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Article: https://attitude.co.uk/article/strong-queens-make-strong-queens-gus-kenworthy-dropped-to-his-birthday-suit-to-celebrate-turning-27-1/19254/
Categorising an audience means establishing what the appeals to that audience are going to be. In this article, the appeal stems mainly from the colloquial title that acts as a Reference Code to popular culture language. This alludes to not only the need to be on trend, modern and fashionable as an audience, but using it as a plain of understanding to contemporary society, particularly in the LGBT community. This acts as an appeal for those who maybe don't know how to use the correct trendy language within their community, so by having it as commonplace, flippantly as a title, it may coincide with the Cultivation Theory of how to be 'in the know' of the gay community vernacular. This also appeals to an audience who may see the website as that 'hip' and 'trendy' guidance presence, further supported by the stance they take on exploring their sexuality in awe of celebrity/model culture. They take on the position of a friend, as the magazine is aware that a difficulty for some gay people is knowing real people who are also gay; this kind of comfort and support from the magazine could perhaps be emblematic of the fact these people seek guidance in an unfamiliar community where they have maybe been forced to be someone else.
Stereotypically, this article appeals to the mass men audience; the attraction to simpler forms of media provision such as fact-based language style ('The openly gay Olympic skier celebrated his birthday on Monday (October 1) and in an Instagram post, Kenworthy dropped down to his birthday suit to show he came into the world 27 years ago.'), the high-image to text ratio/short-paragraphing and a general lack of emotion given. This is due to how men respond more efficiently to plainer media, but this could also link into a more mature audience who also respond to language formalities. This is a reflection of the ABC1 demographic who may have a more educational and informed upbringing. Adhering to this article, the celebrity is an Olympian, and so this also aids in attracting that much more sophisticated audience who are professionals in what that do and can respect that the people spoken about are of the same relatibility.
Social Media:
Though the Twitter account is active and updates frequently, there seems to be little importance actually given to it. Every tweet is a direct link to the article the quotes/headlines given are from. The prominence of the website on Twitter is clearly key; the restrictions of characters on Twitter may ideologically link to the fact that LGBT community members want freedom and liberation, not confinement and definition. This, perhaps, acts as a springboard for further delving into the website as it seems to just be about getting Attitude's name circulating, not about actually engaging with audiences on this platform. Another feature I thought was interesting was that on most tweets, there is a 'This media may contain sensitive material' and a 'view' button. This crack-down on censorship may allude to Attitude's lack of effort in this site as being told what to post and how much it may offend people isn't really their ethos; they are stemming away from the oppressive trope, and trying to create more expressive and liberal media, which is limited, defeats the object.
Instagram, however, is a completely different ball game. There is no automated send button, everything is done much more manually. Images and photo-sets have to be selected, hashtags have to be created, stories have to be made. The regularity of their posting hits peak times; early morning time when the majority of the UK population wake up for school/work (again, linking to the kind of audience they have), lunch time when people are on breaks and subsequently on their phones, and infrequently during the evening as predicting phone times is more difficult then, but they know that people will see it sometime that night. The use of emojis seem more appropriate here, perhaps alluding to the younger target audience that dominate Instagram's platform due to the sheer personalisation of it; everything feels tailor-made for the user, and this kind of autonomy allows younger audiences to thrive as they have more to experiment with and alternate.
Facebook, alternatively, certainly aims to target their older audience. The political aspect of it alluding to this alone, but the distinct lack of emojis, emotive language, and overtly click-bait articles suggest that this audience is more mature. this may be because predominantly, older audiences don't want a completely personalised account that requires immense effort to obtain certain aesthetics or themes, Facebook is one of the most structured platforms of media. This connotes to not necessarily a busy man, but certainly a man who doesn't give extreme attentiveness to his image on social media. Alternatively, this may be because of the old stereotype that older generations are incompetent on social media, and Facebook is generally viewed as the most accessible, perhaps due to it's longevity. Older generations may need to rely on a trusted platform that has made it's way to retain the status it has, perhaps because it reflects them, in a way.
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