Semiotics:
• Sign= something that can stand for something else
• Signifier= the thing item of code that we read
• Signified= concept that is portrayed them interpreted by the audience
• Dominant signifier= The main sign in a picture, audiences eye is drawn towards
• Icon= the thing that is being represented
• Index= shows evidence of what is being represented
• Code= the system of signs that create meanings
• Symbol= something that can stand for something else
• Anchorage= words that accompany an image
• Ideology
• Paradigm
• Syntagm.

Barthes’ ideas and theories on semiotics:
• Signification= representation or conveying of media
• Denotation= the literal or primary meaning of a word in contrast to feelings of emotions
• Connotation= feelings invoked rather than the literal meaning
• Myth= made up

3.4.1.2 Narratology
Narratology:
• Narrative Codes= messages within a story. framework for structural analysis
• Narration= the commentary of a story
• Diegesis= narrative/plot in a story
• Quest narrative= when the author describes tehir desires/experiences
• ‘Character types’= Propp- the villain, the donor, the helper, the princess, the dispatcher, the hero, and the false hero
• Causality= relationship between cause and effect
• Plot= what happens in the story/the journey
• Masterplot= a technique for creating a story that is recreated through plot and retold differently over time because of its cultural significance

Todorov’s ideas and theories on narratology:
• Narrative structure= how the narration in a story is created
• Equilibrium= start of a story- opposing forces are balanced
• Disruption= disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process
• New equilibrium= forces are balanced again

3.4.1.3 Genre theory as summarised by Neale
• Conventions and rules
• Sub-genre
• Hybridity
• Genres of order and integration
• ‘Genre as cultural category’.

3.4.1.4 Structuralism
Lévi-Strauss’ ideas and theories on structuralism:
• Binary oppositions= eg. good vs bad
• Mytheme
• Cultural codes
• Ideological reading
• Deconstruction.

3.4.1.5 Postmodernism
Postmodernism:
• Pastiche
• Bricolage
• Intertextuality
• Implosion.

Baudrillard’s ideas and theories on postmodernism:
• Simulacra
• Simulation
• Hyperreality.

Key Terms

1. Pastiche =  a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist.
2. Parody =  an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
3. Bricolage = the process of improvisation in a human endeavor
4. Intertextuality = can be a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style.
5. Referential= of, containing, or constituting a reference
6. Surface and style over substance and content= although someone looks immaculately dressed or styled, behind the facade, there is no substance or content.
7. Metanarrative=  concerns narratives of historical meaning, experience or knowledge and offers legitimation of such through the anticipated completion of some master idea
8. Hyperreality= the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality
9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) 
10. Consumerist Society= a society in which people often buy new goods, especially goods that they do not need, and in which a high value is placed on owning many things.
11. Fragmentary Identities= multidisciplinary collaboration, involving visual communication, performative arts and fashion
12. Alienation= a withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment
13. Implosion=  a situation in which something fails suddenly and completely, or the fact of this happening
14. Cultural appropriation= an inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.
15. Reflexivity= the fact of someone being able to examine their own feelings, reactions, and motives
16. Deconstructive postmodernism = deconstructionism is a challenge to the attempt to establish any ultimate or secure meaning in a text.

Hyperreality. something that give a representation of characters that aren’t socially normal or acceptable. eg disney world. exaggerated otherness

simulation. takes us to another place

consumerist society. purchases products frequently. material wealth.

fragmentary identities

alienation. lost from society

Question: Media products often challenge the social and cultural contexts in which they are created.

The women in general are dressed appropriately unless there is specific reason to not be. An example of this is the page of the plus size model, Megan, who is promoting body positivity. They present a radical representation of women in the sense that on the front cover, the woman is wearing natural makeup, unlike most magazine front covers where the woman is posed in a lot of makeup and displaying her body to attract the ‘male gaze’.

The front cover also entails words such as ‘power’, ‘hard-won’ and ‘strong’ which is oppositional to the ‘normal’ woman as it is stereotypically the men who are labelled as ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’ rather than women.

The woman on the front cover is being humanised rather than objectified which applies to Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze in the sense that it goes against her thesis and completely contradicts her ideas. The magazine doesn’t allow any application of the male gaze. The only thing that could be connected to ‘the male gaze’ is the fact that she is a female model who is the dominant signifier on the page and she is posing.

Links to Butler’s theory as it questions the belief that certain gendered behaviours are natural. She also created the theory of performance which links to this CSP in the way that the women in the magazine use their gender to feed the audience ideas about confidence and body positivity. It could be argued that these women could be over-exaggerating their beliefs to encourage others to agree with their optimistic view of life.

(in workbook) *insert photo*

Stuart Hall- Hall’s work covers issues of hegemony and cultural studies taking a post-Gramscian stance. He regards language-use as operating within a framework of power, institutions and politics/economics. This view presents people as producers and consumers of culture at the same time. (Hegemony, in Gramscian theory, refers to the socio-cultural production of “consent” and “coercion”.)

For Hall, culture was not something to simply appreciate or study, but a “critical site of social action and intervention, where power relations are both established and potentially unsettled”.

hegemony- leadership and dominance

In Gramsci’s view, a class cannot dominate in modern conditions by merely advancing its own narrow economic interests

active audience

3 different ways of reading

He created the reception theory which was ‘what we see is simply a ‘re-presentation’ of what producers want us to see.’

George Gerbner

Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory: A key theoretical debate is the extent to which the media influence our ideas and opinions. In the first instance, RECEPTION THEORY (developed by George Gerbner based around research on TV viewing) suggests that exposure to reinforced messages will influence our ideas, attitudes and beliefs.

The George Gerbner Model of Communication is an extension of Lasswel’s communication model. Gerbner’s model consists of a verbal aspect, where someone observes an event and gives feedback about the situation, and a schematic model where someone perceives an event and sends messages to the sender.

“You know, who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behaviour. It used to be the parent, the school, the church, the community. Now it’s a handful of global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a great deal to sell.”- Gerbner

Passive audience

Mainstream: Mainstreaming is the view that people’s life experiences may moderate the cultivation effect

mean world syndrome: the belief that the world is more violent and brutal than it really is. the effect that depictions of violence can have on the perceptions of those who view them

David Gauntlet

 Gauntlett believes that while everyone is an individual, people tend to exist within larger groups who are similar to them. He thinks the media do not create identities, but just reflect them instead. “Identity is complicated; everyone’s got one.”

Pick and Mix theory: it allows audiences to pick which aspects of a text they want to construct their identity, whole leaving other bits well alone

Fluidity of identity, constructed identity, negotiated identity, collective identity.

He assumed there was a generational divide in attitudes towards gender roles, but older people were less likely to be exposed to the new liberal representations of masculinity and femininity. He also wondered if this younger demographic would “grow up to be the narrow-minded traditionalists of the future”.

Media Language (the language of print)

Narrative and Genre

Representations

The fact the man has muscles and has a stern look on his face is an example of signification as it suggests that all men should look like this.

This magazine is reactionary as it confirms dominant ideas that all men should look like this.

The conventions of the product are indexical and are definitive of a typical magazine front cover

The dominant signifier of the man is positioned in the middle of the page to attract the audience to the magazine and encourages them to want to read it

The typography is in all different fonts, again to attract the audience’s eye

The fact that Vin Deisel is on the magazine is also attracting audiences as he is a well known celebrity

Constructed sign of reality

Media products are made from a heterosexual viewpoint

4th Oct

David Gauntlet:

• Explored different types of identities
• Fluidity of identity, constructed identity, collective identity, negotiated identity
• He believes that while everyone is an individual, people tend to exist within larger groups who are similar to them

‘The school of life’ present a video called how to be a man. In it, they present the cool and warm man. While not an academic theory, it s possible to identify these two representations in men’s health.

Warm man– article page- man running- he’s got a smaller build and is half smiling/looking sort of proud. The photo looks like he’s not posing and it’s more of an action shot. Isn’t looking at the camera, keeping to himself.

Cool man– front page- man posing- specific lighting to enhance areas of the body and most likely photoshopped. Man looks serious and is looking at the camera (or audience).

5th Oct

Hearst communications

Hearst, is an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst tower in mid town Manhattan, New York City.

George Hearst– mining entrepreneur and U.S. senator

In 1887 George Hearst turned the Examiner over to his son, William Randolph Hearst, who that year founded the Hearst Corporation. 

Hearst are the makers of Men’s health magazines

Hearst, owner of men’s publication Esquire, has agreed to acquire the magazine and book businesses of Rodale, a global health and wellness content company based in New York and Emmaus, Pennsylvania. The selling of Rodale to Hearst started happening in October 2017 but eventually it was bought in January 2018 for $225 million.

Rodale is a trustworthy magazine publishing company with a 4-star rating.

Hearst started doing memberships whereby for $20 a year, members get the web site, print magazine and newsletter, as well as various deals. Without a digital subscription, readers will be able to access four free articles a month.

Hearst magazines (men and women’s health) hire celebrity models to increase their audience capacity and to get them more popularity. Models include: Vin Diesel, Alexandra Daddario, Shay Mitchel, Chris Hemsworth, KSI and many more.

Women’s health gained approx. 7 thousand more buys than men’s health and is therefore more popular.

6th Oct

Go to mens health media kit (link on post).