Media & Advertising Discourse Flashcards
How do discourse and ideology relate?
Discourse shapes understanding of the world: it’s ideological. It can express, construct, confirm, promote, naturalise existing/new ideologies.
How are people described in discourse analysis?
Social actors
Define collectivisation
Social actors described as being part of collectivity (e.g. migrants, Muslims, police) rather than individuals. Harder for readers to humanise.
Define aggregation
Social actors treated as statistics; gives impression of objective research and scientific credibility
Define active voice
Social actors described as ‘doers’, active roles in actions carried out
Define functionalisation
People depicted in terms of what they can do; connotes legitimacy
Define naturalisation
Repetition of ideology (encoded in language) until considered natural/commonsensical
Why does studying advertising discourse matter?
Widely regarded as driving force behind consumerist culture; pervasive form of global communication
What are the 2 approaches of research to advertising discourse?
- Celebratory approach: recognises and explicates creativity of ads
- Critical approach: sees ads as brainwashing/stimulating false desires
What is the problem-solution structure?
Consumer accepts problem in life; solution justified as a product. 3 elements: situation, problem, solution.
What are reason and tickle adverts?
Reason: simple and direct appeal based on fact and truth (less effective)
Tickle: indirect appeal through emotion/desire/imagination (less obvious advertising; more effective)
What is synthetic personalisation?
False sense of having 2 way, individual and equal relationship with advertiser, through direct address, conversational/informal language, eye contact images etc
Why is synthetic personalisation used?
Because advertising is impersonal, mass communication
What is synthetic personalisation used to do?
- Attempts to create ordinariness
- Create personal relationship
- Downplay power differences
Why are images regarded as more powerful than language?
More ambiguous: force viewer to participate in meaning-making
What is the difference between denotation and connotation?
Denotation: what objectively exists (as we look at image/photo)
Connotation: subjective interpretive meaning communicated by image
Thinking about the grammar of visual design, define the ideal vs the real
Emotive (ideal) vs practical (real)
- ideal = upper section (promise/status of product)
- real = lower section, right corner (actual product/logo). Last thing we read; answer to the problem posed (we read left to right, top to bottom)
Define difference between demand and offer images
Demand - eye contact from represented participants as visual term of address, sense of imagined relationship (smile = social affinity; stare = viewer made inferior)
Offer - represented participant offered as item of information, become object of gaze. Disconnected from viewer.
What are people depicted in images referred to as?
Represented Participants
Define recontextualisation
Distorting reality to present a more appealing version
How is recontextualisation done?
2 processes, 3 components
Addition and deletion of participants, processes and cirmcumstances
