Misogyny in advertisement

-       The positioning, use of colour
The imagery in the advert is very simplistic, mainly used to capture attention and as a setup for the tagline. The car is clean and seemingly brand new aside from the damage, set at an angle so a viewer to see the car as a whole, allowing the advert to also function as an advert for the car. The broken headlight and body damage are placed at the centre of the image as the natural focus for the viewer's eye and evoke a sense of shock and discomfort at such a nice car being ruined, setting up for the explanation being that "your wife", a poor driver, has crashed it.


-       The anchorage and use of text 
Picture first to get attention, tagline punchline and explanation- "Sooner or later your wife will drive home one of the best reasons for owning a Volkswagen." "Drive home" has a double meaning, both that your wife will drive home a crashed car, but also "drive home" a point- that its good you own a Volkswagen since you can replace the parts. The assumption that women are bad drivers is exaggerated throughout the text, with quotes such as  "...your wife isn't limited to fender smashing" // The most obviously misogynistic sentence is the final one of the advert, functioning as a summary. "So when your wife goes window-shopping... You can conveniently replace anything she uses to stop the car. Even the brakes." Firstly, there is the implication that women only leave the house to go shopping- or not even shopping, but simply to look at things she could be buying. This is also a play on words, with the implication of "window-shopping" also meaning she may have damaged the car window(s) and needs to replace it/them. Secondly, the fact you can "replace anything she uses to stop the car"- that women are such poor drivers they cant even stop a car without crashing into something.

-       The values and ideology that is being presented:

1. Patriarchal - The woman being discussed is always referred to as being owned by the husband- "...your wife" , as well as the assumption that men are superior to women.
2. Otherness - The woman in the relationship is implied to be below her husband, as she is worse at driving (and an object to patronise). This creates a sense of otherness as there is an apparent dichotomy between the two sexes.
3. Capitalist/Consumerist - The attraction of owning a good-looking, expensive car and keeping it in as-new condition with minimal difficulty, when in reality all you need from a car is for it to get from place to place.
4. Selling a lifestyle - Owning a nice car that can be repaired easily and cheaply as well as being married without consequence ("It may make you furious, but it won't make you poor.").

Teddy boys and girls

SUBCULTURE AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION: TEDDY BOYS

Teddy Boys

Teddy boys were seemingly inspired by the rock'n'roll artists of the 1950s- Their fashion revolved around drape jackets, drainpipe trousers, skinny ties and creepers. However, this isn't accurate. The Teddy Boy culture that emerged in the early 50s in fact predates the introduction of American Rock'n'roll to Britain in 1955. However, despite the style not being the birth of the subculture, the music was quickly adopted by the Teddy Boys and became closely joined.

The Teds (as they were also known) had a reputation for violence and troublemaking in the media.

On July 2nd 1953, the infamous story of the stabbing of John Beckley in Clapham Common took place.



"The clothes of the defendants had been of interest to the prosecution who wanted to know if the youths on the common wore tight trousers and strange-looking coats with a slit down the back? It was during the reporting of this trial when the press, for the first time, started to make a connection between the odd-looking clothes of the South Londoners and casual violence."
(http://www.edwardianteddyboy.com/page6.htm)


The Teds had a revival in the 70s , with minor style changes- thanks to the invention of hairspray, more extreme quiffs were possible , and traditional dark colours were replaced with bright luminous ones. Significantly, there were now black Teds- the original culture was known for being racist, but the few black Teddy Boys in the second generation were accepted.


1976

Teddy Girls

Though a largely forgotten subculture, teddy girls also existed, wearing edwardian-inspired blazers and pencil skirts or trousers.

The Immigration Crisis

UKIP POSTER
1. What is the dominant ideology within the media text? Is there evidence of opinion or bias towards a viewpoint?

The poster enforces the idea of "otherness" toward immigrants, specifically Bulgarians and Romanians. It assumes the reader doesn't want these people in the country despite providing no evidence why the immigration is a bad thing, therefore being biased to the often common idea that immigrants will ruin the country. It aims to fearmonger and encourage people to vote Leave ("...there's nothing we can do about it, while we're still in the EU"). It also shows bias against Labour, implying they're in the wrong ("Labour say they don't want to do anything anyway.") and encouraging anger against the Labour party for supporting allowing immigrants into the country.

2. How has the event been constructed within the media text? (language, MOA, colour, costume etc)

 The background of the text shows an image of a crowded UK Border Control - this supports the impact of the figure "29 million" and the busy composition has a negative connotation that fits with the message of the text. The image is purple, matched with the yellow a clear connotation of the UK Independence Party due to their logo. The yellow also contrasts with the purple, putting stress on the text.

The language used in the poster, while not colloquial, could be considered mixed media text as it is written in such a way that invokes a feeling of spoken language. This is used to create a familiar sense and make a reader more likely to trust the source- along with the fact that it comes from a major political party.

The fact that "(And Labour say they don't want to do anything anyway.)" is presented as an afterthought with brackets and the casual "anyway" implies UKIP has a superiority to them, and also creates an almost indignant or dismissal tone, as though it is ridiculous that anyone could possibly not want to stop the 29 million immigrants. 

3. Think about the process of selection, what has been included in the final edit and what may have been left out in order to re-present the event in a certain way?

There is no elaboration on any of the points, simply blanket statements- to fearmonger and extremify the situation, the text is deliberately vague and opinionated while presenting itself as factual. There is neither context as to why immigrants are coming to the UK, whether "29 million" is a high figure compared to previous years, other countries or current population size, nor any evidence of where this predicted figure has come from and whether it is accurate. There is also no further information on who exactly admitted defeat on behalf of The Government, whether it was an MP, the Prime Minister or a collective statement. The statement about Labour does not give any explanation of why Labour "don't want to do anything" or where this impression has come from. All these elements create a deeply biased and one-minded version of the story and aims to manipulate the public with half-truths and unexplained general statements.

4. What is the focus of the representation? How is the audience encouraged to feel about the event

The audience is encouraged to feel shock and outrage at the idea of so many foreigners coming to the country, and that Labour is not doing anything about it. This fear mongering tactic is used to manipulate and encourage people into voting Leave in the Brexit referendum and support UKIP.

5. What do you think the possible responses from the audience may be after consuming the event through the media?

Those who already have a bias against migrants or are uninformed are likely to be persuaded to the viewpoints expressed in the media as it is a very manipulative and persuasive text. The poster may provoke disdain and disapproval from immigrants themselves and people more educated or aware about the situation.



IAMANIMMIGRANT CAMPAIGN

https://www.iamanimmigrant.com/about-us/

1. What is the dominant ideology within the media text? Is there evidence of opinion or bias towards a viewpoint?

2. How has the event been constructed within the media text? (language, MOA, colour, costume etc)

 

3. Think about the process of selection, what has been included in the final edit and what may have been left out in order to represent the event in a certain way?

 

4. What is the focus of the representation? How is the audience encouraged to feel about the event?

5. What do you think the possible responses from the audience may be after consuming the event through the media?

Conventions of the horror genre and movie poster design

Horror is undoubtedly the most easily recognisable genre when it comes to pre-release material such as posters. It is very established when it comes to iconography and conventions-skulls, blood and mysterious figures are staples of the genre.

For my poster I tried to create a haunting, ghostly feel to the image through editing. I layered the portrait photo, one with different opacity and one with an unnerving difference effect, which implies a ghost or haunting. The background and foreground are also heavily darkened to show the dark tone of the film

As many horror titles and taglines have double meanings, mine are plays on words- I wanted to convey the idea of a murdered wife coming back to life for revenge, with the title coming from "Til death do we part", and "buried" implying a metaphorical and literal burial, both of secrets and of a body. I also put emphasis on her ring through contrast hinting to a marriage or engagement.