Media Language and Representation: The Big Issue

Dark background, serious topic. 

Direct address.
Celebrity endorsement.
Organ donation endorsement.
Individualism.

Martin Luther King's famous speech is referenced.
Can be sad as it makes it seem we have not followed MLK's ideals
Questioning if his legacy has been honoured
(50th anniversary of his death)
Religious imagery almost as he seems like a secular saint
Look of confidence juxtaposed with symbols of America
Anti racism and individualism

Serious interview (in-depth)
Harry and Meghan endorsement, royals find it important so public should too, role models - also treats them as a casual acquaintance which connotes recognition and approval
Serious direct address
Tagline is a quote from David Tennant himself
Celebrity culture
Exclusive story about Tennant
Ideology of helping others as the royals are supporting the magazine so others should too

INTERTEXTUALITY 

The MLK cover does not make a direct reference to other media products, but the image used suggests a media representation of the man - King as a cultural product as much as a real person, a product whose positive connotations of highly moral political activism the magazine might appropriate.

DT cover references 'the shape of water', a newly released film, and 'The Doctor' a reference to David Tennant's role as Doctor Who in the past. Suggesting shared knowledge as none are explained, assumed famous enough for audience to understand.

REPRESENTATION

MLK cover. chooses to combine icons of america - stars and stripes and outline of mainland usa with a stylised image of MLK and a reference to his most famous inspirational speech from 60s. It positions the issue of civil rights in contemporary America within the context of a long political struggle. This suggests solidarity with civil rights protestors, an affiliation with the less powerful in society and a thoughtful, historically informed view of current events. 'what happened to the dream'. Red represents danger and may show that America is no longer following his legacy.

DT cover chooses to combine an apparently unstaged photograph of a famous actor with language suggesting vulnerability. Both conventional interest in the culture and entertainment industries and a concern with the authentic person behind the glossy appearances 'love' and 'loss'
The magazine boasts of its association with royalty but does so in a down-to-earth way 'Meghan and Harry: coffee with the Big Issue' avoids fawning over the monarchy.

SOCIAL CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXTS

Consumerism, lifestyle magazines reflect consumer society's ideals of a 'good life'. Big Issue attempts to highlight and alleviate homelessness and poverty (political context). neither are adequately addressed - little power and status, but magazine deliberately celebrates their individuality and achievements.

Celebrity culture is a major influence on DT and ML. They expect audience to recognise and understand their cultural role without explanation

Multiculturalism has influenced the representation of MLK as the cover expects its audience to adopt the perspective of people of colour without difficulty. Liberal news sources in the 60s would have covered the events sympathetically but from a whiter perspective.

IDEOLOGIES AND POSITIONING

MLK position the audience as concerned about political issues and current affairs, knowledgeable about King and the civil rights movement and sympathetic to their arms. Internationalists.

DT positions audience as cinephiles interested in the entertainment news and inner life of actors, especially David Tennant and royal family. Doggerland reference is deliberately enigmatic to entice readers.

Both covers embody individualism as a core ideology as both focus on individuals. DT is more ethnocentric, but the MLK is clearly internationalist therefore it suggests there isnt a systematic bias

Underrepresentation of women shows there may be a systematic bias which reflect the influence of sexism, and underepresentation of POC may be influence of racism. This is not necessarily conscious racism and sexism by publishers and may be a reflection of inequality in the world 

Music Videos - Revision

Music VIdeos

Burn the Witch — 

• Diegetic bird singing
• Cartoonish 
• Fade in and from black transitions
• Red Cross on doors links to plague 
• A noose for public hanging 
• Plot twist
• Society is being obsessed and judged by an outsider and at the end he is burnt 
• Trumpton style animation
• Intertextual link to 1984 totalitarianism 
• Links to the hot fuzz movie
• Idea of a cult
• Historial links to old torture methods
• Paganism - burning man festival

Heaven —

• Working class
• gangs, drugs or prostitution subtle references
• Frequent low angle shots which represents looking down on people
• Camera grain and lens flare
• Mixture style music video
• Religious lyrics
• Theorists include Newman, butsch, Lawler, Alvarado 
• Homeless are 17 times more likely to be victims of violence, nine times more likely to commit suicide
• Ethnic minorities now account for up to 40 per cent of all homeless households in England, despite being just 15 per cent of the population 

Media and Advertising - Revision

Media revision

Advertising

Shelter — 

About the company

• For every £1, 21p spent on fundraising and 79p spent on helping
• Offer face to face services, a national helpline, online advice, legal support
• Founded in 1966
• 3 million people were living in slums
• 50 years later 100,000 children are homeless 
• In 1980 convinced government to give social housing tenants the same security of tenure as private renters 

About the poster

• Rhetorical questions
• Fake friendship established
• Intertextual link to search bar and anchorage
• Use of ‘we’
• Red font
• Sanserif font
• Website linked
• Sad expression
• ordinary people in distress 
• Gender and age diversity - no disabled even though in 2009 40% of homeless people in US were disabled

Lucozade — 

About the company

• Lucozade used to be marketed as a medical drink
• Had to rebrand multiple times, including 1998 where it was masculine and working class 

About the poster

• Yellow and blue colours match the drink brand
• San serif font 
• Pun and intertextual link
• ‘yes’ is positive and anchorage
• Direct address and ‘game face’
• Information about the player which could be an intertextual link to trading cards
• Product displayed larger than it would really be 
• Tries to make audience believe it is true facts (logical advertising)
• Conventional of an energy drink advert (blue, bright, enlarged image, sanserif, direct mode of address, simplistic)

Old Spice — 

About the company

• Rebranding. In the 80s there was minimal editing and shows prize of female, and 90s shows a man on a bike and is masculine 
• Founded in the 30s as nautical themed
• Discontinued women’s fragrances so only for men
• Women were targeted in adverts as they became responsible for 50% body wash purchases

About the poster

• Direct mode of address
• Saturated colours
• Body is part of the beach
• Male gaze of a woman in a bikini
• Volcano represents masculinity 
• A bold, capital non-serif font
• Cursive signature
• Fantastical images
• Product matches the background image
• Head in the sand is surreal - all of it is
• Rule of thirds
• Barthes semantic code
• Anchorage makes fun of ‘false claims’ and parodies other adverts

Media Language and Representation: Burn the Witch video

Radiohead - Burn The Witch

does not feature the artist(s) but celebrates the power of narrative and signification and a postmodern emphasis on intertextuality. The video contrasts clearly with the representations featured in Heaven

Burn the witch
diegetic bird singing
cartoon-ish
fade in and from black transitions
red cross on doors
a noose for public hanging
hesitant
at end someone is burnt unexpectedly (plot twist)
society is being observed and judged by a man/officer and at the end he is burnt
trumpton style 
utopian representation but some bad undertones

Theoretical framework

Learners will develop their understanding of the media through the consistent application of the four areas of the theoretical framework:

•media language: how the media through their forms, codes, conventions and techniques communicate meanings

•media representations how the media portray events, issues, individuals and social groups

•media industries: how the media industries’ processes of production, distribution and circulation affect media forms and platforms

•media audiences: how media forms target, reach and address audiences, how audiences interpret and respond to them and how members of audiences become producers themselves. 

Burn the witch

only the whites

red x links to plague

another intertextual link to 1984 totalitarianism

link to the hot fuzz movie  (facade of perfect society)

idea of a cult (woman and 5/6 masked men with swords)

historical links to old torture methods (finding witches)

paganism   - burning man festival 

produced by trumpton shire , older generation can watch and like it. intertextual link.  model town

man and woman on the see-saw , decorated which can show them trying to seem normal? chair on the see-saw 

lyrics 'abandon all reason, avoid all eyecontact, do not react, shoot the messengers' 1984 book reference. listen to the mayor 

slogan 'burn the witch', women being manipulated social context. men have the most power hegemonic

'cheer at the gallows' being forced to be happy and enjoy where they are.  

https://www.slideshare.net/jphibbert1979/media-and-collective-identity-theory-revision?next_slideshow=1 theories to use

Burn the witch analysis

Media Language and Representation: Shelter Advert

OCR Spec.

•Shelter, the UK based housing and homelessness charity launched an advertising campaign in 2011 that was produced for those at risk of homelessness to point them to Shelter’s free services and guide them to seek advice on issues around homelessness earlier. 

Taglines are somewhat relatable to the audience as these situations could easily happen to them. 

Red eyes can relate to fear and crying. 

Font -- “The famous homelessness charity had changed what it did, but no-one had realised. They were now concentrating on the bad housing that wrecks lives, hence the pitched roof on their 'h’.” – johnson banks

 21p spent on fundraising and 79p on helping 

Services -- 

Face-to-face services

Our advice and support services across the UK give people one-to-one, personalised help with all of their housing issues.

National helpline

Our free emergency helpline is open 365 days a year and is often the first port of call for people facing a housing crisis.

Online advice

You can find expert information about everything from reclaiming your deposit to applying as homeless, and you can talk to an adviser over webchat.

Legal support

Our solicitors provide free legal advice and attend court to help people who’ve lost their homes or are facing eviction.

Article --
'Each advert depicts an ordinary person in distress because they are facing a serious crisis, such as sudden job loss or mounting debt. They carry a headline which shares the desperation the person is feeling. The aim is for the combined impact of the headline and image to tap into the concerns of the people experiencing these problems, driving them to seek advice on Shelter’s website.'
Kay Boycott, director of campaigns, policy and communications at Shelter, said: “In these tough economic times, more and more people across the country are struggling to keep their heads above water and are in desperate need of our help.
“50% of people don’t seek external advice when they encounter housing problems, so our priority in this campaign is to increase the number of people coming to us for help and reaching a positive outcome.
“Visitors to our online advice pages have increased by over a third in the last year, proving that there’s a growing demand for digital guidance. We hope the campaign will have a significant impact in showing people who have been hit by difficult times that help is just a click away, while raising the profile of housing issues further.”

Founded in 1966 during the “Swinging Sixties” are the stuff of legend, three million people were living in slums. Shelter was born out of the belief that this appalling injustice must be put right.

Fifty years on, the country is in the grip of another housing crisis. A huge range of people are affected by our current housing shortage, from a generation of young people who can’t afford a home to those struggling with sub-standard housing.

As we enter our 50th year, 100,000 children are homeless. So, while we will reflect on our achievements, we will only celebrate when everyone has a place to call home.

Important effects -- 

'We are not always successful. We failed for too long to get the need for more homes back on the agenda. We also weren’t able to convince governments to replace homes sold under Right to Buy, and many people’s homes today aren’t as secure as they once were. Today, the safety net which Shelter helped to create is also under threat.

However, despite the challenges we face, we are always confident that we’ll prevail eventually.

For example, in 1980 we helped to convince the government to give social housing tenants the same security of tenure as private renters. This legal change was fiercely opposed by local authorities, but provided protection for families facing eviction at short notice.

We faced a critical moment in 1996 when the Housing Act threatened to erode some of the rights established in the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act. We successfully made the case to the government that the Act should include the Right to Appeal in a county court, which made it harder for local authorities to turn people away.

This was key to softening the backward steps of the 1996 legislation and it gave individuals the power to challenge decisions made against them. Once again, our lobbying strategy had been informed by our experiences on the ground.'

Some emphasis on families as there are pictures of these which are also black and white in documentary style. 

Representation and Media Language

There is diversity in terms of gender but not in race, as they are all white. It can be argued that gender representation is fairly unconventional as a man is shown to have been made homeless which is arguably a 'weak' situation, especially as he shows emotion. He does not conform to stereptype ideas put forward by McRobbie. 

There seems to be some differences in age which targets a wide range of audiences. The target audience seems to be homeless people themselves but also people who could donate to the charity in order to help as there is a high level of sadness presented in an attempt to gain sympathy. It attracts this audience through the saturated red compared to low-key lit backgrounds of sad people and use of taglines that portray very possible situations. 

Surprisingly there isn't any disability representation even though those who are disabled are a large proportion of the homeless population. (In 2009, 40% of homeless people in the US were disabled). 

Personal elements such as sexuality are also not obvious or mentioned, only by assumption, though LGBT youth are very commonly homeless. 

Media Language and Representation: Lucozade Advert

OCR Spec.

•The Lucozade ‘I believe’ campaign poster from 2013 was part of a £4m mass market campaign to educate consumers about how the soft drink brand can help improve people’s sports performance, and features footballer Gareth Bale as a key brand ambassador.

•Consideration should be made of media language elements specific to advertising and marketing such as locations, costumes, props, makeup, lighting, choice of camera shot, angle, typography, layout and address of written content to the audience.

Isotonic drinks contain similar concentrations of salt and sugar as is found in the human body. These drinks quickly replace fluids and electrolytes lost through sweating and give a boost of simple carbohydrate.

 Lucozade used to be marketed as a medical or healthy product which could help with sickness or lack of energy. Instead of celebrity endorsements, there were medical endorsements which assured people that medical professionals used the drink whenever it was needed. 'Refreshes and sustains' is a glittering generality used on most of these posters to promote it. It was referred to as a 'glucose' drink as part of its brand which can be beneficial in terms of medical advertising as it is a scientific term which is arguably medical or nutritional jargon (technical term). It essentially just refers to sugar so in this way it is arguably similar as it was still an energy drink as it is now. There may arguably be a guilt trip technique here as people associate the product with wellness and therefore want their children to get better by drinking lucozade.




Techniques in Video advert to sell Lucozade (rebranding 1998)

• working class representation
• 1960's setting
• bikers and masculinity 
• dialect is informal (not rp)
• young people (embarrassing mum)
• personal identity needs
• Britain colours at the end may make it patriotic 'made in britain'
• Lucozade fire packaging 
• comedy
• peripheral advertising by emotional appeal 

Techniques in Video advert to sell Lucozade (2013)

• 'construction of real tests'
• glittering generalities 'better than water'
• sport
• men 
• claiming that lucozade soirt is better for exercise and proved
• the advert was banned for these claims that it 'fuels better than water'
• Kinvara Carey, general manager of the Natural Hydration Council, said the ruling would help to clarify the significant "confusion" over sports drinks claims. "There is already much confusion over the role of sports drinks, and for the majority of people participating in exercise and sporting activities water is all that is needed for effective hydration," she said. "The majority of sports drinks contain calories and may only have a positive contribution to make to professional athletes and those participating in high-intensity, endurance activity."

REPRESENTATION

This seems to predominantly aimed at males with only one female advert - which seems like a 'token' in order to prove that they are not a sexist brand. This could also be argued in terms of race, as the majority of the models/athletes in these posters are white. Despite this, it seems Lucozade have tried to have a variety of representation, but their posters are reflective of society in that they are using popular athletes and unfortunately this is predominantly white. Despite this they are all similar in age range which is young adult, therefore this likely will appeal to aspiring young people who want to be athletes. This conforms to 'personal identity' needs (Bulmer and Katz) as well as the aspirer. It is clear that this doesn't represent disabled people as they are all active, which may cause insecurity. In terms of class it isn't clear in the poster adverts however it could be assumed that as a result of a branded drink, it would be people of middle class. According to McRobbie, males are presented stereotypically as they are arguably strong, masculine and sporty. It could also be argued that they are also a countertype as the female advert doesn't show her as stereotypically feminine or weak. It attempts to appeal to logical audience through advertising as it claims there are scientific evidence. However, there is a large amount of emotional response in regards to associating the product with certain ideas, such as strength. The focus on the face is sharp which emphasises the focus of the 'game face'. We can only assume the athlete's sexuality based on stereotypes however it is not entirely clear - though mainstream audience would most likely assume heterosexual. In terms of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the advert pretends to be a basic need such as food or water though we know it actually fits as an esteem need. 

Conventions


These are some examples of other energy drink adverts. A lot are blue and bright which can relate to the colour psychology of blue relating to intelligence, trust and men. It makes the product reliable and sometimes masculine. The drinks are usually edited larger and as a separate layer which makes the advert more surreal rather than just a picture of a model holding the drink.




Conventions of these adverts possibly include
Complementary colours (bright) saturated
An enlarged image of the product itself
Capital letters in anchorage
Blue sometimes?
New adverts are mostly sanserif 
Direct mode of address 
Simplistic

Media Language and Representation: Old Spice Advert

Old Spice

Old spice from elleguyan

MEDIA LANGUAGE

analyse how the combination of elements of media language influence meaning
The composition of the advert may have used the rule of thirds as it seems as though the man's head and body is in place with a vertical grid line.
There are a few examples of Barthes' semantic code in the poster; for example the volcano on the head is surreal and doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the audience, yet contributes to the idea of the Bahamas which is an ideal holiday location. Many other elements contribute to this, such as Poseidon and the Shark that is being fished.
Certain aspects contribute to the idea of masculinity such as use of the colour red (Barthes' symbolic code) and the visual idea that he is part of the beach and the Earth, making him extremely powerful. This supports McRobbie's idea of men being shown as powerful.
The advert itself has also used anchorage to make humour out of the 'false claims' and almost parodies other adverts by stating that the 'fact has not been fact-checked', highlighting it as untrue as every other product advert is.

analyse how developing technologies affect media language

 In the 1980s (left) the photo seems very simple as it is a photo with an added layer of the product and text. The editing is very minimal (there may have been colour editing) - and he is shown to have a 'prize' of the female.

In 1990s (right) the photo has had slightly more editing, as it seems the man, bike and background could have been edited together, however the general idea is still quite simple and is possibly only made up of 4 layers. It emphasises the masculine nature of the product to a greater extent, highlighting ideas of 'sport' which also conforms to McRobbie. They are much more simple than the Bahamas Old Spice advert and therefore this shows how developing technologies can be used to create parodies in adverts, causing a better relationship with the audience as a result of humour. 

Old Spice was founded in the 1930s as nautical themed. In modern day they started using more NFL players who are younger, which targets a younger audience also - this is different to 1980s and 1990's in which the men appear older and perhaps married. The brand has changed to target younger people in a comedic way, which is more effective in modern society as people are aware of the lies or exaggerations within advertising and prefer a realistic approach, especially if they are younger.

Advertising and Psychology

Analyse how audiences respond to and interpret the above aspects of media language.

Audiences will likely find it funny which acts as a form of synthetic personalisation (fake friendship) and influences the audience to consider the product. It may be refreshing to see that they are not lying about effects of their product but instead making a parody of other adverts, making the brand of the company appear authentic. 

What age demographic is the product now targeted towards (2011)

How does this compare to the 1980/1990 brand

What attracts the age demographic the brand

This is targeted towards a younger audience whereas it was previously older people. In the past it may have been bought by the older men themselves as it presents ideas of masculinity and gaining a prize from buying the product. In recent years it seems like it may be advertised as a gift, particularly as some video adverts are targeted at ladies to buy this gift for another man. The younger actors can attract a younger audience as a result of personal identity needs, which allows the audience to relate or connect with the actors in the advert.

•Does the advert work by appealing to logic – (the central route)

•Does the advert appeal to the peripheral route (affective advertising)

What superficial cues are associated with the advert (2011)

It seems that the print advert may be using affective advertising and the peripheral route as there is no direct information about the product, and therefore it is left to assumptions by previous knowledge and the semantic code in the advert. Some of the superficial cues include the whole setting of the Bahamas, the strength and power presented in the man and also the subtle intertextual links such as Poseidon. 

Analyse the significance of challenging and/or subverting genre conventions

• Black actor
• Humour
• Less body image focus
• Less perceived realism 
• Mode of address has changed
• No persuasive slogan or text, instead it is funny

1. Discontinued women's fragrances
2. In the 80s it stagnated, 17% market share but not growing
3. 1990 Proctor and Gamble bought Old Spice, and replaced the colonial ship with a yacht
4. Image crisis when 25 year olds didn't want to buy what was seen as their father's deodorant (nautical) so rebranded and targeted to high school teenage boys (using Brian Urlacher to appear on TV)
5. 2003 second best selling men's deodorant
6. Hired ad agency Wiedon and Kennedy
7. women were responsible for 50% body wash purchases 
8. Old Spice advert went viral when addressed at ladies and humorous so they began to rebrand with strange funny acts
9. Became official wash of NFL
10. Expansion to hair care in 2014
11. Sponsored a successful ALS ice bucket challenge and responded to people and celebrities in videos

MEDIA REPRESENTATION

Analyse Media representation : the way events, issues, individuals (including self- representation) and social groups (including social identity) are represented through processes of selection and combination

Recent adverts have used black NFL players which has increased the level of representation since using white men. These players endorse the product which can encourage men who enjoy watching the NFL to buy the product as somebody they like is helping with advertising.

There is some use of male gaze in the poster as a female is in a bikini however this isn't very negative and instead seems to enforce the surreal idea of the Bahamas instead of sexualising. 

According to Alvarado there are certain media stereotypes of black people and it doesn't seem that the actor fits into these easily however perhaps it could fit into humorous and funny as this is the whole brand of the advert, though this isn't intended to be negative. 

Analyse Media representation :

• the way the media through re-presentation constructs versions of reality

•the way in which representations make claims about realism

I feel that the audience know that what is being presented is unrealistic and therefore they do not expect the advert to be true to life unlike in previous adverts which have much more subtle 'rewards'. This can allow the audience to trust the advert as there are no false claims or promises. This relates to Blumler and Katz in which audiences like to be entertained or escape through the Bahamas. 

Digital technology and montage creates meaning as there are many intertextual links to things such as Poseidon which represents strength as well as being a God. These ideas relate to fiction and can be entertaining as people find it amusing to look at this, particularly due to the lack of realism. 

Analyse Media representation the processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent events, issues, individuals and social groups

The brand was rebooted to be relevant to younger years as 25 year olds didn't want to buy what was seen as their dad's product, particularly as it was nautical themed which may not be relatable for younger people. There was a pause in market profits which meant immediate action had to be taken - main examples being rebranding to 'swagger' and competing with other companies that consider younger audiences and addressing women who buy gifts for their husbands

Uploading to YouTube created a lot of traffic and increased followers 

•In what way was the use of sports celebrity   Isaiah Mustafa considered a good choice?

A lot of adults will know who this is, particularly the men who want the product or the wives of these men who want to buy it as a gift. He is also entertaining which appeals to the younger audience and this therefore causes a new influx of audiences. 

Analyse Media representation how media representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world and how these may be systematically reinforced across a wide range of media representations

Younger generations seem very accepting of other people especially race and this is important as this means representation doesn't bother many people. The increase in representation of athletes such as Lewis Hamilton shows that tolerance is getting better, particularly in this generation.