media over society, John Fiske's power of the audience (1989a: p.23) ...
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Power is exerted in many forms throughout women's magazines, from the media corporation owners whom exercise power over journalists, to the journalists whom exercise power over the audience, to the audience whom exercise power over the media. Consequently, varying arguments are needed to establish the different ways power is at play. I will look at Edward Herman (1990: p75) and Rod Tiffen's (2002: p36) arguments in relation to the power Media Giants hold over journalists, Theodor Adorno's (cited by Gauntlett, 2002: pp19 - 25) power of the media over society, John Fiske's power of the audience (1989a: p.23) and Foucault's idea that knowledge is an expression of power (1998: Chap 2).
Women's magazines are not all individually owned, in fact quite the opposite. Magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Woman's Day, Woman's Weekly and NW are all under Kerry Packer's Australian Consolidated Press (ACP), whilst Girlfriend, B mag and New Idea are under Pacific Publications. Both Herman and Tiffen have raised the argument that the large multinational corporations that own and operate various media channels disempower journalists. Herman maintains "Cultural workers and journalists in the media are not empowered to screen and write what they themselves feel" ('Media in the US political Economy', Questioning the Media.1990: p75), whilst Tiffen similarly argues "Certainly proprietors have a huge scope to affect news content....journalists' professionalism is vulnerable, only able to be exercised to the extent that their employers allow" (Tiffen, R The Media and Communications in Australia 2002: p36). However, both are quick to point out that content is not purely based on the opinion of proprietors. To sell a magazine there are consumer demands which must be met, otherwise the purpose of the magazine is defeated.
Herman and Tiffen's arguments can be applied to women's magazines, such that the ultimate power of content does lie in the proprietor' hands and very large corporations do own most of the women's magazines in Australia. Nevertheless, both Herman and Tiffen recognise that there are limits to this argument as there are "routines, constraints, incentives and traditions" (2002: p36) in place that do limit their power.
In addition, both Herman and Tiffen are primarily referring to the news media. Women's magazines do not fulfil the same purpose as news programs and newspapers, and rarely contain political content, which is often the centre of discretion. Women's magazines supply similar content, every issue to a certain market. Subsequently, there is not the same scope for large media corporations to exercise its power in relation to content.
Along the same lines as Herman and Tiffen, but speaking in terms of the audience rather than journalists, the German intellectual Adorno believes that the "culture consumed by the masses is imposed form above - churned out by the culture industry" (1991: p86). Women's magazines are one of the most obvious mediums in which this power is evident. Feminists and media critics often argue that women's magazines provide certain values, messages and ideas that are not only unrealistic and unattainable, but promote the oppression of women.
Looking at the front cover of numerous women's magazines, it is easy to find evidence to support Adorno's argument. Whilst almost every magazine on the market at the moment has a digitally enhanced photograph of an incredibly slim woman on the front, it is the words that accompany them that help to explain why poor self image is pandemic in our culture. NW's headline screams "Jen's new diet - Step by step eating plan to get her amazing body" whilst Cosmopolitan offers "Your 100% reality based guide to looking HOT!" and with New Idea you receive a "Free bonus new health guide".
These messages do convey that weight loss should be prioritized and there is strong evidence to support that its audience is adhering to these messages. In Australia, The NSW Foundation of Eating Disorders has found that the media's idealistic portrayal of women plays a significant part in provoking eating disorders, and that up to 3% of the population has an eating disorder, which includes one in five university students. Whilst it is evident from these statistics that the media does have a degree of power over the audience and subsequently our culture, Adorno's argument does assume that the audience does not question and uncompromisingly absorbs the media's messages. Consequently, it is essential to look at the audience's power over the media as well as the media's power over the audience.
David Gauntlett presents in his book Media, Gender and Identity the idea that "the power relationship between media and audience involves "a bit of both'" (2002: chap 2). Gauntlett follows John Fiske's argument that although the media's suggestions may be seductive, they can never simply overpower contrary feelings in the audience.
"Popular culture is made by the people, not produced by the culture industry. All the culture industries can do is produce a repertoire of texts or cultural resources for the various formations of the people to use or reject in the on-going process of producing their popular culture" (Fiske 1989: 24)
Women's magazines are a prime example of the power struggle between audience and media. Whilst the messages implored by the media are powerful, it is the audience whom decide whether or not to buy the magazine, and the audience who can subsequently influence the content. An example is in 1999 Cosmopolitan published an issue of their magazine with a voluptuous woman on the front. Sales went down and this experiment has not been tried since. This is not only an example of the way society is conditioned to slim women in the media, but it displays that the audience do have power over what is published, because magazines are like any other business - driven by considerations of profit.
Perhaps the biggest argument concerning women's magazines is not only that they portray women as powerless, passive victims but also that they are anti-feminist and derogatory. Certainly magazines such as Vogue and Harpers Bazaar do primarily contain 'fashion and beauty' material which does reinforce the cultural expectations that women should be concerned with their appearance. However, flaws are evident in this criticism, if we look at it in terms of Foucault's argument that knowledge is in fact power (1998: chap 2).
Magazines such as Dolly, Girlfriend, Cosmopolitan and Cleo are full of articles offering information and advice about careers, sex and relationships. Whilst they have been described as trashy, these articles are often a young girls' only resource of information. Consequently, they can be a powerful in promoting confidence, self-awareness and assertiveness amongst their peers and the opposite sex. As Gauntlett asserts "women are encouraged to know their own bodies and their needs, to articulate what they want, and to make well-informed decisions based on their own interests and desires, and not what other people want them to do." (2002: p182)
Gauntlett continues to argue that rather than being anti-feminist, the messages put out by these magazines actually reflect a "feminist turning of tables" (2002: chap 9). Men are objectified and treated in the way men have traditionally treated women, which is a vast change from the subservient feminine models of the past. As Gauntlett concludes "The self assured 'girl power' messages of magazines...give young women a language of empowerment and self fulfilment."(2002: p184)
The representation of gender and race within women's magazines is a constant source of argument for media critics. However, representation is at play in many more forms than just stereotyping female women. In accordance with Leisbet Van Zoonen's argument (1995: pp 311 - 327), representation within the media is not only a literal reflection of women's and men's lives and identities, but also in modes of thinking, sets of norms, values and current discourse.
This can be applied to women's magazines in the sense that, whilst photographs and stories within magazines may not adequately represent "the average Australian" woman", they do represent ways of thinking in modern society.
Within the majority of women's magazines there is an obvious misrepresentation of the Australian woman. The most stereotypical representation of the female gender within these magazines is of an air brushed, uniformly beautiful, thin, object of male desire. We only have to look to the fashion sections of this month's Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Woman's Day, Woman's weekly, NW, New Idea, Girlfriend and Cleo to find this common stereotype. Whilst the average Australian woman is a size fourteen, the average model is a size six to eight.
However, there is also a much less publicized racial and sexual misrepresentation or under representation, evident throughout women's magazines. Foucault, Gauntlett and Adorno all follow the line of argument that misrepresentation is imbedded in the media, because its content encourages conformity. "The concepts of order which (the culture industry) hammers into human beings are always those of the status quo".
(1991: p90)
In Australia we live in a multicultural society, and yet white female women still dominate on the pages of most women's magazines. Throughout NW, Woman's Weekly, Cosmo and New Idea, the only slight diversion from this look was photographs of black celebrities in America, not in Australia.
Women's magazines tend to take the same line in relation to lesbian, gay and bi-sexual people. Despite the fact that tolerance of sexual diversity is growing in our society, and Australia has one of the most accommodating gay communities in the world, heterosexuality is still promoted as the "norm".
These three points highlight that the way gender and race is presented within women's magazines does not adequately reflect the true nature of society. However, following Karen Jennings (Theorising Race and Representation p9) and Van Loonen's argument (1995: p319), these factors actually represent a way of thinking within our culture.
The media do not simply reflect or mediate reality. Rather they utilize certain conventions and codes, both aesthetic and technical, to re-present things to us.
(1995: p9)
The fact that the majority of women's magazines primarily contain size eight models can be taken to represent that we live in a society where many women aspire to be "thin and beautiful", whilst the under representation of races and different sexuality preferences could demonstrate that white English speaking people still have power over other ethnic races. These conclusions depend on interpretation; however they exemplify how representations in the media can highlight qualities about our culture, despite the fact that they are not "true" representations of reality. As Van Loonen adequately summed up;
Media representations of gender discourse are relevant to the realities of daily life because they have become part of our subjectivity by offering modes of understanding and representing ourselves.
(1995, p326)
Due to the fact that Australia is such a multicultural society, we are as Rose suggest a "watershed" (2002: p102) of hundreds of different cultures. Therefore, it is stereotypical to say that women's magazines completely define our culture; however they do have the power impact and influence us. It is this impact that I will discuss in addition to Gauntlett's argument that culture is produced by the exercising of power, where there is a struggle to sustain one set of values against assault from others.
(2002: p24)
Everything that we absorb through the media represents ideas and notions within our society. Consequently, the messages that we receive through women's magazines often have a significant impact on our culture. This impact can be seen in many forms.
When we are confronted with headlines such as 'Blow his mind', 'Sexual bliss secrets', 'Get his sexual attention instantly' and 'What he's thinking about you', whilst doing the grocery shop, it is hard to escape the obsessions and enthusiasm of women's magazines. Despite the fact that not everyone will absorb the same information in the same manner, there is no doubt that women's magazines are a formidable cultural force shaping and reinforcing our attitudes about men, women and orgasms
The portrayal of women within the media, and the extent that it has affected the way women perceive themselves is a highly researched topic, particularly within adolescents. In 2002, researchers at Flinders University in SA studied 400 teenagers regarding how they relate to the media. They found that girl's who were more exposed to underweight models within the media, lost self confidence and became more dissatisfied with their own bodies. (2003.'Media Self-Esteem and Girls' Identities' [www.media-awareness.ca])
Hugh McKay uses the "Happily ever after" (1993 p. 24) syndrome as a paradigm of the way women's magazines place unrealistic expectations on relationships, by idealizing celebrity relationships. McKay believes the press coverage celebrities receive of their "prefect" marriages can influence our culture, by giving rise to uneasy feelings within relationships that are not up to the "perfect" standard. McKay believes that relationships are becoming short lived as result of this.
The way our culture has evolved and is evolving via the media it the direct result of the way power and representation are at play. Gauntlett argues that the power struggle within the media to sustain one set of values against another has can have great impact on our society. A prime example of this impact is in terms of race. Gauntlett hints that the result of white supremacy and power over ethnic races has resulted in a large monopoly of Caucasians within the media. The subsequent result of this on Australia's culture can reach as far feelings of inferiority within different races which ultimately exacerbates racism.
In conclusion, Power, Representation and Culture are all inherent facets of the media, particularly women's magazines. However, it is the way they interrelate, influence and function between the proprietors, journalists and audience that develops the society we live in. Neither Power nor Representation nor Culture can be looked at in a one dimensional manner because they are all at play in so many degrees. Therefore it is essential to look at varying arguments to establish our own understanding how the media functions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Edgar, A & Sedgwick P (eds) 1999 Key Concepts in Cultural Theory, London: Routeledge
Foucault, Michel 1998 The Will to knowledge: The History of Sexuality, Volume One, translated by Robert Hurley, London: Penguin
Fiske, John 1989a Understanding Popular Culture, London: Unwin Hyman
Gauntlett, David 2000 Media, Gender and Identity, London: Routledge
Herman, Edward 1990 "Media in the US Political Economy" in Downing et al. eds Questioning the Media: A Critical introduction 1st ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage
McKay, Hugh 1993 Reinventing Australia, Sydney: Angus and Robertson
Said, Edward W 1983 The World, the Text, and the Critic, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Tiffin R 2002 'Political Economy and News' in Cunnigham, S & Turner G (eds)
The Media and Communications in Australia Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin
Thwaites T et al (eds) 1994 Tools for cultural studies, Melbourne Macmillan
Van Zoonen, L 1995 Gender, Representation and the Media' in Downing. Questioning the Media: A Critical Introduction 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage
WEBSITES:
Chavanu, Bakari Seventeen, Self Image and Stereotypes, 1st April www.rethinkingschools.org
Gautlett, David, Media, Gender and Identity, 2nd April www.theoryhead.com
Istas, Brendan The Representation of Men and Women in Mass Media www.fejs.antwerp.planetinternet.be
www.media-awareness.ca
MAGAZINES: Note: no particular articles were referenced
Australian Consolidated Press (ACP)
Cosmopolitan, April 2003
Cleo, April 2003
Dolly, April 2003
Harpers Bazaar 2003
Woman's Day, March 31 2003
Woman's Weekly, March 31 2003
Murdoch Magazines
Marie Claire, April 2003-04-08
Pacific Publications
B Mag, April 2003
Girlfriend, April 2003
New Idea, March 31 2003
Conde Nast
Vogue, April 2003
New Idea, March 29 2003
NW, March 31 2003
Girlfriend, April 2003
Vogue, April 2003
