Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.). / Written for the Dept. of East Asian Studies. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2009/06/11). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 224-239). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2004. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 44 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 37-38).

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-39).

Women's magazines have been accused of using their power of reaching millions of audiences to influence ideas such as the perceived role of a woman in the society; how she must behave, what she must do to win the attention of men as well as inform her of her limitations (Marshment, 1997). Women's magazines do this through the advertisements and stories that they publish. Ballaster et al. (1991) posit that the media has very powerful means of influencing and persuading audiences to think, act and behave in a particular may. The media has the power to shape and direct the way in which audiences perceive themselves. Evidently, it creates a desire in people to improve themselves by purchasing a certain product. Following a critique of seven women's magazines, this study acknowledges the power of the media to influence its audience and analyses the use of the theme of Valentine's Day in stories and advertisements of the selected magazines. The analysis explores how such influence can result in the promotion of gender stereotypes in society. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Although Hong Kong ranked 15th globally in the United Nations Gender–related Development Index 2013 (UNDP, 2014), a discrepancy was identified between female images portrayed in print media and the actual gender equality progresses achieved (Equal Opportunities Commission, 2009). Media portrayals of female, particularly body beauty advertisements, disseminate female stereotypes and unequal gender ideologies. According to Wolf (1992, p.12), evaluating females with reference to a “culturally imposed physical standard” is the “last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact”. The research investigated the current female identities textually and visually constructed in beauty culture magazine advertisements from an issue of the popular local female magazine, the (More) Oriental Sunday. It also explored how local consumers are approached with the female portrayals visually. It differs from the existing studies on local female portrayals in the media in terms of its approach and focus. As opposed to adopting content analysis, survey or focus group discussion, the research is based on a systematic linguistic analysis of beauty culture advertisements. It adopted a Dialectical-Relational Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2009) and utilized Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), Visual Social Semiotics (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) as well as Goffman‘s gender display categories (1987). The findings show that discourses of objectification and self-objectification were concurrently represented in the female identities constructed textually and visually. The study implies that, in general, beauty culture magazine advertisements perpetuate the ideologies of beauty myth, emphasized femininity and patriarchy to enforce the social dominance of male and maximize profit simultaneously. / published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Thesis (Maste). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-127).