Week 3: Topic 3

https://www.look.co.uk/fashion_forum/thread.cfm?MessageBoardID=4&page=9

I decided to analyse 'Look' magazines fashion forum/message board. When first logging on to the site I found that you didn’t have to register to view the blogs only to comment on a particular blog. There are various forums that you can view according to what you are interested in. This helps to attract a wider audience to the forums, and you can also create your own for other people to view and comment on. It is very easy to access various parts of the site as well as the forum. It also has appealing adverts to the right hand side of the page to entice the female audience to these products.

The Forums are very modern and are surrounded by feminine traits and colours as the website is specifically designed to appeal to a female audience. When looking at the Usernames of the members of the forums people can sign in with their own personal user name or as a guest. Many of the user names appear to be the personal first name for example ‘Ella’ where as some surprisingly have used their full names. There are also members who have experimental/unique user names such as ‘missapplehead’ and 'addictedtofashion'. These unique names help to conceal the real identity of the person.

From the forums that I have opened none of the participants have a profile picture, which has made me assume that it is not an option that you can have on this site. Although you can insert smiley faces and other emotions to or express some form of emotion towards your comments. When reading a couple of the comments on the forum everyday colloquial language is used which helps to imply a relaxed tone to the conversation. Also people appear to be very friendly to each other, almost as if they have known each other for a long time, when they probably have only just started speaking to each other. Many of them seem very confident and have a specific opinion. This may or may not be how they are in real life. But as mentioned in a previous post speaking on the internet can give you an air of confidence as you are talking to a screen and not a person face to face.

It is very simply to post or reply a comment back. As it is a fashion magazine most of the comments are of course about fashion. Most of the questions seem to be women needing help from others. One example is a lady is asking where she can get a specific item of jewellery from that she has seen a famous person wear. People have gladly commented back or given her some advice to help find what she is after. The people that use this forum seem to be here to help/advise each other, not cause disagreement but purely just enjoy discussing the topic of fashion. This relates back to the previous topic question of people ‘fitting’ into a group in a digital presence.

The people that write on this forum site, obviously all have the knowledge of fashion in common. The magazine is aimed around women so I feel it is fair to say that the website is designed for females. The magazine is appealing to the younger/mid thirties age threshold so I would say the website is also. Both the website and magazine and popular and modern suggesting that their viewers/members are too like this. This is also reflected in the structure of the forum as it is easy to navigate around. Also from the pages and questions I looked at there were no male comments or attributes. Many of their screen names include fashion names or brands. As there are no profile pictures it’s hard to assume what these people are like. However they all seem to talk in a very friendly manner towards each other as let’s face it they’re all just women that want to have a good gossip about fashion.