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THEORY REVISION

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SEMIOTICS

ROLAND BARTHES – Concept 1: Denotation and Connotation

Barthes’ tells us by using a ‘denotative reading’ is how viewers decode media products. This occurs when a reader recognises the literal and physical content, e.g. an older man with his fist in the air, the style and colour of clothing. After this, readers quickly move beyond the recognition of the product and engage with what he calls ‘cognitive decoding.’ This refers to the deeper understanding prompted by advertisers to the emotional, symbolic/ideological significances, e.g. the older man’s fist may suggest defiance or aggression, the clothes may suggest a class.

WHEN LOOKING AT A MEDIA TEXT:

Image Features:Look out for:
POSE
(Subject positioning, stance or body language)		Breaking the 4th wall creates: confrontational/aggressive or invitational feel.
Off screen gaze: Right side – adventure/optimism. Left side – regret/nostalgia.
Body language: strong/weak/passive/active/open/closed
Subject Positioning: Where the person/people stand.
Proxemics: Their distance from people/things.
MISE-EN-SCENE
(Props, costume and setting)		Symbolic Props: rarely accidental
Pathetic fallacy: weather connotations to add meaning – character’s thoughts/tone
Costume Symbolism: Stereotypes help to decipher a character’s narrative function
LIGHTING CONNOTATIONSHigh-Key lighting: no shadows – positive and upbeat with a lighter feel
Low-Key lighting: Serious/ sad/moody connotations.
Chiaroscuro lighting: contrast lighting (light sharply cuts through darkness) – hopelessness/mystery
Ambient: infers realism
COMPOSITIONAL EFFECTS
(Shot distance, positioning of subjects in the frame)		Long shots: dominated their environment
Close-ups: intensifies emotions/impending drama
Open/closed frames: open- freedom, closed – entrapment
POSTPRODUCTION EFFECTSColour control: Red- anger, white – innocence
High saturation: Vibrant colours – cheerful
Desaturation: Dull colours – serious/sombre

Barthes’ recognised that text also gave meaning. He says it helps to ‘anchor’ image meanings in advertisements. Without anchorage, media imagery is likely to produce polysemic connotations (multiple meanings).

“a vice which holds the connotated meanings from proliferating”

Concept 2: The media’s ideological effect

Barthes’ suggests media replaces/replicates functions of myth making. The press, television, advertising, radio – convey the same sort of authority as myths and induce similar ideological effects. Anonymisation of myths shows it’s a collective view rather than singular –> media replicates this.

Naturalisation: Media products present ideas as natural/fact/common sense. When a range of media texts repeat the same idea, audience believe it is a fact rather than perspective, social norm.

Media myths are reductive: Media simplifies and reduces/purifies ideas to make it more digestible. – message reduction discourages audiences to question and analyse thoroughly.

Media myths reinforce existing social power structures: “the oppressor has everything, his language is rich, multiform, supple.” Those who have power tend to control the myth making process through the privileged access – maintain illusion that the system that benefits the powerful is naturally ordered and unchangeable.

C.S PEIRCE:

Peirce did not believe that signification was a straightforward binary relationship between a sign and an object, he viewed this innovative part of his triad as how we perceive or understand a sign and its relationship to the object it is referring to. The representamen in Peirce’s theory is the form the sign takes, which is not necessarily a material or concrete object. Peirce theorised that we interpret symbols according to a rule, a habitual connection. ‘The symbol is connected with its object because the symbol-user and a sign exists mainly due to the fact that it is used and understood. Peirce’s triad of signs concludes of:

Icon – A sign that looks like an object/person, e.g picture of a lamp.

Index – A sign that has a link to its object, e.g smoke and fire.

Symbol – A sign that has a more random link to its object, e.g colour, shape

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE:

According to Saussure theory of signs, signifier and signified make up of signs. A sign is composed of both a material form and a mental concept. The signifier is the material form, i.e., something that can be heard, seen, smelled, touched or tasted, whereas the signified is the mental concept associated with it. C.S Peirce based his research off of Saussure.

Signifier – Stands in for something else.

Signified -Idea being evoked by signifier.

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Exam Prep, Feminist Critical Thinking, Oh!, Research

OH! COMELY

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Owner: Iceberg Press, an independent publisher, bought Oh Comely (which pivoted from the women’s lifestyle sector to the growing mindfulness sector and renamed Oh)

 ‘Oh is a reimagination of Oh Comely magazine and is still a place to meet new people, hear their stories and hopefully leave you looking at life a little differently.’

Lisa Sykes is the editor, used to work at Hearst UK.

Sykes recalls. “We didn’t like the fact that print dying was becoming a self fulfilling prophecy”

  • First issue 2010
  • Final issue was published September 2021
  • Feminist magazine
  • Niche target market
  • Made 6 copies a year, one every 2 months
  • Average reader age of 27
  1. Institution – who owns it
  2. Examples of specific pages
  3. Language, how it’s laid up, representation
  4. Audiences – who reads it, who it’s for

Lazarsfeld

Ideas of the two-step flow of communication, supplied by Lazarsfeld, says that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them, to a wider population.

In Oh Comely, there is a radical and apposed representation of women, following ideas of Stuart Hall’s theory on the 3 categories of media representation, it empowers them and not sexualising them like most mass media products such as Men’s Health. But in modern times there is an active conversation on feminism and fighting against the patriarchy, so the two-step model can still be applied here. Modern mass media ideas on feminism is being represented and promoted widely throughout the world and being supported by opinion leaders such as Ariana Grande who support ideas on feminism, which in turn allows this product to be relevant, granted, to a niche market with an average reader age of 27, but it still circles back to the same concept, although these ideas can be considered radical, overall, nothing is really radical as the ideas always flow from someone in power, someone who’s opinion is more relevant to someone else’s, and in evaluation, the magazine only exists to generate a profit. A flow of communication used only to profit off the wider population.

More on this:

Use of empowering and active words such as ‘power’, ‘wisdom’, ‘strong’ is used in a feminist manner to empower their readers.

There is a conventional representation of the dominant signifier on the front cover in the fact that she is being posed for the camera and wearing makeup — but on the other hand, it could be considered unconventional as she is wearing light, more natural makeup, nothing that changes her looks much and has a more radical style; short hair and clothes that do not show any skin or show off her body, tackling usual focus on sexualisation on most magazines.

On pages 14-15 it demonstrates a woman who is wearing an ethnic turban which is radical in terms of repressing and going against mainstream, common representations within magazines. This magazine tries to go against control and leaning into repressing the common ideologies in which represent women negatively, this magazine does not represent women in a sexualised way and strays away from Laura Mulvey’s theory on the ‘male gaze’ in which this magazine does not appeal to. It works against the mainstream representations of women who are usually used as tools for promotion and greater sales with the over-sexualisation of women. Further proven on page on all other pages where no sexualisation is featured.

Also the word ‘comely’, an old fashioned word means pretty, but is used as a more modest and subtle way to compliment a woman, in a way that doesn’t sexualise them but rather positively represents them.

This magazine follows an active form of Lasswell’s model of communication and supply’s its readers with a magazine every 2 months, so just 6 a year. Also supporting a self confidence and self-esteem almost escapism feature of one’s personal and and social needs following of the Uses and Gratifications theory of Katz, Hass and Gerevitch.

Feminist Critical Thinking, Representation, Theory

Feminist Critical Thinking

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  • Feminist = a political position
  • Female = a matter of biology
  • Feminine = a set of culturally defined characteristics

First wave of feminism :

  • Women’s Suffrage Committee (1867) / The international Council of women (1888) / the International Alliance of Women (1904) was the formation of the first wave of feminism.
  •  Mary Wollstonecraft (1792) – she was an English writer, philosopher, and advocate of women’s rights. She wrote the book, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, which argues that the educational system deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable and that if girls were allowed the same advantages as boys, women would be not only exceptional wives and mothers but also capable workers.

Second wave of feminism :

  • Galvanised by organisations such as, the British Women’s Suffrage Committee (1867), the International Council of Women (1888), the The International Alliance of Women (1904).
  • The Suffragettes were a organisation who fought / wanted governmental

Third Wave Feminism :

  • Third wave feminism came / begun by Naomi Wolf in the early 1990s through her book, as he had ideas and thoughts that there will be a third wave.
  • Third wave feminism is more alert and expression more, as well as having more thoughts and opinions on feminism.
  • third-wave sees women’s lives as intersectional, demonstrating a pluralism towards race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender and nationality when discussing feminism.
  • Began in the mid 90s
  • The characteristics of third wave feminism can be seen as an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion. Individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics. Fluid and multiple subject positions and identities. Cyberactivism. The reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes and sex positivity.
Feminist Critical Thinking, Institution

Institutions key terms

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Cultural industries- the different types of popular media, produces, distributes products in the creative arts generally in favour of popularity

Production- the making of a form of media

Distribution- The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign

Exhibition/ consumption- the retail branch of the film industry/ when the media is taken in by individuals or a group

Media concentration- the ownership of mass media by fewer individuals

Conglomerates- a group that owns multiple companies which stand out different media specialised in written or audio-visual content

Globalisation (in terms of media ownership)- the worldwide integration of media through the cross-cultural exchange of ideas

Cultural imperialism- The practice of promoting the culture values or language of one nation in another

Vertical Integration- a way in which media companies expand by acquiring different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution

Horizontal Integration- a way in which media companies expand by acquiring media companies that work in similar sectors (owns several businesses of the same value eg. a media company can own Magazine, Radio, Newspaper, Television and Books. )

Mergers- a merger or acquisition in which 2 or more of the undertakings involved carry on a media business

Monopolies- concentrated control of major mass communications within a society

Gatekeepers- the process through which information is filtered for dissemination

Regulation- the process by which a range of specific, often legally binding, tools are applied to media systems and institutions to achieve established policy goals such as pluralism, diversity, competition, and freedom

Deregulation- the process of removing or loosening government restrictions on the ownership of media outlets

Free market- one where voluntary exchange and the laws of supply and demand provide the sole basis for the economic system

Commodification- the transformation of the shape of the relationship, which is initially trafficked into things that are free of the commercial nature of the relationship  

Convergence- the merging of previously distinct media technologies and platforms through digitization and computer networking 

Diversity- diversity of ideas, viewpoints or content options 

Innovation- change in several aspects of the media landscape, from the development of new media platforms, to new business models, to new ways of producing media texts

Vertical integration- a company owns different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution

Media conglomerates- a company owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises

Diversification- a corporate strategy to enter into a new market or industry in which the business doesn’t currently operate.

Feminist Critical Thinking, Institution

Bombshell

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Bombshell was a film released in 2019 is a film based off of a real-life scandal in which the CEO of a big television company, Fox News (Roger Ailes) sexually exploited female staff.

Roger Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was a media consultant and television executive in the United States. He was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox News. He resigned from Fox News in July 2016 after numerous female Fox employees accused him of sexual harassment.

Gabriel Sherman claimed in a 2014 book that Ailes offered a television producer a raise if she would sleep with him in the 1980s. The allegation was refuted by Fox News, as was Sherman’s book’s legitimacy. Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment complaint against Ailes on July 6, 2016, and her allegations prompted more than a dozen female employees at 21st Century Fox to speak up about their own encounters with Ailes.

Feminist Critical Thinking, Institution

key words –

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  • Cultural industries  – A cultural industry is an economic field concerned with producing, reproducing, storing, and distributing cultural goods and services on industrial and commercial terms.
  • Production – The process of or management involved in making a film, play, or record.
  • Distribution – The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign.
  • Exhibition / Consumption – Media consumption or media diet is the sum of information and entertainment media taken in by an individual or group. It includes activities such as interacting with new media, reading books and magazines, watching television and film, and listening to the radio.
  • Media concentration – Concentration of media ownership is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.
  • Conglomerates – A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet.
  • Globalisation (in terms of media ownership) – The production, distribution, and consumption of media products on a global scale facilitating the exchange and diffusion of ideas cross-culturally.
  • Cultural imperialism –  Cultural Imperialism Theory states that Western nations dominate the media around the world which in return has a powerful effect on Third World Cultures by imposing n them Western views and therefore destroying their native culture.
  • Vertical Integration –  Vertical Integration is when a Media Company owns different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution
  • Horizontal Integration – Horizontal Integration is a Media Company’s Ownership of several businesses of the same value. A Media Company can own a Magazine, Radio, Newspaper, Television and Books. 
  • Mergers – a combination of two things, especially companies, into one.
  • Monopolies – the exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service.
  • Gatekeepers – is a process by which information is filtered to the public by the media.
  • Regulation – a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority.
  • Deregulation – the removal of regulations or restrictions, especially in a particular industry.
  • Free market – an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.
  • Commodification  – the act or fact of turning something into an item that can be bought and sold.
  • Convergence  –  media convergence, a phenomenon involving the interconnection of information and communications technologies, computer networks, and media content.
  • Diversity – It means understanding that each individual is unique and recognizing our individual differences. 
  • Innovation – the process of not just an “invention” of a new value for journalism, but also the process of implementing this new value in a market or a social setting to make it sustainable.

Feminist Critical Thinking, Institution

key words

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Key words:

  1. Cultural industries – The notion of cultural industries generally includes textual, music, television, and film production and publishing.
  2. Production – the action of making or manufacturing from components or raw materials, or the process of being so manufactured.
  3. distribution – The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign.
  4. Media concentration – Concentration of media ownership is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media.
  5. Exhibition / Consumption– the sum of information and entertainment media taken in by an individual or group
  6. Conglomerates – A media conglomerate, or a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, 
  7. Globalisation – the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.
  8. Cultural imperialism – Cultural Imperialism Theory states that Western nations dominate the media around the world which in return has a powerful effect on Third World Cultures by imposing Western views and therefore destroying their native culture
  9. Vertical Integration – Vertical Integration is when a Media Company owns different businesses in the same chain of production and distribution
  10. Horizontal Integration – Horizontal Integration is a Media Company’s Ownership of several businesses of the same value. A Media Company can own a Magazine, Radio, Newspaper, Television and Books. 
  11. Mergers – a merger or acquisition in which one or more of the undertakings involved carries on a media business in the Page 2 State and one or more of the undertakings involved carries on a media business elsewhere.
  12. Monopolies – concentrated control of major mass communications within a society
  13. Gatekeepers – is a process by which information is filtered to the public by the media
  14. Regulation – a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority.
  15. Deregulation– the removal of regulations or restrictions, especially in a particular industry.
  16. Free market – an economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.
  17. Commodification –  the act or fact of turning something into an item that can be bought and sold
  18. Convergence – media convergence, phenomenon involving the interconnection of information and communications technologies, computer networks, and media content.
  19. Diversity – It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing our individual differences. 
  20. Innovation –  the process of not just an “invention” of a new value for journalism, but also the process of implementing this new value in a market or a social setting to make it sustainable
Advertising, Essays, Exam Prep, Feminist Critical Thinking

Butler essay

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Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words, it is something learnt through repeated performance. How useful is this idea in understanding gender is represented in both the Score and Maybelline advertising campaigns?

In this essay, I am going to analyse and evaluate how gender is represented in the Score and Maybelline adverts we have studied in and outside of school. I will argue that the way that gender is represented in the Score advert conforms to the gender stereotypes of the 60s that we have thought to have “moved on from”. Contrastingly, I am going to argue that the advert Maybelline “That Boss Life” (2018) has a progressive view on gender representation because it seems to support to David Gauntlet’s concept that gender is fluid and presented throughout signs and expression.

Firstly, in SCP 4 (Maybelline’s That Boss Life advert, produced in 2018; promoting a mascara) there is a significant change in the way gender and identity is represented and gender is presented as fluid and free to self expression further supporting Butler’s ideas, in the ad there are three characters, the bell boy, Shayla and Manny Gutierrez: Maybelline’s first inclusion of a man in their campaigns, “Maybelline’s first-ever partnership with a man as the star of a campaign. Manny’s encouraging everyone, no matter their gender, to “lash like a boss.” Through the cosmetic industry doing this it encourages a shift in the outdated stereotypes that makeup is specifically for women and that men should be allowed to express their identity throughout the application of makeup, and show a more feminine side to their masculinity or present themselves completely as feminine; trying to reduce the amount of toxic masculinity widely presented throughout men claiming they can not wear cosmetic products. This is cleverly expanded on by the use of the bell boy, as he turns from someone you could easily forget in the advert at the beginning to using the makeup when the two stars of the advert turn “Bossed up” showing men who we have no insight to their sexual preference can also accept men coming to terms of makeup being androgynous and use it. Manny or widely referred to as Manny MUA is also a very popular influencer or makeup guru (with a following of over 4 Million), by using someone with a high platform and a counter-typical choice of a model in a makeup advert can also attract more audience to the advert as his viewers would want to see his success as the first man in Maybelline’s campaign, even any haters would watch- by doing so the advert plants this subliminal message taking society one step closer to seeing that gender is a constructed idea and a product shouldn’t alter the expression of someone. Furthermore, Manny could be associated as a radical representation of gender and masculinity which connotes to Judith Butlers theory of gender being performative. The term Toxic masculinity can be used describing reactions from specific men as the product “promotes the dangerous sentiment that men are supposed to adhere to hyper masculine culture.” and presents people against Butler’s ideas and leaning more towards Laura Mulvey’s idea that gender is fixed. Additionally, the advert displays the product as being gender neutral as the whole presentation of the product connotes to luxury; the golden suitcase, the New York apartment described as everything, the golden packaging, and the room transforming into full golden and glam after the two use the product. All these features create a semantic field of wealth and luxury for the user to associate with the product- despite their gender, further enhancing the products androgynousness and promoting Butler’s ideas that gender is fluid and is more based on a expression of signs.

However, in SCP 3 (Score), an advert promoting male hair groom (note how it’s promoting it towards men, anti-progressive towards Butler’s ideas as it suggests females can’t express themselves with masculine hairstyles and are fixed to a lengthy style). The advert contains a man being lifted up by numerous females who fit the theory of the male gaze (Laura Mulvey), a theory that women are used in adverts in a sexualised, reactionary way to attract male attention and increase sales by exploiting a women’s sexuality. Although the man is surrounded by females he is still the one with authority and on the top- possibly a connotation to the patriarchal mindset that men are more powerful or have more status, again could reflect the way genders are treated throughout work and the difference in the wage gap; this can be backed up as in the 1960’s females were still fighting for equality in society, compared to the the Maybelline advert that is based after 2nd and 3rd wave feminism where adverts (some still are bad to this day) should more focus on how women are treated and exploited in the industry- this is spoken about in the third wave of feminism and how Naomi Wolf, challenged and re-contextualized some of the definitions of femininity that grew out of that earlier period, they are more accepting of newer ideas and of the idea of fluidity when it comes to gender as time goes on. This shows not only how time has changed but the difference that it makes with the representation of gender throughout the years in marketing campaigns, while older ones are more likely to be anti-progressive and cater more towards outdated stereotypes and ideologies- going against Butler’s ideas: While newer ones are more likely to be more inclusive with the idea of fluidity in gender and be more progressive to break stereotypical stigmas (such as the ones we can ink in to each score- SCP 4 being men can’t wear makeup and SCP 3 being women can’t use hair groom). The advert contains women wearing quite revealing short outfits in a jungle setting, exploiting their appearance for the benefit of the male gaze- the setting however seems to be a jungle which the man seems appropriately dressed for while the women wouldn’t be wearing that in a jungle, as well as the man holding a weapon- this gives us a huge insight to how corrupt the ideas of gender were back in the 1960s as the women in the advert are represented very sexually and unrealistically, in abundance almost making them seem replaceable or reliant on the one man while the man has a weapon asserting his power (once again reflecting on the patriarchal society that the campaign was created and advertised in). Clearly the advert goes against Judith Butler’s ideas due to it’s fixed reactionary outdated representation of women vs men which gives us an insight on how times have changed and the effects of the waves of feminism.

Maybelline doesn’t have many negatives to pick out on, however, one we could note about is that Manny MUA is given very stereotypical gay slang and presented much more feminine, as much as the advert including a man is a huge step forward we need to take account that he is already presenting himself or shown as feminine in the advert- this creates a slight stigma that makeup is still for femininity rather for straight/masculinity.

In conclusion, both SCP’s give a extremely different however useful insight to the expression of gender and how it links, compliments or disagrees with Butler’s ideas. Through score I can see with effects of the corruption of society takes a huge play in the advert while in maybelline I can see how society and idea’s on gender have progressed and further promoted/backed up Butler’s idea on the fluidity of gender.

Feminist Critical Thinking

bombshell

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Bombshell (2019) is a story based upon the accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.

The film provides a narrative of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM, in the same way that we could look at other stories that are concerned with other institutional prejudices – racism, homophobia, Islamophobia etc. In other words, this film presents a version of the story of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM and MISOGYNY. It suggests a link between the presentation/ representation of the female form and the ideas of a ruling patriarchy (Fox News, specifically Roger Ailes). 

Leading the allegations against Roger Ailes was Gretchen Carlson, a news anchor on Fox News from 2005 to 2016. Other women at the Fox institution such as Megyn Kelly came forward, giving their accounts. Ailes left his position at Fox News in July 2016. He passed away in 2017.

Feminist Critical Thinking, Institution

Bombshell

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Bombshell (2019) is a film portraying the real-life scandal of how the CEO of Fox News, Roger Ailes sexually exploited his female staff.

Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, In July 2016, he resigned from Fox News after being accused of sexual harassment by several female Fox employees.

In a book published in 2014, Gabriel Sherman alleged that, in the 1980s, Ailes offered a television producer a raise if she would sleep with him. Fox News denied the allegation and rejected the authenticity of Sherman’s book. On July 6, 2016, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes; Carlson’s allegations were the impetus for more than a dozen female employees at 21st Century Fox to step forward regarding their own experiences with Ailes’ behaviour.