1) Read 'a step by step guide to answering an exam question' from pages eleven to thirteen of the revision guide. If you don't know here to find the revision guide, then now's a really good time to find it!
2) Click here to find an example of an exemplar response. Look at the introduction. How can DAC apply to this introduction?
"Explore how audiences are positioned by the representations in this advert"
Introduction
- [D] Representations are a re-presentation, and refer to how the producer re-presents a certain group of people, an issue or event. In doing so, a producer will attempt to present their own ideology. Positioning refers to how a producer 'places' an audience, often to manipulate and to reinforce their ideology.
- [A] The 'Me me me' Army recruitment advert uses modes of address to position it's target audience of younger, female and possible BAME people in a direct and even confrontational mode of address, in order to persuade them to join the army.
- [C] In this sense, the 'me me me' advert adopts a similar mode of address to other forms of military propaganda, and to hard-hitting advertising campaigns used by NSPCC and Barbados
Content
- Composition: model appears to be looking down on the audience, with the symbolic connotation of 'looking down' on the audience, of superiority, etc
- Red text, sans serif: informal, targeting an informal audience
- MES: professional camouflage and Union Flag both connote professionalism and patriotism
- Connotations of black text is symbolic of seriousness and gravity of situation, forming a binary opposition with the bright red text
- Intertextuality: makes intertextual reference to WWII 'your country needs you' poster, extremely well recognised piece of propaganda. A far more gentle mode of address than the original poster
- The MES of serious facial expression connotes seriousness of situation
- Drawing attention to commonly held stereotypes about young people in order to provoke the target audience