Meeste kujutamine ajakirjade Cosmopolitan ja FHM reklaamfotodel
Date
2008
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The aim of the present BA thesis „The portrayal of men in advertisements in the
magazines Cosmopolitan and FHM” is to analyse how men were portrayed in
advertisement in female-oriented magazine Cosmopolitan and what kind of similarities
and differences there may be in comparison with men in advertisement in the male-
oriented magazine FHM. The keywords in this thesis are: men in advertisements,
stereotypes, masculinity, new man and visual analysis.
Visual content analysis involving elements of Kress and van Leeuwen´s (2006) and
Bell´s (2001) method of „reading images” was carried out to analyse 93 advertisements
in Cosmopolitan where was at least one man portrayed. In this thesis 11 hypotheses were
posed and they were based on the results of previous media researches or theories.
Although the portrayal of men in the advertisements in Cosmopolitan and FHM were
quite similar, there are some remarkable differences in these advertisements analysed.
The results of this study showed that most men in both magazines were photographed
from the personal distance and therefore the emphasis was laid on their faces. This result
could be viewed as stereotypical portrayal of men. Also most men in both magazines
were in a dominant stance- they were standing. However, in Cosmopolitan there were a
number of men sitting or in a lying position and this indicates that men physically
lowered themselves. Men were usually portrayed with serious faces and did not smile.
But in Cosmopolitan there were a little bit more men with smiling faces. Although many
researches have found that bodies of muscular men are quite numerous in present day
advertisement business my results did not confirm these previous findings, because most
men in the current study were not with muscular body type. Also the results of my study
did not confirm the tendency that erotic male images in advertisements have increased,
because in my study most men did not expose their bodies in erotic manner. In both
magazines the most popular masculinity types were the consumer and the urban man and
the most advertised products were beauty products. In both magazine advertisements men
were usually in the passive decorative role. The most significant difference between these
two magazines was that in FHM most men were depicted alone and were showing not touching anybody, but in advertisements in Cosmopolitan most men were portrayed with
a woman and they were touching each other. In Cosmopolitan men were depicted as
offering themselves as an object and also there were a number of men who looked at a
woman with a “male gaze”. In FHM men were presented through demand/affiliation
category, which means they looked directly at the viewer.
In conclusion the results of this study showed that in FHM men were portrayed more in a
stereotypical way and in Cosmopolitan men were more often depicted as a new man.
Keywords
bakalaureusetööd, ajakirjandus, trükiajakirjandus, ajakirjad, meesteajakirjad, naisteajakirjad, sugupooled, mehed, maskuliinsus, reklaam, fotod