Who makes, publishes, and distributes Attitude Online?
Attitude is published by Stream media, a horizontally integrated company which specialises in publishing magazines. We are studying Attitude Online, which should be seen as an online, supplementary component to the Attitude brand. Attitude Online is infrequently updated by the publishers, which suggests that this website is not nearly as important as the magazine to their brand and to their success.
Additionally, Attitude Online and Attitude magazine differ significantly when it comes to a target audience. The magazine clearly targets a middle class target audience. It has less of a focus on gossip, and more of a focus on a sophisticated, high end design with a big focus on high end production values. Attitude magazine often interviews and shoots celebrities, including heterosexual celebrities, such as Prince William, Olympic athletes like Tom Daly, and female musicians such as Lady Gaga.
Attitude online however clearly targets a working class audience. It utilises an informal lexis, there is a big emphasis on images over text, and there are masses of adverts targeting a generalised audience. The website often features low production values, and the number of adverts can make it confusing to read. In short, Attitude online mainly exists to make money off of click through advertising, and, most of all, to promote the Attitude brand.
How can David Gauntlet's theories surrounding identity explain how the producers of Attitude Online can maximise revenue?
What regulatory issues does Attitude Online fall foul of (if any), and how could the publication cause harm and offense?
- Many stereotypical assumptions are made about gay men, including an interest in drag, camp culture, theatre, and young buff men.
- Manipulative, clickbait adverts can potentially be scams which can destroy the lives of vulnerable people
- Articles may deal with issues such as bullying, mental health and suicide
- Highly sexualised images of naked men may make some audiences uncomfortable
What is clickbait, and how does it work?
- Clickbait often uses low resolution, heavily photoshopped images. These images may be intentionally poorly made, and even laughable in order to provoke the audience in to clicking on them. This is an intentionally manipulative technique that also functions as a hermenuetic code, inferring mystery to the audience.
- Often the images take a creepy and unpleasant aspect, which may cause people scrolling the page to suddenly stop. These grainy, grimy pictures present a voyeuristic mode of address, and entice the audience in to seeing something potentially nasty and out of the ordinary.
- It is often deliberately confusing to work out what is a clickbait article, and what is just another article on Attitude
- The captions typically take a challenging and direct mode of address, which is again manipulative and potentially harmful to vulnerable audience
Attitude Online clearly obtains revenue through these low-quality, intrusive and manipulative adverts, which demonstrates a certain level of cynicism towards their target audiences. Attitude Online is clearly a commercial product, motivated primarily through the acquisition of power and profit
In what ways does Attitude Online use multimodality and hypermodality in order to appeal to it's audiences?
Hypermodality: where one media product uses digital technology to 'link' to other media products that offer different modes of communication. For example, a text based article may link to other websites, videos and online shops
What opportunities for audience engagement does Attitude Online offer?
- Attitude Online
- Facebook page
- Twitter page
- Instagram page