...The media Anne O’Keeffe Historical overview of media discourse ‘The media’ is a very broad term, encompassing print and broadcast genres, that is anything from newspaper to chat show and, latterly, much more besides, as new media emerge in line with technological leaps. The study of ‘the media’ comes under the remit of media studies from perspectives such as their production and consumption, as well as their aesthetic form. The academic area of media studies cuts across a number of disciplines including communication, sociology, political science, cultural studies, philosophy and rhetoric, to name but a handful. Meanwhile, the object of study, ‘the media’, is an ever-changing and ever-growing entity. The study of ‘the media’ also comes under the radar of applied linguistics because at the core of these media is language, communication and the making of meaning, which is obviously of great interest to linguists. As Fairclough (1995a: 2) points out, the substantively linguistic and discoursal nature of the power of the media is a strong argument for analysing the mass media linguistically. Central to the connection between media studies and studies of the language used in the media (media discourse studies) is the importance placed on ideology. A major force behind the study of ideology in the media is Stuart Hall (see, for example, Hall 1973, 1977, 1980, 1982). Hall (1982), in his influential paper, notes that the study of media (or ‘mass communication’) has had...
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...1. Stereotypes, narratives, ideologies and discourses are devices that, in different ways according to different theorists, fortify media power. Critically analyse how these devices work, according to various theorists, and reflect upon which best explains communicative power. The social construction of reality is mediated through the communicative powers of stereotypes, narratives, ideologies and discourses and the media is extremely powerful in communicating messages with these devices. It will be argued that discourses are the most powerful communicating device used by the media in the postindustrial era today. Furthermore as per Croteau & Hoynes (2014, p. 9), the analysis will focus on recognised mass media that is readily available in print, film, radio, television, sound recordings and the Internet. Poststructuralists within sociology examine the structures of society and human agency. Human agency or action is influenced by sociocultural factors such as ideology that shape human identity and act subconsciously over an individual. Ideology is the system of meaning that helps explain, define and make value judgments about the world (Croteau & Hoynes 2014, p. 152). As we live in an interconnected world there are many ideologies as there are social structures in any given society. Related to this is that dominant ideas are hegemonic. Marx created the superstructure, which is the domain of ideas for example religion, legal structures, family, institutions...
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...Discuss the concepts of 'ideology' and 'discourse' in relation to the ways in which representation functions in media texts. You might like to do this in the context of representations of gender, sexuality, 'race', ethnicity, war, refugees or celebrity, for example. Your essay should include your own analysis of a media text that has not been discussed in detail in the lectures, required or additional readings, or in your other assessments. Representation is both the process and the product of media texts, in terms of sexuality in media these representations are shaped by ideologies; the way people think and interpret the word. In turn, different ideologies promote discourse and the discussion of ideas in relation to sexuality. In relation to specific media texts such as True Blood, there are several ideologies in the program, social, political and cultural which show a non-heteronormative view on sexuality. Ideologies are ways of thinking and how we interpret the world around us. It’s through ideology that representation in media text functions to reinforce the view of that particular school of thought. Representation can be through stereotype, strengthening sometimes negative views or typecasting those who are represented. Looking especially True Blood, vampires are being “re-presented” as the gay community which have to struggle and fight for equal rights(Dhaenens, 2013). The concept of Ideology, a way of thinking which impacts how you view and world and interact with people...
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...ICOM101 Major Essay Does Media Discourse Reproduce Social Inequality? Student Name : Pratama Robin Rachel Discourse denotes to the various forms of representation, codes, habits, conventions associated with language are responsible for producing specific culturally and historically located meanings. Media discourse can be described as an interaction through a media platform with the help of verbal or non-verbal communication. It has been found that media can potentially influence the public. The objective of this essay is to find out the role of media discourse in reproducing social inequality. In order to meet this objective, in the following sections the concept of discourse is explained vividly along with its style of operations. A relationship between media discourse and social inequality will be established in this essay. Discourse can be referred to the manner or way of communication between individuals or group. Discourse plays a major role in determining how an individual will understand and interpret a specific thing based upon ideas, thoughts and beliefs. According to Michel Focault, discourse is an entity of sequences, codes and signs in that they are enouncements. Media discourse includes various media outlets such as radio, television, newspaper, magazine, internet etc. The inevitable power of media has been discussed in discourse studies. Many research studies have shown that media plays an important role in influencing the thought process of individuals...
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...Research Proposal Provisional title- Social media and the hidden spaces of online identity management Topic: Social Networking and Interaction This project is concerned with computer mediated communication (CMC) between individuals via the social networking platform, Facebook. Created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, Facebook is a social networking forum wherein individuals can share photographs, personal information, conversations and friends (Buckman, 2005). Although other online sites such as MySpace, Friendster and Bebo are also designed to carry out such functions, Facebook is generally considered to be the leading site of its kind, currently consisting of over a billion users worldwide (Facebook, 2013). Facebook has increasingly become deeply integrated into user’s daily routines (Debatin, 2009). Indeed, a recent study found that students spend an average of 38 minutes a day ‘Face-booking’ (Muise et al, 2009). This equates to almost 9 days every year being dedicated to communication activities via the medium. With the internet increasingly being accessed via mobile devices, anytime, anyplace, it is likely that this figure will increase over time. With these ideas in mind, it is interesting to consider sites such as Facebook as capable of revealing important information about how young adults interact with one another in the information age. Platform functions such as wall posts, comments, statuses, private messages and so on provide a vast space for a number...
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...Overarching Rationale of the Package Media, as interwoven with everyday lives, insinuate their messages into people’s mindset at every turn, making it one of the most pervasive and powerful means of influencing one’s ideologies towards men and women, and the respective gender roles. Notwithstanding, in real practice, media usually communicate images of the sexes which may perpetuate unrealistic, stereotypical, and limiting perceptions in the target recipients. Since adolescents have been regularly and extensively exposed to these types of media, this kit therefore aims at educating the young people in our society, as the starting point, to address the issue of gender dignity in earnest, so as to promote a more caring and healthier society....
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...the Study "Language and Media" is a comprehensive introduction to how language interacts with media. It investigates the forms of language found in media discourse; how patterns in such language use contribute to recognizable media genres and styles; and, broader social themes and consequences that arise from media language. It uses a wide variety of real texts from the media specifically from Magazines. Boles (2012) believes that each magazine uses linguistic techniques these language features are creatively used in magazines by the writers to attract and entertain the target audience as they only have a small space and time to get the attention of the potential buyer of the product. Bell (2010) emphasizes the importance of the processes which produce media language, as stories are molded and modified by various hands. He stresses it is indeed stories that journalists and editors produce, not articles. These stories have viewpoint, values and structure that can be analyzed. He is concerned, too, with the role of the audience in influencing media language styles, and in understanding, forgetting or misconceiving the news presented to it. A feature story is a special human interest story article that is not closely tied to a recent news event. It focuses on particular people, places, and events, and it goes into great detail regarding concepts and ideas of specific market interest. The study primarily aims to provide a contrastive analysis between the use of the variety...
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...The representation of terrorism, Islam and Muslim identities on popular US series Homeland Introduction Images of Muslim and Islam have dramatically increased in the media coverage as well as popular culture ever since we have entered the “post-9/11 era”, as Elizabeth Poole observed. (2008:81) The shocking real life images from the horrifying terrorist attack in September 2011 has triggered various interpretation on the discourse of what it means to be Muslim and the image of Islam and its culture in the western media, and still have profound influence even after more than a decade and ongoing. Apart from the coverage on news media, TV entertainment, especially TV dramas also provide a powerful outlet for the popular prevailing discourses on Muslim and Islamic culture, which compare to news reports, leaves a more vivid and graphic impression on audience with its discourse and narratives. The proposed subject I am going to study is revolved around the representation of Islam and Muslim identity in the popular US TV drama Homeland. (Showtime, 2011) Homeland (Showtime, 2011) has been arguably the most successful TV series focusing on the theme of counter-terrorism and national security across the Atlantic since 2011, following its predecessor 24 (Fox, 2001) developed by the same producers. When asked what made the show distinctive compared to its predecessors, Damian Lewis, who played as Sgt Nicholas Brody, the male lead in Homeland replied, “We feel a bit differently...
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...Christopher McCormick’s (2010), Constructing Danger: Emotions and the Mis/ Representations of Crime in the News, is a collection of news media excerpts that McCormick analyses in relation to archived police reports and statistics, victimization and self-report surveys, along with condensed versions of ‘professional’ lectures given at a conference about how the media reports crime. Before I elaborate on how McCormick structured his analyses throughout his book and its relevance to his critiques, I will begin by discussing his main arguments. From this, I am able expand on the pedagogical relevance of his work to my own feminist critiques regarding some problems I found in the organization of his book and his methodologies. I argue, that we also need to question where McCormick got his ‘facts’ to make comparisons and the implications that individual subjectivities have in the ‘knowledge(s)’ about crime and articulations of identity. McCormick argues that Constructing Danger is a pedagogical piece that encourages readers to think critically about the ways in which crime is represented in the news media. McCormick focuses on the use of emotion in the ideological and discursive production of crime in the news and the implications it has on how individuals, see, hear and read the news. McCormick suggests, that the news media is not free from ‘bias’, for the news represents crime in a way that simultaneously exorcises and triggers emotion, which in turn, effects the ways in which individuals...
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...textual analysis. These two methods are the most beneficial forms of qualitative methods because they will assist in getting more exposure on how social media can be used as a modem for social change and activism. I will use a case study of one organization that has used social media to enable them to start some form of activism leading to social change. Ethical Treatment Every single detail of this study will be disclosed to the participants during and after the study. Each participant will be given their rights to privacy which will ultimately not be violated in any way. Each participant can leave the study at...
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...navigate the economic, social, and political worlds of the 21st century. The purpose of the study was to explore the students‟ multiliteracy practices that they enact through their activities within digital popular culture. Data collection methods included synchronous interviews facilitated by video conferencing tools as well as observation of the participants‟ online activities and member checks conducted via email and instant messaging. The analytic strategy employed during this study was informed by Clarke‟s (2005) situational analysis method. The study‟s findings indicate that literacy practices in which the study participants have engaged through informal learning activities within digital youth culture have had a much greater impact on enabling them to cultivate the multimodal literacies necessary within a postmodern digital era than have their formal educational experiences. Keywords: Literacy; multiliteracy; digital popular culture; online, digital media; youth Introduction The experiences of students in today‟s U.S. schools as they gain the literacies necessary to participate in...
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...Birmingham University (Chandler 2001). Encoding/Decoding is a theoretical framework devised to critically examine how society or the hegemonic institutions in society, disseminate messages implanted or ‘encoded’ (Hall 2001, p.167) with meaning ‘through the operation of codes within the syntagmatic chain of a discourse’ (Hall 2001, p.166). Hall’s model examines the processes in which television texts are constructed with dominant codes or ‘preferred readings’ (Hall 2011, p.172), whilst signifying theoretical strategies from which audiences can deconstruct and consume such readings existing within texts in correspondence to cultural and social conditions. Hall’s model laid the foundations for much ethnographic research; it is upon this premise and its comprehensive influence, that in this essay the advantages and limitations of his model will be evaluated with focus on how effectively it functions within the indicated parameters of specific texts and discourses. Hall’s model which is fundamentally a mode of communication and audience reception theory, stems from early models of which proposed to analyse how audiences interpreted texts through the visual and aural discourse of television. Hall utilised and developed upon preceding and often problematic models such as the Effects and the Uses and Gratification models. Conversely from a structuralist standpoint, ‘it took, from the effect theorists, the notion that mass communication is a structured activity, in which the institutions...
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...For this analysis, the topic of illegal drugs will be traced across three different television serials that vary in genre. In each programme illegal drugs are a pivotal element to the storyline, with close reference to youth involvement. This analysis will investigate how different televisual forms shape the way illegal drug use is understood and made visible across three different genres of television with reference to youth involvement. In addition, this analysis will discuss to what extent this representation of illegal drugs assists in legitimating themes of drug use and how these representations have shifted throughout history. This analysis will explore the representation of illegal drug in Workaholics, 90210 and Arrow. The mass media are commonly seen to reflect and shape social attitudes and behaviours; therefore it is likely that representations of teen characters in film and television will assist in defining what normative behaviours and actions are for teen viewers (Stern 331). This contributes to the argument that television can influence and young viewers are using these representations to authenticate their behaviours according to the dominant values represented on television. The repetitive portrayal of drug use on television can be seen to glamorise drug use and provide an overabundance, and inaccurate representation of drugs (Long et al. 96). As it is more commonly discussed and glamorised, it becomes more likely that young people will associate substance use...
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...AN ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE FEATURES IN ENGLISH ADVERTISEMENTS Abstract This paper presents an analytical study of the language features of English advertisements at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. In order to conduct a data-driven study, the author builds a corpus of 60 English advertisements. It is hoped that through the detailed survey of three types of advertisements: namely, daily consumer goods ads, technical equipment ads, service ads, similarities and differences in advertising language features can be summarized and possible reasons will be given in the light of the meaning, and function of language. This paper will be presented in five parts. The first part is the introduction and the last conclusion. The focus of the paper is laid on the three middle parts which respectively analyze language features at lexical, syntactic and discourse levels. The conclusion of this paper is drawn from the data analysis. In the analysis, examples from the corpus will be given; figures, tables and graphs will also be offered to make the paper understandable and persuasive. It is hoped that the study can shed light on the language features of advertisements and also provide help to copy writers and advertising English learners. KEYWORDS: English Advertisements, Lexical, Syntactic, Discourse,Similarities, Differences Acknowledgement Sincere thanks go to Dr. Wei Naixing for his insightful guidance and earnest help all through the searching, analysis and...
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...Library on July 5, 2011 Volume 8(4): 339–366 Copyright © 2008 SAGE www.sagepublications.com DOI: 10.1177/1470593108096540 articles Marketing the hegemony of development: of pulp fictions and green deserts1 Steffen Böhm University of Essex, UK Vinícius Brei Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brazil Abstract. In this paper we analyze the role of marketing in the construction of what can be called the hegemony of development. Through an investigation of the marketing practices of the pulp and paper industry in South America and the resistances that are articulated by a range of civil society actors against the expansion of this industry, we problematize marketing as a political and contested discourse and practice. By using Laclau and Mouffe’s (1985, 2001) theoretical framework, which is centered on the concept of ‘hegemony’, we highlight the crucial role marketing plays in the social and cultural legitimation of the highly controversial development of the pulp and paper industry – regarded as one of the most polluting industries in the world – in South America. We build on...
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