Advertising and marketing mock exam
Component one - Media products, industries and audiences
Section A - Analysing media language and representation
Answer all questions
Short answer questions -
1) Name three of Barthes's semiotic codes [1]
- Symbolic Code
- Proairetic Code
- Hermeneutic Code
2) Briefly define 'modes of address' [1]
- Modes of address is the way a media text's language chooses to talk and address their audience depending on whether they're working class/ middle class etc.
3) Briefly define 'lexis' [1]
- Lexis is the selection of words used in order to fulfill the aspired modes of address for example; slang, formal.
4) Which two theoretical perspectives have we studied that can be 'credited' to Stuart Hall? [2]
- Theories of Representation
- Theories of Reception
Media language
5) How can media language communicate multiple meanings? Make reference to at least two of the following; the Tide print advertisement (1950's), the WaterAid audiovisual advertisement (2016) and the Kiss of the Vampire (1963) film poster.
In your answer you must:
- Consider how genre conventions create meaning
- Consider how audiences can respond to media language
- Consider how media language incorporates various viewpoints and ideologies [30]
Media Language can communicate all sorts of different multiple meanings through modes of address, generic paradigms and the repertoire of elements etc. In the 3 different adverts of Tide, WaterAid and Kiss of the Vampire there are many examples of this.
In the 1950's Tide print advert we see the housewife hugging the Tide washing powder, connotations of this being that she has to clean, there is no other male seen in this advert so it is solely the woman's responsibility in order to do the cleaning, but through the way she is hugging the box we can also say that she enjoy's cleaning, and she wants to do it, she may not see it as a 'man's job' because she enjoys doing it so much, its also a proairetic code as we don't know what is going to happen next as we are in the unknown we don't know whether she is going to use it to do the cleaning or to give it to someone else to do the cleaning, which gives us the sense of the unknown. The Mise-en-scene of the colour palette creates two different binary opposing traits, the deep red and pure white we see, the purity of the white contrasts with the deepness and perhaps sinister red. Red can have symbolic connotations to death or to love. By having this deep red in the advert we can see that this washing powder is perhaps so powerful it wipes away all your bad traits so not only does it clean your clothes but it may clean your soul aswell to this white of complete purity, and innocence. At the same time though this advert could be referring to the love between the tide washing powder and the housewife through the red, which are two very different multiple meanings. Carrying on from the ideologies that emerge from the colour white, we see a quote saying "whitest", giving a sense of authority over white people, as they're clean and at the time that this advert came out in the 1950's, it was a very non biodiversal time compared to the 21st Century, and at the time with adverts coming out of black people in dirty clothes and making them looking dirtier because they were black, it shows the binary oppositions between the black and the white, and this advert supports it in the fact that it could be promoting the cleanliness and the empowerment of the white people and diminishing and discriminating against the black. The Generic Paradigms linked with washing and cleaning always links back to women and this advert supports that through the repertoire of elements used, having a women cleaning, having girly colours (red and white) with no blue to be seen supporting the stereotypes of cleaning and washing.
In the WaterAid audiovisual advert, we see some very different viewpoints, one being through the Cinematography used, when we see Claudia at the beginning we see her through an eye level shot, the connotations of this are that we are the same and that there is no difference between us and her although she lives in Zambia, this makes the reception positive and we see her as our own so we want to help her out and we want to keep her happy like anyone would with their friends or one of 'their kind' yet others may take a more negative approach to think, then why is this girl asking for money if she is the exact same as me and they think that she doesn't need it as she is already happy, so they feel satisfaction that she is happy and thinks she deserves no more. This is one of the main reasons as to why the 'Hypodermic Needle Theory' was proved wrong due to the differential views that the audience had and why reception was a more accepted and understood theory that Stuart Hall had produced. We also see her through a low angle shot which empowers her image more, and again you get the two different concepts of how she is already happy or people want to help her. The audience are also instantly positioned into this shot through the use of the cross cutting shot back in England in the rain and with the radio station, which means that these two scenes are happening at the same time, whilst it is raining in England, it is scorching hot and dry in Zambia, and we understand that both these demographics are not overly happy with the weather and wish it was different so some people may look at this and think, we are so ungrateful for the bearable conditions we have so you feel guilty for being so selfish, whilst others may look and think they would love to be on holiday in the heat, getting a tan and that if they cant have their hot country then why should they pay to make their lives more bearable, so two extremely different viewpoints on the way that the audience creates meaning behind the media product itself.
In the Kiss Of The Vampire print advert we instantly see links between the genre and generic paradigms shown, we see blood, fangs, bats, dead people, castle so we know instantly this is a Vampire movie without even having to read the title, this is helpful for the audience as we can begin to understand almost instantly what we are in for, also it helps us to decide whether we are interested, as the genre is made so clear if you're a fan of vampire movies then you know you will like it or at least be interested and if you're not you can easily find a different film to watch which is more suited to the genre's in which you enjoy. The mise-en-scene can create very different meanings through the idea that the women are pretty much naked to 1963 standards so they are seen as being sexualised and objectified, the humanity is taken away from them as they are placed as sexual objects also by dehumanising the women it adds to the fact that she has indeed just been bit by the vampire and the life is being sucked out of her, again giving the audience an incentive into what is to come.
From looking at all 3 media products I can conclude that there are many ways in which an audience are able to react to a media product, whether that is through the repertoire of elements, ideologies of the producers etc. which plays more on the audience's part than the producer's viewpoints, backing up Stuart Halls idea of Reception.
6) Representation
Compare how audiences are positioned by the representations in the below Save the Children advert and the WaterAid advert you have studied [15]
In the Save the Children Advert the audience is positioned instantly as one of the army members, we are not overlooking this experience we are in it and experiencing it ourselves, whereas in the WaterAid advert we are positioned watching over Claudia as she goes through her day, without once making any eye contact to show that we are there, so we are more involved in the Save the Children advert. By us being positioned instantly as an involved member of the army, we feel guilt and we feel as if we do not have a choice that we cannot help this little boy as we get sucked in to this dead african setting where we can just begin to imagine the shouting and the gun shots, but when we feel like we cannot do anything to help we look above the boy to see the text of 'We must make this a thing of the past', so then our hope can be restored into thinking we can do something to help and we can get this boy out of this situation. We also are in a sense brainwashed through the mise-en-scene when we are positioned in the advert as we look at this boy who looks to be around 7/8, and he is holding a gun, we see this and see his costume of camo, and just think nothing of it as he is in the army, but its only when you deeply realise he is an 8 yr old with a gun capable of taking someones life then it brings you back to reality again before you get pulled in any further to think that this is 'normal'. Whereas in the WaterAid advert we are happy about seeing the events, and if anything we want to be more involved rather than watching, so there is no sense of un-normality to the extremist point of taking someones life, and its only until the end of the WaterAid advert when we feel restored and happy so we want someone else to have this kind of luxury of water so we think about how happy it made them whereas the Save the Children, pulls us in far too quick but in just enough time to chuck us back out again to be a looker on but with the ability to stop this from happening again.
When looking on at the boy in the Save the Children advert he is in a display box almost like an old dinosaur's fossils with the explanation of to who he is, this makes the audience then be positioned in a museum and as if they're looking on at this as it was something in the past and think that it is horrible, then they realise it is happening to this day which makes them feel a sense of dissatisfaction with how their country is and the idea that they want it to be remembered for more exciting and fascinating things rather than for the child soldiers which were forced to kill, whereas the WaterAid advert makes us seem more proud of how our society is becoming and how different parts of the world are, and how we help each other out so we see the positive effects of coming together as a community whereas in the Save the Children advert we see the negative effects and both ways make us want to donate just as much.
We are positioned in two settings in Africa, one being a Zambian Bush in the WaterAid advert and the other being a bombsite in Congo. The Congo setting is horrible, and when we are positioned in it we want to do anything to get out of it, so when we see this little boy trapped in the box we know that we have the opportunity to get out yet he doesn't as he is stuck like this and won't be let out, so that is his life sorted for him until he is old, as we see middle aged men next to us when we are positioned in. We are disgusted by the state of the setting used, whereas in the WaterAid advert we see it is extremely hot yet we are not disgusted by it as such, we feel sympathy for the children that this is their lifestyle as we cannot help them get out of it but we could help them make it better as such however in the Save the Children advert we can help him get out of it by putting a stop to child soldiers, and we can give them a better life than the one they've been forced into.
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