Etiquette was operationalized to include issues pertaining to manners,politeness and social graces.These items go beyond the“dos and don'ts”of planning but account for ways to avoid faux pas,prevent embarrassing situations and demonstrate polite social manners.Items in this category included how to address thank you notes and what constitutes impoliteness in public.
Party planning pertains to the ways in which people should plan for an event or gathering.These items include themes for parties,e.g.what kind of food to serve.These items are more geared toward practical ways to advance toward the goal of having a party as opposed to manner-driven behavior.
Checklists were operationalized as quizzes,outlines and to-do lists geared toward answering questions,reaching goals or assessing behavior.Items coded into this category included a list of items to be accomplished before an event and self-examination quizzes(e.g.“Are you obsessed with yourself Take our quiz!”).
Work/finances is a category operationalized to include items pertaining to work,business,investing and finances.This included items such as how to change jobs,the best way to get the job you want,how to avoid bad investments,how to make more money and how to finance large purchases.
Relationships were coded to include items that pertained to interactions with a husband,fiance,boyfriend or significant other.These items included articles on better communication within the relationship,how to build consensus with a significant other and what signs point to happiness/unhappiness.
Celebrities is a category that was operationalized to include articles pertaining to celebrity lifestyles,profiles on celebrities or updates on celebrity actions.This category included celebrity gossip columns,celebrity profiles and celebrity weddings.It did not include general fashion tips or advisories based on famous people.For example,if the article focused on Jill Hennessey(formerly of the T.V.show“Law&Order”)and what she has been doing since she left TV,it would be coded here.However,if the article were on Jill Hennessey's make up in her latest movie and what products the average person can buy to get that look,the article was coded as beauty.
Social issues was operationalized as addressing important issues that pertained to readers,held some sort of news value and could influence the lives of the reader.This includes articles on sexual assault,domestic violence and divorce as well as articles on news events of the day,such as the terrorist attacks of Sept.11.
Results
One of the larger criticisms levied against women's magazines is that they are heavily laden with advertisements.With that in mind,the first thing that needed to be assessed was whether bridal magazines followed that trend or not.A chi-square analysis was computed based on whether the coded entry was an article or an advertisement and in which magazine the coded entry fell.
The next thing to assess was the focus of the magazines.A study shows that fashion,beauty and relationship issues were the three most common types of articles in Glamour while travel,party planning and household were the three largest categories in Bride's.A chi-square analysis of this data proved significant(2=393.27,p<.001)demonstrating differences among the categories.A closer examination,however,shows that travel,health,party planning and household are the four cells that contribute the most to significance of the chi-square.The oft-criticized categories of fashion and beauty contribute far less to the significance of the analysis.Therefore,while the analysis is significant,the categories of contention are very similar,further demonstrating that the two magazines are not inordinately different in this regard.
Advertisements in these magazines were also analyzed in this manner.A group of data collected outlines the deive statistics for both Bride's and Glamour in regard to the type of advertisements present.In examining the percentages,the combination of beauty and fashion ads in each of these magazines comprises more than 65%of the total number of advertising.A Chi-square analysis was significant(2=1380.62,p<.001,phi=.715),but to more accurately represent the diversity and makeup of the advertising in these magazines,fashion and beauty ads were combined to account for a single category,thereby allowing differences in other categories to be more clearly represented.The second chi-square analysis also proved to be significant(2=437.02,p<.001,phi=.402)although it has a smaller value and a weaker effect.In this examination,there is virtually no difference in the newly created fashion/beauty category between the magazines.The categories that do strongly contribute to the chi-square are health,cigarette/alcohol,household,travel and food.Glamour has significantly more food,health and cigarette/alcohol advertising while Bride's had significantly more household and travel advertising.
