The use of the female image in media: A content analysis of magazine covers with presence in social media

Authors

  • Maria Dolores Brito-Rhor Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Abstract

In order to determine the use of the female image on the covers of the largest magazines in Ecuador, an analysis of psycholinguistic content was carried out from two perspectives: an investigation of the types of sexual information in advertising based on the theory of Courtney, Whipple and Reichert and the relevance according to the Sperber and Wilson Model of the lexical-semantic nexus between the texts and the images referred to. All the covers published on Facebook from February 2012 to December 2017 were analyzed (n=390); with the following results: 45.7% use at least one woman, 18.1% use at least one man and 36.2% of the covers have no presence of a human figure. From this it can be inferred that in 23.5% of the covers there is some degree of nudity and 39.5% of the suggestiveness of eroticism was also evidenced. In journals in which there was at least one female model it was found that 82.7% of the covers contained suggestiveness of eroticism; in Home it was 100%, in Things it was 96.7%, in Vistazo 43.9%, in Ekos 25% and in America Economy 0%. Likewise, the use of implication, i.e. unconventional interpretation, through ostensive stimuli of up to 79.5% in the front pages with the presence of at least one woman was observed.

Keywords:

female image in media, magazines, sex in advertising

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