Fairy Liquid and Narrative Theory

Fairy liquid has been a main household product for decades, and has been advertised on TV since the 1960's. The style of the adverts have changed dramatically after having fairly predictable content up until the 1990's, when there were two stock characters that follow a similar story line. In 2000, Fairy released an advert that showed a young Black mother and son, in an effort of combat problems with ethnicity and sexism throughout their older adverts they have continued this variation in style because of issues about the company giving typical gender roles to the cast.

This is the most recent fairly liquid advert, which was released in 2015. It shows three different characters two of which fit their own character functions. The main character in the advert is a young boy that wants to use the fairly liquid bottle. This typical way of showing a child (wanting to play) could be considered the hero role from Vladimir Propp's theory of different character roles, because we are hoping he is given the prize (princess) which is the bottle. The father gives the prize to the hero at the end of the advert. While there aren't an of the other character profiles throughout the ad, the mother is included so the advert isn't deemed sexist, but the father also does washing up for the same reason. This is different from older adverts when it was seen as the woman's job to be in the kitchen, which is why this advert from the 1970's only shows the mother and daughter. 

As it is a different style of advert, it fits with a different narrative theory, this time from Todorov, who explains that there are five different stages of a plot line. In this advert, the equilibrium is the mother and daughter talking and playing, the disruption is when the audience realise there are dirty plates. The problem is that the daughter has the fairy liquid, but the mother needs it to clean the dishes. The forth point is restoring the order, when the girl gives her mother the fairy liquid, so she can clean the plates and then finally the fifth point, the new equilibrium, is that the dish is clean. The rest of the advert is still very different to the it's modern counterpart. In the 70's there was a much more defined level of gender roles which is why there are no male actors in the advert. In the modern advert, the story line is predominantly male actors, but it includes a woman washing up so it cannot be labelled sexist. The selling point of the product has also changed. In 1970, what made the product stand out is that it is kind to the hands of the person washing up, however, now most cleaning products are so it can no longer be considered a USP. The new selling point is that it lasts for much longer, which is what the advert focuses on.

Narrative Theory

There is a distinct difference between a narrative and a story. A story is a sequence of events, which are also called the plot of the story. The narrative is the way that those event are put together to be presented to the audience. This would suggest that every bit of media has a narrative, they could be long TV programs or a one paragraph newspaper story.

Vladimir Propp

A Russian theorist, Vladimir Propp, used fairy tales to help create a theory that analysed the generic content of every Fairy tale he read. Using this theory he systematically managed to decipher Russian Folklore and fairy tales. He created 31 different functions that each tail would follow after the initial story is depicted. While some of the functions may be slightly different, the premise behind each function is the same. Propp also believed that all the characters could be included into 7 broader character functions and relationships. This could be; The Villain - an evil character that creates struggles for the hero. These roles can sometimes be distributed among several characters or one character could engage in more than one role as the story develops.

Tzvetan Todorov

A Bulgarian-French historian names Tzvetan Todorov created a narrative theory that states, most story's or plot lines follow the same pattern of five separate stages. The first part is the equilibrium, which is when everything seems normal and the majority of characters are content. There is then a disruption that begins to effect the happiness of the characters. The realisation from the characters that there is a problem. The forth point is restoring the order from before by fixing or solving the original problem and then the final part is another equilibrium, when the problem is fixed and life can resume as normal.

Levi Strauss was a French anthropologist that thought of a lot of different theories in his lifetime. For narrative theory, he believed that we see the world, people and places by forming Binary Oppositions. His theory states that in all narrative, the stories are arranged around conflict between opposites. Some examples are;

Levi Strauss

Good vs Evil

Men vs Women

Light vs Dark

Technology vs Nature

War vs Peace

Age vs Youth

Strong vs Weak

This can typically only be applied in creative texts such as films and fairy tales as in reality, the two character types will not directly oppose each other. In a film where the Hero is Kind and thoughtful, whereas the villain is horrible and thoughtless.

Roland Barthes was a literary theorist from France, who is credited with producing his own narrative theory. He believed that the main difference between media text was that some had an open and others had closed meanings. An open meaning, is a story that's meaning is open to interpretation from the audience. A story with a closed ending has a single very obvious meaning to it. This wasn't the theory he was best known for. His best known theory was that there were 5 different narrative codes, that are integral to interpreting media narratives. He believes that every story has at least one of these narrative codes.

Roland Barthes

Enigma Code - A mystery or hook that is to be solved by or for the audience.

Action Code - Includes action and suspense, is used traditionally for escapism to entertain the audience and entertain them with the text.

Semantic Code - Elements of the text which imply, suggest or refer to additional meanings in the media text (Extra meaning aside from the literal denotation).

Symbolic Code - This code is about the eponymous (giving a name to something) symbols which can be found in media texts. e.g. calling someone the hero of a story.

Referential Code - This code relates to references within a media text to an external area of knowledge, such as historic, scientific or cultural references.

Bowling For Columbine

Bowling for Columbine is an American documentary that was created and produced by Michael Moore, who is a documentary film maker and author. The Film suggests what Moore believes are the main causes for the amounts of gun crime in America, but mainly focuses on the school shooting at Columbine high school, which is a very controversial subject over there.

Moore's preferred reading for this would be to support him in his dislike of guns. This is the whole reason for making the documentary and is why he focuses on the bad and stupid gun related policies in the US. His opening scene is him walking into a bank and applying for a bank account which then entitles him to a free gun. He shows this because in his opinion this is a very strange, amusing and inappropriate policy for a place that is given a lot of trust. What makes Moore's distaste for the current gun laws in place in America so obvious, is his reaction to each of the situations he finds himself in. His sarcastic comments are very obvious to the audience but are clearly not to the people he is interviewing, which makes it even more entertaining but shocking. People in Britain would agree with him because most disagree with the current law in America, where as, a lot of Americans don't wouldn't agree because they are so used to the concept of guns, so feel more scared without them. These people are opposed to the idea.

The opposition for the documentary are people that support the use of guns in the US, or don't believe that the gun laws are responsible for the high numbers of deaths and school shootings that happen much more frequently than in other developed countries. Moore tries to combat the different reasons that have been given by high political figures for the amount of gun violence with a montage, which ends with comments about violence in music, specifically Marilyn Manson. There is then an interview with Marilyn where he criticizes the president for in-sighting violence by bombing other countries. There is then a montage, comparing the reasons people believe America have higher crime rates and gun deaths with other Countries with worst or the same problems or history. This is just Moore reinforcing his own ideas on the audience by turning what they believe back around so they support him instead.

A negotiated audience would be unaffected or less affected by the content in the documentary. They are more likely to change Moore's facts and opinions to fit with their own ideas and thoughts on gun laws and the problems with guns in America. This is a fairly good way of seeing the documentary as although all the facts are true in the documentary, they are shown without any content from the other side of the story, which makes the whole thing quite biased towards Moore's opinions.

Mean World syndrome is a reoccurring theme throughout the documentary. MWS is a theory that the media make the world look worse than it is because they focus and report mostly on negative events around the world. This lack of variation means that it looks like we have disasters happening to everyone everywhere, when it's actually only a small proportion of the world that is affected by these disasters. This is criticized by Marilyn Manson because it creates fear that can be used to sell items and products. A lot of what is being said or advertised is very unlikely to happen, but because there is a very small chance that it does, it can be used to exploit people. In a way, Moore is also using Mean World Syndrome to sell this documentary because he is talking about school shootings which although do happen a lot in America, are not so common that it will affect everyone. He uses shocking facts and events to try and get the audience on his side, such as having over 11,000 gun related deaths each year in America and comparing that stat to other similarly developed countries. This is his way of telling America that America is an unsafe place to live.

Task 2 - Information on Theories

Passive and Active Consumption

This theory describes how different audiences react and engage with different media texts. Passive consumption is where the audience takes in information from the news and other sources without reacting, engaging or questioning what is being said. This is what media sources want to achieve, as people are submissively reading or hearing what they say and believing it without considering that they are being fed false information. Audiences were much more susceptible to this when there were fewer sources of information and they only had a radio.

Active consumption is when audiences take an active interest in the information that they are being given. Today people have so many different platforms to post and comment about different news stories and programs, that is becoming very difficult for individual news platforms to control what media, people consume. It doesn't have to oppose what they see, they just must take an active role in discussing or fining out more about what they have seen.

Passive and Active Consumption

A good example of this is, when people dislike a program on TV or on Radio, they would go online to either comment bout in on social media so that other people can see it and share their opinions about the program as well, or putting a comment on either the website of the company that broadcast the program or the Ofcom website, where they can take appropriate action.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Hypodermic needle theory is a theory that suggests that when people see or hear the news or general information, they hear it and accept it without questioning. The name 'Needle' relates to the information being directly injected into the public and it having an immediate affect. The public cannot escape the medias influence and is therefore just waiting to receive the information.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

When the different media industries manipulate the viewers/ listeners to believe a story or an event. This was much easier in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, before other forms of media were as mainstream. Radio was the only source of information for a lot of people. An example is the radio program ‘War of the Worlds’, was a story that was broadcast on the BBC. Some of the listeners thought the made up events in the story were really happening as it wasn’t clearly mentioned before and throughout the reading of it. This showed the media company that although not everyone did, many people believe anything that is said through the media because it's meant to be reliable. The theory itself is that people don’t have opinions and will all react to stories in the same way.

Uses and Gratification Theory

Uses and Gratification theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory focuses more on the consumer than the message itself, as it questions 'what people do with media', not 'what the media does to people'. It relies on the audience not being passive in their use of media, but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their lives. This could be by using a topic that is currently mainstream news and using it as a topic of conversation.

Uses and Gratification Theory Diagram

A good example of this is through the cinema. Going to the cinema to watch a film is a great example of being impassive in the pursuit of entertaining media. This isn't just the experience of seeing the film but also the entire cinema experience which involves buying popcorn, watching the adverts etc. 

Reception Theory

Reception theory suggests that the way we interpret text differs depending on our background, upbringing and values. This means that two people with completely different lives will have different opinions on one subject, whereas, two people from the same place with the same values will think the same thing about a story. These different opinions can be split up into 4 different categories which identify each reaction to the text.

Reception Theory Diagram

1. Negotiated - The reader or viewer partially accepts the texts opinions, but will resist and modify these opinions to fit their own experiences and interests which will change bases on their locations and personality.

2. Dominant - This is when the reader or viewer fully accepts the texts code because they have very limited knowledge of the subject. This would seem very natural and agreeable to the reader because they sound beneficial. An example would be the government promising improvements to the NHS, as that is what most of the pubic want to hear.

3. Oppositional - This is when the audience recognizes the dominant message but rejects it due to their cultural opinions. An example of this would be watching a political parties promotional program and deciding to vote against them.

4. Preferred - This is how the director want the audience to see the text which is why it is often linked to the dominant category, as the audience is agreeing with the message that is being conveyed.

As an example for each of the categories in reception theory I have used Android phones. People have very different opinions about the type of phone. If there was an advertisement the dominant or preferred response would be that android phones are great because they have taken a strong liking to both the phone and the advert. It would also entice you to buy this android phone.

An oppositional view point would be that they don't like android, the advert will make no difference, they think the product is rubbish and would never own it. They might even be in favor of a rival product so they have a strong sense of brand loyalty.

A negotiated view point wouldn't have any strong feelings towards the advert, they wouldn't react positively and would probably forget it fairly quickly.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and Gratification theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory focuses more on the consumer than the message itself, as it questions 'what people do with media', 'not what the media does to people'. It relies on people not being passive in their use of media, but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their lives.

         There are 4 basic ideas behind Uses and Gratification theory. They are;

 - Being able to identify a product or person in front of you, role models that reflect similar value to you, and aspiring to be like someone else.

 - Educating yourself by acquiring information, knowledge and understanding from social media.

 - Entertaining yourself through consumption of media. It should give you enjoyment, but also a level of 'escapism' from our problems and worries.

 - Using media products to produce a topic of conversation between different people, either through discussion or debate.

A good example of this is through the cinema. Going to the cinema to watch a film is a great example of being impassive in the pursuit of entertaining media. This isn't just the experience of seeing the film but also the entire cinema experience which involves buying popcorn, watching the adverts etc. 

Ways to Test the appropriateness of the Publications for the Target Audience

Audience research is very important in the different and competitive markets that there are today. This is why using the best methods for researching audiences and their reactions to certain products. To find out what people think of the magazines, certain methods will be more effective. As an example, using Questionnaires would not be a very effective method of gaining feedback on the new product in this situation. Although questionnaires can create a lot of feedback as they can be distributed to huge audiences for very limited costs, the research should be focused towards people that fit the target audience. Collecting research and feedback from people that really aren't interested in the magazine is a waste of time and money. A much more effective way of getting feedback about magazines would be through focus groups that can be made up of people interested in that style of magazine and will be able to give much more constructive input.

Using a sample audience is also an effective way of getting feedback, as it is much more targeted towards people of the audience you want, and typically includes some sort of reward for partaking in the survey such as a gift card. Although this might increase the cost, it could get some very good responses without having to organise the interviews face to face. The difference between this and giving out questionnaires is that you can target the people that you want input from.

The Sun and Times style Magazines

This is the magazine that I have created in the style of a tabloid newspaper, similar to 'The Sun'. As you can see there is a huge image that would entice people to look at the cover. The cover shows Ann Widdecombe, who was a politician, but is now well known to the general public because of her time on Strictly Come Dancing. The title of the magazine is in the top left corner, which will help to identify the magazine. The text on the cover is large which will make it easy for consumers to read, and may also attract people to the magazine as the can read the title far away. It also gives a small amount of information. This might encourage people to buy the magazine. There are also side stories that will appeal to the male gaze. The use of this is a re-occurring through most tabloid magazines as that's what their readers want. Tabloids often cover stories about celebrity gossip, instead of more detailed stories on political events. This might include information about them or tips and ideas from them about their lifestyle. The amount of information on the cover is generally very limited. The publisher wants people to buy the magazine and find out the content by reading the story. What really makes this similar to other magazines is the bright colours and the lack of text of information that it shows.

On the moodboard you can see the different magazines that are popular with the same demographic of audience as the times, so I have tried to based my own magazine on them. Almost all of the magazines included in the moodboard have only got one image, and it is the huge main one. A couple of them have small pictures to advertise stories in the magazine which is similar to the Sun magazines. This magazine has much less content on it than all of the Sun magazines, and its the same for all the magazines on this moodboard. They just seem less cluttered. Although you can't see it here, these magazines are typically bigger, and allow more space for each story, and this is the same for their covers. It's what I've tried to show with my own design. 

Codes & Conventions of Newspapers

The Codes and Conventions

Most newspapers contain similar, if not the same conventions as each other and this even includes between Tabloid newspapers (The Sun) and Broadsheet Newspapers (The Times). Typically, the broadsheet papers will appeal to the audience in different ways, as although they have similar conventions, they are given more space, which makes them clearer and standout better. An example of this is using the names of the journalists on their stories. A lot of regular readers of the newspaper will look out for certain writers as they enjoy their styles and think of them as a reliable source. Some people may even buy the newspaper specifically because they have a favourite writer. This could be considered similar to people choosing a film because they like one of the actors involved in it. Generally, broadsheet papers include more detail. This will include captions that explain the content of an image so that it is interpreted correctly by the readers or subheadings included in the main body of the text to break it up and maybe put emphasis on a certain fact of figure.

Tabloids contain features that are used by them and not broadsheets as well, as they are appealing to a different type of audience. This includes 'Pugs' which are an advert included by the paper that advertises a competition or the price of the paper which will stand out and entice people to buy. Other features like using a large strap-line as well as a headline to explain the story, and having a image dominate the front cover are very typical of tabloid papers.

There are parts of the paper that link tabloids and broadsheets together as they are used by both editors as a regular feature on their paper. The first and main similarity is the use of a Mast head. This can be used to identify the magazine and make it stand out from the other covers. Tabloids often have a bold, sans serif Mast Head as it is easily readable, recognisable and distinguishable from other papers. The Sun's Mast head is its name in white text on a red background, which is very simple. The Time's Mast head is also its name, but doesn't include any colour. This means it won't necessarily catch the eye of someone browsing the papers. As the Times is a very established paper, it uses it's reputation as a lure to consumers.

The differences between The Time and The Sun, as well as another other paper, is to fit with audiences preferences. Which is why they appeal to the audiences that they do. The more spaced out layout of a broadsheet paper seems more professional in my opinion, and the content is designed to appeal to people that are more interested in the detailed analysis of stories. The Sun has quite a full cover, and uses the different preferences of its audience to appeal to them as well. The informal language can make the stories seem more chatty and is more suitable for some of the celebrity gossip stories covered by tabloid papers. The shorter length of the stories might actually encourage consumers to read every story as they won't get bored of a story before they finish. The male gaze is also utilised by including images of scantly clad women throughout which may attract people to read the story. An example of this is on my previous post about the American election where the Sun included an image of Jennifer Lopez in very little clothing, and although it is related, it doesn't follow the same method of reporting stories as Broadsheet papers.

The Sun and The Times Comparison

Two of the most popular newspapers today ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Times’ appeal to similarly diverse audiences, that range from under 15 to over 65. They target different demographics of people which is why their audiences don't clash. I'm going to review some of their similarities and differences.

The Sun

The Sun is clearly the more popular newspaper, having a circulation of nearly 1.7 million, but a total readership of over 4 million. The reason for this is that it is cheaper and the content is explained in a shorter and more understandable way. Therefore, the majority of it’s consumers are in the C1, C2, D and E demographics. Both magazines appeal more to the over 65's. 25.9% of 'The Suns' readership are in that age range, even though the stories that are covered and the way they report them aren't what would typically appeal to this older audience.

The difference between the print readership and PC readership is huge and shows that print media still dominates the online editions. Although 32% of the online readers are under 35 whereas 17% of the printed versions are read are read by the same age category which shows which way the news is going. It is also worth recognising that while the majority of readers are from a low demographic, most online readers are from the A and B demographic, maybe because they have more money to spend on technology.

The Times

The Times is a more expensive and different style of newspaper to the Sun. It focuses on more intellectual topics and gives detailed insights into each story. It's because of this that it attracts a higher social demographic of people. As you can see from the graph below, there is a much smaller readership and circulation of the Times with the latter only being 440,048. The paper also clearly appeals more to older people as the over 65's make up 35% of the readership. This is because of the different way that the topics are assessed and reported on.

The online readership is still dominated by the over 35's, however the percentage of younger readers is higher than the Sun, which is surprising as most of its readers are in that over 35 age category. The demographic of its online readers is hugely dominated by the ABC1 groups. This is probably because they have more disposable income that they can spend on a more expensive paper. The additional money to spend on technology is possibly the reason for the larger number of under 35 readers.

The Times and Sun Comparison

These magazines are both very different. They target and appeal to quite different audiences. This includes their age and demographic. The controversial topics and simplistic writing style of the sun appeals to a lower demographic, that want a newspaper that is easy to follow and understand. The news they report are also often based more around celebrity gossip, and uses images of women in little clothing to appeal to the male gaze. The more intellectual newspaper, The Times, talks about more political subjects in much more detail. This is why the paper is bigger and appeals to a more educated audience. It uses smaller adverts and focuses more on the content of its news stories. This shows the very clear difference between the broadsheet newspapers and the tabloids.

Differences in Reporting

Their different styles of writing and reporting mean that the way they cover the same story will be completely different. The Sun informal and simplistic style may not give the biggest headlines of today as much page space as they should have, and the Times might go into too much detail that will lose or bore readers.

The Sun

Here we see the Sun's contribution to reporting on the election going on in America. They clearly think it is information that their readers aren't very interested in so have included revealing images that will attract the male gaze, and given it a comical headline. Although you can't read the smaller text, you can just tell from the pages layout that this is informal. The mode of address is chatty and focuses on gossip than the actual facts. You can also see that there is very little text on the story. Most of the page in taken up with a picture of Jenifer Lopez and the two different titles. The entire story isn't even given a whole page, and has to share it's space with adverts and other, unrelated stories. The content on the page also suggests that the paper is targeted towards a younger audience (18-35) that might also be a low demographic. Some older readers might not be interested in looking at pictures like that, or want a more informative paper. People over the age of 65, which is the biggest audience for this paper are also probably not very interested in powerful WiFi.

The Times

This is the Time's version of a similar story. Here you can see that it takes up an entire 2 page spread without adverts. Clearly the editors think that this is an important story that their readers will be interested in. The image is very big and takes prominence on the page, but it surrounded by tiny writing that gives all the details of the story. This paper is very formal and gives a very detailed insight into each story, especially if it is world news such as this. The font in this paper is tiny which allows for more information and larger pictures. This will also save paper and ink, which is very important as newspapers are all about profit. This might be a problem for their biggest demographic of consumer as older people typically have worse eyes so may struggle to read. This is a benefit to using the paper online, as you can zoom in and there is no production costs.

Comparing their Layouts

These papers are so different in their styles and approaches that it is hard to talk about their similarities. Although they use similar size fonts so that more can fit onto a page, and include large images to catch the readers eye. They have different modes of address which sets the mood of the magazine and is the main reason that they appeal to different demographics. The Times, being a much bigger paper, gives each of its stories much more space on the page. You can see that it has given this American election story a lot of space and hasn't put adverts or overfilled it with pictures. The Sun however gives a much shorter version, which is accompanied by adverts and another story that isn't related to american politics. This shows that the Sun audience is more concerned by the quantity of stories instead of a quality, in-depth analysis of the debates so far.

Links Chris's Blog

First blog (Critical Approaches)

Unit 6 Blog Home Page: http://medial3unit6.blogspot.co.uk

Second Blog (Interview Techniques)

Unit 36 Blog Home Page: http://medial3unit36.blogspot.co.uk