[Group 2] representation and the construction of social reality

Chapter 3
© Group 2
Thu Hiền
Bảo Trân
Bích Ngọc
Duy Đức
Trang Đài

OUTLINE
• The semiotic approach by Ferdinand de Saussure Thu Hiền
• The discursive approach by Michel Foucault Bảo Trân

Representation and the
Construction of Social Reality
“…is the production of the meaning of the concepts
in our minds through language.
…is the link between concepts and language…”
(Stuart Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations and
Practices, 1997)

The phenomenon of teenage violence
in Victoria, British Columbia
INCREASE!!!!
DECREASE!!!!
Media Statistics

The phenomenon of teenage violence
in Victoria, British Columbia
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1984 2001
The youth population
The youth crime
Youth crime = 50% of the youth population

“Language and other structures of
representation construct rather
than reflect the reality.”
INCREASE!!!!
DECREASE!!!!
Media Statistics
Post structuralism

Research Questions
(p.58-59)
1. How do language and other sign systems work to create
(or signify) social meanings?
2. How do different media genres
(ads, news, entertainment) and different types of media
(TV, print) help shape the production of meaning?

 The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure.
 Language = a system of signs expressing ideas.
 What is a sign?
“A sign can be a word, a gesture, a facial
expression, an image, a musical note, even an item of
clothing – anything that refers to something else, and
is recognized as doing so by users of the sign
system.” (p.60 – para.1)
1. How do language and other sign systems
work to create social meanings?

Saussure’s structuralism
 The two parts of a sign:
LION
CONCEPT
FORM
© http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem02.html

The relationship between
the signified & the signifier
© Semiotics: The theory behind media literacy
- Inseparable
- Arbitrary
- Determined by societal convention
- Inseparable
- Arbitrary
- Determined by social conventions

Semiotics
 What is semiotics?
Semiotics = the study of role of signs as part of social life.
(http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html)
 Leading modern semiotic theorists: the French cultural
theorist Roland Barthes.
 Modern semiotic theory stresses the role of ideology.

Myth today
 Myth is a second-order semiotic system.
 “…elaborates Saussure’s theory of how meaning is
encoded in signs...” (p.62 – para. 3)

Levels of meaning
1. Denotation
A photograph of the movie star
2. Connotation
3. Mythological (or ideological)
 A photograph of the movie star
Marilyn Monroe.
 Depression, drug-taking, etc.
 The Hollywood dream.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem06.html

Discourse and Power
Discourse is about the
production of knowledge
through language.
Michel Foucault
Nothing has any
meaning outside of
discourse.

Historicizing discourse: discursive practices
 Things meant something and were true, only
within a specific historical context.
 Discourse produced forms of
knowledge, objects, subjects and practices of
knowledge, which differed radically from period to
period.

Female hysteria (or hysterical woman)

A new kind of criminality – “mugging”

“Carjacking”
“Home invasion”
“Drive-by shooting”

The Social Construction of Youth
 A ‘Youth’ - a person between 15 and 25.
 ‘Youth’ – a slippery concept with no clear biological or
cultural grounding.
 ‘Youth’ – the dominant class was closely tied to urban
development.
 The formation of youth gangs and subcultures.

Media and Youth Crime
 Crime is a dominant feature in news.
 The media make crime stories meaningful.
 Crime stories play a key role in defining the bounds of
community.
 The media focus on particular crimes at particular times
and particular forms of crime rather than others.

Victoria’s (not-so-nice) secret

Moral Panic
 A moral panic is an intense feeling expressed in a
population about an issue deemed to be a threat to, or
shocking to the “proper” social.
 Moral panic is partly caused by the media to society.

Summary
 Representation is the process by which members of a
culture use language to produce meaning.
 Post-structuralism: languages construct rather than
reflect reality.
 Semiotics: sign = signifier+signified. The three levels of
meaning: Denotation – Connotation – Myths.
 Meaning is a result of a signifying practice.
 Discourse is a system of representation which is about
the production of knowledge through language.
 The media do not just inform us about events that are
going in our society; it re-present those events as part of
what society should look like.

Discussion Questions
1. “Q: When is a sheep not a sheep?
A: When it’s a work of art.”
(Damien Hirst, Away from the Flock, 1994)
Imagine that the sheep mentioned above is Dolly - the first
mammal to be cloned, explain this answer.
2. Give an example of an advertisement, in which the theory of
modern Semiotics by Roland Barthes is applied.
3. Find and talk about at least two examples of moral panic in
Vietnam recently (consider words or phrases that have
entered, or re-entered, public discourse recently to describe
"new" social phenomena).

OUTLINE
Approaches to Advertising
The Cult You’re In, Kalle Lasn
Salespeak, Roy Fox
Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals, Jib Fowles
How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit, John E. Calfee
Images of Women in Advertising Trang Đài
You’re Soaking In It, Jennifer L. Pozner
Beefcake and Cheesecake: Insight for advertisers, Marilyn
Y.Jones, Andrea J.S.Stanalan and Betsy D.Gelb
Bích Ngọc
Duy Đức

The Cult You’re In
Kalle Lasn

The effect of all of the products and brand
names that Lasn includes in this article
Nike sneakers
A Planet Hollywood
cap
Tommy Hilfiger
jackets
Air-walk sneakers
Pepsi
Coke
…
 Products / Brand
name used by famous
people
make the majority
following
Success in
advertising

The title: The Cult You’re In
 meaning: Cult - worship
Pronoun: “you” – directly
 the author want the readers directly
mentioned in it  create the immediate
trends in advertising
Advertisement tell us what to
think, what to dream.

A significant point in the
article
Dream: unique
& imaginative
 But, the
same dream:
wealth, power,
fame, plenty of
sex and
exciting
recreational
opportunities.

Same dream:
popular, mass
do a same
one
 follow
 the same
 popular
culture

Discussion
What does it
mean when a
whole culture
dreams the same
dream?

In the beginning: Pepsi Anderson and her
experience in school was a little annoying and
outrageous
Fox is being realistic, since he later says that
Pepsi's world is already here
Ex:
 sales companies target kids in their advertising
 how school administrators in Michigan are
considering auctioning off school names to the
Salespeak
Roy Fox

Salespeak
Roy Fox
Salespeak?
 persuasive
 type of entertainment or escapism
 employs a systematic approach in
targeting its audience
 Type of message about transactions b/w people
 "salespeak is more that a voice we hear and see:
we also wear it, smell it, touch it, play with it."

Salespeak?
It is very persuasive because it uses
facts, logic, and language to get
consumers to buy into what is trying to be
sold.
It entertains, arouses, plays with
emotion, and uses sounds and music.
It works because Salespeakers collect and
analyze information about a specific
"targeted" audience and forms a message
based on what that audience wants to hear

In the world today, nearly every facet of life is
linked to sales or advertising
As young children: exposed to advertising
and everything sounds like we should have
the best shoes, or clothes, or whatever.
 we grow up learning to listen to advertising
so we know what is the best and what is not.

Short information about
the product/service
Not focus on what we
truly need, but on what
we may desire
Little control in
advertising in America
Approaches to Advertising

Elements in doing an
advertisement
Where appear ?
Who can see it ?
How often appear ?
How messages constructed
?
How money budgeted ?

Advertising’s Fifteen Appeals
Jib Fowles

Advertising Appeal
The advertising appeal refers to the approach
attract the attention of consumers and influence
on their feelings.
Can also be viewed as “something that moves
people, speaks to their wants or needs, and
excites their interest.”

Emotional appeals
Emotional appeals relate to the customers’
psychological needs such as consumers’
emotion and feeling
Many’ motives for their purchase decisions are
emotional

The need for sex
Advertisers appeal to
the need for
consumer’s
attraction, though it’s
quite easy for the ad
to become to blatant

Need for affiliation
As a part of human
nature, we desire to
be in good company
and to have good
relationships.

Need to nurture
“to feed, to
support, help, c
onsole, protect,
comfort, nurse,
heal.”
For take care of
small
defenseless
creatures such
as children and
pets

Need for guidance
Every human has a need to be
nurtured, protected, shielded, guided

The Need for Prominence
A portion of human nature is the desire for
prestige and high social status.

The Need for Attention
A primitive human instinct is the desire to be
looked at.

The Need for Autonomy
The need to be individual and independent.

The Need to Dominate
A human desires to be powerful, strong

The Need to Satisfy
Curiosity
Humans are curious by nature.

The Need to Escape
When life becomes too much to
handle, everybody wants for freedom.

The Need to Feel Safe
We like to see that our lives will remain in tact
and that we can avert crisises successfully.

The Need for Aesthetic
Sensations
Consumers have a much more acute sense for
the aesthetic than they know

The Physiological Needs
Eating, sleeping, and drinking.

How Advertising Informs
To Our Benefit
John E. Calfee

A CASCADE OF INFORMATION
INCREASED INDEPENDENT INFORMATION

A PERVASIVE PHENOMENON
ADVERTISING AND CONTEXT

You’re soaking in it
Jennifer L.Pozner

Summary
New mediais off limits  increasing
encroachment into every niche of mass media 
impact culture  women

Women as victims of
advertisement
Diet industry Sex
Women’s
rights
- Women are exploited in advertising industry
- Advertisers only cares about how to make profit
without paying attention to the image of women

Problem: “toxic cultural environment”
Solution: “media literate”
Does “media literate” help to reduce
“toxic cultural environmet”? Why/why
not?

The language use is not
challenging
Have a clear argument and
supporting ideas/examples

The structure of the article is quite confusing.
There is no conclusion.
Some questions in the interview part do not relate to the
topic which is aimed at women only.
Depressing the reader at the end of the article – expect
to read something else.

Beefcake and Cheesecake:
Insight for advertisers
Marilyn Y.Jones, Andrea J.S.Stanalan and Betsy D.Gelb

Attitudesof men and women towards
Beefcake ads vs. Cheesecake ads
Sexiness
Physical attractiveness Nudity Rated
sexiness/suggestiveness

Women react more negatively than men to sexiness.
Why?

Attention goes to the ad rather
than the product
Viewers are attracted by eye-catching model
favorable effect with the brand
Viewers can be annoyed by the a sexist portrayal
 unfavorable the ads the brand

Results
Women have less favorable attitude than men
toward the cheesecake ads. However, women
have higher recognition scores and recall than
men for the cheesecake ads.
Men have less favorable attitude than women
toward the beefcake ads. However, men have
higher recognition scores and recall than women
for the beefcake ads.

Conclusion
Men and women have different attitude, recogntion
scores and recall for the beefcake and cheesecake
ads  different responses
Social context/cultural context

It takes into account the effects from both male and
female models
Tested many factors such as
attitudes, memoralbility, and recognition
Have responses from both men and women

Not be as applicable to society nowadays - Outdated information
(most of the citations are from the past)
Not relate to popular culture
So lenghthy
The method should be criticized
300 participants are not a small number of subjects, yet it must be
reconsidered if these 300 participants are appropriate.
Need more detail about how many women/men participated in the
study.
Limited ability to generalize the information to the rest of the
population
Lack of illustrations

[Group 2] representation and the construction of social reality

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