analysing adverts and misrepresenting of groups in British meda
DENOTATION:
Picture 1: A white background, in this background I see a white woman sitting on a brown wooden chair she's wearing black trousers and a black long sleeve shirt. She's sitting with her right foot raised on the chair; her right hand is leaning at the side of her head as well as resting on her elbow on her knee. She has short brunette hair reaching down to her neck. Her left leg is on the floor but not completely, I noticed she's wearing no shoes her left hand is resting on her knee cap. She has a smile on her face. Above this picture it's written boldly in capital letter with a black ink;
"IT'S NOT YOUR HAIR.
IT'S NOT YOUR CAR.
IT'S NOT YOUR PERFUME.
At the bottom of this picture it's also written not boldly but in a capital letter still;
IT'S YOUR WATCH THAT
SAY MOST ABOUT WHO YOU ARE.
At the bottom of all this I can see a silver watch with a round face, the time says 10 past 10. The 12 and 6 of this watch is in a numeric form. At the right side of the watch I see a line under this line it's written with a black ink;
VIVACE EIGHT DIAMOND DIAL.
FROST FINISH BRACELET.
FIVE BAR WATER RESISTANT.
Underneath all this it's written boldly in capital letter;
SEIKO
www.seiko.co.uk
01628770988
CONNOTATION: looking at all this pictures In a white background, its interpreted simplicity to me, because most advert have seen contains of colours but this picture is simple and elegant, elegant in the sense of dressing. Looking at the lady all in black business like with no shoes on and her right leg lifted in a comfortable position, at the moment nothing else seems to worry her she got the most dying for silver watch and she's all elegant in a comfortable and relaxing position. Suits represent elegancy, sitting in that kind of position represent relaxation and comfort ability.
PICTURE 2 I can see a black background and a woman in the picture, the woman looks dark though she's white, I can see the side of her hair down her face, she's wearing a black bra with her breast pushed up I can see her left arm but I can't see the left one because its out of shot. She has something in her right arm which I can figure out because it's not really in shot; I can see her neck down to her chest side because it's not covered. Up the picture it's written in capital letter and a yellow ink;
SICILY
DOLCE & GABBANA
At the bottom in her right side there is a little bottle of silver with a black cover, the perfume is yellow. And it's written on the bottle same as above at the bottom of the bottle its written "FEEL THE PASSION".
At the right of all this is a silver cover, written underneath it is "LIFT HERE". I can see already that there's an attempt for this silver cover to be open.
CONNOTATION: looking at this picture it tells she's being crying because she's in black, one of the denotations of black is sadness, although the background is black and white and she can only be crying because she is a passionate person because she's expressing strong emotion or she's marked by strong sexual desire.
PICTURE 3: In this picture I can see a pretty white lady in a black and white background she resting her hand on a black surface I can't see what the surface is cause is out of shot. She's looking over her shoulder; I can see her but not fully, I can only see down to her neck, I can't tell if she's wearing anything but I can see her skin to her neck. At bottom of her image is written "SASHA COHEN, champion figure skater" at the bottom of this words is a silver watch with a four corner face, the time is 10 past 10 all in numeric form. At the side of the watch is written "ECO-DRIVE Diamond stiletto bijoux, rrp £375.00 3 year guarantee. At the side of this word is written
UNSTOPPABLE.
SASHA COHEN IS.
So is her citizen Eco-Drive.
Fuelled by light,
It never needs a battery
IT'S UNSTOPPABLE.
Just like the people who wear it.
At the bottom of all this, there is a logo in a round shape of a CITIZEN ECO-DRIVE. At the bottom is written "Available at Ernest Jones and other leading jewellers" www.citizenwatch.com
CONNOTATION: Talking about CITIZEN ECO-DRIVE. What I understand is this SASHA COHEN a popular lady everyone knows, others wish to be like her. I understand that if you wear this watch you ...
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UNSTOPPABLE.
SASHA COHEN IS.
So is her citizen Eco-Drive.
Fuelled by light,
It never needs a battery
IT'S UNSTOPPABLE.
Just like the people who wear it.
At the bottom of all this, there is a logo in a round shape of a CITIZEN ECO-DRIVE. At the bottom is written "Available at Ernest Jones and other leading jewellers" www.citizenwatch.com
CONNOTATION: Talking about CITIZEN ECO-DRIVE. What I understand is this SASHA COHEN a popular lady everyone knows, others wish to be like her. I understand that if you wear this watch you will be unstoppable in everything you do just like SASHA COHEN is unstoppable because if she was stoppable her fame would have gone dead. A symbol of Sasha Cohen is that she's unstoppable. Looking at this image she looks like she's ready to go not waiting for anyone's, and she appear not capable of being stopped.
The original meaning of picture 1 according to the caption is that SIEKO BRAND of watch helps people to know who really are. My brand will be SICILY DOLCE & GABBANA SUITS.
SUITS
KEEPS YOU ELEGANT
AND SIMPLY RELAXED.
My advert is about the suit the lady is wearing. Looking at the lady in this picture the first thing I notice is the way she looks, with what have seen I can tell what kind of person she is, because not just anyone wears suit's. One of the denotations of suits is that it is business like and appears to make people more elegant. In other words she's elegant and relaxed.
In Picture 2 the original advert is about SICILY DOLCE & GABBANA FRAGRANCE FOR WOMEN, but my advert is about TISSUE, and my caption will
TISSUE
FOR EVERY EMOTION
YOU GO THROUGH
Looking at the lady in this picture, you could tell she's been crying, and the only way she could be crying is because she's an emotional person, the tissue stands as comfort for her. One of the denotations of tissue is comfort, I notice if someone is crying the first thing people do is to fetch the person tissue. The tissue is related to why the background is in black and white, black in the sense of sadness, mourning, and white in the sense of pureness.
The third picture is CITIZEN ECO-DRIVE, and an image of Sasha Cohen. My advert is about lip-gloss, and my caption will be;
LIP-GLOSS
NO SIGN OF CLOUDINESS
JUST LIKE SASHA COHEN LIPS
HAVE A SHINNING DAY.
One of the denotations of lip-gloss is that it keeps your lips from dryness, in other words it keeps it shinning. Lip gloss is a sort of a light lip covering, generally oily and light reflecting.
ANCHORAGE
Anchorage is a base that held something together securely. A good anchorage offers protection from the current weather condition, anchorage stands as a source of reliability. On ships there are place where a place suitable for anchoring or where ships anchor.
Image 1 describes a girl sitting on the floor with her lap open, holding onto a male's leg while wearing jeans. What I understand from this is the text is trying to convince the male that with them in GASOLINE jeans that females will find them irresistible, that different female's will be falling at their feet begging for attention. In other words that if they wear GASOLINE jean that everywhere they turn they will get attention from ladies. The word GASOLINE is strictly masculine; this word also attracts the male as to where they should buy their jeans. The image of the girl in this picture degrade women in the society as t
Image 2 describes a white girl in a black trench coat and black boots. What I understand from this text is that this image is put together in order to convince females that buying their clothes from this brand will make them as pretty and sexy as this lady. In other words this advert is trying to convince females that they have everything that will make them look attractive.
Looking at the woman on the bed as "THE WIFE", a woman who has a husband, a wife has such possesses rights and this is liable to obligation. This will be considered first, she may want to purchase a share for her own benefit but she has to ask for her husband's permission first, the woman on this bed looks helpless to me, it looks like she's being ask to remain on the bed till she's ask otherwise because she is under an obligation to love, honour, respect her husband regardless of anything. If she act with freedom she may be punished.
Looking at the other picture at the other lady "THE MISTRESS" mistress the opposite of a wife, a woman who has power, authority, or ownership, a woman other than wife with whom a married man continuing sexual relationship with. Men have mistress for their enjoyment and wife for the bearing of legitimate offspring because wives are not for enjoyments neither is mistress bearing any offspring, have and perhaps wives have a degree of respect but only as the bearers of legitimate offspring. On the other hand the mistress choose to live outside and undermine the institute of marriage because they fill in the place but without right, this lady refer to as the mistress is the woman regarded with love and devotion, she's a beloved object. The woman in this picture will be referring to as a loose woman with whom a man consorts habitually.
The lady in the picture to whom we refer to as a mistress is a mysterious sexy woman that the married man sees in secret to have a romantic and sexual relationship with. I believe with this mistress there are sex, hotel room adventures, late nights, and seductive phone calls, secret dates, all this things are bad because the man is married but things glamorous. The mistress hold the married man under a love spells and she gets all his attention and time that he should be spending with his wife, the mistress is the one the man fantasizes about when he is with his wife and the one he misses. He urges for her company and long to hear her voice.
I understand from this that the text is explaining what the role of women are in the society, what is expected from women or what is said about women. I think they are saying women are free like the girl on the floor holding on to a leg, women are slut because of their naked dressing and women are expected to become housewives, to produce children, women should be loyal soldier. Women are not meant to work. Women should become mistress an accessories of satisfaction to men.
Women most times are being mis-interpreted in their role, they are interpreted to be weak e.g. THE BOUNTY KITCHEN TOWELS advert, the weak kitchen towel is interpreted to be a woman. In the media text I understand the image of a mistress in the role of "a woman's role in society" as an escape where men go to get "satisfied." A mistress is known to fulfil sexual needs, as a dinner date, mistress are not part of a man's long term plans. Mistress is known as accessory. Women are mis-interpreted as object whose purpose is to satisfy others' appetite for pleasure. Traditionally women's role in the society should be more appreciated than that. A woman's self image is very much influenced by her role as housewives.
MIS-REPRESENTED GROUP
BOYS IN HOODIES: This group are mis-represented because people tend to see them as bad boys. Because lots of crime have being committed by categories of boys on hoodies but that does not actually make every other boys in hoodies bad, I understand why because some shoplifters have used hoodies to conceal their identity from the cameras although many people wear hoodies to keep warm. Having done few research I realised people are scared ant stereotypes boys in hoodies because they believe or suspect they could be hidden a dangerous weapon in their hoody.from my research I found out In May 2005, the largest shopping centre in the UK, Blue water in Kent, caused outrage by launching a Code of Conduct which bans its shoppers from sporting hoodies. Also In February 2006, a 58-year-old teacher who was wearing a hooded top was asked to remove it when entering a Tesco store in Swindon. According to the teacher, he was wearing the hood because "my hair's a mess". The shop apologised and said it was taking action to because of some incident that has happened.
MUSLIMS: Muslims are mis-represented as terrorist, fundamentalist, fanatics by most people; just because one or more of the Muslims have being accused of terrorism does not make all of them a terrorist. You will rarely hear this term associated with other group other than Muslims. E.g. if a suspect of a crime is a Muslim the media take the opportunity to bombard Muslims with all kind of accusations. The media has being primary contributors of ruining the image of Muslim by stereotyping all Muslims as terrorist. The media has given an incorrect or misleading representation of Muslims. I believe this whole thing started when the selected coverage of a sometimes unfamiliar aspect of Muslims country misbehaviour is projected as if it were a universal practised tradition of Islam, and results in a failure to distinguish between cultural practices that are national or regional in origin. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the West. Nevertheless, the West has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to the media, prejudice, and ignorance. Islam is often looked upon as an "extremist", "terrorist", or "fundamental" religion. The media rarely uses more neutral terms such as "revivalist" or "progressives" Adding to the fact that the media creates inaccurate ideas about Islam, the media is also very influential to its audiences in making negative Islamic stereotypes, such as the assertion that all Muslims are fundamentalists. The term "fundamentalist" is actually a term that is interpreted by the media. Aside from the fact that the media misrepresents Islam because of ignorance, the media is also a profit-seeking organization which often seeks to create a false image of reality. The race relations act as amended by the race relation (Amendment) act 2000 (RAAA) make it clear you should not discriminate against anyone on ground of race, colour, nationality, religions, ethnic and groups. The act has also imposes general and specific duties on specified public authorities to eliminate any racial discrimination and take positive steps to promote racial equality and mutual respect.
UNDER-REPRESENTED GROUP
DISABLED: Disabled means having a 'physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities' (The Disability Discrimination Act). Disabled people are underrepresented in the media - only 0.7% of those shown in peak time on BBC One and two in 2003 were disabled. The disabled ones are being under-represented in the media because they think being disabled means they can do anything, specifically in the film and television aspect. The media has a huge impact on how disabled people are viewed - for non disabled people, factual TV and Radio programmes are the most important source of information about disability. Even for disabled people, factual TV and Radio are the second most important source of information about disability after personal experience. There have being a lot of roles in the movies where they had to use a disabled person to take the role, what I notice is this: they don't actually use a disabled person to take that role they prefer the able ones. I feel they are being discriminated. Their key concern is that the media does not portray disabled people's normal lives. Other criticisms are that portrayal of disabled people is patronising and demeaning and that people hardly ever appear in TV and Radio programmes
Direct discrimination: it occurs when a person is treated less favourably than others on the grounds of the person's disability. The disability discrimination act 1995 also makes it unlawful to unjustifiably against a person in any work or education activity because of his/her disability. This act is form to alert us of equal opportunities practices and help us not to discriminate unfairly.
The readers for sun newspapers mainly are the males' age between 18-35 and mainly British, the working class ones, reason because sun newspaper content attract the males alone .i.e. sports, politics, female naked scene. Females are not really interested in all this content, so majority of them don't read sun newspaper.
Women alone have access to women's magazines, women between the ranges of 21-35 reasons because the content of women's magazines concentrates mainly on the female world which has nothing to do with the men. Gleaner newspaper is a black society paper concentrating mainly on blacks. The reader of gleaners varies black men and women read but mainly Jamaicans people because Gleaner is a cultural and traditional newspaper for black people. The fact that only certain people have access to some certain newspaper brings about diversity and access implies greater qualities.