Representation Research

This cover follows Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze, using females  “As erotic objects of desire for the characters within the story, and as erotic objects of desire for the spectator."  (Mulvey, 1975), because it features a female dressed quite formally, with pink lipstick allowing her pouting expression to protrude, which is typically seen to be arousing to the male gender, with the pink of the lipstick and the attire connoting love and romance. Furthermore, her positioning can be seen as provocative because she has her hands on her hips and is leaning forwards, towards the audience, and this can be seen as flirtatious and could be an indication of power.
I may use a female in my cover image in order to fulfil the needs of the male audience according to Mulvey's theory.
I may use this theory on my magazine to represent the female audience and also attract the attention of males to read more into my magazine about the female featured.

 This cover conveys the representation of sexuality in a way that is very stereotypical in media "It chooses that aspect of gay male behaviour (SELECTION), inflates it into the defining male characteristic of male homosexuality (MAGNIFICATION), then establish it as the most easily recognizable image (REDUCTION).”  This is demonstrated in this image by the use of leopard print on the clothing of the male on the left. This is seen to be a very feminine thing, therefore to be worn by a male can be seen to be representation of the individuals sexuality, specifically homosexuality. I may not represent sexuality theory in my cover image because the proportion of the target audience for the genre of rock whom are not heterosexual is a minority. I may use this on my magazine to greater my audience by attracting an audience of people of sexual minority that are not always represented on covers. Though the sexual minority audience tend to not listen to this genre of music and therefore this would not necessarily make them want to read the magazine. Also, people of sexual minority are not that common in this genre in terms of artists, and if it is these people don't tend to follow the stereotype set for them and thus it would be hard to represent them in an obvious way that would make them instantly recognizable as in the sexual minority. 

This cover represents two different stereotypes. The first follows the theory of Bill Osgerby about youth when he said that "Crime, violence and sexual licence have been recurring themes in the media’s treatment of youth culture.” (Osgerby, 1998). This is represented on this over by the use of a stereotypical "gang" image with young men, created with use of black (which connotes danger, violence and death), the covering of part of the frontman's face and also with the hammer seemingly cracking the screen. This shows the youth as violent, thug-like and therefore criminals, as Osgerby stated. I will not be using an image like this because I don't want to promote violence and criminality to the audience, even though that goes against a key stereotype of the rock music genre. I may use this on my magazine in order to clarify the audience of youths and attract the attention of an audience that may idolize this kind of youth. However, I don't want to promote violence, so I think this kind of youth representation may not be appropriate for my magazine. 

The second stereotype this cover represents is racism and how "Certain images of Black people as deviant trouble-makers, for example, are perpetuated by the media in order to encourage the mass audience to view blacks in a certain way." This is shown on this cover through the male on the left being of a different race whilst being in a group of seemingly violent and criminal youths, thus conforming to this example of the media forcing certain views upon a mass audience. I won't be using any people of a different race on my cover because, although this example cover goes against this, generally rock music is more targeted at and enjoyed by white people.