3 questions

In what way does the media product use media language to encode the ideology of the producer? - Woman Magazine

Woman magazine was first released in 1964 as a weekly magazine, targeted towards mature women of the working class. The producer of the magazine has encoded many of his ideologies using media language throughout the product. An ideology is the belief of the producer.

On the cover of the magazine, the producer has used mise en scene to encode his beliefs. For example, the dress the model is wearing is very floral and traditional, which means that the producer is trying to convince women to wear similar items of clothing. This reinforces the hegemonic rules of how women should dress, as they are not inspiring them to branch out. Therefore, this mise en scene shows that the producer of Woman magazine likes to stick to hegemonic rules and traditions. 

Additionally, the front cover of the magazine features "seven star improvements for your kitchen" which encodes the ideology that women belong in the kitchen. The direct address of "your kitchen" reinforces the belief that the kitchen is a woman's priority, as well as the fact that they should look after it, as it needs "improvements". Overall, the audience can see that the producer wants women to conform to the widely held hegemonic beliefs from when the magazine was released. 

Lastly, the question "are you an a-level beauty?" on the front cover can be decoded to imply that women should aim to be beautiful, and therefore should always be wearing makeup. This is an example of Roland Barthes' theory of semiotics, as it is a hermeneutic code, that if you read the magazine you will find out how to become an "a-level beauty". This ideology is enforced by the fact that the model is wearing makeup, and she is someone that the audience is meant to aspire to be. Throughout the magazine this ideology has been encoded by the producer. 

How can audiences interpret this product in different ways? - Tide's got what women want

'Tide's got what women want' is a 1950's print advertisement, selling washing powder to housewives. The media language within the advert can be interpreted by the audience in many different ways, which supports Stuart Halls' Reception Theory. This theory says that audiences will have different responses to the ideology that the producer is trying to show; either the preferred reading (agree with ideology), negotiated reading (agree with some elements of ideology), or a oppositional reading (do not agree with ideology). 

The print advert uses a lot of red font, in the header and in a few key words such as "clean" and "tide". This colour has connotations of sexuality and love, therefore, audience members are likely to interpret this is as the love for the product; this would be considered the preferred reading, as the advert is trying to sell it.  However, the sexual connotation could also be to symbolise the way men looked at women in the 1950's. Many adverts from this time period sexualised women in this way, which could be seen as audience manipulation, which links to Gerbner's theory of cultivation. He believed that if audience members saw the same ideologies repeatedly, they would begin to believe them as well. 

Additionally, the advert contains a lot of direct address, for example, "you women". This lexis could be interpreted as sexist and patronising because women are being generalised and it is very direct, this may be because the producer is trying to take control over its audience so that they buy the product. On the other hand, some audience members could see this as empowering, as it gives women a sense of community. This subverts a lot of conventions of 1950's adverts because it goes against the patriarchal hegemonic norms of society. 

How does this product use intertextuality? - Humans

Intertextuality is used in Humans to create a deeper meaning and for audience gratification; intertextuality is when a media product references another media product. Humans is an 8-episode, sci-fi series, that launched on channel 4 in June 2015.

In one of the first scenes of the first episode of Humans, the audience meets the synths, where there is a key intertextual reference to 'Blade Runner' (1982). There is an extreme close up shot of a synths' eye, which mirrors the shot of an eye in 'Blade Runner'. This creates deeper meaning as people refer to the eyes as 'the windows to the soul', therefore, it raises the question of whether the synths have a soul/emotions; it is important that this was at the beginning of the first episode because it sets up everything the show is about. There are themes of postmodernism, a theory by Jean Baudrillard, throughout the series, but especially in this shot as it has the audience challenging what is and isn't real. Additionally, the reference to another media product may please the audience if they understand where it is from, which is likely, as they are both from the sci-fi genre. 

A second way the producer has used intertextuality to please the audience is by referencing the popular family comedy TV series, 'Outnumbered'. Many of the dynamics between the members of the Hawkins family are similar to those of the comedy series. For example, in the first episode Joe is shouting at his 3 children to tidy the house, however, the children do not listen to him. It is important that the producer has not only appealed to sci-fi fans, but also families as it widens their target audience. By using this form of intertextuality, the series becomes more family-friendly and it appeals to fans of 'Outnumbered'.