ATTITUDE ONLINE

INITIAL ANALYSIS

• basic, straightforward colour scheme - light blue, black and white, simple UX
• "opinion" - folio, audience knows they are about to read, can say something that they may not be able to get away with elsewhere
• "west end dancer" - large gay audience for west end shows, stereotypical
• "struggling with my body image" - stereotypically a female struggle
• #QueerAF podcast - allows audience to interact, assumes intertextual knowledge of internet slang, gay target audience
• re-appropriation - taking a word that used to be used against you, "queer"
• stereotypically attractive male looking into camera - appeals to gay audience
• male looks in character - dancing with an umbrella, wearing a bowtie, anchored by heading, connotation of old-school musicals
• social media icons 

lots of sponsors/adverts, makes the UX more difficult to navigate

advertises expensive and luxury holidays, assumption that gay people have more expendable income, as they are likely to have no children

How are gay men represented?

• conforms to stereotype that they are vain - lots of articles about self-care and appearance, article about "muscle definition" instead of inner strength, focus on aesthetics  
• vulnerability - references to the 'coming out' narrative
• hyper-sexualised - beyond sexualisation, models posed in a way to anchor the image to be about sex, big focus on openness and 'out there' sexualisation...
• ...however, the magazine and website have a clear target audience, and may be hidden from a general audience
• article on gay rugby team focuses on team's body image as opposed to their sporting abilities 
• extravagant and exotic lifestyles - advertises luxury holidays, "Thailand's best spots"
• proud of their sexuality - important as it gives the audience confidence, used to be illegal
• models all stereotypically attractive - singular representation, all have the same aesthetic, cultivates the idea that all gay men should look like that

Attitude represents a singular, stereotypical and reductive representation of masculinity, which enforces the hegemony; opposite of heteronormativity, as we assume that the audience isn't straight. It adopts feminine stereotypes that we should always look good and aspire to look like the people in these magazines.

The purpose of Attitude online is to promote the magazine - digital convergence

• binary opposition between masculine clothing and painted nails - confusing
• unzipped jumpsuit - symbolic code of sex, proairetic code, what is going on underneath?
• 70's gay stereotype moustache 
• makeup is messy - subverts stereotypes of what makeup should look like, challenges both male and female hegemonic norms
• hot pink headers - connotes femininity, sexuality and boldness
• hand on hip with shocked expression - camp and over exaggerated, polysemic as he also looks angry 
• black background - subverts conventions of magazines, symbolic code of aggression 
• "masculinity" - bold, san serif
• "is butch better?" - audience may question if they should be more butch
• magazine and online have a synergistic relationship - they work well together
• deliberately confusing - conforms to and subverts masculine stereotypes simultaneously, army jumpsuit and nail varnish, thick arm hair and well groomed hair, makeup and moustache
• sell lines reinforce a sense of acceptance - "kicked our ass", reference to being gay, "our" gives a sense of community

Stuart Hall - suggests that the media and the power of media representations play an important role in defining the ideological thinking of audiences regarding specific social groups.

Stereotypes affect the way people see the world and treat different people.

Stereotypes occur when there are inequalities of power, as subordinate groups are constructed as 'other'.

Attitude presents a very stereotypical view of gay men

INDUSTRY

PUBLISHED BY STREAM PUBLISHING, they also publish customer magazines

• Stream Publishing bought Winq, a luxury lifestyle magazine for gay men, to reduce their competition (horizontal integration). 
• 1/3 of a magazine's revenue stream is from advertising

PRESS PACK

• published 13 times a year
• "professional" - have cultural capital, prestige job (e.g. lawyer)
• "financially prosperous" - more expendable income, the 'pink pound' is the money available from gay people as they are less likely to have children
• "early adopters" - most likely to purchase new gadgets, instead of waiting for them to reduce in price
• "highly loyal to brands" - selling the audience to advertisers
• "style conscious" - stereotyping, makes it easier for producers to make money
• £157,000 for the inside front cover of Vogue magazine, very expensive in comparison to Attitude (about £9000), audience is much smaller
• Attitude is so stereotypical for financial reasons, makes it easy to sell the audience

WEBSITE LAUNCH - January 2014

Brand identity is the ideology of an institution 

• started very recently because it was not certain it would be successful
• another way to make money, more space for advertising
• ideology of the website differs from the magazine as the magazine is quite classy, it is targeted more towards the "professional" gay audience 
• the website targets the working class, which allows them to reach a secondary target audience
• they are not in competition, they have synergy, they do things that the other one cant do 

HESMONDHALGH - THE CULTURAL INDUSTRIES

• Stream have internationalised their business practise, as they own a dutch gay magazine (Winq)
• they also also horizontally integrated, as it reduces competition/ risk adverse