Comparing the advert to Oh! because of the contrasting view of the adverts outdated feminine representation against the oh!’s modern take on female empowerment and feminist thinking.

‘Raunch culture is the sexualised performance of women in media that can play into male stereotypes of women as highly sexually available, where its performers believe they are powerful owners of their own sexuality’ – Hendy and Stephenson

^ raunch culture seen in the advert, woman very subservient to man in sexualised clothing, compare to magazine expressing the talents of women and current female empowerment, taking back ownership of bodies and stereotypes, while showing all that woman can do for themselves and men

critisicigng advert off feminist critical thinking

NO CHANGING TO MAYBELLINE ADVERT

Raunch culture

Judith butler – queer theory suggesting gender is fluid – gay man, not killed becuase of 1963

Laura Mulvey – 1975 thesis on male gaze – active male passive female – scopophilia – pleasure of looking

stereotypical

reinforce typical masculine traits after gays allowed – gun connotes/symbolic masc traits

selling product through appeal to men – male words like grooming and score woman – whereas Maybelline inclusive, showig poc woman and gay man, also the porter for product

Released in 1967 – equal pay act was introduced in 1970, and homosexuality was decriminalised in 1967

Reinforcing traditional stereotypes in order to calm individuals who didn’t like the drastic changes occurring at the time

The use of adventurer clothing and jungle décor make shows a dangerous setting forcing the women to go to the man for “protection”

The women carry the man showing the subservient nature expected of women at the time, relating to society’s view on woman in the contextual time, also with the 5 women to 1 man ratio, highlighting its point towards male power, using the woman in heavy makeup and revealing clothing to attract the male gaze – hinting that the product has the ability to attract women.

In 60s,70s, connotations to the disappearance of the British empire – setting of jungle links to Britain trying to keep hold of power once the empire and colonies were deteriorating

Jean Kilbourne

In the late 1960s, Jean began her exploration of the connection between advertising and several public health issues, including violence against women, eating disorders, and addiction, and launched a movement to promote media literacy as a way to prevent these problems. A radical and original idea at the time, this approach is now mainstream and an integral part of most prevention programs. 

Curran and Seaton present the view that a free press relies on a free market where individual newspapers can compete through their political stances and points of view. 

Analyse the ways that the i and the Daily Mail attempt to establish a distinctive identity within this free market. To what extent has this been successful? 

Curran and Seaton’s summary of the theory of Liberal Free Press states that “the freedom to publish in the free market ensures that the press reflects a wide range of opinions in society” This allows for no political bias in the media which suggests there will be politically balanced stories within the media, therefore expecting the press to be as “the people’s watchdog, scrutinising the actions of the government and holding the country’s rulers to account”. This theory supports the idea that the media and newspapers specifically are there to serve the public, as they need to keep the interest of their readers to stay successful and recognise that those newspapers that do not “respond to the concerns of their readers”, cannot be as successful in a competitive space than alternative news outlets that do. Curran and Seaton’s belief however, that the media is controlled by a small number of companies who are driven by: Profit, power and logic, relates to the theory of Althusser who suggests the theory of Interpolation. This theory was created by people in high social and political power, stating “an ideology always exists in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices” suggesting that within media, there is always an ideology which is presented to the audience, often used as propaganda to make the audience believe a certain political view. This then challenges the idea that the liberal free press could ever even exist, as there will always be an imbalance in presentation of views, as each outlet will still have an urge to present their own ideologies, enhanced by the pressures of “competition, choice and new technology”; leading to a narrowing in range of opinions represented in the media, with one ultimate conglomerate owning multiple subsections with a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality or creativity. 

The Daily mail was founded in 1896 and is owned by General Trust PLC which owns multinational companies, also including the I, and DMGT, which owns all stages of production, with editing and printing in their own HQ. It circulates 1,158,192 copies, currently running as the most successful UK newspaper, with the main target audience of the lower middle class.  The daily mail also has a majority female readership, with female readers consisting of 52-55% of the total daily mail readership, and has also been shown as a middle-market newspaper, with both entertainment and information. The Daily Mail thrives off the idea that most readers would not care to factcheck articles, as they are produced in often short bites, although they known to include unreliable information, highlighted on the Wikipedia page for the Daily Mail, where “In February 2017, the Daily Mail became the first source to be deprecated as an “unreliable source” to use as a reference on the English Wikipedia”.  Furthermore, both magazines participates in advertising, including multiple fashion and entertainment pages combined with full-page advertisements. Therefore meaning even with the I being a centre left newspaper, they wouldn’t be seen including frequent strong-left political opinions because they rely on capitalism to survive. However, The Daily Mail disguise this by their use of creating original, unique articles, with sources that seem to hold strong evidence, with facts and figures, which as a result is often useful for persuading readers to adopt their political viewpoints.

An example to show the I’s moderate swing to the political left can be seen in an article for the front cover of the I edition released on November 5th, relating to the current situation with the American presidential election. The article, although appearing as only a factual piece of work, using short bullet point sentences to highlight some key points in the election, can be analysed to present a swing to the supporting of Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate. The first point states ‘poisonous legal battle begins as Trump opposes routine counting of postal ballot’, which can be understood, although subtle, as being anti-trump, as the speculation of trumps next actions were described as ‘poisonous’, which obviously holds negative connotations. The headline of the front page article also made sure to bring attention to Biden’s success by writing ‘Biden edges closer to the White House’. Whereas the Daily Mail’s headliner in their November 5th edition, known to be more right-wing aligned, highlighted Donald Trumps fight in the election, and only referenced the idea of trumps retaliation as trumps ‘campaign threatened to go to the Supreme Court’ with the phrase more so showing Trumps high authority than the huge complications he’s trying cause to bring himself back into the election. However both of these instances are intertwined into the articles so subtly, its obvious that these 2 outlets are keeping away from any strong political standpoint, as to appeal to a larger audience.

To conclude, its clear that Curran and Seatons description of the theory of the free market, is not as free as once thought, and that the idea of a truly transparent market could never exist. The Daily Mail and The i are two competing newspapers with developing ideas on how to appeal to their readers, while both maintaining individual identities. The competition between newspapers within the free market is always thriving, and consumers feed into this by purchasing the papers and engaging with articles online. The transformation of the public sphere has caused a large shift towards the political right, shown through The Daily Mail as the most popular newspaper in the UK, and the overall success of the i also in the media market.

 Harold Lasswell

In 1927 Lasswell broke down the line of communication from point A to point B, in which the SENDER is transferring a MESSAGE, through a MEDIUM (eg Print, radio, TV, etc) that has a direct effect on the RECEIVER.

The Daily Mail were saying there is a direct correlation between Donald Trump supports and his attitudes, and the rise in Covid-19 cases in a second wave. They’ve used a full page article for their audience, where many are already anti-trump, to give further information to sway them against him.

Shannon and Weaver

This approach was later adapted by Shannon and Weaver in 1949, as the Transmission model of Communication, which included other elements, such as NOISE, ERROR, ENCODING and FEEDBACK. In other words, there is the suggestion that the process of sending and receiving a message is clear-cut, predicable or reliable and is dependent on a range of other factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Paul Lazarfeld – 1950(ish)

He developed the Two Step flow model of communication. The role of key individuals in society all of whom are capable of exerting an influence on the process of communication. This makes it subject to bias, interpretation, rejection, amplification, support and change.

Audiences are active not passive. Audience consumption is based on consideration of what others think.

Uses and Gratifications – 1960’s

1. information / education
2. empathy and identity
3. social interaction
4. entertainment
5. escapism

 Rather than categorising the audience as passive consumers of messages, either directly from source or from opinion leaders.

& Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (1954)

It argues that people actively looked to satisfy their needs based on a hierarchy of social and psychological desires

1. Physiological – Breathing, food, water, sex.
2. Safety – Security of body, employment, morality.
3. Love/belonging – Friendship, family, sexual intimacy.
4. Esteem – Self-esteem, confidence, achievement.
5. Self-actualization – morality, creativity, spontaneity.

George Gerbner – 1970’s

Cultivation theory – “television cultivates from infancy the very predispositions and preferences that used to be acquired from other primary sources” – (television shapes the way individuals within society think and relate to each other)

Stuart Hall – 1980’s

The theory of preferred reading.

1. A dominant position accepts the dominant message
2. A negotiated position both accepts and rejects the dominant reading
3. An oppositional position rejects the dominant reading

Clay Shirky – 2000’s

Instead of the choice of three subject positions as offered by the theory of preferred reading, there were limitless, individual subject positions available to all of us, at any time, in any place, from any perspective?

Says there are no audiences, but individuals – not the same but target each one for their needs.

A position which allowed us to produce our commentary and communication on the outside world, while still maintaining the ability to comment, feedback, accept or deny

Operant conditioning – behaviour conditioning first thought by B.F Skinner

The Friction of free will – social conditioning determines behaviour, free will is never truly achievable in society as somewhere we were all manipulated into a certain notion even though we may feel everything is on our own choice.

Propoganda v Persuasion

Propaganda – expression of opinions or actions carried out deliberately with a view to influence the opinions or actions of other individuals or groups for predetermined ends due to phycological manipulations

Harold Lasswel – Hypodermic model = direct injection = passive audience

Curran and Seaton – power and media industries theory. Their theory follows the idea that the free press doesnt really exist as Media industries follow the normal capitalist pattern of increasing the concentration of ownership, with one ultimate conglomerate owning multiple subsections and creating less and less diversity. This leads to a narrowing of the range of opinions represented in the media and there is a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality or creativity.

The media needs a form of regulation or they can post whatever they want and it won’t matter if it’s real or not so we have a filter what media goes through also known as “flack” so the government could stop negative information against them to never be published for the public as well as watchdogs who are mainly anonymous people who keep an eye out for the public to ensure there is no corrupt people or media. FREE PRESS should be free from interference and be impartial/transparent.

• the United Kingdom’s highest-circulated daily newspaper
• According to a December 2004 survey, 53% of Daily Mail readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats
• Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, a cartoon in the Daily Mail by Stanley McMurtry (“Mac”) linked the European migrant crisis (with a focus on Syria in particular) to the terrorist attacks, and criticised the European Union immigration laws for allowing Islamist radicals to gain easy access into the United Kingdom. Despite being compared to Nazi propaganda by The New York Times, and criticised as “reckless xenophobia,” and racist, the cartoon received praise on the Mail Online website
• Most of the the readers are female, with women 52-55% being women
• Had an average circulation of 1,134,184 copies in February 2020, but between April 2019 and March 2020 it had an average daily readership of around 2.180 million
• The website has more than 218 million visitors per month
• When the newspaper was first released it cost half a penny where other newspapers cost one penny, and it was more populist in tone and more concise in its coverage than its rivals

Louis Althussar – argues that “there is no ideology except by the subject and for the subject” and that ‘All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject’. So Ideological state apparatus is a theoretical concept which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society (education, culture, the arts, the family, religion etc) keeps people in their place – ‘the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony is a tug of war for power, and that the balance of power can be changed, how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than other. Post colonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire.

Habermas- the creation of the public sphere an area for the people safe from the government the idea of making connections with each over rather underneath the control of the government, safe haven to discuss them.

Curran- The media needs a form of regulation or they can post whatever they want and it won’t matter if it’s real or not so we have a filter what media goes through also known as “flack” so the government could stop negative information against them to never be published for the public as well as watchdogs who are mainly anonymous people who keep an eye out for the public to ensure there is no corrupt people or media. FREE PRESS should be free from interference and be impartial/transparent.

Chomsky– the five filters of consent is the process that the media goes through to control and manipulate the public. Advertising, common enemy, flacking, Scale and

1. Pastiche = a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist
2. Parody = a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony
3. Bricolage = the rearrangment and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning
4. Intertextuality=  signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts
5. Metanarrative=  a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge
6. Hyperreality= an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality
7. Simulacrum= an image or representation of someone or something
8. Conumerist Society= one in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, resources and thought to “consuming”
9. Fragmentary Identities = the development of fragmented, alienated individuals living (precariously) in fragmented societies.
10. Implosion= a sudden failure or collapse of an organization or system
11. cultural appropriation=  the adoption of an element or elements of one culture by members of another culture
12. Reflexivity= the examination of one’s own beliefs, judgments and practices…reflexivity is about what we do with this knowledge.