Learning objective: To consider different ideologies when analysing media texts.
Key terms: Mode of Address, polysemic, psycho-graphic
Key terms: Mode of Address, polysemic, psycho-graphic
There are four tasks to complete in your orange books today. All are related to each other. If you can grasp these concepts and use the keywords in your exam it will be very beneficial to your mark.
It is a basic principal of media studies that all texts have the capacity to communicate to an audience. Our 'job' as media students is to search for the ways in which meanings are generated.The simple process model of Sender - Message - Receiver is limited because it doesn't conceptualise the relationship between the message (the text) and the receiver.
This is where Mode of Address comes in.
Who does this text think I am?
In other words; what assumptions are being made about me?
How am I expected to read the text?
If you walk into any High Street bank you are addressed by the decor, the signage, the slogans, the uniforms, the lighting, the way the staff use language. All these constitute a mode of address.
All banks are really saying the same thing within an underlying message..
You are very welcome here as long as you want to deposit money, in fact we will give you a tiny bit more money back occasionally and call it interest.You can also borrow money from us, we want you to do this and we will charge you a lot of money and also call it interest. If you can't pay us the interest back we will take your house. Either way, welcome. Feel free to contribute to the profitability of our organisation.
(Have this pen to remind you of our offer).
It may be that you don't feel welcome, that you are intimidated, out of place but you don't want them to know that so you create an account with them anyway. They want you to do this!
Ideology
Marxists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every text that confirms evidence of a class divided society in which workers are exploited by capitalists.
Feminists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every media text that there are assumptions about gender.
However, without denying the validity of these perspectives it is important to realise that texts offer a range of contradictory subjectivities. Some ads for example invite us to be a rebel while others invite us to fit into and be one of the crowd.
Task 1:
Bullet points.
What assumptions are made about me and how am I expected to read these ads?
Consider: Who these texts are aimed at. How do they sell their brand?
Through what denotations and connotations is the audience positioned.
Ad 1
Ad 2
Ad 3
Ad 4
Texts are multi faceted and allow us the possibility of many ways of reading. This is know as polysemy, the texts are polysemic.
However, we all recognise from time to time that a text is trying to manipulate us, to ease us into a subjectivity that we'd reather not have. As soon as we see through the idealogical effect of a mode of address then it is likely to have the opposite effect on us than the one intended.
So we can say that media texts 'invent' a fictional image of their preferred audience.
This is the foundation of psycho-graphic consumer profiling. It works through ideology.
Sometimes a text's mode of address requires a partisan national subject.
If you watch sports coverage from another country or even City, it may seem that they are not addressing you at all, that they are getting excited about things that just don't matter. This is obviously to do with ideology.
Consideration of modes of address need not be limited to singular texts but can be applied to whole TV stations or newspapers. Take for example the coverage of an event by a broadsheet and by a tabloid.
It is the same event but the modes of address and positioning of the audience differ. One may be aimed at business leaders and one may be aimed at lads.
Task 3:
Bullet points Look at the coverage of the London riots by these five different newspapers.
What assumptions are made about the readership and how are they expected to read the various headlines?
Two useful terms associated with modes of address are positioning and register. The idea that a text can position a receiver should be familiar to you by now. If your friend addresses you like a controlling parent, giving you orders in a loud voice and wagging a finger at you then you are being positioned as child. You may wish to reject this subject position but to do this would put you in a position of conflict with your friend. This is a kind of positioning and media producers are aware of this.
Register requires modifications to fit with the requirements of a particular group.
For example a text might adopt one of the following registers:
Formal register
Informal register
Serious register
Light hearted register
You may have watched a TV show or read an article but been unsure of the intended meaning.
You may have asked yourself if the text was meant to be serious. You eventually realise that it was a mickey take. In fact, you were actually checking what register the text required to be understood.
Task 4:
Watch the following ads and discuss the register required to understand them. Point out why.
It is a basic principal of media studies that all texts have the capacity to communicate to an audience. Our 'job' as media students is to search for the ways in which meanings are generated.The simple process model of Sender - Message - Receiver is limited because it doesn't conceptualise the relationship between the message (the text) and the receiver.
This is where Mode of Address comes in.
Who does this text think I am?
In other words; what assumptions are being made about me?
How am I expected to read the text?
If you walk into any High Street bank you are addressed by the decor, the signage, the slogans, the uniforms, the lighting, the way the staff use language. All these constitute a mode of address.
All banks are really saying the same thing within an underlying message..
You are very welcome here as long as you want to deposit money, in fact we will give you a tiny bit more money back occasionally and call it interest.You can also borrow money from us, we want you to do this and we will charge you a lot of money and also call it interest. If you can't pay us the interest back we will take your house. Either way, welcome. Feel free to contribute to the profitability of our organisation.
(Have this pen to remind you of our offer).
It may be that you don't feel welcome, that you are intimidated, out of place but you don't want them to know that so you create an account with them anyway. They want you to do this!
Ideology
Marxists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every text that confirms evidence of a class divided society in which workers are exploited by capitalists.
Feminists are likely to find evidence in the modes of address of almost every media text that there are assumptions about gender.
However, without denying the validity of these perspectives it is important to realise that texts offer a range of contradictory subjectivities. Some ads for example invite us to be a rebel while others invite us to fit into and be one of the crowd.
Task 1:
Bullet points.
What assumptions are made about me and how am I expected to read these ads?
Consider: Who these texts are aimed at. How do they sell their brand?
Through what denotations and connotations is the audience positioned.
Ad 1
Ad 2
Ad 3
Ad 4
Texts are multi faceted and allow us the possibility of many ways of reading. This is know as polysemy, the texts are polysemic.
However, we all recognise from time to time that a text is trying to manipulate us, to ease us into a subjectivity that we'd reather not have. As soon as we see through the idealogical effect of a mode of address then it is likely to have the opposite effect on us than the one intended.
Ads from the 60's and 70's now seem unsophisticated and blatant and are only shown for their comedic value.
Task 2:
Bullet points
What assumptions are made about me and how am I expected to read these ads?
Bullet points
What assumptions are made about me and how am I expected to read these ads?
Consider: Dominant British ideology, feminism, do we still expect consumer products to be linked with desirable gender identities?
So we can say that media texts 'invent' a fictional image of their preferred audience.
This is the foundation of psycho-graphic consumer profiling. It works through ideology.
Sometimes a text's mode of address requires a partisan national subject.
If you watch sports coverage from another country or even City, it may seem that they are not addressing you at all, that they are getting excited about things that just don't matter. This is obviously to do with ideology.
Consideration of modes of address need not be limited to singular texts but can be applied to whole TV stations or newspapers. Take for example the coverage of an event by a broadsheet and by a tabloid.
It is the same event but the modes of address and positioning of the audience differ. One may be aimed at business leaders and one may be aimed at lads.
Task 3:
Bullet points Look at the coverage of the London riots by these five different newspapers.
What assumptions are made about the readership and how are they expected to read the various headlines?
Two useful terms associated with modes of address are positioning and register. The idea that a text can position a receiver should be familiar to you by now. If your friend addresses you like a controlling parent, giving you orders in a loud voice and wagging a finger at you then you are being positioned as child. You may wish to reject this subject position but to do this would put you in a position of conflict with your friend. This is a kind of positioning and media producers are aware of this.
Register requires modifications to fit with the requirements of a particular group.
For example a text might adopt one of the following registers:
Formal register
Informal register
Serious register
Light hearted register
You may have watched a TV show or read an article but been unsure of the intended meaning.
You may have asked yourself if the text was meant to be serious. You eventually realise that it was a mickey take. In fact, you were actually checking what register the text required to be understood.
Task 4:
Watch the following ads and discuss the register required to understand them. Point out why.
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