Newspaper | The i | The Daily Mail |
Summary | Launched in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, the Daily Mail is an award-winning newspaper which aims to deliver the latest headlines and compelling content to its millions of readers every day – the highest circulation in the United Kingdom. It has also been heavily criticised for its sensationalist reporting and there have been many successful lawsuits brought against the publisher, especially for libel damages. | |
Key Facts | ||
Key Words | Liberal Free Press, Noam Chomsky, James Curran, Jean Seaton, George Gerbner, Mean World Index | Liberal Free Press, Noam Chomsky, James Curran, Jean Seaton, George Gerbner, Mean World Index, uses and grats, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, |
Talking Points | Leaning towards left wing + Libertarian | |
Introductions |
Monthly Archives: April 2023
Filters
Newspaper CSP’s: The i & Daily Mail – Revision
Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) – Regulator of the newspaper and magazine industry in the UK
The i
Political alignment | Left-wing, Liberal, Libertarian |
Royal Family | Republican, not FOR the Royal Family |
NOAM CHOMSKY THE INDIVIOUS CONTROL OF INFORMATION
CURRAN & SEATON
GERBNER – MEAN WORLD INDEX
STUART HALL reception theory – media texts contain a variety of messages that are encoded (made/inserted) by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences. Therefore what we see is simply a ‘re-presentation’ of what producers want us to see.
- Certain political stances and ideologies that are encoded by the newspaper producers can be decoded in a juxtaposing understanding. The public all retain differing political stances, which relates to the use of conglomerate business technique (The Daily Mail owns The i) to be appeal to both right and left wing political stances to be able to gain the largest interest and customer loyalty, and therefore profit. Relating to ideas of Hesmondhalgh which says that media producers are motivated solely by profit rather than a duty to provide trustworthy productions.
- “Journalism you can trust”
- “Vote on Johnson future turning toxic for Tories” (Political alignment evidence)
Under the ‘Investment section’ it has the title of ‘Tokens of appreciation’ where it talks about NFT’s (Non-fungible tokens) and ‘Where most NFT users live’.
- Says the majority live in Thailand (5.65m), then Brazil (4.99m) and in third the US (3.81m)
Daily Mail
Political alignment | Right-wing, Authortarian |
Royal Family | Patriotic, royalistic, PRO Royal Family |
According to the Daily Mail, its readers skew 54% female to 46% male. Some 83% are said to be homeowners and 69% own their homes outright. Some 63% are ABC1 (upper and middle class) and some 366,000 are said to have savings of more £100,000. (Source)
- Daily Mail is patriotic – “Relive all four days of a joyous Jubilee”
- A section named “Our Platinum Queen”
- Support the Tory party but not Boris Johnson it seems: “Tory rebels ‘are plotting course to catastrophe'”
- Page 7 – “Hilarious and barmy… final parade was so very British” – clearly conveys PRO Royal Family and patriotic values is to be British
Main Theories and Ideas
Jurgen Habermas; Transformation of the Public Sphere; Public Sphere
James Curran; The Liberal Free Press
Main ideas above, Ideas to develop on below:
- Governance
- Regulation
- Media Concentration
- Conglomerates
- Free Market
- Culture Industries
- Hesmondhalgh
- Noam Chomsky
- Hegemony
- Framing
- Value
- Uses and Gratifications
- Escapism
- Social Needs
- Mainstreaming
- Commodification
- Theory of Preferred Reading
Men’s Health + Oh Comely
opening para
The Daily Mail and the i – CSP Revision
Key Words/Ideas:
- Liberal Free press
- James Curran and Jean Seaton
- PSB
- Free Market
- Governance
- Jurgan Habermas – Public Sphere
- Uses and Gratifications
- Conglomerate
- Merger
- Deregulation and regulation
- Imagined Communities
- Identity
- Stuart Hall – Reception theory
- Mean world Index
- Antonio Gramaci – Hegemony
- Media Literacy
- Noam Chomsky
- Integration
- Moral Panic
- Hypodermic Needle theory
Opening Para:
Printing press was invented in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. This introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered the structure of society. The relatively unregulated circulation of information and ideas transcended borders and threatened the power of political and religious authorities. The increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite on education and learning and boosted the emerging middle class. Mass Media and Democracy by James Curran focuses on Jurgen Habermas and his concept of the ‘Public Sphere‘, basically arguing that the developments in education and the mass media allowed for a greater access to information particularly with regard to government, authority and the exercise of control.
score and Maybelline revision
that bossed life, gay man included named manny. the mise en scene is glamorous and bold with colour connotating to the product.
score is an old advertisement for hair gel, mise en scene includes being in a jungle and a man being held up by half naked women suggesting that this hair gel attracts ladies.
Hesmondhalgh and his theory of media is a risky business connects with Maybelline that bossed life due to the involvement of a gay male. Stereotypically make up was designed and used by woman and solely woman but due to the uprising acceptance of the LGBT+ community Maybelline made the decision to make their products inclusive to those who are gender fluid and in general just want to use it. This makes it risky due to potential backlash for advertising and promoting male usage of make up as there are still people who believe that being apart of the LGBT+ community is wrong.
Social historical and cultural contexts in regards to Score suggest that the man is better than the woman. This is seen through the man being placed higher up than the woman suggesting his status within society compared to the woman’s.
OPENING PARAGRAPH
Maybelline; That Bossed Life and Score are two very controversial advertisements. That Bossed Life is an inclusive meaning that the product is advertised to everyone and anyone whereas Score is advertised to solely men. Bell Hooks theory of Multicultural Intersectionality suggests that there is a need to explore class and sexuality which can be seen through the use of a gay male in That Bossed life and the man being put on a pedestal in comparison to the woman, in Score.
Letter to the free / Ghost Town
Ghost town is a music video which vocalises the racism issues surrounding the united kingdom while the prime minister was Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher created the notion of keeping Britain white linking with orientalism as Black British citizens had ideas created against them changing people attitudes and actions against them.
Ghost town is apart of the SKA movement led by 2tone which was a mix of blues music crossed with rhythmic music. The movement in the UK was based upon battling racism and pushing back against the British conservatoire government.
The idea of a car crash is suggested within the video, where all band members become ghosts haunting the empty city. This has connotations with the idea of it being a ghost town as ghosts haunt the town.
Letter to the free
letter to the free is a music video fighting against racism in America. This music video suggests that America is a prison to black citizens which is seen through the lyrics “Prison is a business, America’s the company”. The idea that it is based around America being unsafe for black citizens is through the fact that when slavery was abolished, an amendment came in suggesting a practice of punishment for crime. Up to40% of prison inmates were black citizens many of which were innocent but due to the corrupt justice system and racial profiling against black citizens many were convicted for crimes they did not commit.
Opening paragraph
Stuart Hall agreed with the idea of two systems of representation. Language being used as a from of communication and conceptual being visual and what you see being what you think about. As an audience we visualise America to be a prison due to the lyrics “Prison is a business, Americas the company” in Letter To The Free. This communication to the audience is a form of encoding and decoding. Due to the artist encoding the idea of being stuck and unsafe in a place which was advertised to be safe, which the audience decode to be America profiling these citizens due to skin colour.
Letter to the Free + Ghost Town
Intro:
Fluid identity / constructed identity – Gauntlett :
Double Consciousness – the struggle African Americans face to remain true to black culture while at the same time conforming to the dominant white society.
Frantz Fanon – Fanon perceived colonialism as a form of domination whose necessary goal for success was the reordering of the world of indigenous (“native”) peoples. He saw violence as the defining characteristic of colonialism.
Paul Gilroy – Paul Gilroy believed “unstable” and politicised identities are “always unfinished, always being remade” and ethnicity is an “infinite process of identity construction”.
Post colonialism – Postcolonial theory is a literary theory or critical approach that deals with literature produced in countries that were once, or are now, colonies of other countries.
Diaspora – the dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland.
Advertisement Revisit – Score + That Boss Life
Advertisement | Score | That Boss Life |
Summary | Published in 1967, the representation reinforces negative gender stereotypes with its portrayal of the powerful and dominant man who conquers the passive and subservient women. | |
Key Facts | ||
Key Words | David Gauntlett, Judith Butler, Richard Dyer, Myth, Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Van Zoonen, bel hooks, encoding/decoding, negotiated reading, intersectionality, Charles Peirce’s Triadic Model of Communication | David Gauntlett, Judith Butler, Richard Dyer, Myth, Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Van Zoonen, bel hooks, encoding/decoding, negotiated reading, intersectionality, Charles Peirce’s Triadic Model of Communication |
Talking Points | A number of signifiers help encode this preferred reading. First, the man is positioned at the top of the mise-en-scène, connoting his higher status, and the fact he is being carried on a litter could even suggest a god-like superiority. The rifle, which is propped casually in his manly arms, has obvious connotations of violent power and adventure. Presumably, this is weapon he used to subdue and dominate this new world. The indexical animal skin is evidence of his success. Finally, notice how his short-sleeved shirt reveals his muscular arms. This is a man who is ready to fight. | It reflects the fluidity of gender identities and how values and ideology are never fixed. (Gauntlett). The most obvious signifier is the colour gold. It is introduced on the title card “That Boss Life” and on the label “Big Shot Mascara”. The producers then direct the viewer’s attention to the gold suitcase on the trolley by making it stand out among the other pastel-coloured cases and tracking the camera so it dominates the mise-en-scène. When Manny and Shayla open the suitcase, it reveals a divine light. The angelic sound effect, an important aural code in the text, and their positive reaction reinforces the mental concept of beauty and bliss. |
Introductions |
Score and Maybelline
Question: Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of box
acts”. In other words it is something learnt through repeated performance.
How useful is this idea in understanding how gender is represented in marketing and
advertising products? Refer in detail to the Close Study Products Maybelline ‘That Boss
Life part 1’ and the Score hair cream advert.
Score and Maybelline offer an insight into how representation of gender has changed over time, Score being made in the 60’s and Maybelline reflecting the contemporary media landscape of 2017. Judith Butler’s statement “an identity instituted through stylized repetition of box acts” can be seen to be useful in reference to Score and Maybelline, Score offering a reactionary view of masculinity referring to the patriarchal society at the time – Score also displays a sense of cultural imperialism which may provide a sense of double consciousness to the diaspora of African-Americans. On the other hand Maybelline exhibits common conventions of the contemporary media landscape in regards to advertising, this can be seen by using Pierce’s idea of myth, Maybelline uses the myth of gold to create imagery of wealth and status which in turn conveys a sense of desire to the audience. The myth of gold is repeated in the industry as it is seen to “minimise risk while maximising sales” (Cultural Industries, David Hesmondalgh). Maybelline reflects the current state of the industry by also having radical and modern representations of masculinity with use of popular social media influencer Manny Gutierrez, which further universalises the target audience as the market and audience for the product has been seen to become more diverse in terms of gender.
Score/Maybelline Revision
Score
Male gaze – Clothing etc
Man above women both literally and figuratively
Gun – connotes violence – dominance and control – stock character – Propp – hero/princess – masculinity
This masculine representation alludes to men’s need to be desired – links to self esteem from uses and gratifications – Katz, Gurevich and Haas
The score advert was produced the same year as the decriminalisation of homosexuality and the representation conveyed here could be a product of the anxieties and grey areas created from the beginning of a transition towards a postmodern world.