Media Studies - Intro

8/2/2019 Media Studies - Intro

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Media studies

Media reception is 'situated', part of people'severyday lives; people interpret messages in thecontext of and for the purposes of their immediateexperience and personal ideologies and goals.

Society is not monolithic; it has many sub-cultures ,

and people have different orientations in differentcircumstances and at different times

The meanings of mass mediated communication arecontrolled (at least in part) by the receivers of thecommunication; consequently the meanings thatpeople make, and the reasons and contexts in whichthey make them, must be studied -- throughreception and ethnographic studies


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Encoding-decoding

Three major reading positions. The idea is that any text encodes an intended, or "preferred",

meaning, but that the reader may not decode the messagewithin the 'preferred' interpretive frame.

within the frame of the dominant code: decoding as theencoders would have it, or, within their interpretive frame;

adopting a negotiated position: the reader accepts someaspects of the dominant meaning, but rejects and altersothers, to suit their understandings and goals;

reading from an oppositional point of view: readingsubversively, against the dominant or preferred meanings.


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Marxist theory

Media as means of production Ideology

Media as amplifiers

The constitution of subject


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Media as means of production

The mass media simply disseminate the ideasand world views of the ruling class, and deny

or defuse alternative ideas The mass media functioned to produce 'false

consciousness' in the working-classes


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Ideology

Ideological positions are a function of class

positions, and the dominant ideology in

society is the ideology of its dominant class

ideology is 'false consciousness'


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Media as amplifiers

media thus reproduced the viewpoints of

dominant institutions as the central and

"obvious" or "natural" perspective


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The constitution of subject

mutually interactive relationship between the

subject (human agents) and the object (the

conditions of their existence)

Individuals are 'constituted' as the bearers of

positions through the effects of social

relations


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Marxist variant

Frankfurt School 1st generation

Althusser

Gramsci Stuart Hall (British Cultural Studies)

Habermas (Frankfurt School 2nd generation)

Postmodernism (Baudrillard, Foucault, andDerrida)


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Frankfurt School

Critical Theory, in media theory -the firstMarxist attempt to theorize about the media

Associated with the Institute for Social

Research, founded in Frankfurt in 1923 butshifted in 1933 to New York

The role of media in shaping massconsciousness by its mass production and

promoting mass culture Distinction between high culture and mass

culture


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Developed a critical and transdisciplinaryapproach to cultural and communicationsstudies, combining critique of political economy

of the media, analysis of texts, and audiencereception studies of the social and ideologicaleffects of mass culture and communications

Coined the term 'culture industries' to signify the

process of the industrialization of mass-producedculture and the commercial imperatives whichdrove the system


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Louis Althusser

Neo-marxian and structuralist philosopher

Althusser rejected two kinds of Marxist

essentialism: economism (economic

determinism- economic laws determine thecourse of history and mans effort to survive)

and humanism (in which social

developments were seen as expressive of a

pre-given human nature)young Marxs

theory of alienation of the labourer in a

capitalist society as opposed to mature

Marxs Das Capital wealth of society as

commodity i.e - labour power


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Ideology, for Althusser 'represents the

imaginary relationship of individuals to their

real conditions of existence'

In Althusserian theory mass media texts

'interpellate the subject' whereas many

current media theorists argue that the the

subject projects meaning onto the mediatexts.


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Antonio gramsci

Gramsci used the termhegemonyto denote thepredominance of one social classover others

The domination not merelyrepressive and in politicaleconomy realm.

Involves willing and activeconsent from those who aresubordinated by accept it ascommon sense and natural


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Form

values worthiness


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Genre

kind; sort; style

Aristotle's discussion of the mode or manner

of imitation in poetry in The Poetics-

poet can take on another personality, or

speak in his own person, unchanged - or he

may present all his characters as living and

moving before us

distinction between epic, lyric, and drama


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Style and Tone

Style: Slick, continuity editing

Tone: serious, light, formal.


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Codes and Conventions


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Film uses language which is both literal

(denotative) as well as symbolic (connotative)

in meaning.

This language includes codes such as camera

shots, image, costume, music and sound,

lighting and editing. The way these codes are

used are called conventions


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Audio codes

Music, background noises, sound effects and

spoken words

Spoken words :

What words, Who is speaking

How the words are spoken makes character

more believable

The use of silence; we hear this too.


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Symbolic Codes (representation)- we make assumptions about

characters in film based on what they are wearing, how they

look, body language, facial expressions and movements.


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Technical codes

Edits, cuts, dissolves, framing


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Codes and Conventions

Film codes and conventions convey a message about theman - what are the symbolic codes (connotative meaning)used and what do they imply?


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Characters

Genre uses stock character types to assist the audience towardsunderstanding the direction the narrative will go. Look carefully at the

characters above. What sort of persons are they? How do you know?


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Character

Todorov came up with his theories after

making a study of Russian folk tales. So too

did Vladimir Propp, who came up with the

theory that there are only a certain number ofcharacters, who crop up in most narratives.


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Narrative Conflict

As well as Aristotle deciding that 'all drama is conflict'in the 4th century BC, 20th century theorist ClaudeLevi-Strauss suggested that all narratives had to bedriven forward by conflict that was cause by a series of

opposing forces. he called this the theory ofBinaryOpposition, and it is used to describe how each mainforce in a narrative has its equal and opposite.

Analysing a narrative means identifying these opposingforces :

light/dark good/evil noise/silence youth/ageright/wrong poverty/wealth strength/weaknessinside/outside


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and understanding how the conflict between

them will drive the narrative on until, finally,

some sort of balance or resolution is achieved.


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Representation

We all decode representations according to our

own life experience, where we've lived, how old

we are, social class etc.

Producers often assume that the audience is onehomogenous mass that will all decode the

representation in the same way.

However, people see even the most basic imagesin different ways. Look at the two famous optical

illusions below. What do you see first?


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Old or young woman? Duck or rabbit?


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The problem with representing any kind of

reality in a media text is that it's never going

to be 100% accurate. Representation always

involves the construction of a version of

reality, not reality itself


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Visual representation is a very powerful tool

when it comes to persuading your audience

what to think about a topic


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What choices have been made about framing, lighting,make up, cropping, costume in each case? What does

each image make you think about Lindsay? How do youthink these very different representations affect herimage as a star? Do you think either one of theseimages is the 'real' Lindsay?


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Representation


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Difference between narrative and story

Story = a sequence of events, known correctly

as the plot

Narrative = the way those events are put

together to be presented to an audience.


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Analysing a narrative will involve the following: Technical Codes

This refers to all the aspects of narrative constructionthat involve technical decision making. Therefore

anything to do with camera angles and movement,lighting, sound, props. shot framing and composition,design and layout and editing. What do each of thechoices made tell you about what is going on - forinstance, is a character shot from a high or low angle

and how does that make you, the audience, feel aboutthem? How are sound effects used to help you makesense of what is going on?
http://mediaknowall.com/camangles.htmlhttp://mediaknowall.com/camangles.html


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Verbal Codes

The use of language - written and spoken -

and signs contained in graphics. We learn a lot

about a narrative from what we are told in

this way, but the best narratives show rather

than tell, leaving the audience to draw their

own conclusions.


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Symbolic Codes

These are the signs contained in the narrativethat we decode as being significant and having

meaning - for example a ragged coat worn bya character may mean that they are poor andpossibly hungry. Think of them as clues thathave to be followed, and different

viewers/readers will follow clues in differentways.


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Structure

Russian theorist, Tzvetan Todorov, suggests

that all narratives follow a three part

structure. They begin with equilibrium, where

everything is balanced, progress as something

comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and

finally reach a resolution, when equilibrium isrestored.


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Audience

All media texts are made with an audience in

mind, i.e. a group of people who will receive it

and make some sort of sense out of it. And

generally, but not always, the producers makesome money out of that audience. Therefore

it is important to understand what happens

when an audience "meets" a media text.


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Demographics

income bracket/status

age

gender

race

location


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Mass Society theory

Mass Society is more than just lots of people

We can classify different types of mass

societies by their structure and by their

function.

For instance AlvinToffler says we are currently

in an Information Society (or Age).


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Comte, Durkheim


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Marx, Marcuse


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Darwin, Spencer


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Mead


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In the early 20th century, structural

functionalist theories were combined with

fashionable theories of human psychology

(behaviorism) to formulate the first theories of

how and why mass communications affected

large groups of people e.g Pavlovsexperiment.

R d i f di ff d l f Th M i B ll


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Restudying of media effects models.for eg. The Magic Bullet

theory

the media individuals their interpersonal environment and the


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the media, individuals, their interpersonal environment, and the

social environment have dependency relationships with each

other


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Reading Media Texts

The media constructs a version of reality for

the audience.

The media student analyses, or deconstructs,

what has already been put together in order

to see how it works or how to make sense ofit.


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TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

The purpose of textual analysis


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The purpose of textual analysis

is to move beyond telling what another essay

means by including analysis of how another

essay is written.


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Textual analysis

What is this text about?

(subject/content)


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1. WHAT is this text about?

(subject/content)

How does it create meanings?

(language features/techniques)


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1. WHAT is this text about?

(subject/content)

MAKE THE CONNECTIONS..

Making the WHAT of the text


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SUBJECT

What is this text about?

What is it's subject?Brief synopsis or plot summary


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PURPOSE

Is the PURPOSE to:

PERSUADE

INFORM

EDUCATE

DESCRIBE

EVOKE EMOTION or COMBINATION OF ANY OR ALL OF THESE?


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MESSAGE

Does the text carry an underlying

message or moral?


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Tone?

Music

Style of characters

Attitude of characters

Mocking?

Playful?

Irreverent?

Angry?

Balanced

Sympathetic

Concerned

Personal (Opening

Paragraph)

Political?


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CONTEXT

What is the historical, social and/or

political CONTEXT of the text? Of the

composer?

What is the EFFECT or INFLUENCE of this

on the text?


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AUDIENCE

Who is the text's AUDIENCE, and how does

this influence the production of the text?

How is the AUDIENCE POSITIONED or made

to feel in response to the text? How

successful is the composer in doing so?

How might other responders' perceive this

text? Why? How?


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FORM

What type of text is this? Narrative? Type

of poem? Film? Website?

What MEDIUM is the text deliveredthrough?

POINT OF VIEW


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PROSE FICTION

CHARACTERISATION

THEMES

STRUCTURE

(PLOT,

CHAPTERS,

PARTS)TONE

SYNTAX

GRAMMAR

VOCABULARY

WORD CHOICE

LANGUAGE

(FORMAL, CASUAL, EMOTIVE)

SYMBOLISM

VOICE

POETRY


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POETRY

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FORMREPETITION

FIGURATIVE

LANGUAGE

Metaphors

SimilesPersonification

Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

Assonance

RHYME

RHYTHM

TONE

VOICE

JUXTAPOSITION PUNCTUATION
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FILM

CAMERA ANGLES

CAMERA SHOTS

EDITING

LIGHTING

SOUND

MUSIC

MISE EN SCENE

CASTING

MAKE-UP & COSTUMING

DIALOGUE


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DRAMA & PLAYS

CHARACTERISATION

THEMES

STRUCTURE/PLOT

PROPS

COSTUMES

SOUNDMUSIC

LIGHTINGIRONY

STAGEDIRECTIONS

SYMBOLISM


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SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA

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IRONY

DRAMATIC IRONY

RHETORICAL DEVICES

IMAGERY

PUNS & OTHER WORD PLAY

PROSE v. BLANK VERSE

SOLILOQUIES

TEXTURE
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VISUAL TEXTS

COLOURSHAPE

VECTORSSYMBOLISM

SALIENCE

POSITIONING

FONT & POINT SIZE

LANGUAGE FEATURES

INTER-TEXTUALITY

TEXTURE


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NEWS REPORTHEADLINES

Puns Stereotypes

Figures of Speech

LAYOUT

Columns Sub-headings

Inverted Triangle

Most important points

to Least

ACTION VERBS

DIRECT SPEECH/

QUOTES

Short paragraphs

MAY BE PAST OR PRESENT TENSE

DEPENDING ON MEDIUM

GRAPHICS

FOCUS ON THE 'WHAT' ASPECTS


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FEATURE ARTICLES

More in-depth, detailed focus, usually on contemporary social issues ornewsworthy individuals.

May be more subjective than news reports ie: composer's opinion influences

their writing. Think CONTEXT and AUDIENCE.

Reader interest maintained through narrative techniques, including:

IRONY HUMOUR

DESCRIPTIVE WRITING

IMAGERY

ANECDOTES

LESS FORMAL LANGUAGE/COLLOQUIAL Layout features:

Catchy headlines

Drop quotes, to summarise and highlight

S S


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SPEECHES

Alliteration Repetition

Irony

Emotive language

HyperboleEuphemism

Imagery

Metaphors Personification

Onomatopoeia

Similes

Opposites


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Reading text and images together.

Any image can be read in the same way that a piece of text can. Anaudience decodes, or makes sense, of the meanings contained in a

picture to understand its intended meaning.

However the same picture could have several different meanings

for different people. An image that can be interpreted in more

than one way is said to be polysemic.

By adding text to an image it is possible to ensure that everybody

understands it in the same way. This process is called anchorage. Itworks in the same way that an anchor holds an object steady- in

this case the preferred meaning of a picture.

Look at these examples Is it possible to understand them just by looking


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Look at these examples Is it possible to understand them just by looking

at the content?

or could they have more than one meaning?

Look at how the meaning of each image can be changed by

i l ddi i h f f i


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simply adding some text in the form of a caption.

Now, everybody reads it in the same way - the meaning is

anchored by the text.

School students enjoy workingon a project on recent school

trip.

Homeless pair find water todrink from culvert after

earthquake.

Adding text makes it polysemic without text to anchor the meaning it could mean


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Adding text makes it polysemic without text to anchor the meaning, it could mean

anything.

Worker identifies fault in

furnace.

Practical joke goes wrong in

horrific factory accident.


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Anchorage is just one way that can determinethe meaning of a media text.

Cropping an image can also alter its meaning.


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Here is an image from a journalists web page.

Each cropped section is important in creating new readings for the picture in the

same way as the last example.

1

2

3

4


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Revealing section 1 creates one version of this image.

2

3

4


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1

3

4

Section 2


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1

2

4

Section 3 opens up lots of other connotations


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3 & 4 change focus from his face to his weapon

1

2

4


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And finally here is the complete uncropped image-with all of its layers of meaning.

Inter-textuality -Kristeva.


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Intertexuality implies the

insertion of history(society) into a text and

of this text into history

It is a place where manytexts meet together

through allusions,

citations, or any form of

reference, whether subtleor more direct.

Theory of inter textuality


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Theory of inter-textuality

Any one text (literature, film, tv show, song etc)

is read in relationship to the other

Inter textual relations


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Inter-textual relations

Two dimensions

Horizontal: relations between primary texts

(books) explicitly linked

Vertical: relations between primary (book) and

secondary(publicity, criticism)/tertiary texts

(letters,gossip,conversation)

Inter textuality in The Matrix series


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Inter-textuality in The Matrix series

A line from Morpheus: "The dead are fedintravenously to the living." He says it when he is

explaining to Neo how the humans are kept alive by

the machines for use as "batteries. Morpheus's

description is a perfect analogy for inter-textuality.

The Matrix participates in a free play of

intertextuality, almost celebrating its relationship tothe various other texts.


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In the first film, great use is made of Alice inWonderland. Neo is first told to "follow the

white rabbit," which he does, and which

begins his adventures in the strange worldinto which he enters. We see large chessboard

floors, again calling Alice to mind.


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And it is this language that Morpheus uses tointroduce Neo to the Real World. "I imagine

you're feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down

the rabbit hole," he says, sitting before thedistorted looking glass.

In taking the red pill, Neo is invited to "stay in

Wonderland, see how deep the rabbit holegoes.


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Similar references to images from popularculture are made throughout the films.

Neo's ability to fly is referred to by Link in the

beginning of the second film as "doing the

Superman thing


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In referring to other texts which are familiar tothe audience, it makes use of signs they

already know how to decode in order to draw

them quickly into its world, giving them apoint of entry.

The film uses the shared codes of theAmerican cultural community.

Inter textuality in ads


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Inter-textuality in ads


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Several advertisements exist in fourindependent worlds: the world of the sender;

the fictional world of the characters; the

fantasy world of the receiver; and the realworld of the receiver.


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Therefore, the aim of the sender is to push theproduct into the real world of the receiver.

An ad seeks to create enough contact

between fiction and reality, sender and

receiver, characters and consumer, fantasy and

reality, for the passage of the product fromone world to another to be feasible


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The semiotic analysis of advertising believesthat meanings of adverts are to move out

from the page, to lend significance to the

audiences experience of reality.

Audiences are encouraged to experience the

advertised, in terms of the mythic meaningson which adverts draw


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Step 3: Analyze how the language positions you


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Step 3: Analyze how the language positions you


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Adverts are often build around codes and

symbols, which highlights the fact that the

argument most often used when buying aproduct, is that it is related to the individual

on an emotional level.

Asger Liebst - ordered the symbols ofadvertising in a schematic form of codes.


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A syntagmatic relationship is created with the model and

the bottle in her hand. Model creates connotations of

richness, beauty and power. The strength and

masculinity of the tower has been transferred to

represent the absent vodka bottle


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Receivers can read the connotations that the

visuals denote, as if they were signs in some

kind of restricted language, a code


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Pertinent Questions


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Pertinent Questions

Whatexactly is being advertised? Where and when did the ad appear?

Why might it have appeared there and then rather than elsewhere?

What appears to be the intended audience?

What suggests this?

In what ways does it utilize features of the particular medium used (poster,television, film, radio or magazine)?

What graphic mode(s) is/are used (e.g. still photography, drawing,animation, live action)?

What id the overall design like?.

Where is it set in space and time?

Who are the participants? What do they do?

What key objects are featured?


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What part is played by words (choice of words,typography/voiceover)?

What part is played by the use of sound and/or light?

Which features areforegroundedand which arebackgrounded?

What significance might all of these features have for theintended viewers/readers/listeners?

What key inferences must the viewers/readers/listenersmake to make sense of the ad?

What intertextual references can you discern (to other ads,to other genres, to other people etc.)?

How else does the ad seek your involvement?


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With what is the product associated?

What does the product seem to symbolize?

What does the ad seem to suggest about gender roles,class/status, age, ethnicity or self-identity?

What cultural assumptions and values seem to beinvolved?

What use is made of humour, and to what effect?

What do you regard as the most likelypreferredinterpretation offered in the ad?

What scope does there seem to be for alternativeinterpretations?

Story


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y

Components in

Ads

CHARACTER(S): the

people in the adand thepersonalities theyseem to have.

Story


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y

Components in

Ads

PLOT: the event

that is shown inthe ad itself andthe events that youimagine haveoccurred before, orwill occur after thatmoment.

Story


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y

Components in

Ads

SETTING: where

and when thescene shown in thead takes place.

Story


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y

Components in

Ads

SYMBOLS: an

object that standsfor somethingmore than itself.

Story


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Components in

Ads

SUB-TEXT: a

meaning that goesbeyond the surfacemeaning suggestedin the ad.

If we take a linguistic example, the word 'Open'

(when it is invested with meaning by someone

who encounters it on a shop doorway) is a sign


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Semiotic Analysiswho encounters it on a shop doorway) is a sign

consisting of:

a signifier: the word open;

a signified concept: that the shop is open for

business.Saussure offered a

'dyadic' or two-part

model of the sign. He

defined a sign as being

composed of:

a 'signifier - theform

which the sign takes;

and

the 'signified - the

conceptit represents.


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A sign must have both a signifier and asignified.

The same signifier (the word 'open') could

stand for a different signified - a different sign:if it were on a push-button inside a lift ('push

to open door), on top of a packing carton, a

small outline of a box with an open flap for'open this end)


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The signifieris now

commonly interpreted

as the material (or

physical) form of the

sign - it is something

which can be seen,heard, touched, smelt

or tasted.


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The German hat company,

Hut Weber, controversiallyused Adolf Hitlers iconic hair

and moustache to promote its

product. The man on the right

is Charlie Chaplin, the 1920s

comedian.

Their clever slogan, Its the

hat, suavely suggests that

ones entire persona and

reputation can be improved

by donning something assimple as a bowler hat.


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The advertisement naturally

indicates that the man on theleft is a sign that one does

not wish to represent (i.e.

Adolf Hitler Nazism The

Holocaust); the man on the

left, in contrast, alludes to the

film industry (not to mention

the film The Great

Dictator). There are two

signifieds (two values) being

represented in this

advertisement: that of

Germanicity which is

connotative, and that of the

silent film era.


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This ad in a glamour magazine

strongly relies upon this use ofphotographic imagery. It features

an advertisement for the

fragrance 'Dune Pour Homme.'

The advertisement uses a variety

of signifiers which publicize boththe identity of the brand, and an

image which is in line with the

ideology of the text in which it

appears, which, in this case, is the

youthful, glamorous magazine.

The adv predominately features a

male model in his early to mid

twenties, and he is kneeling on a

sand dune.


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Adjacent to him is an iconic image

of the product itself, which isprojected as being

disproportionately large.

Underneath this image of the

product are the words: 'Essence

Of Freedom,' and together these

separate components form an

effective and unified message.

On a simple level it is easy to

deduce two obvious things.

Firstly, that the subject, (the

image of the man) provides a

youthful element of glamour, andsecondly, that the image of the

sand dune is a physical reiteration

of the product name.


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However, the more interesting semiotic

elements of the ad exist within its notion offreedom, which is the ad's primary signified

concept.

The notion of freedom is conveyed by the

image of this lone man; who, in his

lonesome location; seems extremely atease, and unrestricted by normal life, thus

providing a sense of liberation which is

also conveyed by his loose, unorthodox,

clothing.

The softly focused quality of thephotography, and the colouring of gentle

blues and pale browns are further

signifiers which contribute to this dreamy,

utopian image of liberation.


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However, these images alone certainly do not conveythis central signified concept. This happens only by

the inclusion of the advertisements of the statement:

'essence of freedom.'

Thus, a strong relationship is allowed to be forged

between the 'signifiers,' (the photographic image of

the protagonist and his physical environment) and

the 'signified' which is the linguistically expressed'essence of freedom.


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Kings Speech


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Posters are another part of the marketing

campaign designed to introduce an audience

to the film. Displayed in cinemas, bus stops,railway stations or on billboards they are

designed to catch the eye and convey a range

of information to attract the viewer.


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It's important to remember that movieposters are advertisements. The goal of a

poster essentially is to "sell" the movieto

make you want to see it. How does it do that?The poster may have the movie title in a big

and bold font. Images of the movie's attractive

actors are usually featured.


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In addition, the actors' names are probablyincluded somewhere on the poster to remind

you that the movie has big-name stars.

Designs, colors, and fonts are used toappropriately reflect the mood and tone of

the film. And the poster probably includes a

catchy sentence or slogan that heightens your

interest and makes the plot seem intriguing.


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FramingThe positioning of objects, actors, and text within the frame of a poster to achievea particular effect. For example, a movie poster for an action film might feature themain actor framed in such a way as to make him seem attractive, strong, andinvincible.

MoodThe feeling created for a viewer by the director's use of details, music, andcinematography.

SloganA catchy and memorable phrase or sentence on a movie poster. An effective sloganshould convey the mood, tone, and main idea of the film without giving too muchaway. It should capture viewers' attention and make them interested in the story.

ToneThe filmmaker's attitude as reflected in the movieironic, serious, and so forth.

Texts as syntagmatic

t t


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structures

The syntagmatic analysis of a

text (whether it is verbal or

non-verbal) involves studying

its structure and the

relationships between itsparts.

Semioticians seek to identify

elementary constituent

segments within the text - its

syntagms.


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Whilst narrative is based on sequential(andcausal) relationships (e.g. in film and

television narrative sequences), there are also

syntagmatic forms based on spatialrelationships (e.g. montage in posters and

photographs, which works through

juxtaposition) and on conceptualrelationships

(such as in exposition or argument)


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Many texts contain more than one type of

syntagmatic structure, though one may bedominant.


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Spatial syntagmatic relations include:

above/below,

in front/behind,

close/distant, left/right (which can also have sequential

significance),

north/south/east/west, and inside/outside (or centre/periphery).


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Exposition relies on the conceptual structureof argument or description.

The structure of an argument involves three

basic elements: a proposition or series of propositions;

evidence;

justifications.


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How is the information structured? Whatcould you say about the balance between

image and text?

Taking both posters together, consider howelements such as colour, message, image and

layout give the viewer a sense of the films

subject matter, genre and style.


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CHARACTERISATION The film focuses on the professional and

personal relationship between Prince Albert,

or Bertie (later to become King George Vl),and Lionel Logue, his speech therapist. Look

closely at how these two characters are

portrayed in the film poster :


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Examine how the following elements aredesigned to convey character, status and

relationships:

positioning, costume, body language,

expression, gaze.


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List any background information a viewer/reader will need. Describe thefilm. What is the basic plot? What are the key moments ofchange? What is the setting and time period?

List any necessary background on the characters. For example, describethe main characters using demographic characteristics (age, class,education, gender, ethnicity, etc.), supporting your points with evidence.

List the values or themes supported in the film (gender roles, definitionsof success, moral/ethical arguments, standards of beauty or happiness,etc.), including the consequences of the characters actions. Use specificexamples as evidence.

Describe the intended audience for the film, using demographiccharacteristics. What evidence led you to conclude this group was theintended audience?

State what this film reveals about contemporary culture: values, goals,acceptable roles in society, etc. List evidence to support your conclusions.


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Media theory is committed to the integratedanalysis of production, texts, and audiences.

Although the importance of all three elementsof the media system has never been in doubt,the analysis of production and texts has oftenbeen of primary concern, while analysis of theinterpretative activities of audiences has until

recently been neglected, or taken for grantedwithin media studies


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Audience reception theory aims to rectify this

tendency. Audience reception research is

rendering audiences 'visible' within media andcommunication studies

The Early Intuitive Model of Audience

Understanding


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Understanding

Under this approach, the subjective, often

instinctive, judgments of content producers,

distributors, and exhibitors regarding audiencetastes, preferences, and reactions were the

primary mechanisms via which organizational

decisions were made


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E.g Harry Cohn, President of Columbia

Pictures in the 1930s and 40s, who claimed

he had a foolproof method for predicting thesuccess of a movie: If my fanny squirms, its

bad. If my fanny doesnt squirm, its good


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Similarly, historical accounts of the newspaper

industry emphasize how decision-making regarding

news content was driven largely via the application

of the news values and editorial judgment cultivated

within the journalistic profession, with the audience

existing as a somewhat distant abstraction from

the standpoint of journalists and editors


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The result of this approach was frequent

information vacuums in terms of the nature ofthe interaction between content and

audience.


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Economic conditions for these early mass mediawere relatively favorable created little demand for

more rigorous empirical analyses to guide strategic

decision-making

Most motion picture executives were content to let

product improvement and sales policies rest on their

intuitive insight of what the public wanted, ratherthan on direct contact with the consumer

Early Steps Beyond the Intuitive Model


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early media organizations were not

completelylacking in information about their

audiences, nor was the relationship betweenmedia organizations and their audiences a

pure one-way, one-to-many model.


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Early motion picture audience researchers, for

instance, were well aware that box office

figures could not be interpreted purely as anindicator of a films audience appeal, as these

figures could be a function of other factors

such as advertising and promotional strategies


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Other feedback mechanisms, such as audiencecorrespondence with the content provider

Movie studios, for instance, would measure and weigh

the amount of fan mail received by their performers anddeduce from its increase or decrease the rise or fall in

the popularity of the recipient. Most of the studios had

dedicated fan mail departments to organize the mail

according to the writers estimated age, gender, andgeographic location


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In the early days of radio, stations utilized avariety of approaches to providing advertisers

with audience estimates....

- mapping the stations coverage area against the

areas population size and demographic data

- gathering data on the number of radios sold in a

listening area


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No concrete information about the size or

composition of the actuallistening audience;rather, they simply provided a rough estimate

Early Stages of Rationalization


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1930s - a key starting point in the progression tomore rationalized approaches to audience

understanding

Great Depression - key driver in the development

of marketing, advertising, and audience research,

as media organizations, found themselves under

pressure to provide tangible evidence that

money was being spent logically and effectively


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Another important cultural shift taking place duringthis period involved the transition from aproduction

culture to a consumption culture.

This transition brought with it the need for goods

manufacturers to know much more about their

potential consumers, how best to identify and reach

them, and how best to appeal to them

The Integration of Specialized

Knowledge and Skills


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This process of the rationalization of audienceunderstanding involved the integration of new

types of professionals into the operation of

the media organizations obviously thosewith strong research backgrounds and/or

quantitative analytical skills


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Psychologists became increasingly integratedinto the work of advertising agencies

Renowned public opinion pollster George

Gallup (a psychologist by training) spent theearly part of his career conducting newspaper

audience research


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Paul Lazarsfelds survey research work played anintegral role in the development of many areas of

commercial audience research

His work with the Lazarsfeld-Stanton Program

Analyzer, a device that was used to gather andaggregate data on audience appreciation for media

products ranging from radio and television programs

to motion pictures


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The program analyzer was used within themotion picture industry to re-edit films, as

well as to determine general likes and dislikes

of various audience segments in order toguide future production decisions

Extensions of the analyzer, such as the Cirlin

Reactograph were employed by motion

picture industry research organizations


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Magazine publishing now included

demographic and behavioral characteristics of

magazine readers. Also the beginnings of thesystematic charting and reporting of the

popularity of recorded music

1940s


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emphasis on scientific, objective analysis

- pre-testing of completed films-the pre-

testing of film titles and concepts, survey

research examining the popularity ofindividual stars

Audience Fragmentation


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Audiences have changed as the physically contiguousmass spectatorship of the eighteenth century theatre

or show shifted to the spatially separated 'virtual'

mass of audiences in the 19th and 20th century.

Dividing various main views of consumer researchinto economical, psychological and sociological

approaches.

-The economical approach is based on neoclassicalthinking which views consumption as utility


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- The psychological consumer research isdominated by the cognitive approach which

emphasizes the structures of perception,

memory and attitudes.

Lean back and lean forward


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The views on audience and media consumption have oscillatedbetween two poles:

Theories at one pole stress the power of media and culturalindustry and see the audience relatively passive and powerless(lean back)

Among the passive views on audience could be counted the MCRtradition of the early Communication research. This approach viewsthe receiver, the audience, as the end point of the communicationprocess.

Against this, at the other pole, there are a variety of approachesthat emphasize media consumption as active process (leanforward).


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According to this view the media consumersdo not only actively select from the media

products at hands, but also use and decode

the meanings of the media contents indifferent ways.

Target group in marketing


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Marketing management theory divides targetmarketing often in three stages: segmenting

of the markets, targeting, and positioning

Market segmentation means that the whole

market is divided in relatively homogeneous

groups that are users of similar products andservices.


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Market segmentation can be done withseveral variables: region (such as country,

culture), demographics (age, life cycle, gender,

family/household structure, social class,

income, profession, education, religion,

citizenship), psychographics (life style,

personality) and behavioral segmentation

(occasions, benefits, user status, loyalty,

attitude).


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The notion of target group refers to groups ofconsumers that have some common

characteristics relating to their consumption

behaviour.


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Solomon, Bomossy and Askegaard (1999)divide the contemporary consumer research

paradigms in to positivist and interpretative

approaches.

The positivist approach is based belief that

scientific research can discover and uncover

the objective truth.


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The interpretative approach emphasizes thesymbolic and subjective experience and

believes that the meanings are socially,

culturally and historically constructed. It laysstress on the differences among consumers

and different ways of experiencing

consumption.


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Positivist view of the consumer-audience isstill dominant in marketing, whereas the

various interpretative approaches have

become established in audience studies of

communication research and sociology.


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Cultural audience research may be further divided inthree stages: reception studies, media ethnography

and constructionism .

The reception studies were launched by Stuart Halls

(1974) legendary idea on encoding and decodingwhich emphasizes the sending and receiving of

messages as active process.

The floating audience


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Nico Carpentier (2004) views the audience as afloating signifier that is articulated in different ways

in different discourses in research and practice. Often

the views on audience, and on consumer as well,

have been thought only on the dimension ofactive/passive. Carpentier develops even further

more complex dimensions of audience: the

dimensions of public/private, micro/macro and

community/society.


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The theories of the micro dimension lay emphasison individual differences in terms of viewing,reading or listening experience.

The macro theories usually view the audience as

mass, market or public. Audience as mass doesnot necessarily have to mean that the audience isseen as passive and manipulated. But the massmay be seen as critical mass that acts and

exercises power independently, even though itmay be unorganised.


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The new paradigm of cultural studies took influencesfrom linguistics and psychoanalysis. In Ethnographic

studies, Media use was studied from the perspective

of the lived experience of the members of the

culture or social group. The main question was howpeople use media as part of their every day life.

Ethnography and realism


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An ethnographic approach intends that the researcher enters into a

close and long-term relationship with people being researched inorder to understand their behavior more accurately.

There are differing underlying philosophies associated withethnographic research:

Realism looks for a reality that is independent from the researcherwhere the aim of research is to produce accounts corresponding tothat reality.

Constructivism is a strand of ethnography that pushes in a differentdirection. Constructivism believes that people construct the socialworld through interpretations and actions based upon those

interpretations.


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Ethnographers dont merely attempt torepresent an independent reality, but create a

representation of a social world that is no

more or less true than the ones that they are

studying.

Concepts of realism or relativism:


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Depending on the form or the genre, the

audience will apply something called a

MODALITY JUDGEMENT, which is Media-speak foris this the right or wrong way of

representing reality in this text.


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Relativism is how we perceive something inrelation to rules or norms. For example whenyou look at a girl and how she is dressed.Because she is wearing certain type of clothes

does not make her a stereotype, but becauseof our society, what we see and think is whatwe believe is true.

Social/cultural/political relativism

Framing


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Framing is used to describe the manner inwhich we as human beings package messages

in order to bring about a particular

interpretation in the receiver

Framing


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Framing has a long history in the socialsciences generally. We could identify strands

of thought starting from Goffmans (1974)

concept of frames that define social

situations; or from Tversky and Kahnemans

(1981) work on the design of positive or

negative message frames and their influence

on decision-making


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[t]o frame is to select some aspects of aperceived reality and make them more salient

in a communicating text, in such a way as to

promote a particular problem definition,

causal interpretation, moral evaluation,

and/or treatment recommendation."


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The most relevant to media psychology is thework of Bransford and Johnson (1972), whose

experiments demonstrated the increase in recall

and comprehension when a picture is presented

as a meaningful aid to understanding anotherwise disconnected set of sentences.

For e.g the impact of visual images on the reader

of a newspaper or website, or the viewer of atelevision news bulletin.


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Entman specified four stages to his analysis:agency (who is doing what to whom),

identification (with people in the stories),

categorization (for example, the use of

adjectives), and generalization (to other news

stories, long-standing debates and so on).


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One more could be a the narrative, becausemany persuasive media texts borrow heavily

from formulaic styles of storytelling in the

local culture and unraveling these should be a

key component of the framing analysis.


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The agency stage could be extended toincorporate a study of dramatis personae

effectively drawing up a cast list of the

characters that populate the human drama

unfolding in the various media

Discursive Cues


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Discourse analysis is a way of evaluating the

use of language, and when this process is used

to investigate psychological themes, it isknown as discursive psychology (DP).


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The actual words spoken by an individual,intonations in speech, gestures, and othernonverbal cues are all important aspects ofdiscourse that are analyzed and interpreted.

Even the relationship between the speakerand the subject of the statement, or thespeaker and the listener can influencediscourse.

These are called discursive cues.


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1) Frames define problems determine what acausal agent is doing with the costs and benefitsare, usually measured in terms of commoncultural values.

2) Diagnose causes identity the forces creatingthe problem.

3) Make moral judgments evaluate causalagents and their effects.

4) Suggest remedies offer and typify treatmentsfor the problems and predict their likely effects.

Frame Viability

Narrative Fidelity and Empirical Credibility


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One of the most important viability attributes of framesis their narrative fidelity, that is, the congruence of aframe with the life experience of its addressees

For e.g , city residents faced with pollution/smoke, willeasily pick up on the notion that industrial developmentis threatening the "natural" balance of the ecosystem.

In contrast, invisible risks such as radioactivity require amore elaborate mediation of the same framework, as

they cannot be directly observed and play practically norole in the everyday life of most people.


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Even if individuals cannot directly relate aframe to their personal experiences, empirical

credibility the fit between a frame and real

world events plays a major role in the

acceptance of a frame


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It denotes the ease with which audiencesreconcile a frame with what they consider

their experiences, which can even be derived

from mass media discourses.

For e.g the Bhopal Gas tragedy has rendered

the risk frame more credible, even with those

audiences not directly affected by the disaster.

Identifying frames in the news


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One approach is inductive in nature andrefrains from analyzing media texts with a-prioridefined media frames in mind. Framesemerge from the material during the course of

analysis. A second approach is rather deductive in

nature and investigates frames that aredefined and operationalized prior to theinvestigation.

Researchers supporting the inductive approach talk about


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Researchers supporting the inductive approach talk about

certain criteria that a frame must meet.

First, a news frame must have identifiable conceptual andlinguistic characteristics.

Second, it must be possible to distinguish the frame reliablyfrom other frames.

Third, a frame must have representational validity (i.e. be

recognized by others) and not be merely a figment of aresearchers imagination


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When working with a deductive approach, therelevant question is: what (which components)

in a media textconstitutes a frame?

Entman suggested that frames in the mediatext can be examined and identified by the

presence or absence of certain keywords,

stock phrases, stereotyped images, sources of

information etc


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Other researchers identify framing devicesthat condense information and offer a media

package of an issue.

They identify (1) metaphors, (2) catch-phrases,(3) depictions, and (4) visual images as

framing devices.

Framing mechanism or focal points foridentifying and measuring news frames:

1 headlines


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1. headlines

2. subheads

3. photos

4. photo captions

5. leads

6. source selection 7. quotes selection

8. pull quotes

9. logos

10. statistics and charts, and

11. concluding statements and paragraphs

Framing War and Peace Journalismstories

WAR JOURNALISM APPROACH PEACE JOURNALISM APPROACH


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Reactive

Visible effects of war

Differences-oriented

Focuses on here and now

Dichotomizes the good and bad

Two-party orientation

Stops reporting and leaves after

war

WAR JOURNALISM LANGUAGE Uses victimizing language

Uses demonizing language

Uses emotive language

Proactive

Invisible effects of war

Agreement-oriented

Causes and consequences of war

Avoids labeling of good and bad Multiparty orientation

Stays on to report aftermath ofwar

PEACE JOURNALISM LANGUAGE

Avoids victimizing language Avoids demonizing

Avoids emotive language

Frame Taxonomy


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Generic Frames (Journalistic Schemes) Studies of journalistic practices have shown

that the routinizing element of the profession

have produced general patterns in newsstories. These patterns are usually called

"generic frames" or "structural themes", or

"content frames"


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episodic and issue-oriented (thematic)framing

Issue-oriented frames embed issues in their

wider context and focus on issues and policies.In contrast, episodic frames, which are far

more common in news discourses, focus on

events and persons and divorce issues from

their wider context.


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Episodic framing depicts concrete events that illustrateissues, while thematic framing presents collective orgeneral evidence.

E.g- subjects who viewed stories about poverty thatfeatured homeless or unemployed people (episodicframing) were much more likely to blame poverty onindividual failings, such as laziness or low education, thanwere those who instead watched stories about highnational rates of unemployment or poverty (thematicframing). Viewers of the thematic frames were more likely

to attribute the causes and solutions to governmentalpolicies and other factors beyond the victim's control.

Master frames and Meta narratives


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Master frames and Meta narratives

Meta narratives (authors voice) are critical foridentity building. - an abstract idea that isthought to be a comprehensive explanation of

historical experience or knowledge Meta = about

Narrative = a story constructed in a sequentialfashion


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The identification of empirical instances of

metanarratives is called master frames

(McAdams,1994)

e.g. for analyzing international media coverage/hypesurrounding the effectiveness of cancer therapy drug

Herceptin


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Articles coded for four framing variables : one general frame, based on the perspective

from which the story was written (i.e.,

individualistic/patient-focused vs. broadersociety), and three drug-specific thematic

frames (efficacy, costs and the funding

approval process).


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A typical media analysis can answer the followingquestions:

What is the primary media frame? (taxonomy)


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What is the primary media frame? (taxonomy)

How do the media frame public discussion of an issue (by

repeating various story elements, using common metaphors,

quoting similar people, etc.)? (framing devices)

Who are the main spokespeople on a particular topic, and

how are they being quoted? Are they mainly advocates,

policymakers, academic experts, etc.? (episodic framing)

How often are various spokespeople quoted and in what

context?

What topics are being covered, and what topics are being

ignored? (issue-oriented framing)

Which outlets are covering or ignoring an issue or


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Which outlets are covering or ignoring an issue ororganization that they should be covering?

Is there a time of year when an issue or organization ismore likely to be covered than others?

Is a topic or organization front-page news, and if not,

where in the paper is that topic or organization covered?

Which reporters are writing on this issue/organization?

What messages are being used?

Master Frame


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choose a high profile event and examining thereporting of it in different media outlets

across the world


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Develop search terms (low-wage workers) Craft a list of different labels most commonly

used in reference to low-wage workers (such

as low-income worker, low-wage worker,working poor etc).

Set time-frame

Classified stories by type-- opinion, news, orfeature.


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It is important to take note of where each


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It is important to take note of where eachstory ran in the newspaper or magazine.

Observe if a story ran on the front page, thenational, international, business, or metro

section, or if it was published in the lifestyles,arts, sports, or a special section.

Editors make important decisions regarding

where to place each story, and these decisionsshould be noted for each article.


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Important to analyze when stories ran.Coverage of certain issues is tied to the

calendar.


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Look at story topics. Topics show how an issue is being covered. Leads to FramingDimensions

Spokesperson Analysis

Whoever is quoted about a particular issue within a news story has increased

impact on how that issue is portrayed to the public. Usually spokespeople fall into the following categories, although categories vary depending on the focus of the

analysis: advocates, business leaders/professionals, public/government officials,

members of the general public, and academics.

One should tally which groups are quoted most often along with how many

Media Studies - Intro

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