Adbusters - Double Page Spread

Adbusters - Double Page Spread

• There is text with '350 ppm', which means the safe amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere.
• The semiotic codes used is hermenuetic as the reader may wonder what the number means.
• The anchorage of pollution with the number and also the street behind which produces lots of pollution.
• Suggestive to the model represents people only caring about themselves and not the environment enough. With fast fashion (consumerism), as the season changes people through out clothes from the old season, and questions the reader on what they are doing.
• With the contrast of the model and someone appearing homeless by sitting on the side of the road asking for money (action code).
• The quote of the right hand side links to the image of the homeless person in a way that suggests 'this could be you', as the quote talks about evacuating big cities, there being food shortages and prices increasing e.g, 'collapse of food production', the lexis used is serious.
• The imagery is black and white creating a sense of no happiness and also seriousness, to represent the message the magazine is spreading.
• The mode of address, the two people are using direct eye contact creating direct address.
• The binary opposition of the two extremes, a model and a homeless person.

Adbusters Article - 'Save the Planet Kill Yourself'

Adbusters Article - 'Save the Planet Kill Yourself'

• The issue being represented in the article is how the environment is being affected by the actions of humans for example, the article mentions about the production of plastic, food and drink, gadgets and clothes, 'This plastic comes from petroleum by-products like HGL and may be synthesised from crude oil in other parts of the world', the article tells the audience what is in everyday products in supermarkets and also how it is made, 'all the child labour and poverty labour that went into your clothes you are wearing'. The article uses direct address, to directly speak to the reader about these issues.

• The representations that are used to present ideologies to position the audience is the idea that the article is directly about them, and narrating their lives, it assumes the audience buys these products in the supermarket and represents them to be in a position of perhaps not knowing or in denial. For example, 'the fact you are so used to these crises and disasters in and around the things you eat, wear and use that you learned long ago', there is also the idea that the audience have realised their actions and that they're wrong and are willing to change, 'Create alternative models of consumption'. The lexis and language used is blunt, the audiences are forced to focus on the article with lack of colour, images and adverts and is nihilistic in creating a sense of powerlessness and helplessness. The dominant ideology of this article is that humans are causing problems for the planet and that they should make sacrifices, ‘Kill Yourself’ to ‘Save the Planet’, and that currently they believe that it is the other way round.

• The historical, cultural, social, political significance of representation that magazines offer is an ideology which they believe that the audience should believe in. 

• Gauntlet's theory of identity is the idea that the audience can pick or choose what ideologies suit them and ignore the ideologies which they disagree with, in this case the audience may choose to believe the article or not, however the article points out how the reader may be in denial about the situation. For example, ‘the fact you are so used to these crises and disasters in and around the things you eat, wear and use that you learned long ago’.

Adbusters - Christian Louibouton Advert and Runway Advert

Adbusters - Christian Louibouton Advert

Commodity fetishism- The idea and process of ascribing magic 'phantom-like' qualities to an object, whereby the human labour required to make that object is lost once the object is associated with monetary value for exchange.

• Christian Louibouton is a designer brand well-known for the red-sole high heels.
• Commodity fetishism, the iconic shoes have a magic 'phantom-like' quality to it.
• There is a juxtaposition with the brand and with the imagery of the person's feet using plastic bottles as shoes, this communicates an anti-consumerist ideology and is a culture jam of the company and its adverts.
• The representations of ethnicity is constructed by Gilroy's post-colonialism theory, the image represents the difference between Western countries and post-colonial countries. The person is wearing shoes made of plastic bottles, the background suggests the person is in a hot and dry climate (scorched ground) suggesting drought/famine. There is a sense of racial hierarchy between post-colonial countries and Western countries. Structuralism - binary oppositions a designer brand and someone wearing bottles as shoes.
• The audience is positioned in relation to these representations as the preferred reading (Hall's reception theory) as they are the target audience, they know what Adbusters is like and it caters to their interests.
• The idea of 'otherness' is created in the advert to create a social and economic point about the inequality of power, using stereotypical representation of ethnicity.
• The tagline, 'red soles are always in season', the brand is iconic for red-sole shoes and 'season' a term associated with fashion however it is 'always in season' from the lexis used, fashion changes each season but this person would probably be wearing bottle shoes, shows further binary oppositions and inequality.
• Irony is created as the red-sole high heel shoes costs lots of money and usually heels hurt your feet and people are paying for that whereas this person's feet hurt so they made free shoes.
• The theory of identity by Gauntlett, is the idea the audience can pick 'n' mix what their identity is and whether they have to same ideology as the magazine of being anti-consumerist.
• Barthes' semiotic codes, the hermenuetic code to the audience making them wonder what the image of the person's feet and the meaning that the magazine is trying to convey.

Adbusters - Runway Advert

• Levi-Strauss' theory of binary oppositions is found in the two images, one of which is a model on the runway and the other is of people behind a barbed-wire fence. This perhaps represents the exploitation, the people may of made the clothing but the model wearing it will earn more from it. The model is also wearing high-end and what would be seen as nice clothes whereas the people in the above photo are wearing non-designer and 'undesirable' clothing.
• The stereotypes found is that the model is white and successful whereas the people behind the barbed wire are of colour and in poverty.
• The mode of the address is direct, without lexis, suggests the target audience and preferred reading (Hall's reception theory) are perhaps middle-class, creating the sense of guilt for exploiting the people to buy clothes.
• Post-colonialism is seen as the effects after countries were previously colonised, it benefited the Western country and not the colonised country.
• Culture Jamming, it is usually found in magazines models in adverts but mocks it using another image of people behind barbed wire fence and in suggested poverty.
• Gauntlett's identity theory, says the the audience pick 'n' mix their ideologies and identities in whether or which they believe in what the message that the magazine is spreading; the message of the magazine is anti-consumerism with left-wing politics.
• Semiotic codes, the hermeneutic code in the advert is that the audience questions what the meaning of it is, as there are no obvious meanings.
• Commodity Fetishism is giving objects a magic ‘phantom-like’ quality, in this case perhaps the dress the model is wearing but it is juxtaposed with the image above as something people wouldn’t want to have.

Adbusters - Media Set Product 8

Adbusters

• This magazine was published in May/June 2016.
• It is independent/niche/campaigning/‘culture jamming’ magazine.
• It is usually published 6 times a year by Adbusters Media Foundation from 1989 to present. The price is £10.99 with average circulation of 120000 (Apr 2017).
• They say they are a ‘Journal of mental environment’ , ‘Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada’, ‘not for-profit magazine fighting back against the hostile takeover of psychological, physical and cultural environments by commercial forces‘.

Front Cover

• The masthead is a bold, white, sans-serif font with an overlay of the main image.
• The only coverline featured is 'post - west' which is centred but also goes across the whole page and doesn't follow the typical conventions of a magazine.
• The coverline is more clear to see, the story is more important than the magazine and its brand.
• The main image used is a man in an army/camouflage vest which suggests he is a solider suggesting violence. The man is screaming/shouting, his facial expression communicates animalistic including his baring teeth and furrowed brows, he is angry. The overall body language includes a clenched fist - he is angry and ready to fight, adding to violence and the ideas of war.
• The main image is a mid-shot, to see the body language clearly but also shows some of the facial expressions. The image looks rolled on and is low quality which doesn't follow the typical conventions of a magazine front cover including high-quality and production-value image. The quality of the image further shows the chaos of a war-zone, the background isn't in focus, it creates an enigma code or suggestion to being anywhere.
• Disrupting our expectations of a magazine front cover.
• The coverline, ‘post - west’ suggests interference of Western countries in middle-eastern wars, it suggests it will discuss about the problems of Westernisation and that post-colonialism (Gilroy’s theory) has caused problems, the West believes that it is ‘saving’ these countries after mistakes made of colonisation.
• Anti-establishment.
• Not perpetuating dominant ideologies in the West - social and the political message
• Assumption that the audience/reader will already understand the context.

Regulation in the UK

The effectiveness of regulatory framework of magazines (UK)

Theory of Regulation - Livingstone and Hunt

• This theory is about the rise of power of global media coportations, in which convergent media technologies has placed traditional approaches to media difficult.
• IPSO regulates the British magazines and newspapers.
• It has changed since 1964, as beliefs on what's acceptable and what's not has changed, e.g, sexism.
• There are laws around privacy obscenity (when something is deemed as not acceptable morally) however there is a grey-area in this, particually in regulation.

Conde Nast Traveller Print advert and the Culitvation theory - Gerbner

• The cultivation theroy is when the media warps and cultivates the audience's perception of reality. The more the audience sees something in particular in media, the more they believe that it is normal.
• In the Conde Nast Traveller advert, which was feautured in the magazine Glamour, however it was reported as the woman looked 'unhealthily thin'.
• The ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) questioned whether the advert was 'socially responsible' deemed by watchdogs.
• The advert was then banned.

Oz Magazine Scandal

• The Oz magazine was first published in the late 1960's, early 70's. It is also originally Australian but then moved to Britain. 
• The magazine faced the longest obscenity trials in the UK for featuring a sexually explicit cartoon parody of Rupert the Bear, which was aimed for children.
• The editors of the magazine were charged, (Richard Neville, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis) for conspiring school children to having corrupt morals.
• They were set free for the conspiracy but still jailed for two minor offences, to then eventually to be released from prison.
• The legal fight for the magazine showed a shift in 1960's British society, questions to authority in whether they controlled what people saw or whether people decided to see it or not.
• The magazine also faced obscenity trials in Australia, for controversial topics at the time such as, censorship, homosexuality, police brutality and Australia's policies.

Reception theory - Hall

• Preferred reading.
• Negotiated reading.
• Oppositional reading.

Reception Theory - Woman

Woman - Reception theory

• The preferred reading of the magazine and the dominant hegemonic position is the target audience of Woman, the target audience would be women in the early 1960's.
• However the oppositional reading would be men, but in modern society majority of people would either be the negotiated reader or oppositional reader because of the changes in society since then and what is deemed as socially acceptable such as changes in regulation.
• Examples of this would be the Alfred Hitchcock interview, in the 60's people would believe that it is acceptable for his ideas of what women should be, do or look like, whereas in 2020, it would be seen very sexist because of the changes in society and the increase in the feminist movement.
• From the front cover, there are ideologies of women being stereotypically housewives whereas today that could be seen as not necessarily true.
• The contents also features ideologies of women's interests, 'Beauty', 'Cooking', 'Fashion', 'Home', 'Knitting'. Majority of women's interests have changed since the 1960's.
• The adverts in the magazine by Max Factor and Breeze, this represents women having to be beautiful and also objectifies them, readers nowadays may believe that the Breeze advert maybe more socially unacceptable as she is more sexually objectified.

• The audience's interpretation can be influenced by social, historical and cultural circumstances as women in the 1960's would be the preferred reading of the Woman magazine because society in the early sixties would consider these ideologies and what now would be known as sexist. This would be acceptable, which represents the regulation of conglomerates and the control of ideologies.
• The different audience interpretations with emphasis on polysemic readings, is found from readers in the 60's and their views and readers in 2020 and their views.

Industry - IPC

IPC

• IPC (International Publishing Corporation) was established in 1963 with a merge of George Newnes (1881), Odhams Press (1880) and Fleetway Publications (1890) with Mirror Group.
• The Field (1853) joined the IPC in 1994 followed by Harmsworth Magazines.
• IPC was then taken over by Time Warner in 2001, then renamed as Time Inc. UK in 2014.
• In 2018 Meredith Corporation formed with Time Inc. UK.
• Time Inc. UK was then taken over by Epiris LLP, then re branded to TI Media in June 2018. 

• A product is shaped by it's ownership by the owner's ideology being put into the product as well as the regulation.
• The publisher is a large mainstream organisation, in which it is a part of a media conglomeration.
• The IPC also produces as well as the 'Woman' magazine, such as, 'World Soccer', 'What's On TV' and 'Cycling Weekly'.
• This is significant for 'Woman' magazine as TI Media publishes the copies of the magazines.

• The Time Inc. UK is split into equestrian, cycling, interiors, craft and beauty.
• Digital audience increased from online websites of the magazines and on social media. The consumption of media is different and is evolving.
• Time Inc. is a global organisation and is a very intergrated company.