Question one - David Gauntlett asserts that audiences can actively construct their own identity through a process of mediation with the representations encoded in media products. Evaluate this theory of identity and representation. Make reference to the magazines you have studied to support your answers [30]
DAC introduction
David Gauntlett argues that audiences can pick and mix the ideologies of the producer to form their own identity. This complex process of negotiation sees the audience actively decoding complex messages, and provides producers incentives to either provide complex or straightforward representations to create a product that makes sense to the target audience. In this essay I shall argue that Gauntlet's theory is extremely useful in understanding how audiences can use magazines to form their own identity. However, I shall argue that the identities formed are wildly different depending on the target audience. In order to explore this, I shall refer to the October 1964 edition of Woman, a women’s lifestyle magazine which presents a straightforward ideology to a mass audience, and Adbusters, a complicated magazine that presents an unconventional mode of address to it’s unconventional, non-mainstream, niche activist audience
Plan
Stuart Hall representation
Stuart Hall reception
Anchorage
Liesbet Van Zoonen - women’s bodies as spectacle
Cultivation of ideologies
Weekly circulation woman magazine
Bimonthly, irregular circulation
Gender performativity
Covers
MES
Lexis
Layout
Conventional vs unconventional
Ideologies
Hegemony
Codes
Patriarchy
Proairetic
Language
Lighting
Readings/interpretations
Colour
Makeup
Hair
Composition
Mass audience
Niche audience
Anti-capitalism
Cover lines
Narrative
For each spread:
- Who or what is being represented?
- How is the representation constructed through media language?
- How can the target audience use this to construct their own identity?
Louboutin double page spread
- There are a number of different representations encoded in this double page spread. Firstly, the high end fashion house Louboutin themselves, who are represented in a fiercely controversial way. Additionally, there is a blunt, straightforward and stereotypical representation of black people, in particular black people living in third world countries.
- An uncomfortable mode of address is constructed through the raw and serious selection of image, anchored through the unusual use of a birds eye view shot, explicitly ‘looking down’ on the MES of chapped, broken and poverty stricken feet. Coupled with the use of closeup, the middle class target audience are confronted with a highly unpleasant mode of address, which is further anchored through the dark humour of the Lexis ‘red soles are always in season’. Copied and pasted from an actual Louboutin advert, the lexis now has a dark and problematic meaning through its new anchorage, and is a perfect example of detournement, a concept which will appeal to educated middle class target audience.
- Certain amount of cultural capital needed to understand this double page spread, which indicates a middle class target audience. Further anchored through the high cover price, this helps the audience to construct a middle class, educated, and also rebellious ideology.
- Gender performativity: the audience essentially performs ‘class’, and Adbusters allows middle class audiences to performatively explore elements of being working class anarchists (Champagne socialism!!!)
- A complicated identity is therefore constructed for the target audience, that resists conventional ways of categorising audiences
Alfred Hitchcock double page spread
- Representational group - ‘they are like snow capped volcanoes’. The lexis here not only others women, in a women’s lifestyle magazine no less!, but also refers to the dichotomy between British women appearing beautiful and innocent on the surface, while also being sexually available and promiscuous below the surface. This ideological perspective is quoted word for word, from privileged and respected male director Alfred Hitchcock, and reinforces patriarchal hegemonic viewpoints prevalent at the time
- “Nottingham has a thriving industry of pretty, flirty girls” heavily stereotyped
- Binary opposition between the MES of Hitchcock's hegemonically attractive face with Grace Kelly’s highly hegemonically attractive and desirable face, and reinforces the highly hierarchical nature of patriarchal society, where powerful men get what they want, and only hegemonically beautiful women can succeed
- Kelley’s seductive facial expression is a construction, of both the photography, makeup artist, and crucially Hitchcock, who boasts of ‘grooming’ her to help her find success
- Preferred reading - Alfred Hitchcock is a privileged and respectable man who decides what is sexually attractive. Rather than questions the deeply sexist and patriarchal ideologies in the article, the contemporary target audience would be expected to agree with the hegemonic values of the article
- Kelley is presented as an aspirational stereotype of a successful woman, but she is not self-made. The article reinforces that Kelley was constructed by Hitchcock. Therefore, the female target audience can use this interview as an escapist fantasy. However, it only reinforces the highly sexist and patriarchal ideology that women’s success is completely based on meeting a rich and powerful man, and also being sexually available to him
Question two - To what extent are the choices made by the producer reflected in the representations in the magazines you have studied? [30]
DAC introduction
Representation refers to how the producer of a media product re-presents social groups, issues and events. Representations always reflect the ideology of the producer. However, representations are a reconstruction of a reality, and can both shape the world and manipulate audiences to believe the ideological perspective of the producer. Additionally, representations cause stereotypes to form, which are used to help audiences understand media products, yet always are harmful, and reflect imbalances of power (Hall). In this essay, I shall argue that the producers of both magazines show a clear and obvious reflection of their ideologies, which is primarily encoded through simple, straightforward and often manipulative representations. However both magazines also use at times complicated representations, which ensure the engagement of their respective audiences. I shall refer to the October 1964 edition of Woman, a women’s lifestyle magazine which presents a straightforward ideology to a mass audience, and Adbusters, a complicated magazine that presents an unconventional mode of address to it’s unconventional, non-mainstream, niche activist audience
Plan
Suits
Feminism
MES
Lexis
Cartoon
Conventional/unconventional
Binary opposition
Hall
Fetishism (sexual/commodity)
bell hooks
Van Zoonen
Anchorage
Hyperrealism
Modes of address
Levi-Strauss
Binary oppositions
Narrative
Barthes
Stereotypes
Subheadings
Copy
Layout
Low production values
Colour
Typography
Codes and conventions
Intertextuality
Content
Adbusters - homeless spread
- A strongly fluid representation of gender is constructed through the MERS of the highly androgynous representation of an alternative and striking fashion model. This striking representation is both anchored and further constructed through the MES of the hand being placed over the mouth of the model, constructing a powerful symbolic code, and suggesting a masculine mode address. Challenging conventional representations of femininity, this representation constructs a highly performative representation that breaks down what it means to be a man or a woman. This constructs the ideology that gender is not a fixed identity, and reflects the idea that we live in a complex world.
- The striking and androgynous model constructs a binary opposition with the hegemonically attractive homeless woman on the other side of the spread. Her representation is constructed through the combination of childlike clothing and the MES of the individual sitting on a grate in the middle of a busy street. Directly addressing the audience, and clutching an empty cup of coffee, this atypical representation of women reflects the unconventional ideologies of the magazine, and exists to elicit sympathy, and draw attention to a complex and particularly problematic representation
- The lexis of the article directly situated to the right of the model suggests the fear of starvation. However, the article explicitly refers to climate change, and not explicitly the issue of homelessness in large American cities. Through the combination of these seemingly unrelated elements, a complicated narrative and set of representations addresses the educated target audience, who are expected to absorb these complex representations and put them all together in a complex act of negotiation. The producers of adbusters therefore argue that the representations of gender, social issues and inequality are all related, and to understand one of them requires understanding all of them. This highly complicated mode of address clearly targets a more educated target audience.
- However, certain audiences will doubtless decode this double page spread in a simple and straightforward way, that homelessness, climate change and inequality are all bad things. In this sense, even audiences who do not engage with these complex representations will ultimately still align with the preferred reading
Woman - EXTRA SPECIAL
- A binary opposition is constructed between the challenging representation of women in the article, and the hegemonic norms and expectations of women living in the 1960s. Thi8s potentially feminist perspective may be to help the magazine stand out from its immediate competitors (for example Woman’s Own magazine), and may also hope to influence the ideology of the target audience in subtle yet progressive ways. However, this representation of feminism is simple, straightforward, and unlikely to cause a revolution.
- The main image features the surprising MES of a woman standing on top of a man. However, even this image is encoded in such a way so as not to incite revolution. The dress code of the man is formal, and presents him in a position of power, even though he is being trodden underfoot. His facial expression connotes annoyance, and his pose, with his feet outstretched connotes femininity, which presents a humorous mode of address to the target audience. Additionally, the woman treading gently on the man’s head is both happy, and hegemonically attractive, creating an intertextual reference to the conventions of the contemporary sitcom. While the image can be negotiated as being revolutionary, it is far more likely that the preferred reading is that the situation is ridiculous and humorous
- Additionally, the main image takes on a fetishistic quality, and presents an exciting and alluring mode of address to the working class middle aged target female audience.
- The persuasive lexis of “keep it under your hat” creates a mocking and conspiratorial mode of address, that suggests that in order to have power over men, women are able to indirectly influence their significant other, through the selection of costumes, purchasing items such as ties and hats, and reinforces the patriarchal hegemonic ideology that women are only able to control a small part of their lives
- The satirical overtone of the article makes fun of the idea of feminism and women’s liberation