Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings

The front magazine page suggest that the anchorage which is the picture of the male figure is linked with the header as it means ‘MENS HEALTH’ a way to which help the male audience to tag along and read more on how to look like the front male figure on the page.

The media naturalises ideas through repetition as there are many phrases that have similar meaning suggesting it has one overall meaning to portray.

Character oppositions can be found in real life world products as we can see in the magazine that it deploys the male audience to want to be like them and make them want to change to be more masculine.

It creates compelling narratives as as the audience are more likely to engage with a media product if they are presented with the promise of a narrative clash.

Steve Neal says that audience targeting that genres create an appeal for specific audience segments for example to attract the male audience they want something to be portrayed to make them seem powerful and strong to make all of their masculine traits come out.

Barthes says that imagery does not construct meaning by itself, it works alongside text-based components. Headers and taglines give meaning to photos while photos themselves provide an accompanying visual explanation for news copy.

You can apply David Gauntlet’s work into the men’s magazine as men are expected to assume stereotypically masculine identities to gain the role of the primary earner.

The school of life video how to be a man presents the cool man and the warm man. This links to Gauntlet’s notion that identity is fluid and negotiated. Although this is not a theory we can see examples of the cool man and the warm man is men’s health.

For instance on page 8-9 it links to Gauntlet’s work as a huge diversity of identities is portrayed. Men are assumed to have masculine identities to portray the role of the primary earn.

Lasswell’s model

The sender is Hearst communication. The CEO is Steven Swartz

The message is to go out into psychological terms and make sure that social control is better in health.

To whom – Active people who are willing to listen. People who are willing and encouraged to do stuff, you can talk about people who have a stable relationship.

Channel – Print through lifestyle magazine, also online on their website.

With what effect – How much paper can they sell, they attract audiences to sell more. To promote it as well

Lazarfeld relates to Men’s health as we can see that Vin diesel (Male figure) in the picture is the dominant signifier making him the opinion leader making the audience want to passively seek out how to become like him although you could argue it can be active as the public is seeking out information to gain the knowledge on how to be like him. However, the concept has been a subject of growing criticism, leading to a decline in the popularity and attraction of the original concept which is taking away the idea of men’s health.

Uses and gratification can be seen to link with Men’s health in page 7 as that the idea of media audiences are active rather than passive, meaning they do not only receive information, but also unconsciously attempt to make sense of the message in their own context. This is because it is showing us a picture of cars where it is making the influencer want to have a motive to consume it. Their are many audience’s that may need new cars so therefore it is a good opportunity for the product to be sold. This could be seen as a sense of escapism as they may want to participate in the role of buying the product to make it enjoyable for them.

On page 48-49 we can link this to men’s health as it is suggesting that there is a various of ways that decoding can be interpreted as we can see a picture of a man in some sort of abandoned studio trying to reflect on how men could be like him all muscular and not fear anything. Stuart Hall suggest that media is represented through codes and be can be seen through imagery. Transcoding can refer to representation strategies that contest stereotypical assumptions.

-Semiotics, signifier, codes and conventions.

-Positive and negative stereotypes/ reactionary and radical.

-Manufacturing consent, mass media filters e.g. we are the product of advertisement.

-Dominant ideologies – stereotypes.

-Identity through negotiation, constructed. Fluidity of identity.

-Audience position, misrepresentation links to representation.

-Key feminist thinking- Laura Mulvey the mail guys.

the school of life’s video “how to be be a man” presents the cool man and the warm man, this links to gauntlets notion that identity is fluid and negotiated. Although this isn’t a theory we can can see example of the cool man and the warm man in Men’s health

for instance:

Semiotics – The man who is in the front cover is the signifier as he is the largest object in the front cover, the signification of him is that he is strong and manly, he is also an icon as its not the real vin diesel. The man is connotating that if u want to look like him, you have to read the magazine.

Narrative –

Print Language – The magazine is reactionary because there is a strong guy which people typically accept as its a fitness magazine, the colours are also blue which indicates it to be a boys / mans magazine backed up by the masthead.

Genre – The genre this fits into would be what its like to be a Man and it includes similar features that relate to being a Man.

Representation – The dominant signifier seems to have a collective identity as he seems to represent the whole group of men.

The school of life video, how to be a man presents the ‘cool man’ and the ‘warm man’ this links to Gauntletts notion that identity is fluid and negotiated. Although this is not a theory we can see examples of the ‘cool man’ and the ‘warm man’ in men’s health

For instance, on page 1 you will see the cool man, who is vin diesel. And on page 101 you will see the warm man who seems to be a lot more frail and older than the first man

Lasswells Model –

• Sender – Hearst Communications
• Says what – Get greater health over your physical, mental and emotional lives of a man.

Stuart Hall (Representation) –

Dominant – is the fact that the audience accepts and decodes the message the way the producer intended it to be.

Negotiated – For example in GTA you may be willing to negotiate your identity by killing people in the game and robbing people, but do not agree with those morals in real life.

Opposition – you wouldn’t see a purpose of the men’s health magazine and wouldn’t sell to you.

The media chooses how things and people are represented, usually by the higher ups which reflect their values and identities. They do this through stereotyping and choosing whether they want to reflect what’s going on in a positive or negative way (eg. Brexit, one paper may say its good, the other bad)

George Gerbner – Found that heavy viewers of news were more likely to overestimate crime rates and risk of personal exposure to crime and underestimate the safety of their neighbourhoods which is called the World Mean Index.
Mainstreaming – The more mainstream media that we consume the more “mainstream” we become.

Clay Shirky – Believes that Gerbners ideas are no longer applicable to contemporary models of media consumption