| Research Product 1 | Research Product 2 | My Product | |
| Understanding self | – | – | Product may make you feel and smell how you want |
| Enjoyment | Enjoy driving the new car | Moment of bliss from the first sip | If you smell nicer, you may enjoy life more |
| Escapism | Escape from reality on an open road | Moment of bliss from the first sip | – |
| Knowledge about the world | Drive to see the world | – | People like others who use this product |
| Self confidence, Self esteem | Have more confidence whilst driving an Audi | Famous people drink coke | You will feel cleaner and smell cleaner |
| Strengthen connections with family and friends | Go on drives or trips with family and friends | Something you can enjoy with others | – |
| Other category or theme | – | – | – |
All posts by Josh Roberts
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Score CSP 3
- First shown in 1967
- The women are shown not wearing much clothing
- The advert is of very poor quality, even for something that is over 50 years old.
- The text is very repetitive and the iconic signs (images) portray the product as looking like bleach or something similar, not something you would want to put in your hair.
- The clothing the people are wearing suggests they are on a safari in Africa or something similar.
- The background plants look plastic and you can even see the carpeted floor.
Alternative Games Cover
Games Cover
Audience Theory
Who – Audi
Says what – You should buy an electric car that isn’t even available yet to look cool and help protect the environment
Channel – Poster
To Whom – Male customers aged 25+
With what effect – To sell more products
Who – Coca Cola
Says what – To be cool and trendy, and to have a chance to win a gift card worth $2,500, you should drink diet coke like Taylor Swift
Channel – Poster
To whom – Possibly anyone able to read
With what effect – To sell more products
MY PRODUCT
Who – Molton Brown London
Says What – If you want to feel and smell clean, use this body wash
Channel – Poster
To Whom – Boys/Men aged 10+
With What Effect – To sell more products
As my product is unisex, it wouldn’t really matter who I chose to promote it. Although, having someone who has an established reputation with a large audience, such as Chris Hemsworth would be my personal choice.
Audience Theory Notes
Quantitative vs Qualitative
Quantitative – Number relative, eg. amount of something, number of sales etc.
Qualitative – A more consumer focused approach using words for individuals. Would rather know why opposed to how many.
Hypodermic Model
Harold Lasswell played an important role in the development of understanding of how media is consumed. His writings in ‘Propaganda Technique in the World War, “highlighted the brew of ‘subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers . . . knocked them into submission’”. This is asking how did political leaders convince members of the public that going to war was worth dying for.
Two-Step-Flow of Communication
At a similar time, Paul Lazarfeld developed a model showing the understanding of how message sent isn’t always message received. This is due to the complexity of the simple, linear models.
CSP Essay
In this essay, I am going to apply a semiotic analysis to both the Lara Croft Tomb Raider and Metroid video games covers. I am going to argue how both of the covers represent the modern day portrayal of women in the media today, which is a sexualisation of female form, by analysing the reactionary layout and design and other similar pieces of imagery. I will also go over the contents of both games themselves, how they back up some theories of how women are used as objects and how they go even further with the sexualisation of women.
I’ll start off with Metroid, as Samus Aran (the playable character in the series) is actually a woman underneath her armour, most people would expect the character to be male as the game series is based off of a character who defends the galaxy from creatures known as ‘Space Pirates’. This is a major countertype example of the damsel in distress. During the storyline of various Metroid titles, more revealing clothing is available for unlock by multiple methods, including game completion, achievements and playtime. This is clearly trying to appeal to the reactionary gaming audience, being maturing teenage males. A radical part of Metroid is that Samus Aran is pictured as a muscular woman who stands 6′ 3″ tall and weighing in at about 90kg. This stature and weight would generally be associated with men over women. On the Prime 2: Echoes cover, Samus’ body is covered up by the orange battle armour. The image it portrays is completely different to what is ‘hidden’ underneath. The character is also pictured with a large cannon replacing her right hand and the description on the back side of the cover opens with, “Become the bounty hunter behind the visor once more!” This would direct most people in the direction of thinking Metroid is a male protagonist.
Continuing from this, the Lara Croft games cover is quite different, but represents the same concept. To start, she is stood at an angle where both her breasts and backside are visible, when they are on opposite sides of her body. This is the most obvious sign of sexualisation as there are not many angles from which both sides of her body would be visible, so somebody clearly designed and planned this beforehand. Some may see this representation as negative as a few of her most notable body parts (the ones mentioned previously in particular) have been extensively exaggerated. Even the way the light falls over her makes her curves look more pronounced than the games cover title image, arguably the most important piece of the cover. The decision to make this image the front cover has been made in order to create a reactionary response from the target audience, and links in with Laura Mulvey’s study of the ‘Male Gaze’ which is a stereotypical viewpoint for the heterosexual young male. She believes that women are used as objects of pleasure for the mainly male gaming audience. This was first written about in “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger. The fact that so many games now use these image portrayals of woman in this possibly negative way show the further audience that this is the standard design and layout for the covers of these games. This visual example also becomes what many women (especially younger) aspire to look like. Some even obsess with looking this way, finding it the only way for others to find them attractive, as it is so heavily used in many forms of media, extending far from some video games covers. The negative view continues over to femininity as Lara, the dominant signifier of this CSP, is pictured holding two handguns, with a third in her right weapon holster. This exposes users as young as the recommended age, 12, to the active and semi-constant use of weaponry in both games, which many parents and others alike will not see as healthy viewing material for their children.
Furthermore, I believe that the representation of women and the ‘Male Gaze’ are shown in an overall more positive way in the Metroid cover image than the Lara Croft Tomb Raider cover image. This is because there is some evidence of an effort to cover up the once again over-exaggerated body of the character. The armour she wears also creates a reactionary response within the audience as they are led to believe that Metroid is a male character, from what is displayed in the iconic sign. Neither of these CSPs support the ‘damsel in distress’ theory that I mentioned previously. This theory is described as how the female character in numerous storylines is more often than not the one who needs rescuing or saving from a typical antagonist by the male hero, more info is available about this theory on the Feminist Frequency website. These images and game contents are trying to point people in the direction of knowing that women are very able to defend themselves against themselves and others. This may not always be the case however. Once again the excessive sexualisation and violent nature of these video games may not have a positive impact on the audience outside the target. They don’t know what the cover actually represents, all they can see is obscene imagery and portrayal of women and the guns she is holding, convincing them that this is all the game resolves around.
In conclusion, I believe that neither CSPs present women in a good way. This is because of how their bodies are used as pleasure for the targeted audience, more so with the Lara Croft example. The Metroid cover does make some effort to cover up Samus’ body with the classic Metroid armour, as well as to cover up some of the contents of the game itself. Both games covers prove Laura Mulvey’s theory of the Male Gaze true. The use of these images can also bee seen as disempowerment. This can easily be improved by games cover designers creating countertypes of the covers. This would flip the negative effect they give on its head, making it positive. People in the further audience may then be more inclined to buy the products, increasing sales and revenue. Some other developers might take the same idea on board and follow along, the currently ‘over-the-top’ sexual exaggeration and representation of women overall may be improved over time.
Representation
- Male gaze – The perspective of a notionally typical heterosexual man considered as embodied in the audience or intended audience for films and other visual media, characterized by a tendency to objectify or sexualize women.
- Voyeurism – Defined as an interest in observing unsuspecting people while they undress, are naked, or engage in sexual activities. The interest is usually more in the act of watching, rather than in the person being watched.
- Patriarchy – A system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line.
- Positive and negative stereotypes – For example, women are positively stereotyped as warm but negatively stereotyped as weak; Asian-Americans are positively stereotyped as competent but negatively stereotyped as cold; Black Americans are positively stereotyped as athletic but negatively stereotyped as unintelligent.
- Counter-types – The definition of a countertype is a positive stereotype and emphasizes the positive features about a person. An example of a countertype is that all religious people are kind.
- Misrepresentation – The action or offence of giving a false or misleading account of the nature of something.
- Selective representation – Selective representation is when some groups of people are represented more in government than others. In the extreme case, selective representation can mean that whole groups of people are made ineligible to vote; in the US women could not vote before 1920, for example.
- Dominant ideology – The ideas, attitudes, values, beliefs, and culture of the ruling class in a society; usually also the function of these in validating the status quo.
- Constructed reality – Sociologists generally accept that reality is different for each individual. The term social construction of reality refers to the theory that the way we present ourselves to other people is shaped partly by our interactions with others, as well as by our life experiences.
- Hegemony – Leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others.
- Audience positioning – Audience positioning refers to the techniques used by the creator of a text to try to get the audience to understand the ideology of the text.
- Fluidity of identity – The concept of identity changing because of time, for example maturity or change of circumstances.
- Constructed identity – The process of people developing ideas and beliefs about themselves.
- Negotiated identity – The process of people fidning out “who is who” in society.
- Collective identity – The idea of fitting into certain categories or groups, perhaps based on interests, gender or age.
Essay Prep
I produced a Car Racing game and I created a dominant signifying image that would appeal more to the male audience. This is because a majority of people who would play my game would be male. This corresponds to Toril Moi’s analysis of the distinction between female, feminine, feminist categories of representation.
Further to this I have exaggerated the muscular attributes of my character with expanded arms, legs and torso. I also included clothing that would be seen as manly and reactionary, including a leather jacket, plain white shirt, casual trousers and some casual sunglasses. In some ways this inverts Laura Mulvey’s notion of the male gaze in that my main character is there to be objectified and looked at, in the words of Laura Mulvey he is a character “establishing ways of looking and spectacle”. However, the notion of the male gaze is quite distinct as it relates to the sexualisation of the dominant signifier, which is not what I have done with my character.
Nevertheless, I believe that it is generally accepted in society that masculinity is seen as much more aggressive, confrontational and violent than femininity. So in this sense my product is a reactionary representation of masculinity.
I believe that this is a positive representation of masculinity as that an over-aggressive masculinity is not healthy for males to aspire to. As such, if I was to create this product again, I would avoid the stereotypical representation of an over-muscular, over-physical zombie and look to create a character that was more radical in representation. Perhaps inhabiting a range of signifiers that would connote a more feminine character. I could do this by re-sculpting my character in terms of their physical appearance and their clothing. As such, I would be sending out a much more positive message to the audience about masculinity, one that used a positive countertype to present a radical and challenging representation which could help gamers to adopt a new ways of thinking about gender representation, with more positive role models for young people to aspire to.
Pithy Quotes
Leveling up:
The most-active gameplaying demographic is African American teenagers.
For a time, some of the only places where Black characters could be found was in sports games.
Diversity Matters:
Playstation recently sponsored Pride London, providing a joyous, hugely colourful presence in the parade.
Xbox got a new feature in settings called co-pilot. It lets console owners map a game’s controls on to two separate joypads, so two people have access at the same time.
Laura Mulvey:
She falls in love with the main male protagonist and becomes his property losing her outward glamourous characteristics.
Once he actually confronts her his erotic drive is to break her down and force her to tell by persistent cross questioning.
Feminist Frequency Website:
The gruesome death of women for shock value is especially prevalent in modern gaming.
The Damsel in Distress predates the invention of video games by several thousand years.