Assessment

The articles I would like to be assessed are:

  • Week 8: language (dis)ability and representation in popular culture
  • Week 5: language, identity and social media
  • Week 3: advertising
  • Week 2: semiotics, language and popular culture

Week 8: Language (dis)ability and representation in popular culture

 

The short clip above is from the American TV show Glee (2009) and it features one of the most interesting characters in the series: Becky Jackson, played by the American actress Lauren Potter. Becky is a 19 years old student with Down Syndrome at McKinley High who is also the secretary of the cheerleaders’ coach, Sue, and a cheerleader herself. In the first episodes, Becky is depicted as a very kind and sweet girl but, as we can see in the video, as the series progresses, her character evolves into a really ambitious, almost mean, popular girl, who is often in trouble for her unapologetic behaviour.

It is interesting to look at Becky’s character from a social perspective because, as Ellis and Goggin (2015) explain, disability is very much a social phenomenon, with key social determinants, contexts and dynamics, rather than something to be categorised as a medical or health phenomenon. Therefore, there is a difference between the bodily experience of disability and its social meaning, which is constructed especially through popular culture (Kidd, 2018).

The reasons behind the creation of the concept of disability are the main focus of the “crip theory”, a theory invested in examining how different human bodies and conditions are organized in a system of inequalities, and how these inequalities determine their access to public resources (Kidd, 2018). McRuer (2006, cited in Kidd, 2018) explains how it is the capitalistic mode of production that defines the meaning of body abled-ness according to the profit-making capacities so that, actually, “disability” becomes an economic concept.

Fiona Whittington-Walsh (2002) proposed a system of analysis of the depiction of disabilities in TV or films based on her own analysis of Ted Browning’s 1932 film “Freaks”. Whittington-Walsh argues that there are a series of recurrent tropes (savants, isolation and pathology, self-sacrifice, asexuality and dependence, and violence) that can be observed in almost every representation of disabled characters in media. If analysed through those tropes, the character of Becky shows revolutionary aspects: she is popular, independent, sexually active and she does not show any “freakish” sign. Accordingly, one could argue that this representation of Down Syndrome is positive as it does not follow the typical patterns of disabilities’ depiction in comedies.

Another important argument is the presence of people with disabilities in the media’s job positions. Kidd (2018) revealed that disabled people are heavily underrepresented in the labour force for popular culture with a percentage of 2.1% in sit-coms, which means that many disabled characters are played by actors that do not have that medical condition. Subsequently, the work of Lauren Potter can be considered as a good exception and as an example for a society that still strictly stigmatizes the concept of abled-ness and the role of “disabled” people in the capitalistic system.

 

 

References list

  • Ellis, K. and Goggin, G. (2015) ‘Disability Media Participation: Opportunities, Obstacles and Politics’, Media International Australia, 154(1), pp. 78–88. doi: 10.1177/1329878X1515400111.
  • Kidd, D. (2018) Pop culture freaks: identity, mass media, and society (2nd edn) Abingdon; New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Whittington-Walsh, F. (2002) From Freaks to Savants: Disability and hegemony from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) to Sling Blade (1997), Disability & Society, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 695-707.

Week 7: Image, music and text

Analysis

The picture above is the album cover I created for Lady Gaga’s album Joanne, a country tribute to her late aunt. The context of the album is communicated primarily through the use of colours: the black and white picture transmits a sense of thoughtfulness and seriousness rather than a typical pop feeling. In general, the cover is very simple but full of connotative elements such as the cowboy hat and the oversized shirt that represent the genre, while the high hills and the pose reaffirm the singer’s typical sensuality and transgression. In terms of dimensions, the saturation is really high and the hue tends towards the blue scale so the viewer will most likely associate the cover with feelings of calmness and backgrounding (Machin, 2010). The gaze of the singer is directed to the viewer but it still demands attention and participation from those who are looking and, therefore, the social distance is limited. For what concerns the text, the choice of a bold, simple font shows stability and neutrality while the distance between the letters symbolizes inclusivity and deepness since the album deals with something we all can relate to: the loss of someone we love. Perhaps the most interesting feature is the orientation of the text that, being vertically positioned, has a greater height than width and, consequently, transmits elegance and upwards aspiration (Machin, 2010).

References

  • Machin, D (2010) Analysing popular music: image, sound, text. London: SAGE.

Week 6: Language Ideologies

Emoji ‘ruining people’s grasp of English’ because young rely on them to communicate

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/04/17/emojis-ruining-english-language-young-people-rely-communicate/

Comments:

Nick Dixon 

There was a similar uproar when texting patois took over mobile communications , mostly by the young but as they grew up and communicated with human beings they learned to up their game because they had to . Nothing to see here.

There is the more serious problem of most young people’s total addiction to mobile phones. They will use them to comminicate when they are sat next to each other, every day I see dozens of them walking along glued to their phones. It has become a way of life for them. In a cafe the other day I witness a young family of 4 sat there and they were all using them at the same time.

PATHETIC


Social Media in itself, has ruined much of the normal human intercourse with our neighbours. One great failure of the network that conveys these messages and the ones that rely on it the most are struck dumb! I am of an earlier vintage and left facebook a year ago, so few priveleges of connection with it will disrupt me.

My response to Peter Day:

Peter, I think that saying that people using social media are struck dumb is quite a generalistic prejudice. A lot of young people use social media in such a various way that making a judgment is really difficult but I do agree on the fact that overusing them has ruined social relationships. That being said, I use social media very often too and I don’t think that makes dumb in any way since I use them for connecting to my friends and sharing my favourite contents and points of view while maintaining a healthy real life as well. If anything, I believe that social media have done a lot of good too! It’s just a matter of the ways one uses them and finding the right balance.
ps: Sorry if there’s any mistake, I’m not a native speaker.
Analysis 
All the comments in response to the article cited above are examples of “metalanguage”. Barton & Lee (2013) define “metalinguistic discourse” as when people are engaging in metalinguistic talk, therefore talking about language, while including a wider discourse of language ideologies. My response to the comment made on the article shows different ideologies that are typical of the nowadays online language since metalinguistic talk, as every other language, changes accordingly to social conditions (Barton & Lee, 2013).
The most evident ideology expressed is the one about language online itself and the use of social media. In this matter, Peter and I show very different points of view because, in my comment, I present myself as a younger and better user of social media and, therefore, I make a statement on my opinion being more valid than his. Another really important aspect of my comment is the end, where I specify that English is not my first language. This really common behaviour has been defined as “self-deprecating language” and it has been largely observed. Barton and Lee (2013) explain how the act of lowering oneself’s language skills while writing a post online has both a social function because it makes users bond over the discussion on language abilities, and a defensive function because it lowers the possibility of negative judgments by other users.
In conclusion, reading all the comments above, it can be noticed that they have a few features in common, These features can be found in all the users generated contents online because metalanguage evolves, as said previously, just as a normal language. The ideologies that the language carries usually reflect the social environment of the writer but they can be influenced by many factors including age, cultural background and general knowledge.
References
  • Barton, D. & Lee, C. (2013) Language online: investigating digital texts and practices. Abingdon: Routledge.

Week 5: Language, Identity and Social Media

In this short essay, I will be looking at the role of selfies in the creation of gender stereotypes among the users of social platforms such as Instagram or Facebook. This work will be carried through by analysing some selfies from Kim Kardashian’s Instagram profile.

             

Kim Kardashian is definitely one of the most influential celebrities on the internet. Her pictures are liked by millions of users from every age range on a daily basis, and her “spontaneous” selfies are actually staged and edited by a whole team that makes sure the highest profit can be achieved through each post. Kim’s selfies style is quite consistent and it seems to adhere to some of the five categories for gender display in media defined by Erving Goffman (1979) and to the sixth added by Kang (1997). She, indeed, uses the feminine touch (women are more likely to touch themselves in pictures), the licensed withdrawal (women tend to withdraw from the camera by looking down or covering themselves) and her pictures are almost always displaying her body with few or no clothes at all, which is associated with sexualized images of women (Lindner, 2004).

Through these characteristics, we can clearly see that Kim is expressing gender on two levels (Doring, Reif and Poeschl, 2016): the first level is the gender she brings with her and the image she wants to give of herself (really feminine, rich, perfect), whereas the second level deals with the gender image she is creating while taking the selfie. The created gender is probably the most important aspect because it is what influences other people, that are following and liking her posts, to conform to certain standards when taking a selfie. These standards could be particular ways of positioning the body in front of the camera or making a kissing pout in order to create the stereotypical feminine image of weakness, subordination, seduction or even self-objectification (Vries and Peter, 2013). This kind of behaviour is largely documented and contributes to the continuous reproduction of gender stereotypes through the social media platforms that, therefore, play a crucial role in the identity development of young people.

As introduced before, another preeminent feature of Kim’s Instagram profile is the highly sexualized image of her body. Most of her pictures show a semi-naked body or a really tight outfit that emphasizes the curves, which are now a sign of femininity again in popular culture. Moreover, she is always wearing make-up, promoting a fake but perfect look over a natural one. When comparing these features with the results of Tortajada et al. (2013), which revealed that 40% of the Pictures on the social platform “Fotolog” were highly sexualized for both boys and girls, we can definitely find a pattern of imitation by adolescents and even younger and older generations, in what seems to be a vicious cycle of stereotypically depicted genders.

In conclusion, from the pictures I have looked at and the data taken from the different studies on the matter, it is obvious that self-portraits on social media have a massive impact on different generations, but mostly the youngest ones. They construct and develop their concept of identity and gender, especially when the input comes from highly influential celebrities such as Kim Kardashian.

References

  • De Vries, D.A. & Peter, J. (2013) Women on display: The effect of portraying the self online on women’s self-objectification. Computers in Human Behavior 29, no. 4, pp. 1483.
  • Döring, N., Reif, A. & Poeschl, S. (2016) How gender-stereotypical are selfies? A content analysis and comparison with magazine adverts. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 55, pp. 955-962.
  • Goffman, E. (1979) Gender advertisements. London: Macmillan.
  • Kang, M. (1997) The portrayal of women’s images in magazine advertisements: Goffman’s gender analysis revisited. Sex Roles, vol. 37, no. 11-12, pp. 979.
  • Lindner, K. (2004) Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine Advertisements from 1955 to 2002. Sex Roles 51, no. 7, pp. 409-421.
  • Tortajada-Giménez, I., Araüna-Baró, N. & Martínez-Martínez, I.J. (2013) Advertising Stereotypes and Gender Representation in Social Networking Sites. Comunicar, 21, no. 41, pp. 177-186.

week 4 – Discourse and Ideology

We should all be feminists

Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be rather than recognizing how we are” is one the most iconic statements of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Nigerian writer that opened the world’s eyes with her Ted Talks “the danger of the single story” and “we should all be feminists”. The second one, in particular, addresses feminism as a movement for gender equality in modern society where, as the novelist explains, the superiority of masculinity and strength does not make sense since, as an intellectually evolved species, humanity does not rely on survival.

Chimamanda is a woman that, like many, has lived the gender inequality on her skin and she is one of the most active advocates for change. A lot of her works are filled with recounts of her experiences that have left her upset and that should leave all of us upset because the disadvantage of the gender gap is something that influences all of our lives. Many would argue that genders are in our culture but it is not the culture that makes people, it is us that create ideologies and then religiously stick to them as if it was a duty, and this needs to change in order to live in a fairer world.

The change has to come from the way we raise children, the way we build into their minds the concept of masculinity and femininity they would not have otherwise, because gender roles are not genes and are not biological. Therefore, as Chimamanda says, we should all be angry because in anger there is a positive vibe of revolution, and we should all be feminists, not to raise one gender on top of another in a never-ending race, but to achieve the total equality.

Comment

The article above introduces the concepts of gender ideologies in society by referencing a public persona, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who is one of the most valued feminists of our time. The message I wanted to deliver was that ideologies are sets of values, ideas, beliefs, feelings, and representations by which people make sense of the world (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler & Casey, 2016) and not given institutions, as we are drawn to believe.

The choice of Chimamanda rather than a more popular celebrity is based on my personal belief that even really young people can approach difficult arguments, such as the gender one, if encouraged to watch and read useful and reliable resources on the internet like the Ted Talks. Furthermore, Chimamanda is really good at explaining how the media and marketing’s discourse is building our concepts of hegemonic masculinity and femininity and making us adhere to them, depicting who does not as people who engage deviant forms of masculinity and femininity (Schippers, 2007).

The style of the article is meant to be straightforward, as I was talking directly to the readers because I have a strong point of view on gender roles in society and I want it to come across as such. The use of “we”, in that sense, wants to make the readers active participants in the fight against the hegemonic genders and encourage them to express their opinions.

References

  • O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. & Casey, S. (2016) Media & society (6th edn.). Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • Schippers, M. (2007) Recovering the Feminine Other: Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender Hegemony. Theory and Society, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 85-102.

Week 3: advertising

The flyer above is designed to advertise an 80s themed party at “The Haunt” in Brighton. This short essay will examine and explain its key features as practical examples of the language used in advertising.

Advertisements are usually constructed using signs, representing things or ideas, and written texts. Any message, any meaning, can only be communicated through the sign system that comprehends signifier, the actual look of the sign, and signified, the concepts and ideas understood through that sign (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler and Casey, 2016). In our mediated world, advertisements are decidedly visual expressions of culture and society (Page, 2006). Due to the differences within everyone’s personal experience, advertisements can be “polysemic” and carry different meanings depending on the reader. Therefore, the meanings of signs and texts in the language of advertising are often constructed relying on the general knowledge of the society, a process called “intertextuality”.

O’Shaughnessy, Stadler and Casey (2016) explain how intertextuality is defined as the act of knowingly borrowing and referring to other texts, very often from popular culture, in order to interpret another text. In the case of the flyer, the text I am referring to, to advertise the party, is a line from the lyrics of the famous song “Footloose” from the homonym 1984 film. The movie has become so popular that its songs are considered the hymns of the 80s and the disco culture of those years. Thus, using the line “Kick off the Sunday shoes” has a strong connotational impact on the reader, who is brought to associate the advertised party with the remembrance of the movie’s environment and style.

“Association” is, indeed, one of the techniques that Prelipceanu (2013) consider as very powerful in what she defines as “the language of persuasion”. According to the author, the use of os association to connect a product or a service with something already liked by the target customer can have a very strong emotional transfer with feelings such as nostalgia.

The theme of the movie on the flyer is reinforced by the use of bright neon colours on a background that resembles a disco ball, which gives an idea of what the party would be like. In a smaller size, the information about the date and time and the logo of the club act as “anchorage”, a caption that limits polysemy by articulating the preferred meaning of the text (Barthes, 1977). Specifically for the flyer, the logo specifies that it is a party that is being advertised and not something else.

It could be argued, in conclusion, that the features described above are persuasive and could induce customers to act unconsciously. That would be a valid argument since very often consumers value products not as simple items, but as tokens of happiness, love and better lives (Prelipceanu, 2013). However, it is up to every person to question everything they see and it is up to every advertiser to make responsible choices in what messages it is right to transmit.

References

  • Barthes, R. & Heath, S. (1977) Image, music, text: essays. London: Fontana Press.
  • O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. & Casey, S. (2016) Media & society (6th edn.). Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • Page, J.T. (2006) “Myth and Photography in Advertising: A Semiotic Analysis”, Visual Communication Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 90-109.
  • PRELIPCEANU, C. (2013) “ADVERTISING AND LANGUAGE MANIPULATION”, Diversitate si Identitate Culturala in Europa, vol. 10/2, no. 2013, pp. 247-254.

Week 2 – Semiotics, language and popular culture

Vogue’s 100 years issue

This short essay will examine the cover of the Vogue’s 100 years anniversary issue which featured HRH The Duchess of Cambridge. The semiotic analysis will, at first, explore the signifiers and all the denotative elements and then move on onto the connotative meanings that are intended to the readers.

O’Shaughnessy, Stadler & Casey (2016) define semiology as the science of signs and the idea that all communication is based on them, through certain rules and structures. One important distinction that needs to be done is the relationship between the two sides of a sign: the signifier and the signified. The first is the appearance of the sign while the second, perhaps the most important, is the cultural value and the associated meanings of the sign. In a magazine cover, for example, the signifiers would be the photography techniques used, the font and sizes of the texts and the general appearance whereas the signifieds would be all the messages that are transmitted to the readers through those means.

Signifier and signified also represent the two levels of meaning transmitted by the signs: denotation and connotation. A sign’s denotation is the purely descriptive analysis of it, on a value-free level, but its connotation refers to the set of values and emotions the readers associate with it (ibid). McLoughlin (2000) argues that connotative and denotative elements are equally important as they both convey information about the type of magazine one is reading.

In the specific case of the cover above, the first noticeable factors are the code and conventions of magazines’ language. These are standardised methods of communicating meaning and organising signs, such as the font and the size of the title and the subtitle, and where they are positioned (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler & Casey, 2016). In the first subtitle, The Duchess is addressed by her formal title of Her Royal Highness (HRH) while the second one specifies the recurrence of the anniversary. The picture chosen for the cover is a very bright one where the Duchess, the main focus point, is smiling genuinely in what seems to be a rural and natural setting in the blurred background. She is wearing a white shirt, a leather jacket and a hat that recalls the whole environment, and she is lying towards the reader while crossing her hands and showing the wedding ring on her finger. The colours are simple and neutral shades of yellow and brown that perfectly fit the Duchess’ colours, and the brightness is given by her broad smile and the warm sun that hits her from the left as the camera angle is frontal.

Probably the message behind this cover is one of authenticity since the magazine is portraying an institutional figure and everything, from the colours to the font, suggest that idea of balance and grace. However, the most remarkable element in the picture is the very visible wedding ring which reminds us of the values of the royal family but also makes a statement on the power of the monarchy, that has been stable for a long time through difficulties and changes, just as Vogue has been the leading fashion magazine for a hundred years. It could be argued that it is a case of metonymy which is, as O’Sullivan (1994) defined it, when a single element shows parts of the implied whole meaning. Accordingly, the choice itself of the Duchess on the 100 years issue’s cover may be related to the timeless elegance the magazine is trying to transmit.

 

References

  • McLoughlin, L. (2000) The language of magazines. London: Routledge.
  • O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler, J. & Casey, S. (2016) Media & society (6th edn.). Australia: Oxford University Press.
  • O’Sullivan, T. (1994) Key concepts in communication and cultural studies (2nd edn) London; New York: Routledge.

Week 1 : Introduction

 

It’s fire by the parliament as an incident causes 5 victims and over 10 injuries.

It was just past 5pm yesterday when a big roar interrupted the busy London life near the Parliament House. “5  innocent people lost their lives and almost 15 were injured in what seems to be a gas malfunction”- declared the Mayor of London’s office earlier this morning, expressing their condolences to the families of the victims. Emergency services worked hard together with the police to restore the street from the total chaos and investigations have now started to assess what were the actual causes of this tragedy while the PM reassures it was not a case of terrorism.

 

Comment:

The language used wants to be quite straightforward and objective recounting the facts of the incident. Citing the Mayor, the Police and the PM is a way of communicating safety and control over what happened so that the services come across as efficient. Since there were some victims I used a reference to their families to show support and care towards this delicate topic. The last part is a reference to the previous terroristic attacks that happened in Europe and in London in particular, since this incident was not related to a terrorists’ group but it also expresses disagreement with the Mayor that defined the victims “innocent”, almost insinuating a criminal involvement.