The Portrayal of Female Fashion Magazine (Rayli) and Chinese Young Women's Attitudinal and Behavioral Change
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE FASHION MAGAZINE (RAYLI) AND CHINESE YOUNG WOMEN’S ATTITUDINAL AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGE THE PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE FASHION MAGAZINE (RAYLI) AND CHINESE YOUNG WOMEN’S ATTITUDINAL AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGE Chen Wanxing This Independent Study Manuscript Presented to The Graduate School of Bangkok University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Communication Arts 2016 © 2016 Chen Wanxing All Rights Reserved Chen, W. Master of Arts in Communication Arts, April 2016, Graduate School, Bangkok University. The Portrayal of Female Fashion Magazine (Rayli) and Chinese Young Women’s Attitudinal and Behavioral Change (80 pp.) Advisor: Asst. Prof. Suwannee Luckanavanich, Ph. D. ABSTRACT Nowadays, female fashion magazines are one of the ways that women gain information of fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment. They also teach women how to dress, how to be beautiful and how to upgrade themselves. Female fashion magazines are no longer a stuff that people read it for pastime. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the portrayal of female fashion magazine (Rayli) and Chinese young women’s attitudinal and behavioral change. Rayli magazines as a female fashion magazines study sample. The style of presentation, contents and advertisements in Rayli magazines were concluded. A qualitative semi-structural interview method was used in this study. Collect data from previous studies to conduct questions for the materials of interviews. Fifteen Chinese young women who live in Nanning at least one year were invited into this interview. A uses and gratification theory was used as the foundation of this study to help the researcher figure out the answer of research questions. This research used thematic analysis to analyze the data collected from semi-structural interview. According to the findings, there are six concepts that will influence Chinese young women’s attitude and behavior toward lifestyle and work. This study can be seemed as a guideline to help female fashion magazines improving their contents. Keywords: Portrayal, Female fashion magazines, Rayli magazine, Chinese young women, Attitudinal and behavioral change, lifestyle and work. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Suwannee Luckanavanich for her unappreciated and valuable guidance throughout the process of my Independent study writing. I also would like to thank the respondents of the interviews for their inspiriting answers directed on the improvement of my paper. And of course I would like to thank my parents and my friends for their supporting love and kindness. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT............................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.......................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION............................................................................... 1 1.1 Rationale and Problem Statement................................................................. 1 1.2 Objectives of Study....................................................................................... 12 1.3 Scope of Study.............................................................................................. 12 1.4 Research Questions....................................................................................... 12 1.5 Significant of the Study................................................................................. 13 1.6 Terms of Definition....................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 2: LITERATIRE REVIEW....................................................................... 16 2.1 Related Literature and Previous Study.......................................................... 16 2.1.1 The Influence of Female Fashion Magazine...................................... 17 2.1.2 The Role of Chinese Female Fashion Magazine................................ 19 2.2 Portrayal of Female Fashion Magazine......................................................... 21 2.2.1 Portrayal of Rayli Magazine............................................................... 23 2.3 Attitudinal Change......................................................................................... 25 2.4 Behavioral Change........................................................................................ 26 2.5 Related Theory............................................................................................... 28 2.5.1 Uses and Gratification Theory (UGT)................................................ 28 2.6 Conceptual Framework................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY............................................................................... 31 3.1 Research Design............................................................................................ 31 3.2 Population and Sample Selection.................................................................. 32 3.3 Research Instrument...................................................................................... 33 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY (Continued) 3.4 Instrument Pretest......................................................................................... 34 3.5 Data Analysis................................................................................................ 34 3.6 Data Collection Procedure............................................................................ 35 3.7 Demographic Data of the Sample................................................................. 37 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS............................................................. 38 4.1 Introduction of Findings of the Study........................................................... 38 4.2 Research Findings......................................................................................... 39 4.2.1 Theme 1: “Gentleness and Femininity”............................................... 40 4.2.2 Theme 2: “Asian Orientation”.............................................................. 42 4.2.3 Theme 3: “Practicality”........................................................................ 44 4.2.4 Theme 4: “Confidence and Positive Attitude”..................................... 46 4.2.5 Theme 5: “Healthy and Exquisite Lifestyle.”...................................... 50 4.2.6 Theme 6: “Ordinary to Extraordinary.”............................................... 52 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION...................................................................................... 55 5.1 Summary of In-depth Interview Analysis..................................................... 55 5.2 Discussion..................................................................................................... 58 5.3 Limitation of the Research........................................................................... 62 5.4 Recommendation for Further Application.................................................... 63 5.5 Recommendation for Further Research........................................................ 63 BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................... 65 APPENDIX................................................................................................................ 76 BIODATA................................................................................................................... 78 LICENSE AGREEMENT OF DISSERTATION/THESIS PROJECT....................... 79 viii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1.1: Motivations for Reading a Magazine.......................................................... 2 Table 1.2: 2011 Annual Reports of Fashion Magazines............................................... 4 Table 1.3: Nanning Statistical Bulletins for National Economic and Social Development............................................................................................... 10 Table 3.1: Respondents Demographic......................................................................... 37 xi LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1: Conceptual Framework ............................................................................ 30 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale and Problem Statement Nowadays, female fashion magazines are one of the ways that women gain information of fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment. They also teach women how to dress, how to be beautiful and how to upgrade themselves (Yang, 2001). Female fashion magazines are no longer a stuff that people read it for pastime. The female fashion magazine was born under the development of the material civilization and the spiritual civilization. Female fashion is disseminating the human culture to the world. Meanwhile it builds and improves its own culture, highlighting the richness of cultural practices of human culture (Pan, 2012). Female fashion magazine exists as a text format. It enhances the communication between media and audiences. In the process of female fashion magazine incorporate itself into human being’s daily life. There is a profound effect to people’s cognition, emotion and behavior which