De moderne vrouw smeert de boterham voor haar kind in een galajurk

This day the media and a lot of people talk about the relationship between media, commerce and women. There are people that suggest that media is dominant and powerful and that women are influenced by them. In the opinion of scientists and critics women can not escape from the power of the media. This thesis presents another way to approach media and her audience. In my opinion the public is not passive but active. And she has the possibility to criticise the content of media. I think that when we do research about the relationship between media and society we have to analyse both platforms at the same level. This thesis represents my survey about the relationship between the discourses that are powerful in women magazines and the repertoires that women in real life create and use. The conclusion of my thesis presents an answer on the main question of my survey: Which picture of the modern woman is outlined in the Dutch women magazines Libelle, Viva, Linda and Red trough editorial articles about career, motherhood, relationships and appearance and what is the relation between this picture and the way readers of the magazines talk about the life of the modern woman? With this survey I wanted to make clear that you can not speak about a passive audience and of an one-way communication line between media and media user. I analysed four dutch popular women magazines; Libelle, Viva, Linda and Red. By using the method ‘Critical Discourse Analysis’ I searched for discourses (ways to talk about a specific subject) that were present in the content of the magazines. The second part of my survey covers focus groups that I organised. I interviewed 14 women in four groups and asked them about their opinion about the four domains career, motherhood, relationships and appearance. To discover which repertoires women use when they talk about the life of the modern woman, I used the survey method ‘Critical Discursive Psychology’. I compared the outcomes of my media-analysis and my analyses from the readers with each other. In my thesis I discuss several points of view of different scientist before I present the outcomes and conclusion of my survey. I give an overview of the several ways that exist to talk/think about the relationship between media, culture, identity and the audience. These terms are always in relation with each other. Because of this it is important to discuss them in this thesis. This thesis also provides an overview of the history of the dutch women magazine. In the same chapter where I covered this, I also describe the important relationship between women magazines and women. At the end of my thesis I present the results and answer to the main question of my survey. My thesis presents another way than the usual way to approach media.