The discussion about gender and ideals shown in mass media is a subject of great importance for the society in general. Media is playing an essential part when it comes to establish standards and values and we are constantly exposed to all types of impressions, whether we are aware or not. It is therefore of great importance that we understand how stereotypes are built and to gain a deep knowledge that would enrich the area of Media and Communication Studies. The aim and focus of this study was to analyze how male stereotypes is communicated in print advertising and how visual means of expressions helps to construct the masculinities shown. From a semiotic analysis of seven print adverts appearing in the Swedish lifestyle Magazine Café were we able to gain a thorough understanding about how male stereotypes are communicated and built. The result showed that different kinds of stereotypes are in fact used but it is still a hegemonic masculinity that is predominating. Traditional male characteristics are still in use but we were able to see strong indications of effemination, sexualizing and objectifying. Metro sexuality is a recurring feature in the adverts, and one of the factors that indicate that masculinity is something complex and multi layered. Our study also shows that activity is still essential when it comes to form male qualities, but the impression of the same are nowadays of more importance than the actual activity itself. Attributes and surroundings are key components, and something that implicates that the social climate is focusing on material things.

Our purpose with the study was to investigate how the image of a mother’s role is created by the magazines Mama and Husmodern. Mama is an existing magazine, but Husmodern ceased to exist in 1988. Both magazines focus on children, fashion and housework. We wanted to know what qualities you need to become a good or a bad mother. Also who is allowed to give advices on motherhood? We compared the magazines to find out how the mother´s role has changed over time. For that we used six issues of Mama from the year 2011, and six issues of Husmodern from the years between 1941 and 1959. The result of the research shows that mothers, now as well as in the 1940-1950's, are expected to put their children first. Nowadays, in Mama’s context, she is also expected to work. It is no longer socially acceptable to live as a housewife, which was the ideal in the magazine Husmodern. The result also shows that mothers, according to Mama, are in a constant state of stress. The magazine tries to offer them solutions for their stress-related problems. Husmodern on the other hand, puts a greater emphasis on moral, and offers the readers their moral values.

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The internet brings a great impact to the magazine industry no matter in the reading way or media form which also pushes magazines to setup their own websites. Through websites, magazines can provide readers 24 hours information and online service and will help to improve their brand image. We use the uses and gratifications theory to discuss the motivation and satisfaction of the content of the business magazine websites and the result shows the ¡§practicability¡¨ of the content is the key motivation for readers. The ¡§correct¡¨, ¡§immediate¡¨ and ¡§diversity¡¨ of the content of the magazine websites just fit users¡¦ expectation, however, the ¡§practicability¡¨, ¡§uniqueness¡¨, ¡§trust¡¨, ¡§easy-to-understand¡¨, ¡§profession¡¨ and ¡§In-depth¡¨ of the content still need to be improved, especially most of the magazine websites lack ¡§uniqueness.¡¨ Comparing to male users, female users are more willing to read the content which is practical, trustful, professional or has depth. The result also shows, ¤Ñ¤UÂø»xºô¯¸is the most popular business magazine website for users. Through this research we intend to show how users think of the content quality of the business magazine websites and provide useful suggestions for magazine industry.

In recent years, the men's fashion magazine has become a new media genre that attracts lots of attention. The sales, advertisements, and publications of the men's fashion magazine have reached a remarkable performance. Most important of all, men's fashion magazines not only provide the male readers with content about appearance beauty but also mold the male readers into a new kind of masculinity called ¡¥New Man¡¦. The ¡¥New Man¡¦ masculinity means that men can feel more comfortable to take some gender practices to improve their appearance beauty, such as putting on make-up, applying skincare products and so on. Researches about men's fashion magazine in Taiwan mostly focus on market performance, and the notion and practice of male readers are ignored. This present study drawn on the audience in everyday life theory, also employed the masculinity theory based on the sociologist R. W. Connell and the view of fluid identity (multiple subjectivities) based on the poststructuralist feminists. This study applied a methodology of qualitative in-depth interview with 6 male participants, tried to find the relation between men¡¦s fashion magazine and everyday gender practices of the readers. The study found that when the male readers interpret the ¡¥New Man¡¦ image in the men's fashion magazine, they do negotiate the mainstream masculinity discourse in their everyday life. Their negotiation involves their unequal investment in multiple subjectivities in everyday life. The study also found that men's fashion magazine is a text that can mediate the masculinity discourse, so the everyday gender practices of readers regarding the magazine text are their negotiation of masculinity as well. The male readers read men's fashion magazine and take ¡¥New Man¡¦ gender practices (ex. applying skincare products, putting on make-up, and taking care of figure) to create their own unique masculinity which exclude from femininity. In conclusion, the new version masculinity (New Man) does overlap the old one (mainstream or traditional masculinity), which not only shows the diversity of masculinity but also provide the male readers with some space to exert their agency and negotiate the meaning of ¡¥what it means to be a male¡¦.

Project Report (M.Pub.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Project Report (Master of Publishing Program) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

This thesis analyses the scholarship of Sandra Coney from the 1970s through to the present day. I argue that Coney’s scholarship has made an important contribution to understanding New Zealand society from a feminist perspective. Coney’s scholarship provides an important representation of feminism. Through her scholarship Coney has constantly questioned dominant ideals within New Zealand society. The recovery of New Zealand women’s history has also been a focus of Coney’s scholarship. This thesis examines New Zealand’s feminist magazine Broadsheet, to which Coney contributed numerous articles from the beginning of the second wave feminist movement. It also draws upon archival sources and Coney’s extensive published books. What influenced Coney’s work and the context of time periods is discussed and analysed. Key themes suggested by Coney’s scholarship are the importance of: women’s voices and experiences, women having authority over their own representation, a second wave feminist perspective of New Zealand society, and the importance of recovering the past and recording it for the future.

The purpose of this study is to give an insight in how music press is presented gender wise. The focus area lies in rock music and the study is made on British music magazine MOJO in the year of 2010. The study contains quantitative analyses showing how much room men are given compared to women. The study is also supplemented with image analyses of four covers spread out over the year. The main question is formulated as in, how much room do women get in music magazine MOJO 2010 and what output does this have on rock music’s gender characteristics? The main results show, amongst other things that 79% of all the articles are written with focus on one or more male musicians. 9% were written about both men and women and 12% of the articles were written about women alone. The writers are also dominated by men and the study shows that 84% of the 510 articles were written by men. MOJO is a male-dominated magazine where men write about men, and the first sight of the magazine says the same thing. None of the twelve issues during 2010 have a female artist on the cover. They show without any exceptions the upper body of white men in their middle age. In the content analyses we have also been counting matters as how much space each article is given and in which substance the article is written about. This shows that men are more often written about with their profession as main purpose while women are written about with focus on their privacy. Men are musicians and women are women. The result also shows that articles written about men get more space when it comes to number of characters than articles written about women.

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This thesis forms a sociological investigation of the ‘hipster’ subculture that has grown in importance in recent years. Using the methodology of semiotic analysis, it examines the trends and themes shown by the images that hipsters post on the microblogging website Tumblr, as well as analysing hipster journalism, texts and companies. This communication is conceptualised with reference to Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality in order to show that hipsters communicate in a way that distorts the perception of real space and results in the abstraction of the meaning of ideas like “global” and “local”. It also explores the importance of secret knowledge in a community that manages to be both secretive and extremely open, comparing this example with the historical case of the Beat Generation, who hipsters have adopted as their progenitors, and discusses how their influence drives the hipster to view the world as a literary text to be re-read and re-interpreted.