Log 1: Media Analysis

In popular television programs teenagers, girls in particular are portrayed to look perfect at all times. Most network television shows have their actresses looking models on a runway whilst doing the simplest things such as reading the morning paper. The television network known as “The Cw” is notorious for this. The cw has hosted shows such as Gossip Girl, 90210, and The Vampire Diaries The girls on these shows would wake up in the morning with their hair perfectly curled, lip gloss on and with fake eyelash extensions. This is how the media portrays teenagers today. I think that this is one of the main reasons why girls today feel the pressure to be perfect and look good at all times. These are the shows that they look up to. For example in the clip from Gossip Girl that I have attached you see the girls in their fancy uniforms looking like models at Fashion Week, they wear pretty headbands, colourful stockings and lots of makeup. This is not what happens in reality, this is a construct of the media. You see them at parties and other social events dressed up to a great degree. Even though it is the “Upper East Side” and they are very rich, it still doesn’t make it realistic. They also have the typical high school “mean girls,” however Gossip Girl takes it to a whole new level. They have “queen b’s” that run the school and make others feel less about themselves, so I also think that this makes girls feel like they need to be cool or else they will get hate. It’s a harsh world we live in, and the construct of reality that is portrayed in modern television only adds to that.

               Personally as a girl I actually enjoy the program Gossip Girl, but it is not something that I look to for life lessons. Although entertaining, Gossip Girl is a very unrealistic show that if taken too seriously can actually have a negative effect on others.  Gossip Girl shows their main characters drinking martinis at a bar on a school night even though they are minors; this would never happen in the real world. What makes this idea even more ludicrous is the fact that these “Upper East Siders” are well-known so the city knows that they are underage, and yet they still drink and do things they shouldn’t. However something that is realistic in Gossip Girl is that if you were to step out of line you might be isolated from society. This is also shown in my attached clip. The character of Blair Waldorf was the resident mean girl and queen of their elite private school. However she had a pregnancy scare that was broadcasted throughout the entire school, not only did she cheat on her boyfriend with his best friend but she thought she was pregnant. To make matters worse, she didn’t know who the potential father may be. Even though her pregnancy turned out to be false she was isolated from her friends and dethroned as “queen b.” I think that even though it is an extreme case, it relates to reality because if a girl does not meet society’s expectations she will be shunned and become friendless. In high school people have certain expectations, and if you don’t meet those requirements they will be hard on you. This is demonstrated in the clip. So in conclusion modern television alters reality for entertainment and makes girls feel the need to be perfect and feel like they can never make mistakes.

Key Concepts of Media Literacy:

The Media Constructs a Version of Reality: A good example of how the media constructs a version of reality is the social networking site “ask.fm”. In this particular site you can ask people different questions anonymously and you can answer in return for those who have asked you. This site allows basically everyone who has an account to create a different version to who they really are. I know this for a fact because my close friends and I all have accounts and when I see particular questions that they get asked and I see their responses, I know that they wouldn’t actually answer like that. So they have created a different version to who they are. But since it is someone who is anonymous you can respond in any manner you want. This site can also be very dangerous and give people the opportunity to bully others and I’ve also seen that happen. With these types of social networking sites you can be the communicator and portray yourself to be anyone.
http://ask.fm/trinalovemusiclife

Media messages contain social and political implications: A good example of how the media contains both social and political implications is the music video and song by the musical artists Mackelmore and Ryan Lewis featuring Mary Lambert. Even though “Same Love” isn’t an advertisement, it contains a strong message with what is going on in the world. Recently, the United States have been legalizing gay marriages in different states. The message that the song is giving is that just because politics is telling you that it is okay to be gay doesn’t mean that you will accept someone who is, socially. So the artists that created this song have decided to use the media as a way to get their message to the world that being gay should be accepted and they cannot change who they are and that you shouldn’t judge them for being who they are. In the song itself you hear Mackelmore speaking about how people judge each other online “behind the keys of a message board,” this means that even though the government and most of the world have started to accept the homosexuals a lot of others haven’t and they bash gays online. The artist Mackelmore is fairly new to the music world; however he has used what fame he has to get his message across using the media. In the music video it shows the life of a gay man, from birth to the end. You see him growing up as any other child, playing games with his father and such. As he grows older he starts to realize that he isn’t considered “normal” and therefore is seen being shy and unsure of himself. However once his adolescent years were over, he settled down and had found another man who he shared a relationship with. Eventually they got married, as it is now legal; you see them looking very happy at their wedding and sharing their life together to the very end as old men. I think this video and its song have a very strong social message that is given to the public by the media.

Media text that contains value/social messages: This is an image of Marilyn Monroe with a quotation from her. I believe that this contains a valuable social message. What she basically said was that everyone is human and can make mistakes, no one is perfect and everyone has both good and bad qualities about them. Marilyn Monroe has been known to be someone who was always herself and didn’t care what others thought of her. She was an inspiration to young women and still is to this day even though she is deceased. Part of what made Marilyn so great was the fact that even though she was an attractive woman she was a woman. She wasn’t stick thin; she had a very curvy body with wide hips and everything. But because of her confidence, society accepted her. So I think a lot of what she tried to get everyone to do is just accept themselves and just realize that no one is perfect.

Brand Identity - Victoria's Secret

Brand: Victoria’s Secret

            The brand Victoria’s Secret was founded in 1977 by a man named Roy Raymond. He originally created this chain of lingerie stores for men like him who felt embarrassed to buy women’s lingerie in a store. So he created the stores so men would feel comfortable buying it for their wives or girlfriends. Over the years Victoria’s Secret has rebranded, and has also changed their target audience. In the beginning it was targeted at men to buy for their significant others whereas now it is targeted towards the one who will be wearing it. Another major part of Victoria’s Secret is their line PINK, this consists of merchandise, underwear, swimwear and loungewear. PINK is targeted towards 15-22 year olds as the look itself is young and it helps eases fans of Victoria’s Secret into the older lines like Angels and Body by Victoria. The brand and company say that their consumers like to look good while being comfortable.

How the brand identity is created:

Advertisements for Victoria’s Secret can be found in a number of places. For example:

o   Television – In TV spots for Victoria’s Secret you will typically see beautiful and thin young women dressed in the merchandise walking, standing or laying on a couch posing while showing off the lingerie. There would typically be a voice over of announcing a new product or talking of a sale. TV Spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgevj0oraDw (announcing a sale, also showing other products)

o   Billboard – This isn’t one of their main ways of advertising but they still do it. One of the places where a Victoria’s Secret billboard can be found is in Time Square in New York.

o   Radio – Since there isn’t a Victoria’s Secret store or outlet in Trinidad I am not aware if there are radio advertisements. However with research I found that there are promotions, the company has their “Angels” visiting radio stations promoting their favorite music selections, and by doing this they are also promoting their brand at the same time

o   Magazine – In different women magazines there are print ads for Victoria’s Secret, in these ads you will typically see a young women wearing the merchandise, in the ad they may show a special sale, coupon or even just showing off the brand   

o   Other - There are Victoria’s Secret catalogues that are quite famous. This is probably their main way of advertising; they receive a considerable amount of sales from their catalogues that get sent out in the mail.

In my opinion, the brand identity of Victoria’s Secret doesn’t have a significant impact, because I am not greatly concerned about the physiques or beauty of the models used. The fore-going concerns are not the deciding factors for purchase of this brand. What is making me buy the product is the quality and the overall design of it.  This relates to my personal “brand identity” because in the LOVE PINK section they use a lot of pink, other bright colours and a variety of animal prints. I enjoy these patterns and wear a lot of them in my everyday life. So that is how it relates to my personal brand identity. To the world I portray myself to be “fun” and “bubbly” and I think the brand of Victoria’s Secret adds to this. 

"A Boy Band with a Secret?" - Press Release Assignment

In the new advertisement by Boyfriend and Boyfriend, two of the members from the popular boy band One Direction are featured. Now, everyone knows that One Direction is arguably one of the most famous bands at the moment. So their personal image is very important. It has been rumoured that two of the members, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson are rumoured to be homosexual. So the company of Boyfriend and Boyfriend has created a gay pride advertisement featuring them.

The advertisement was launched in October of 2013 across the world; it is prominently featured in the United States of America as well as the United Kingdom.  The company of Boyfriend and Boyfriend is a company that advocates for gay rights and supports it in every aspect; it is also supported by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender association. The company has been notorious for created ads and fundraiser with the outcome of having more and more people supporting their cause. The reason this particular ad featuring Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, (known to their supporters and fans by “Larry Stylinson) was to have more people support their cause.

By using members of the one of the biggest bands on the planet they can very much achieve this. Boyfriend and Boyfriend is a fantastic company that is really trying to get their point across and they are certainly succeeding.  

Boyfriend and Boyfriend is no stranger to controversy, and that is what makes them so great. They do not fear the bad, and they are determined to achieve the great.

Stereotyping in Magazines

Magazines use stereotypes to reinforce an ideology that is preset in most individuals’ lives. They exclude what they believe to be unattractive or unacceptable. They include what is perceived to beautiful and position their models or products accordingly. The stereotypes in magazines are typically tall, slim models that seem to be enjoying themselves. A very small percentage of the world actually looks like this. So magazines, fashion magazines in particular, exclude what most consumers actually look like. Not everyone looks like size 2 fashion models with perfect hair when they’re at the beach. Magazines like Teen Vogue are notorious for this. To seem like they are including a variety of different people, they use models from different ethnic backgrounds, even though they may be “different” they all have the same overall body shape and I can guarantee you that very few people look like this in reality. The companies for the different brands are also to blame. For example Dolce & Gabbana tend to have a group of young adults very well dressed with a lot of makeup lounging together in a variety of positions that seem casual, and in these ads they are wearing the product or the product is displayed but typically this is too overdone. 

"Too Hot For TV" Banned Commercial - "Serial Killer Condom Ad"

This is a banned PSA ad that encourages people to have protected sex with the use of condoms. Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing, but the way that this ad was portrayed was offensive. The ad starts off with an old man with a gun coming out of a  bank after having just robbed it, they display his age of 73 on screen. The ad then cuts to a scene of the same man when he was younger at age of 46 breaking into a family's home with a knife.the ad continues showing this same man at different ages committing crimes and basically being bad-all around. The penultimate scene shows when this man was born and killed the mother while she was giving birth, the age 0 is displayed. It then cuts to his conception, with his parents making the decision to have unprotected sex. The ending shows a condom and the tagline "For your protection. And ours." Now this can be very offensive to those who want to have a child, because no one knows if their child is going to grow up to be a serial killer. So the individuals that created this ad should not have blamed all of that on the fact that the couple chose not to be safe. Because this could have happened even if they wanted to have the child, it has nothing to do with the fact that they weren't safe that night. To make this PSA acceptable, they should have taken the entire serial killer angle out, anything doing with how the child might grow up to be would be offensive. A better safe-sex PSA would have been something regarding STI's.

Print Ad Analysed - "Truth. Tobacco Ad"

This advertisement is by the company "Truth", which is a company that is devoted to spreading the truth about tobacco companies. In this particular ad you see a man taking a puff from a cigarette, the man is slightly faded out. The tagline reads: "You fade away with every puff." This means that the more you smoke the more of yourself you loose, you really affect your health by smoking tobacco cigarettes. This ad is trying to broadcast that effect.

"Media messages contain ideological and value messages"

In this video the artist Mackelmore uses his song and video to show that gay rights are being liberated. So the value message of this video is that gays should accept who they are and shouldn't feel ashamed because love is more important than what they think society will think of them. However this video isn't just for homosexuals, it also sends a message to the heterosexuals of the world that hate on gays because they believe that it is wrong or don't approve of their lifestyle.This song and video is trying to get a point across of how gay rights need to be accepted, when Mackelmore says "no law can change us, we have to change us" means that just because the government says it's okay doesn't mean that everyone else says it is. They have to open their heart and understand, or at least respect them and don't hate on them for being who they are.