Investigating the representation of stars/celebrities in women's magazines with particular reference to Woman, Elle and Girl Talk .

Richard Dyer’s notion of star ‘performance,’ (1) in which a celebrity’s representation is constructed via a range

of media and then decoded by audiences, is dependent on two key factors: firstly the technical codes which are

employed in the construction and secondly the extent to which the representation creates a ‘commonly

accepted’ performance.

With this in mind I intend to focus on the medium of the ‘women’s magazine’ and the way in which technical

codes specific to the medium are used in the construction of the overall star performance. I feel that the

examples I have chosen allow me to demonstrate the range of possible ways in which this construction

happens.

My hypothesis is that, even nowadays, the star-as-product is largely a construction by media producers in order

to perpetuate an ideology with which the target audience can identify. Angela McRobbie’s work on the role of

the teenage girl’s magazine in the ‘socialisation’ process of young women is one previous example of this

effect.(2) A lot of my research therefore supports the continuing existence of the ‘effects’ model.

However, the ability of some celebrities to generate very personal and individual meanings for audiences cannot

be ignored. Therefore, I also intend to examine to what extent the star/celebrity is able to exert any control over

the way in which they are ‘read.’

Woman (edition: 18 Jan 2016) is a weekly magazine published in England which focuses on lifestyle, celebrity

gossip and beauty tips. Elle (edition: July 2014) is a monthly magazine that is published worldwide but has a

French origin focusing on fashion, beauty and health. Girl Talk (edition: 6-19 Jan 2016) is a fortnightly

magazine published in Britain focusing on celebrity gossip and beauty tips.

It could be said that a magazine’s cover embodies the ideological messages contained within the magazine. All

three magazines use medium long shots of their cover star (Keira Knightly: Elle, Taylor Swift: Girl Talk and

Lisa Riley: Woman) positioned centrally according the rule of thirds, while Girl Talk and Woman also have

smaller close-up shots of stars referring to further stories inside the magazine. Both Elle and Woman’s

photography of the cover star have been produced in studio conditions and the stars have been styled by

professionals (credited alongside the images in the magazines in sans serif font – suggesting their importance in

the creation of the image). However, in Woman, paparazzi photography is also used alongside the studio

photography to emphasise a relationship between more stylised and realistic representations – Lisa Riley, as a

soap star, needs to come across as a ‘real person’, a friendship with whom may be attainable.

Girl Talk however, is less concerned with conventional realism and uses path tracing throughout the magazine

to allow multiple images of different stars to appear together through editing. The background context is

unimportant because the audiences are focused only on their own relationship with the star.

Both Girl Talk and Woman have ‘busy’ cover pages with large, bold typography, using a range of bright colour

codes (connoting girlishness, sunshine, blue skies, and happiness) in the puffs containing the smaller images.

Elle also uses cover lines to allude to the stories within the magazine, but has a lack of smaller images and uses

a simple, pale blue background so as not to detract from the reader’s focus on the cover star. In all three

magazines, the cover stars show direct address through non-verbal codes by gazing into the camera (with the

Elle subscription cover being an exception).

According to the National Readership Survey (between October 2014 and September 2015), Woman was at the

time read most by audiences over 35 (312/351) and Elle read most by audiences between 15-34 (425/681). (3)

Girl Talk’s own Wikipedia page suggests that this magazine’s target audiences “are girls from the ages of 7 to

12.” (4)

The comparison between the Elle retail cover and its subscription cover is interesting: Knigtley's construction

on the retail cover portrays a friendly 'performance' as she gives direct address to the camera and smiles

through non-verbal codes (whereas on the subscription cover, she is looking away from the camera with her

eyes covered by sunglasses) which is a strategy to attract the target audience into purchasing the magazine.

The cover lines on the retail magazine are much more detailed than on the subscription cover, which coveys that

its discourse is used as a marketing strategy to persuade readers to purchase the magazine to read about the

stories which are alluded to, such as “easy tips to make everyone look better.”

By contrast, the subscription cover uses a simple 3-word association: “Keira Raw Beauty” as subscription

readers don’t need to be persuaded to purchase the magazine. What I found most interesting is the difference

between the two covers in the construction of Keira as cover star: in the subscription cover, the actress’s dress

codes of sparkles, silk and wool which connote luxury. This may be aspirational to the target audience, who

clearly have a closer association with the values of the text than a casual reader, and may also suggest a different

demographic. If we examine the psychographic profile of the Elle Subscriber, Young and Rubicam’s cross-

cultural consumer characteristics (5) would identify them as aspirers, seeking social status: therefore Keira’s

glamorous construction may encourage them to consume the designer’s (Saint Laurent) range. She is in one

sense a walking advert for the product. Stacey’s idea that a star provides ‘aspiration and inspiration’ suggests

that audiences will value the qualities of the star and view them as positive role model. (6)

The representation of two opposing constructions of Kiera is portrayed on pages 118 and 119 of the magazine

where the subscription cover image is juxtaposed with an image of Kiera in the same dress codes. This time

there is perhaps a more intense social coding – she looks disdainful, mildly irritated by the photographer’s

presence – ‘cool.’ Page 119 shows the same pose but with sunglasses and messy hair, arguably even more

enigmatic due to the audience not being able to see her eyes. She looks out from the frame, even more casually

than she does on p118, as if she is having a conversation with someone out of shot. These two representations

may be used to inform the cover lines accompanying them, reading "from shy newcomer to celebrated beauty,"

therefore, portraying her change in lifestyle due to stardom.

The quotes in the accompanying feature article from Keira herself, such as "I have an on/off switch and, when

I'm doing publicity, I'm absolutely OK, but when I'm not working and people come up to me, I've not got the

head on to handle that" present a truthful self-representation and suggest a parallel narrative in her personal

life to her star performance. She even discusses how she wanted to change her self-representation due to her

friend jokingly suggesting that she “make(s) people cry" leading to her newer roles being "contemporary,

approachable and, well, likeable." This suggests that she is trying in the article to exercise some control over

her own representation, which is supported by the writer’s quote "She is also 100 times prettier in real life than

off screen."

In Woman, Lisa Riley seems to have used previous negative representations of herself as inspiration for a new

more positive representation. The magazine’s cover image shows direct address to the camera; in contrast to

the paparazzi-style image of her in the past on the right third of the page. This is reinforced enforced through

non-verbal codes: Lisa is shown with her hands on her hips - as if to emphasise her weight loss via a visual

contrast to the paparazzi photo. We can read this as a triumph for the star in regaining control in her life.

This representation of Lisa’s weight loss supports a mainstream, positive, perhaps post-feminist ideology in

which lifestyle choices and physical appearance are valued most over other factors in modern society. Angela

McRobbie’s idea that “elements of popular culture are perniciously effective” might nowadays rely on

audiences recognising that in some ways the very fact that Lisa has felt the need to do this is a negative thing

(7).

The comparison of images is also used within the magazine. Despite being styled professionally, Lisa appears to

have an element of control over her construction, as on page 11, her "7-day plan" and her "exercise plan"

consist of first person pronouns. Lisa's full answers to the questions in the interview are also written, conveying

that the writers haven't influenced her language or interfered with her own representation. Both Elle and

Woman use three-point lighting in their photography to create realism which may be a strategy to allow

audiences to relate more with the stars.

Of the cover stars in the three magazines, Taylor Swift has the least control over her representation; therefore

she could be viewed as a celetoid star alongside her achieved status. Although there are two quotes from her

direct speech in the text, most of the language consists of the third person pronouns "her" and "she" suggesting

that the writer has control over her representation. This can be said for most of the stars in Girl Talk magazine,

some of which have small speech bubbles applied through editing with imperative language such as "come and

find us" and "grab a pen" used as strategies to keep the reader's engaged.  However, the magazine appears to

have represented her in a positive way by using photographs giving direct address to the camera and smiling

through non-verbal codes portraying a friendly mode of address.

The use of path-tracing within the editing of Girl Talk allows the writers of the magazine to have full control

over the images of stars. This editing technique leads to the ability to use more space on the pages and resize

the images to allow a focus on particular stars. The lack of shadows in the images may be used to avoid negative

readings of the stars.

It is interesting that the stars in Girl Talk are all older than the magazine's target audience. This may be a

strategy for the audience to aspire to be like the stars and possibly view them as a role model through ‘aspiration

and inspiration.’ However, Currie’s research in 1999 ‘Girl Talk: Adolescent Magazines and their Readers’ (8)

found that teenagers showed particular attraction to the advice in this magazine as they found them “useful.”

This suggests that readers focus on certain sections of the magazine that are of interest to them and therefore

may be less influenced by the construction of the celebrities.

To conclude, medium specific codes are employed by all three magazines in order to form the construction of

the stars. However, this highly constructed ‘performance’ used to attract the target audience of the magazines

leads to a lack of control over the star’s self-representation. Despite this, the stars in Elle and Woman have a

degree of control as they have used their own direct speech within the media text, whereas the stars in Girl Talk

appear to be highly constructed and have no direct involvement with the text itself.

Word Count: 1865

Bibliography

(1)

(2)

(3) REDICAN, S., 2015. National Readership Survey. Available from:

http://www.nrs.co.uk/downloads/pdf/womens_201509.pdf

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Talk_(magazine)

(5)

(6)

(7) CONNELL, B. 2010. Exploring the Media. 2nd ed. Amateur.

(8)