Advertising Recap

Component 1 section A - Newspapers, Music videos, Advertising

Advertising:

• Tide Print Advert
• Kiss of the Vampire film poster
• Wateraid visual advert

Not only are adverts purpose to sell a product, they also try to sell a lifestyle.


How do these adverts reflect the sociohistorical context of the time they were made? [30]



Exam plan:
Initial reaction -
Tide - 1950's, stereotypical representations of women, domestic role, post war consumerism, sells a whole lifestyle.
Queen of Outer Space - quite empowering representation of women, therefore more progressive, taking lead role, however still objectifies her, using her body as a selling point, especially for this time, a woman having her body on show(polysemic meaning), lexis of queen meaning royalty.

Quick Key Terms:
Objectification
Sexualisation
Polysemic meaning
Mise-en-scene
Lexis
Stereotype
Binary
Costume
Patriarchal Hegemony
Gender Binary
Gender Performativity
Context
Beauty Ideals
Madonna/Whore complex
Pick'n'Mix
Post-colonialism (Paul Gilroy)
Feminism (Bell Hooks)

Introduction:

DEFINE: Sociohistorical context can be defined as the physical and social setting in which people live or in which something is developed or takes place. It is the way in which ideologies, attitudes and trends can be related to a certain time and place can be reflected within a media product (representation, audience, industry, etc).

ARGUMENT: While contrasting, both Tide, and Queen of Outer Space strongly reflect ideologies, particularly in regard to consumerism and representation.

CONTEXT: I will be exploring how the Tide print advert, produced in the 1950's by Proctor and Gamble, and Queen of Outer Space both reflect the social and historical context of the time they were made through representation and audience.

PARAGRAPH - TIDE:
Direct mode of address - 'YOU women'
Costume - 1950's clothes and hairstyle
Cartoon comic strip
Semiotics - women are emotional, hugging the box
Selling a lifestyle - if you buy the product you will be happy
catchy phrases
Patriarchal hegemony - women cleaning and cooking

PARAGRAPH - QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE:
Cartoon, painted image, recognisable of the time
Colour - new technology, reflects the time
Sci-fi iconography
Costume - hairstyle, trends
Late 50's - more progressive ideology
Polysemic meaning - Men are small and being attacked by women, subversive representation vs. women still being sexualised(Van Zoonen) short skirts, slim figure which is stereotypical.
'The Female Planet' - dominated by females
Fear around women - getting more rights
Could show the radical feminist perspective - women that are anti-men.

PEA Paragraph:
POINT: Both texts use the representation of gender which realistically reflects the social and historical context of the time that they where made, in contrasting ways.

EVIDENCE: In the unseen text, Queen from Outer Space, I can identify the time period of the print advert being of similar time the Tide, due to it's cartoon  painted image, and 1950's hairstyle and fashion trends. While the advert presents a typically objectifying theme, using women's revealing bodies to sell the product to a typically heterosexual male audience of the Sci-fi genre, it does also present an empowering and subversive representation of women, especially for this patriarchal time period. The advert presents a female as the lead role, with small men being attacked by more women nearer the bottom of the poster. This creates a polysemic reading to the advert, where women are both empowered and sexualised at the same time.  Tide present a more traditional and stereotypical representation of women, where it sells a very domestic lifestyle to audiences. The woman presented, has a main purpose to cook and clean.

ARGUMENT: This gives evidence for...

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Component 1 section B - Newspapers, Music videos, Advertising

Audience:
Without audiences media would't exist.

Explore how advertisements target their audiences. 

Exam Plan:
Initial reaction
-Mise-en-scene (colour, costume, props, setting, lighting)
-Media language/technical elements
-Tide and Wateraid advertisement are encoded with ideologies and meaning that, through media language and technical elements, targets a specific target audience.

Key Terms:
Lexis
Ideology
Binary
Mise-en-scene
Polysemic meaning
Stuart Hall - Reception theory (dominant/negotiated/oppositional reading)
Stuart Hall - Stereotypes (are a shortcut for audiences/producers)
Mode of address
George Gerbner - Cultivation (media cultivates)
Sociohistorical context
Technical codes
Genre Iconography
Charity advertising

Tide - Targets women/mothers/housewives through representation and stereotype imagery. It targets the audience through reliability, which allows audiences to accept ideologies conveyed. Uses and gratifications theory - aspirational, personal identity. Mode of address - addresses the target audience directly 'tide's got what women want!'. Lexis creates ideology of being superior, the best product of it's competitors, that it is the brand leader, 'world's cleanest, whitest wash' (commodity fetishism). Preferred reading - Tide is a friendly, reliable product, through imagery of woman hugging product, and through lexis. 

Wateraid - Subverts typical charity advert conventions, unconventional- using themes and ideologies of hope, rather than guilting audience audiences with sombre and dreary techniques. Does this through high key lighting, mise-en-scene. Binary, wet British weather vs. baron desert setting - targets to British audiences. Individual, Claudia, creates polysemic meaning that all it takes is one person to donate and make a difference. Lexis - creates factual evidence that reinforce a positive change is happening, preferred reading. Challenging conventional codes, is a method of targeting audiences, this is identified through cultivation theory.

Introduction

DEFINE: Audiences are highly crucial with in the media industry as without them, the products would not exist. This is obvious in advertising, whereby it is imperative that producers target specialised audiences for the product they are advertising.

ARGUMENT: Audiences are targeted by advertising producers through a variety of technical elements and constructed media language that connotes a clear and dominant ideology and preferred reading in order for them to buy the product.

CONTEXT: I will be exploring how producers target audiences through examples of the 1950's Tide print(produced by Proctor and Gamble) and the 2016 Wateraid audiovisual(produced by Atomic London) advertisements.

POINT: Audiences are targeted in both products through subverting and conforming to typical conventions of each product. producers have achieved this through stereotyping, dominant readings, and relatability to the target audience. 

EVIDENCE: In the Wateraid advert, Atomic London have chosen to attract audiences through subverting typical conventions of charity genre advertisement, by using visual signifiers of happiness and positive ideologies. It does this through the use of mise-en-scene of high-key lighting and happy facial expression, as well as the use of building positive, uplifting diegetic music. Tide uses stereotypical representations of the 1950's housewife woman to target their audiences that would personal relate and identify to these representations. 

ANALYSIS: 

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Component 1 section B - Newspapers, Advertising, Film Industry, Radio, Videogames.

Industry:

I, Daniel Blake and Straight Outta Compton


How effective is regulation of the film industry? 

Knee jerk reaction:

Ineffective - no stopping people from watching DVDs or streaming on Netflix or illegal websites, harder for BBFC to monitor 

Plan:

Universal pictures 

BBFC
I, Daniel Blake
Straight outta compton 

Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton

Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt

Cultural industries - David Hesmondhalgh

Introduction

DEFINE: Regulation is when something is controlled by an authority, like a rule. A company will set up regulations in order to control aspects of the media product to make sure it is being used sensibly. 

ARGUMENT: I will be exploring whether the regulation of the film industry is effective, focusing on the argument that it is ineffective. 

CONTEXT: In context, the film industry in the UK is regulated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). They are a Non-governmental organisation (NGO) meaning they are founded by citizens and are often non profit. The BBFC age rate and categorise films in the following order: U, PG, 12A, 12, 15, 18 and R18. The numbers mean the youngest age that can watch the film. They do this to ensure that young children don't watch any explicit content. 

Regulation is ineffective: Paragraph 1

POINT: Curran and Seaton's theory of power and media industries refers to the idea that the media is controlled by a small number of conglomerates who are driven by profit and power. By the media being controlled by only a few companies, creativity and variety is restricted in products

EVIDENCE: 

ANALYSE/ARGUMENT:

curran and seaton 

straight out of compton 

monopolises power

livingstone and hunt

i, daniel blake 

MOCK EXAM

To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30]

Online media is the digital convergence of media platforms and new digital technology, it take forms such as YouTube channels, social media websites, online blogs, magazine and newspapers. Sociocultural context can be defined as the physical and social setting in which people live or in which something is developed or takes place. I believe that these case studies are very active signifiers of society and culture today. I will be exploring how the representation and industry of online media products, Zoella and Attitude magazine, reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made. 


Both online medias use representations that reflect the complex social and historical context of today. Attitude online challenges traditional representations of masculinity. It does this by creating typically subversive depictions of men, for example, the 'boys' section of the online magazine connotes an objectifying attitude toward men, where men are shown half naked, anchored with sexualised and immature captions such as 'the thirst is real'. To support this, attitude print magazines front cover of Jake Shears challenges additional hetero-normative representations through the use of costume and body language. For example, the male celebrity stands in a typically feminine stance, wears a face full of make-up, and his hands are painted with red nail varnish. This suggests that gender is more complex than a simple binary between what is male and what is female, supporting arguments by Judith Butler, who believes gender is simply a performance of acts we carry out every day. On the other hand, Zoella presents a very stereotypical representation of gender. In her video, 'Our Christmas Eve Traditions' it heavily reinforces the domestic role of women, and presents conventional depictions of femininity. For example, Zoella directly addresses the audience about her plans to cook, clean and decorate the house ready for a christmas party later that day. This conforms to stereotypes of women taking a domestic role; cultivating space for beauty and visual aesthetic, on the contrary, Alfie her boyfriend takes no part in these ideals. This reveals a more conventional representation of femininity and masculinity, which conforms to Stuart Hall's theory on stereotypes, that as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits. These arguments present a theory that the fluid and contrasting representations within these products mirror the social and historical context of the time they were made. 

Each of the products additionally create reflections of todays social and historical context through media industry in multiple ways. Attitude online first launched it's website in 2014, creating the digital convergence of news and online technology platforms. The blog is published by a major publishing company, Stream Publishing. Curran and Seaton believe that the motive of these big corporations limits variety and creativity, due to all being powered by monetisation. Therefore Attitude online is powered by a large corporation focused on profit rather than quality of content. Examples of this include the multiple 'click bait' images anchored to emotive captions on article headlines; 'homophobic attack'. Especially as the LGBTQ community are a well sort after target audience today, due the large amount of money they spend, known as the 'pink pound', supporting arguments that Attitude is driven for profit. YouTube has a similar purpose, as it's industry is driven by financial interest, views and retaining advertising. Zoella also commercialises her own channel through constantly advertising her own make-up and beauty line, 'Zoella Beauty'. Not only does this mirror her stress on conventional beauty ideals for young female audiences, it also presents themes of using her huge audience and fanbase of 14 million subscribers to produce exceeding profit, reflecting how todays media trends structure the industry.

To conclude, both of these products reflect how the sociocultural context in todays media to a large extent, due to breaking down the products and exploring the representation and industry with in them.

Moc Exam Prep

To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30]

Introduction:

Definition - What is Online Media? What is social/cultural context?
Argument - What social/cultural context are you focusing on?(representation, industry, ideology, viewpoints, etc) How will you develop this response?
Context - Zoella and Attitude

PEA Paragraphs - Point, Evidence, Argument/Analysis



Representation

Attitude:

• LGBT representation
• Stereotypes? (re-purposes/embraces gay stereotype)
• Conventional ideals of beauty
• Challenging traditional representations of masculinity ('boys' section/magazine front cover of Jake Shears)
• Stuart Hall (stereotypes)
• Paul Gilroy (Post-colonialism)
• Subversive(Magazine front cover of Jake Shears), gender binary, androgyny, challenging normatively, hegemonic...

Zoella:

• Stereotypical depictions of gender (Our Christmas Eve traditions video, reinforces domestic role of women, conventional depictions of femininity).
• Conventional femininity and masculinity
• Hetero-normative representation
• Domestic, conventional ideals of beauty (The Zoella Apartment video)
• Ultra traditional (Zoella=women are passive, domestic an dcultivate space for beauty and visual aesthetic/Alfie=men are active, dominant, and tae no part in domestic/beauty ideals)
• Lack of non-white representation (Gilroy?)
• Judith Butler (performative, constructive gender) (The Zoella Apartment)
• Lisbet Van Zoonen (objectification, sexualisation of bodies)

Industry

Attitude:

• Published by major publisher, Stream Publishing
• Launch of website in 2014 (digital convergence, synergy..)
• Twitter, social media accounts
• Curran and Seaton (limiting of variety, creativity - monopoly of power)
• Ineffective regulation (IPSO)
• Hesmonhalgh (horizontal/vertical integration)

Zoella:

• Monetization, commercialisation of YouTube - driven by financial interest, views and retaining advertising
• 'ad-pocalypse'/algorithms
• Upload compliance leading to self-censorship of videos by users - need to retain advertising and monetisation.
• Narrow, censored content that highly contrasts original 'peer-to-peer' ideology
• Zoella - highly cultivated and constructed media text - reliant on commercial, advertising
• Ineffective regulation (online media)

Ideologies and Viewpoints

Attitude:

• Inclusive, informative 'guide' for the LGBTQ community
• Attitude implies a challenge to hetero normative ideology and a confident stance to any discrimination, prejudice or homophobia - reflecting in online articles
• Aim to promote challenging, subversive representations of traditional masculinity that typically 'other' gay men.
• Adopts stereotypes of gay men in media - re-purposing of stereotypes in order to contstruct own identity, to appropriate and own negative stereotypes.

Zoella:

• Unmediated, 'spontaneous' content that is constructed to feel accessible and relatable.
• Direct mode-of-address and everyday aesthetic contruct homemade, relatable content
• Natural aesthetic (domestic setting) designed to reinforce realism
• Constructed, cultivated 'best friend' persona
• 'Aspirational' relatable content achieved through cultivated technical elements in videos
• Refects social/historical context of vloggers and Youtube content - highly contradictory ideology.

Attitude Industry Research

When was the website launched? Readership? Circulation? 
January 2014 / Homosexual men / 11,000 (digital only)

What are the Hesmondhalghs theories regarding cultural Industries?

Key Theory - Companies try to minimise risks and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration.

Media Convergence - When two companies or platforms come together to create a new form of media, eg, newspaper company and online media coming together to create online news.
Conglomeration - Conglomeration is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet.


What does he suggest about digitalisation and the way they produce media?


What does he argue about audiences and the way they produce content?


What are the following terms referring to: internationisation, vertical/horizontal 
integration, multi-sector and multimedia integration?
Internationalisation - 
Vertical/Horizontal Integration - 
Multi-sector and Multimedia Integration - 
Does the press pack reflect the ideology of the magazine? Could it be argued that the pack reflects a contradictory ideology?

2nd year mock exam - March 2019

2nd year mock exam - March 2019

 Time allowed: 50 minutes (w/ extra time: 62 minutes)A maximum of 30 marks can be awarded to your response
Please answer one question

How far can aspects of identity be seen to affect the way in which audiences use online media? Discuss, with reference to Zoella and Attitude. [30]

or

To what extent do Zoella and Attitude reflect the social and historical context of the time when they were made? [30]

Answers may be handwritten or submitted by blog post. This exam is closed book!

Misrepresentation of the LGBT community in the mainstream media

• Often narrow and stereotypical
• Gay men often represented as camp, effeminate, theatrical, and act as visible markers of difference in relation to heterosexuality and masculinity.
• Doesn't reflect the diversity of male gay identities.
• Promoting hegemonic understandings of masculinity by constructing the gay man as 'other'.
• Masculinity is often equated to heterosexuality.
• This construction of dominant ideologies can be related to Hall's theories.

Attitude Online

Attitude online is the website version of the popular UK gay men's lifestyle magazine Attitude

• How is media language used in this product? Go through the textual analysis toolkit! Find explicit examples!

The layout is simple and easy to read meaning it focuses more on the information rather than being aesthetically pleasing. This can be said the same for the photograph used. The mise-en-scene of the article and magazine as a whole is not stereotypical to gay culture. For example, the colours are dark instead of being colourful. This portrays a more masculine/heterosexual atmosphere. The headline is straightforward and uses the abbreviation 'LGBTQ' which is a referential code for people in the gay community. The adverts shown in the magazine page do not have homosexual connotations, they are not related to any of the articles. This could be because they are purely for revenue purposes.

• How does this site create multiple meanings? How does it combine language to create meaning?

 The site creates meaning by using lexis and font. I uses Sans Serif font which is informal, creating a more relaxed atmosphere. Using lexis like 'thirst is real' targets younger audiences as this is use of modern day slang. At the same time, it relates to older audiences by the simplistic and less intrusive composition and design of the page. This creates polysemic meaning through addressing and giving voice to multiple audiences. The article uses anchorage through image and text. It does this by linking the topless photo and the informal quote, 'thirst is real', sexualising the image and objectifying the subject for solely his body and brand image.

• Analyse the UX (user experience) of the site. How has it been constructed to maximise audience appeal and accessibility?

• The genre of this magazine website is gay men's lifestyle. What are the conventions/paradigmatic features of this genre? How do they work? What makes this a 'gay website' as opposed to a 'website'?

• How could audiences respond to and interpret all the stuff above? 
• What is the ideology of the producer? How is this constructed through media language?

 Gender Binary  - the classification of gender into two distinct, opposite, and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system or cultural belief.

 'Pink Pound'  - the huge amount of money spent by those of gay or lesbian sexual orientation.

Subversive - refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed

 Heteronormative  - is the belief that heterosexuality, predicated on the gender binary, is the norm or default sexual orientation. It assumes that sexual and marital relations are most (or only) fitting between people of opposite sex.

 Anchorage  - when a piece of media uses another piece of media to reduce the amount of connotations in the first, therefore allowing the audience to interpret it much more easily.

 Androgyny  - the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics into an ambiguous form. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to gender identity, sexual identity, or sexual lifestyle.

What sort of representations of masculinity are constructed by the front cover?

What traditional representations are are challenged?

Body Language - stereotypically feminine stance, with a hand on the hip, and the other over his face, with a smouldering facial expression. Subverts from typically masculine gender performativity.

Costume - Army influenced costume creates a binary between feminine and masculine stereotypes. Eg, soldiers are typically heterosexual, strong, masculine, which is opposed to the style in which it is worn, unzipped, with red nail varnish on his fingers, which almost sexualises the image, by creating feminine and promiscuous themes. 

Make-up - use of eye shadow and mascara suggests that it is more complex than simple gender binary between what is male and female.

Anchorage - 'the masc. survey' putting more pressure on the audience questioning what is and isn't masculine. It mirrors themes in the image and anchors meaning to what is male and female.

Stuart Hall 

- Suggests that the media and power of media representations play an important role in defining the ideological thinking of audience regarding specific social groups. 

- Halls argument that stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits. 

-Halls argument is that stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power, as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or 'other'. 

Find examples from Attitude online that support...

That Attitude constructs strong and positive representations of gay 'icons'.

This constructs a strong and positive representation of a gay icon Freddie Mercury, through creating positive connotations of the success of the film documenting his life and the band Queen, who were hugely iconic in their time, and continue to be today.








That the magazine represents contemporary issues that affect the LGBTQ community, for example, adoption and homophobia.

This article represents issues affected by the LGBTQ community, as they are represented to appear under attack by none their than the President of the USA. 'Military ban' creates violent and forceful connotations, representing transgender people as defenceless and vulnerable. 







That the magazine self-stereotypes, appropriating and repurposing typical representations.

This creates a conflict within homosexuality and religion, two concepts that are binary, and do not typically go hand in hand. It self-stereotypes the gay community, as it reveals that church goers believe they can still have religion, however religious teachings normally teach that being homosexual is a sin. This repurposes typical representations of homosexuality and religion.

• To what extent does the UK government have the right to intervene in the creation of online media?

I think the government partly have the right to intervene in the creation of explicit or triggering online media when social media content can be harmful to younger or more fragile audiences.

• The internet is of course largely unregulated, and mainly adopts a model of self-regulation. But how is it that it came to be like this?

Technological advances in A.I means that it is harder to regulate and control media regulation today.

• From the perspective of this report, who is responsible for regulation on the internet?

The Science and Technology Committee has concluded that social media companies must be subject to a legal duty of care to help protect young people’s health and wellbeing when accessing their sites.

• What is meant by the terms 'standards lottery' and 'patchwork' when applied to regulatory frameworks?
• “More worryingly, social media companies—who have a clear responsibility towards particularly young users—seem to be in no rush to share vital data with academics that could help tackle the very real harms our young people face in the virtual world" - from your perspective, why are social media companies not more forthright in sharing data and other information with academics?
• What possible ways are there of regulating online media? 
• Why is it particularly hard to implement a standardised and singular framework of regulation?
• How do other countries regulate online media?

Algorithms and Zoella

Algorithm - a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem solving operations, especially by a computer.

Machine Learning - an application of artificial intelligence (A.I) that provides systems with the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed.

Artificial Intelligence - the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence.

Clay Shirky
"The audience no longer exists. All that remains is a hyperreal construction forged by algorithms."

"Zoella is not targeting an audience, but is using algorithmic practice to target a theoretical machine fabricated audience."

YouTube and Regulation

Demonetisation - When video content doesn't meet the company's rules and regulations

Grishno vs. Logan Paul - both videos were demonetised for different reasons

-