opening para

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.

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.

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.

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.

Score

That Boss Life

theorists

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

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.

Intro

David Gauntlett believes that identity is fluid, and representation changes over time to accommodate for this. A great example of this is Score and Maybelline. Whilst both are an example of queer theory and present a eudemonia through their hyperreal (Jean Baudrillard) depictions of gender and sexuality, they are still essentially binary oppositions. Score depicts gender through the lense of old traditional binary definitions and ideals. Sexualising the women and placing them as subservient to the man (Jean Kilbourne). It is exclusively for heterosexual men, and more specifically, white heterosexual men, its lack of racial representation (it only includes white characters) is an example of Paul Gilroy’s post-colonial theory, as it fails to provide equal representation for black individuals. Maybelline on the other hand, puts an emphasis on inclusivity, representing multiple races, sexualities, and genders. Maybelline’s use of Manny MUA, a gay makeup artist / influencer, and Shayla Mitchell, a black makeup artist / influencer shows that their product is for everyone.

Eudemonia – happiness as the result of an active life governed by reason.

David Hesmondhalgh

believed companies involved in cultural industries were motivated by profit rather than a duty to public service broadcasting.

“Cultural industry technology realizes standardization and mass production by subtracting the two logical differences between social work and social system.” In order to make products attractive to consumers and occupy the market, producers “rationalize” according to consumers’ preferences.

• The constructed identity presented of the eras new prototypical masculinity representations and ideologies on ‘being a man’ during the time era of score, relates to the idea of toxic representation of masculinity being used as a tool to promote and sell products to its male audience rather than a duty to provide a quality product to its target market. Relating to Hasmondhalgh‘s idea on rationalisation with their consumers preferences by appealing to gender roles and norms of the time, this time being a representation of men as strong and having control over women, they were to attain to these societal roles otherwise they’d be discredited and not seen as a man.
• Specifically and more relating to, ‘Oh!’, a self-proclaimed feminist production with an aim to celebrate femininity and specific female individuals. These products have a clear juxtaposition to each other and represent advancements in how the media presents females, relating to the theorist Van Zoonen, who believes that ‘media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views‘. So when applying this theory, it shows a shift in representations of women in media, and therefore a shift in societal views, which celebrates women more than the time era of score. Similarly, a reason for the increase in female related productions and products would be as a duty motivated by profit rather than a duty to appeal to new 3rd wave of feminism ideas and to rationalise that feminism is a new wave of consumers and there is a need to appeal to them.

Clay Shirky and the End of Audience

Old Passive Audience VS New Active Audience

Lazerfeld

Key Words/Ideas:

• Diversity
• Identity (David Gauntlet)
• Gender Performance (Judith Butler)
• Detonation (Barthes)
• Intersectionality
• Queer Theory
• Jean Kilbourne
• Bel Hooks
• Hegemony
• Hybridity – Genre (Steve Neale)
• Semiotics
• Transformation of the Public Sphere (Habermas)

Opening Para:

David Gauntlet states we construct our own identities through different influences such as people/experience/interests which may not be the traditional cultural norm. Similarly, Judith Butler expresses the idea that gender identity is changeable and fluid as we ‘perform’. That boss life, is an advert focusing on contemporary representation and construction of identities. Meaning it is much more progressive and provocative then ‘Score’ as it includes different representations of age, race, gender and sexuality.

  

Roland Barthes
Commodification
Preferred Reading
Binary Opposition

• Lazarfeld Opinion leaders/Chomsky Opinion leader 5 filters
• Hesmondhalgh risk/profit
• Gauntlett Constructed Identity/Propp stock characters
• James Curran and Jean Seaton