The aim of this comparative quantitative content analysis was to investigate how US and Dutch teen girl magazines cover sexual desire (i.e., sexual wanting, and pleasure) and sexual danger (i.e., sexual risk, and negative physical/health consequences of sex). Relying on the sexual scripts framework and Hofstede's cultural dimension of masculinity/femininity, we examined (a) how the coverage var...

In visual media, men are often shown with more facial prominence than women, a manifestation of sexism that has been labeled face-ism. The present research extended the study of facial prominence and gender representation in media to include magazines aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) audiences for the first time, and also examined whether overall gender differences in fac...

Purpose – Repeated exposure to unrealistic notions of female beauty and body shapes, and limited gender stereotypes, may result in the internalization of those standards by pre-adolescent girls. The purpose of this content analysis is to examine the celebrity role models to whom young girls are exposed via magazines specifically targeted at the “tween” audience. Female celebrities are contraste...

The authors conducted a content analysis of couple images in advertisements in six consumer magazines (Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Glamour, Men’s Health, Esquire, and GQ) published in 2005 and 2006. The results suggest that the typical couple image portrayed in ads in mainstream magazines was a young, heterosexual Caucasian couple with thin bodies and a trendy style either posing in front of the camer...

Based on gender schema theory, social role theory, and social-cognitive theory, this study investigated whether biological sex and gender conformity (femininity and masculinity) predict selective exposure to gender-typed magazines and whether this exposure, in turn, reinforces gender conformity. Participants browsed full issues—three women’s magazines, three associated with male readers, and th...

Using data from American magazines, we explore the relationship between newsstand and subscription prices and magazine characteristics. In particular, we distinguish between magazines that provide benefits in the future (investment magazines) versus those that are simply fun to read now (leisure magazines). A consumer with a present bias at the newsstand discounts the future payoff of the inves...

The aim of this study was to assess the content and extent of food references and marketing within popular children's magazines in Australia. Sixteen popular Australian children's magazines were selected, as determined by readership and circulation data. Back copies of each magazine were purchased for publications released between January and December 2006 (n = 76). Each magazine was assessed f...

The desire to be tan is a phenomenon that public health researchers have investigated, as exposure to UV radiation increases the chances of developing skin cancer.  Media messages in women's magazines have been shown to contribute to this problem. Much less is known about the prevalence of skin cancer prevention messages in these magazines. This study's aim was to identify the number and type o...

This paper examines the empirical relationship between alcohol advertising placements in magazines and adolescent readership. Poisson and negative binomial regressions are applied to count data on cumulative placements by beverage for 35 major magazines during the years 1997-2001. The results indicate that demographics other than youth readership determine the placement of alcohol advertisement...