REPRESENTATIONS - POINTS OF VIEW, MESSAGES and VALUES UNDERLYING THEM. 19/3

How people, places and situations are represented is dependent on;

• Costume
• Language / regional identity
• Settings / locations [geographical markers] 
• Body language

Costume/dress, [urban, rural, asbo, wealthy...]

What are the connotations? What do the costumes signify?

Language and regional identity.

Settings/locations [geographical markers] 

 

These settings can possibly say something about the North/South divide.

Body language

Does it encourage the audience to sympathise with or to dislike the character?

Albert Mehrabian become known best by his publications on the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages  also become known as the 7%-38%-55% Rule, for the relative impact of words, tone of voice, and body language when speaking.

Through body language then, can we identify the character as a hero/villain/helper etc? 

As described in Propp's character functions

Hero

Villain

Helper

Dispatcher

Princess

Donor

Relationship of characters with other characters is also important in identifying types.

Ask yourself; how does this affect the audience response – are the texts shown as; 

Challenging stereotypes?

...Or re-enforcing stereotypes?

What is the impact of these representations on the audiences – negative or positive?

Remember that all representation is RE-PRESENTATION- the media CONSTRUCTS a representation through MEDIATION & SELECTION. 

How does the audience interpret and respond to the text?

Consider The way different people might put different MEANINGS on to the text:
Stuart Hall points out that there are three different types of text readers:

• PREFERRED or DOMINANT READING – What the producers want the audience to get out of the text – something they want the audience to do.
• NEGOTIATED READING – that’s a COMPROMISE between what the producers want you to do and what you might get out of it. I like the Cadbury’s Gorilla advert but I don’t like the chocolate!
• OPPOSITIONAL READING – The audience is completely turned off by the text and does the complete opposite of what the producers want – who might do this and why? 
• [See Audience Responses on this blog].

Task 1: Homework for 25.3.14 answers on blogs please

Study the following advertisement shown in 2011:  Stella Artois.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyq_dRJfV6I

1. Analyse the advertisement commenting on:

     • visual codes

     • technical codes

     • audio codes. 

2.
(a) Suggest two ways in which men have been represented in this advertisement. 

(b) Explore how the representations of men have been used to sell the product. 

(c) With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the different ways in which men

are represented in the media today. 

3. Using your own detailed examples, examine why audiences respond differently to media texts.