We'll kick off this part of the unit by leaving things up to you. Attitude Online is the website version of the popular UK gay men's lifestyle magazine Attitude. From a purely statistical perspective (as well as hegemonic, as we shall explore!) it is fairly safe to assume that a website like Attitude Online will be a totally new experience to a lot of you! We therefore want to give you the opportunity to explore the website, to consider the tasks and questions set, and to discuss your findings and opinions with the class.
You are going to build a definitive analytical case study of the website that can be used in the upcoming mock exam and the final exam.
For now we want you to focus on media language and textual analysis, but we're certain that you're going to have some points about representation too!
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| The navigation/menu bar is typically found under the website's masthead, and Attitude Online is no different. What sections are typical of a 'straight men's magazine'? What aspects are different? (click to see full size) |
Media language and textual analysis
Please use the toolkit for textual analysis
Screencap at least five articles from different sections of the website and bullet point label them in as much detail as possible. We will do this first as a class, and the example will be posted here for reference and revision.
i
- How is media language used in this product? Go through the textual analysis toolkit! Find explicit examples!
- How does this site create multiple meanings?
- How does media language combine to create meaning?
- Analyse the UX (user experience) of the site. How has it been constructed to maximise audience appeal and accessibility?
- The genere of this magazine website is gay men's lifestyle. What are the conventions/paradigmatic features of this genre? How do they work? What makes this a 'gay website' as opposed to a 'website?'
- How could audiences respond to and interpret all the stuff above?
- What is the ideology of the producer? How is this constructed through media language?
ii
Bluntly come up with explicit examples of the following theories:
- Roland Barthes – semiotic codes (hermeneutic, symbolic, proairetic, referential)
- Claude Levi-Strauss – structuralism (binary oppositions)
- Jean Baudrillard – Postmodernism (hyperreality, simulation)
Examples of analysis
