This dissertation examines the impact of social media use on the brand equity of magazine brands. Building on an integrative model, which brings together classical theories of brand management and the frontiers of research in social media, this study examines one of the first magazines to incorporate social media in its marketing strategy. In addition to four interviews conducted with social media strategists and field experts, this study has used observation data and an online self-completion questionnaire in the analysis of its case. As a result, this study concludes that social media use impacts brand equity of magazine brands in four major ways: (1) Social media opens a new direct communication channel between the magazine brand and its audience; (2) Social media increases magazine brand’s presence and therefore the influence in the daily lives of its audience; (3) Social media facilitates magazine audience’s involvement in promoting the brand indirectly with its numerous content sharing functionalities, and in a very natural manner; and finally (4) Social media helps the magazine brand form and manage concrete relationships with its audience.

Det finns mycket tidigare forskning kring könsrepresentation i media, dock är det inte alla medie-genrer som uppmärksammas och mode har ofta en marginaliserad roll i genusforskning. I denna uppsats undersöks hur den franska modetidningen Vogue Paris representerar ”la Parisienne” – den parisiska kvinnan – utifrån de två motsägande vetenskapsteorierna feminism och post-feminism. Syftet med denna uppsats är att bidra till den feministiska debatten kring mode och könsrepresentation i media och ge ny insikt kring hur modetidningen representerar kvinnan. Genom en kvalitativ innehållsanalys av olika modefotografi ur två nutida nummer av modetidningen som representerar ”la Parisienne”, med Roland Barthes semiotiska modell som metod, besvaras frågorna: hur representerar Vogue Paris ”la Parisienne” genom modefotografi; på vilket sätt (re)konstrueras myten om ”la Parisienne”, samt vad innefattar denna myt; hur kan denna representation/konstruktion uppfattas utifrån feminism respektive post-feminism; och slutligen, hur förhåller sig denna myt till den dominerande ideologin om kvinnlighet? I min undersökning kommer jag fram till att Vogue Paris konstruerar en motsägelsefull och kontrastfylld myt om ”la Parisienne”, som innefattar en innebörd som både feminin och sexuell men även naturlig och maskulin. ”La Parisienne” är en mångtydig representation och genom en feministisk kontra post-feministisk läsning av bilderna belyses två olika sidor av denna, både ideologiska men även njutningsfulla och uppskattade, identitet. Denna representation och myt går emot flera tidigare feministiska synpunkter kring medierepresentationen av kvinnan och flera av de opponerande feministiska ståndpunkterna angående mode – min uppsats belyser att mode inte alltid har en sexuell eller förtryckande natur. Representationen av kvinnan i form av ”la Parisienne” går främst emot den dominerande ideologin om kvinnlighet, som naturaliserar kvinnans roll som fru, hemmafru, mamma och sexuellt tillgängligt objekt. Parisiskan representeras dock ofta som sexuell, men framförallt som en aktiv, självständig, bestämd, icke-traditionell och fri kvinna.

The central theme of the diploma thesis is fashion photography on the cover pages of Vogue magazine international editions. In the empirical section, the author uses a combination of quantitative content analysis and qualitative semiotic analysis based on the concept of the French semiotics Roland Barthes. The quantitative section of the analysis works with a sample of 87 photographs, from which 8 images are later selected for the semiotic part. At the denotative level, the analysis looks for common and different signs of individual editions. At the level of the connoted image, the author tries to decode the contained signs and their meanings. The semiotic analysis traces linguistic messages, the narrative, the paradigmatic and syntagmatic arrangement of photography, or the presence of national identity. Part of the work is also a theoretical section dedicated to fashion magazines and changes in the aesthetics of fashion photography. This part contains an excursion into the history and present of fashion photography and presents prominent personalities in the field. In the theoretical part, the author defines the terms that form the ground for empirical research. At the end of the work, the results of the analysis and their interpretation are presented.

In this thesis I consider photographs of the mannequin by Vogue's fashion photographer, George Hoyningen-Huene. Little scholarship has been written on Huene, as well as many other fashion photographers of the twentieth century. I examine four of Huene's works and his appropriation of the surrealist aesthetic, specifically the use of the mask and mannequin, which were directed at female spectators during the interwar atmosphere and development of the identity of the interwar modern woman. These images include Life-mask of Dolores Wilkinson (1933), Antoine with One of His Creations (1933), Scarf and Gloves by Chanel, Mannequin by Pierre Imans (1934) and Mauboussin Diamond-and-Topaz Corsage Clip, Mannequin by Pierre Imans (1934). I argue that his use of the mask and mannequin legitimates his work as he draws from the artistic milieu of nineteenth and twentieth-century high art.My survey describes photography's theoretical affinities with fashion and surrealism, the surrealist aesthetic and Huene's adoption of it in his fashion photographs of the mannequin, primitivism and Huene's adoption of high art themes and use of the mask, the interwar modern woman in a consumer society, female spectatorship and Huene's surrealist images functioning through a female gaze.

The aim of this study has been to, from a comparative perspective examine how the use of western models in Chinese advertising are perceived by chinese exchange students living in Sweden. The scientific approach in this study has been both with semiotic picture analysis and qualitative interviews. The study's empirical material has consisted of pictures of white models in fashion magazines published in China for example Vouge China. These pictures were presented to the respondents during the interviews, and questions were asked about them and the answers is also a part of this study's empirical material. The theoretical perspectives used in this study is based on theories about whiteness, stereotypes and occidentalism. The results in the study has shown that the whithe models are presented with high status both in the semiotic picture analysis and the qualitative interviews. It has also shown that the respondents prefer asian models over white in advertising in China, especially with products conected to the body and that the white stereotype is almost described identiaclly by all the respondents. Finally the result has found that the ethnicity is connected to picture enviroments, in that way if it is a white model it should be a western enviroment.

During World War II, Lee Miller was an accredited war correspondent for Vogue magazine. Miller was trained as a surrealist photographer by Man Ray, and her wartime work, both photographic and written, is indicative of a combination of journalism and surrealism. This thesis examines Lee Miller's war correspondence within the context of Vogue magazine, establishing parallels between the photographs and writing to determine how surrealism informs it stylistically and ideologically. Using surrealist techniques of juxtaposition and an unmanipulated photographic style, and the surrealist concepts of the Marvelous and Convulsive Beauty, Miller presented the war as a surreality, or a surreal reality. This study concludes by using Miller's approach to suggest a new concept of journalistic practice: surrealist journalism.

During the year of 2017 and 2018, the online magazine Teen Vogue saw an immense rise in reader statistic after laying all efforts on digital channels and increasing content about social issues to attract audiences of young people. Teen Vogue is a form of lifestyle journalism. This type of journalism is known for providing popular journalism, infotainment and human-interest stories with close ties to commercial interests. The target audience of Teen Vogue are adolescents or youth, which has for a long time been a group that often shows resistance and calls out for change. But, what happens when a magazine with close connection to commercial interests also aims to attracting a more socially conscious group? This research explores the connection between lifestyle media, consumption and social issues through a mixed method study of the articles in Teen Vogue. The first part of this research consists of a content analysis which identifies the main social issues within the content categories of the magazine and established the close connection between commercial issues and activism in the content. The second part of the study involves a critical discourse analysis which analyzes how language is used and how discourses of consumption interplay in the material. It was found that discourses of consumption as a means to extend one’s identity was intertwined with consumption as ethical or responsible, highlighting that being an activist is mainly a matter of consumption.

The purpose of this study is to examine how different cultures within clothing and fashion are featured in the magazine Vogues fashion reportages. The aim is to enlighten editors with infashion media of these cultural differences in order to increase diversity. To pursue the purpose of the study a qualitative approach was chosen where photographs were used as the data that later on was studied through an image analysis. The study looks at six different editions of the fashion magazine Vogue, which indicates a chosen research design as multiple case studies. The six Vogue editions are: US, Japan, Paris, Arabia, India and Brazil, in which clothes, color and context have been analyzed in each editions reportages. The editions Vogue US, Vogue Japan, Vogue Paris, Vogue Arabia, Vogue India and Vogue Brazil reportages wa sanalyzed and compared, and distinct cultural differences was seen in terms of color, cultural clothing and fashion contexts. While Vogue US, Vogue Japan and Vogue Brazil had a widerange in diversity regarding models with different appearance, which were light-skinned anddark-skinned, Vogue Arabia, Vogue India and Vogue Paris had not. Vogue Arabia, Vogue India, Vogue US and Vogue Japan were however diverse in the cultural clothing, where clothes that was shown in the reportages was a mix of different cultural clothes. The researchers therefore found Vogue US and Vogue Japan the most diverse.

The purpose of this research is to examine how visual communication can be interpreted in different ways and even in opposition to the creator’s intention, and to understand how different visual signs in images convey meaning to explain audience’s oppositional reading. Through a qualitative methodological approach, a semiotic comparative analysis of two covers of the fashion magazine Vogue featuring Kamala Harris will be carried out, a digital cover and a print cover. Theoretically, the analysis is grounded in postcolonialism, representation, and Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding model of communication. The results suggest that there are signs in the photograph on Vogue’s print cover that can be interpreted from a postcolonial perspective, and both oppositional and preferred readings are discussed.

Both the fashion magazine and the fashion exhibition are powerful and authoritative sites for the representation, interpretation, and construction of fashion. Despite various intersections between the two, their relationship has remained relatively unstudied. This thesis aims to reveal and problematize the relationship between leading institutions in the United Kingdom: British Vogue and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). An analysis of British Vogue’s content and the V&A’s fashion exhibitions of Vivienne Westwood: 34 Years in Fashion (2004) and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty (2015) is employed in order to unpack how these institutions are involved in defining and institutionalizing what fashion is in a national context. This institutional analysis considers the wider implications of the conception of British fashion produced by these institutions in regard to class, race, and gender, as Great British fashion is dependent on a system of representations that reveals hierarchies and exclusions.