Social, Cultural and Historical Contexts - Key Terms

Women's monthly magazines are more aspirational than weekly magazines
- feature people who you aspire to be like.
- increase aspirational value as it has more time to create a more aspirational magazine.

Rise of consumerism:
- Women's magazines were seen to enter a new phrase.
- James Curran suggests that, having gone through a 'make-do and mend' phrase in the 1940s, middle-market women's magazines became part of the 'shop and spend' euphoria of the 50s and 60s.

1960s Sexual Revolution:
- new era of female liberation.
- a significant factor in this regard was the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the early part of the decade.
- legislative changes ike the Married Women's Property Act, enabled women to gain a greater degree of financial independence than had previously been possible.

1960s Cultural Revolution:
- 'swinging sixties'.
- emergence of new trends in music, fashion and films.
- Britain was at the centre of this cultural revolution.

Editorial philosophy
- refers to a magazine's underlying values, attitudes and beliefs, and the particular viewpoint and it adopts. Helps to determine the style and content of the magazine. It influences decisions regarding what should and what should not be included in the magazine, and shapes and informs the magazine's mode of address and the way in which the content is presented to the reader.

Sub-genre
- smaller category of subdivision within a larger genre.

Socialisation
- process through which we learn the norms and values of our culture. Gender socialisation refers to the way in which we learn what is excepted of us as men and women. The media are often said to play an important role in this regard, functioning as agents of socialisation.

Psychographic
- divides the market into groups based on social class, lifestyle and personality characteristics.