Page 110 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

Sport and Magazines • 99

understanding of the unconscious reveals identity to be forever fluid and unstable. An
important phase in the development of identity for Lacan was the mirror stage. Lacan
described this stage of child development as one where the child begins to understand
itself as a social being, separate from its mother. Lacan observed that a six-month-old
baby may be unable to walk or even stand up, but will become fascinated with its
reflection in a mirror. Even though the child experiences its body as out of control

and disconnected, in the mirror, it appears as a whole, fully formed person. The child
learns, therefore, to identify with an idealised image of itself. The child sees itself in

the mirror as both itself (its reflection) and not itself (only its reflection). As Sarup

(1996: 36) suggested, we need not take the mirror in this account literally; rather,
we can see it as ‘a point outside the self through which the self is recognised’. This
process enables the child to understand itself as a subject, to enter into language—as
a speaker (I), addressee (you), and someone mentioned in others’ speech (he or she).
However, the mirror only gives the child an imaginary experience of what it is like
to be whole. Since this identification is based on an illusion or misrecognition, at

the heart of identity is a sense of lack. For Lacan, the aim of psychoanalysis was to
enable ‘human subjects to recognise and name their desire—the relation of being to
a lack’ (Sarup 1996: 38). Lacan’s account of identity and lack is useful for making
sense of the feelings associated with the consumption of magazines and other media
and the fantasy of wholeness and fulfilment they induce.

According to Lacan (1977), therefore, an inescapable sense of lack exists at the
core of our identity, which we spend our lives attempting to overcome. Magazines
offer something to us that might compensate for our feeling of lack. They present us
with idealised images of ourselves to identify with, but to sell us the magazine, they
encourage us to feel insecure or empty without it. Imagine the process of going to
the store to purchase the latest edition of your favourite magazine. Scanning the
titles, you may experience disappointment that the magazine you are looking for is
not there. Finally, you recognise it, and you feel a sense of relief that you have found
it. This pleasure is heightened by the expectation of satisfaction from reading the
articles, looking at the images and exploring the contents. In this way, the magazine
presents the promise of creating a more fulfilled and complete self.

This chapter will, therefore, examine in detail the ways that magazines address
their readers. The following sections will refer to a number of health and fi tness
magazines to show how they construct both a direct address and more subtle indirect
address to a potential purchaser. Different aspects of the magazine will be considered
for the way they contribute to the overall address, creating differences within the
market for health and fitness publications. The magazines discussed are British edi-

tions of Runners World, Zest, Health & Fitness, Ultra Fit and Men’s Health (Septem-
ber 2007) and US editions of Women’s Health and Men’s Health (March 2006). The
cover of the magazine acts as a kind of advertisement for the magazine as a whole
and so will be given attention in its own right. In particular, the cover image, cover
lines and layout will be considered for their contribution to the address to the reader.