This case study explores the key phrases employed by men’s lifestyle magazine Men’s Health across a period of 12 months (12 issues). A qualitative content analysis will be done on the text found on the front covers of the magazine, the editorial letters, as well as the advice-seeking sections. The data will be collected and analysed, and available for further in-depth psychological analysis.
Research questions
1. What key phrases are repetitively used throughout the front covers, editorial letters, and advice-seeking sections?
2. How often are these key phrases repeated?
3. In what context are these key phrases situated?
4. Do these key phrases concern hegemonic masculinity?
5. What kind of masculinity is being portrayed by these key phrases? …show more content…
(2003: 543) Similar to Alexander’s study, the key phrases found on the front covers will be sorted into these respective themes and analysed.
Advice columns: Alexander (2003) also categorised advice topics into eight separate sections, including health, products, diet, sex, fat/weight reduction, appearance/surgery, fatherhood, and hard body. (2003: 547) For this specific research proposal we will follow a similar path, but will mainly focus on health, diet, and sex, in order to streamline the analysing process.
Editorial letters: Comparable to the previous two segments, the specific topics discussed in the editorial letters can be categorised into sections of their own. Alexander (2003: 544) suggests fairly similar topics as those in advice columns, thus; health, diet/food, sex, appearance, and products. Whichever topic the editor discusses will be categorised into a specific section and analysed.
Ethical implications
Since this case study does not include any participants there will be no ethical implications