Penglish20's Weblog

Final Paper

penglish20 — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:32:57 +0000

The topic I am researching for the final paper is how George Gerbner’s cultivation theory can be directly related to the gaze theory. I am going to analyze the way a women’s image is perceived or depicted throughout the media as a medium in society. In order to do this, I am going to investigate how television advertisements affect feminine attitudes toward body image and the aim for perfection. This is all related to the gaze theory and how women are seen as an “object” of focus, and with this being said, women feel the need to maintain their body image. I have found several articles and journal articles regarding Gerbner’s cultivation theory. I also collected a series of advertisements in which they depict women as the main ”object”, and they can be seen as the perfect image every woman wants to achieve. I also found several anti-beauty ads that represent the consequences of these beauty ads on the women who are considered to be in a ”gaze”. Women are aware of the fact that they tend to be an “object” of gaze, so they feel they need to obtain a particular image that is considered desirable. It is at this time that women suffer the emotional and physical pain while attempting to achieve this particular image. Gerbner’s cultivation theory and the gaze theory help express the problematic views of our society, and influential impacts the media can have on a women.

Fan Culture

penglish20 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:03:24 +0000

Historically, fan culture has played an enormous role in the creation and development of science fiction and fantasy, and the genres have left a significant impact on the lives of their fans. I have determined that fandom relies on and can be described by its method of communication. Some of a fan culture’s key activities of production are the languages (fanspeak), dress codes (costuming), literature (fan fiction), art (fan art), and music (filking), and the organized outlets for fan activities (conventions and fanzines). Each of these activities and productions is a mode of communication, and it is this communication between fans that creates fan community and culture. Fandom, in the most basic terms, is a group of fans who form social networks with one another based on their common interest in reading and watching particular texts, and the fans in turn write or otherwise produce materials for that text. The two genres in which fan cultures are primarily influenced by is science fiction and fantasy. The fan community revolving around these two genres has expanded so dramatically that many people perceive it to be a subculture.

Merging of Gaming

penglish20 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:42:59 +0000

Video games promote a do-it-yourself attitude towards media production; people are becoming “pro-sumer” not only are they consumers of the media, but also the producers of their own media. For the longest time now, gamers are able to modify the game they are playing in order to replicate their reality or fantasies. These modifications to they game can create their own subcultures depending on the similarities of other gamers. Therefore these “pro-sumers” brought gamers together to exchange gaming experiences. Gaming has not just risen to levels where gaming communities are becoming bigger and more popular, but also has come to a stage where online and offline spaces can be seen as ‘merged’ rather than separate.

Interpellation and the “Gaze”

penglish20 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 20:16:20 +0000

Interpellation functions as an ideal lifestyle which “hails” the viewer into a certain social subject as well as place within the system. It allows images to designate the type of viewer we are intended to be and speaks to us in shaping our particular ideological values. This allows the viewer to connect and identify themselves based on the certain ideal ideological positioning. There are several different subject positions advertisements try to put us in while “gazing” at their images. The interpellation that is being expressed in the ad is the mere position of gender and sexuality. The fact there is a man and a woman present opens the gaze to both genders and the connection between them and the ad. The way the two are intimately subjected to each other puts forth the sexual ideology of romance. I think it is important to notice the fact the models in this ad happen to be characterized as the “ideal” man and women projected by our society. This puts the viewer in a gaze observing the ideal subject they envision themselves to be or even what they hope their significant other would be. This ad allows certain ideological values to be seen and the desires in wanting the more “ideal” self to be present within themselves. This image allows us to connect in a sexual relationship and the colors put forth a very calm and nourishing atmosphere. Finally this ad recruits us a certain ideological position and designates us as the viewer the way they want us to be and set into the particular ideological subject. This is all done with the intention of us “hailing” the ideal way of looking and desiring of romance as well as the gaze about relationship between images and pleasure.

Signifier+Signified=Sign

penglish20 — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:50:24 +0000

We are constantly having to decode and construct meanings through the images we observe. It is through the images, meanings, and significance we can obtain the different interpretations of our socially constructed culture. We naturally look first at the images in a denotative aspect and then a connotative aspect. The denotative aspect which happens to be the signifier; is simply what we initially see while the connotative aspect which is the signified; is the meaning we come to see. When we put together these two aspects, we come to the sign which is our conclusion of meaning/significance or our overall interpretation. The signifier in this ad is simply a man with two women in a luxurious room, eating expensive food, drinking expensive vodka, and finally being relaxed while enjoying the finer things in life. The signified is the meaning of wealth and the luxurious way of life that comes along with your wealth. This happens to be the luxurious coach in the luxurious room that represents the wealthier lifestyle one can live opposed to the norm way of living. The ability to be relaxed and comfortable is a huge significance as well when recognizing the signified. After analyzing these two aspects you reach the sign which is expressing the ability to achieve the luxurious things in life and be able to relax with no worries of the “real” world.

Visual Flaneur

penglish20 — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 01:03:23 +0000

I took these pictures all in the same setting but positioned by body in order to change the location of my shadow. I did this with the intent of keeping the bird feeder statue as my center piece. After taking these three pictures I began to realize even though the statue is the center piece within the framing, you catch your eyes following wherever the shadow is located. The center image begins to become secondary to the shadow whether it be in the center, left, or right position of the picture. This framing stresses the fact that an intended center focus can incidentally or intentionally become a secondary focus. It is interesting to see how each individual image within the framing can play a specific role or significance regarding the primary message intended by the artist.

Ideologies and Culture

penglish20 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:49:28 +0000

Ideologies are certain beliefs and values which persist within our culture and define “who we are, what we stand for, and what we consider to be valuable” (Foss). There are often times when a culture realizes their ideologies are extremely different and unique when compared to another culture. This is the same reason why ideologies are so vital within a culture when understanding the certain beliefs and values of the past, present, and anticipated future. Ideologies separate societies as well as cultures when observing the “fundamental social, economic, and political interests” (Foss). These ideologies portray a culture’s view or even opinion of the varying aspects of their surroundings as well as opposing groups. It has become more evident that opposing groups have “resisted, threaten, and even prevented us from accessing resources important to us” (Foss). There are several types of ideologies in which our society or culture has been submersed in or influenced by. Individuals share and identify with certain ideologies even though they may not be within a specific group that shares the same interests. These ideologies are often enacted within the individual’s daily life and social practices.

“Image” Behind the Media

penglish20 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:13:48 +0000

I realized the root metaphor for television happens to be entertainment. It is television that primarily interprelates us as consumers rather than citizens. Not only does the regular entertainment shows express this interprelation but so does our local news. Both areas on television show how visual imagery overwhelms the verbal content. The majority of programs on television even the news, are not designed to challenge you intellectually but simply entertain you. It is essential for our society to come to an understanding of what kind of image the news is portraying and realize it is nothing but irrelevant content and furthermore mere entertainment. Hopefully we can someday get back to a type of typographic society and have the ability to acquire our local events and issues with significance and depth.

The Athletes of Our Time

penglish20 — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:18:20 +0000

These are the athletes of our time and inspire as well as motivate us to better ourselves physically and mentally

Critical Essay

penglish20 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:04:55 +0000

The website I chose to look at and critique is the ESPN homepage. The link to this page is http://espn.go.com/

The ESPN homepage is a website that is meant to provide all of your favorite links and information regarding your preferred sporting teams. The interesting thing about this website is when you enter the homepage you will notice a huge banner at the top portraying an advertisement for the new movie “Eagle Eye”. For a person going to a sports focused website, I do not see the significance with having access to an advertisement dealing with upcoming movies. You would assume that the ESPN homepage would only contain sports information, and not any other kind of extraneous information or advertisements. This movie advertisement explains how the media finds there ways in selling their products by any means possible.

The media selects what they want to be distributed to the public, and then go out and put up the money for a website to display their product. The whole significance of this is for the company trying to get out their advertisement such as the “Eagle Eye”, can succeed in consuming the public eye through an outside resource. This increases the possibility of more people being able to get a glimpse of the banner; therefore, getting the people to think about possibly going and seeing the movie. This is benefiting both the ESPN company as well as the advertisement company for the movie “Eagle Eye”. The ESPN company is receiving the money the advertisement is paying to display the advertisement while the advertisement company is gaining access to the public eye through the users of an outside source. In the end, all the companies are basically working for each other due to their common interests of profits. This is the process that all the companies are doing in order to reach their numbers at the end of the year. It is just really interesting that you can go to a homepage that is strictly meant for a certain genre and you can have access to some other genre that is completely extraneous to the website.