Media Studies Blog 1

1)  Introduction: narrative in advertising 2)  Advertising: persuasive techniques 3)  Advertising: the representation of women in advertising 4)  Advertising: Score case study and wider reading 5)  Advertising: Maybelline case study and wider reading 6)  Advertising: Gauntlett - Media, Gender and Identity reading and q uestions

Gender, identity and advertising: blog task Read  this extract from Media, Gender and Identity by David Gauntlett . This is another university-level piece of academic writing so it will be challenging - but there are some fascinating ideas here regarding the changing representation of men and women in the media. If you can't access David Gauntlett's website, the text is  also available here . 1) What examples does Gauntlett provide of the "decline of tradition"? How can we link our advertising CSPs (Score hair cream and Maybelline 'That Boss Life') to this idea? - Gauntlett says that women are traditionally viewed as the house wife with no job and dependant on their husbands income seeing as they do not have their own job however in modern day women are seen as more independent and taking on roles that wouldn't be stereotyped with women and men are traditionally viewed as the bread winners and strong but in modern they are more emotional. We can s...

Maybelline 'That Boss Life Pt 1'   Use your notes from class to write about the connotations and representations created by the following technical and audio codes. Write at least a paragraph on each: 1) Narrative & genre: narrative theory and sub-genre - Proppian heroes - The girl in the cab gets "saved" by the two make up artists as soon as they give her the mascara which makes her "boss up" and have a whole makeover transformation  2) Cinematography: camera shots and movement - There is extreme close ups especially on the eye which makes sense seeing as it is advertising their new mascara and there is also repeated shots of the product which is a strategy to make the product memorable and give brand recognition. There is also establishing shots which are quite iconographic and show the New York skyline which is quite inspirational by it self  3) Mise-en-scene: costume & props - The whole advert is based around glamour and gold whic...

1) This was produced a few years before the equal pay act came about and when homosexuality was made legal and women were becoming much more equal.  2) The mise-en-scene in this ad highlights the fact that the advert is targeting men. The women are dressed much less covered then the man which sexualises them and makes them attractive to men's eyes and this helps sell the product seeing as it is a male product. The women are also made to carry him which makes it seem as if he is their king or has power and they are looking at him as if they admire him however he is not paying attention to them so this portrays the women very negatively. 3) The slogan ( Get what you've always wanted )  uses direct mode of address. This suggests that it is targeting the male audience and lure them into buying the product. This slogan also denotes the idea of hyper masculinity, the male fantasyof des...

In contemporary 21 st century western media, are women still conforming to the ‘media-created woman’ for a man’s pleasure? - In my opinion majority of women are still conforming to the media created woman which gives men pleasure however there is a increase in advertisements that use the actual changes that a woman's body can go through whether they are overweight or underweight or even older then you would see in your usual ads. For example: However what I see in these ads is that women are still sexualised seeing as the first advertisement has them wearing barely any clothes and it comes across very sexual and the second advert has her wearing no clothes

Read  these extracts from an academic essay on gender in advertising by Reena Mistry . This was originally published in full in David Gauntlett's book 'Media, Gender and Identity'. Then, answer the following questions: 1) How does Mistry suggest advertising has changed since the mid-1990s? - There are much more homosexual pictures and much more sexualised advertising which shows much more since the mid 1990's where things were much more conserved. 2) What kinds of female stereotypes were found in advertising in the 1940s and 1950s? - The typical stereotypes were things such as men being better then women and stronger then females. Prior to war, feminist articulated the idea of women having a career. However, soon after 1945 women were made to feel guilty by warnings of the 'dangerous consequences to home'. In 1950, women's magazines led to something called 'feminine mystique'. This placed more importance on housewife chores and reinforced stere...