�ݺ�ߣ

Seminar 6 �C Ingl��s 7 �C 2012/2

Adriena Casini da Silva
Diego Guedes Paiva de Assis
Ramon dos Santos Souza

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE TEXT:

? The aim of the authors is to discuss
the increasing use of images to
communicate and the lack of a
means for dealing and analyzing what
is meant through this said imagery
and all that is visual, specially with
children.

? Near the middle of secondary school, students
tend to emphasize illustrations a lot less than
in the beginning of it. Images become
specialized and less frequent, generating
conflict nowadays ��in which writing and image
are in an increasingly unstable relation��. (p
16)

? Children stop drawing (or any kind of visual
production) for self-expression and channel
their attention to the direction of
specialization �C away from ?expression? and
towards technicality. In other words, images
did not disappear, but they became
specialized in their function��(p 16) as seen in
Biology, for example, when human organs and
cells are depicted in books, or in the IT field,
with boards and cables.

? Children need to learn to know the difference
between these situations and to possess the
skill to act when immersed in both of them.
Unfortunately, for the authors, this knowledge
is yet to be taught in schools.

? What can you say about your time
at school?
? What subjects used images the
most?
? What were the roles behind these
uses: decorating or informing?

When can one be considered a fully
and literate social person?

? The authors believe it occurs when
someone can see writing as a visual
medium without vocalizing it,
reading aloud or reproducing it
inside their heads. Those who don?t
achieve this can be often be seen
as readers stained with resorting to
speaking, which is considered a
poorer modality of the language.

? What kind of reader are you?
? How do you perceive information?
? Do you repeat the words in your
mind, vocally or you don?t repeat
them at all?

? ...��the opposition to the
emergence of the visual as a full
means of representation is not
based on an opposition to the
visual as such, but on an opposition
in situations where it forms an
alternative to writing and can
therefore be seen as a potential
threat to the present dominance of
verbal literacy among elite
groups��. (p 17)

? In other words, there is no
replacement as far as languages
go. Visual, written and spoken are
supposed to co-exist.

? What determines this is the order images
and verbal texts appear.

? When the latter is shown first, the image
illustrates it. This technique was dominant
for a long time in the past, like in the Bible,
in mythology, for example making written
texts the ��authority�� in society.

? When the former is the first to be seen,
words state and define something in a
better manner paving way for better
understandings, thoughts and discussions.
This is called ��anchorage��. This is more
frequent nowadays when images start to be
more naturalistic becoming the ��windows
on the world�� or ��the book of nature��,
while words ��identify and interpret��. And
this sums up the age of images and science
in this aspect.

? Thatis a hard question to answer.
What do you think?

? Language can be objective or
subjective. It is subjective when
verbs indicating mental processes
are present, as in ��I suppose Rio is
a violent city�� and vice-versa.

? What about images? How can they
be classified using these criteria?
The answer will be shown in the
next two slides.

? Analyze this picture. What?s in it?
Some would say it is just an
ordinary woman. It is indeed. This
is the objective take on the image.

? This occurs when there is a different
perspective, or angle, in which one can
analyze said image. It is possible to see
that with the picture below, in which
the lens determine the perspective and
subjectivity of the pictures. In other
words, we can see the same woman
through different perspectives.

28mm lens 85mm lens

? This concept gives freedom to people
involved with the text in terms of
creation and interpretation, but it is
not made only of perks.

? ��In an advertisement, for instance, it
may be that the verbal text is
studiously ?non-sexist?, while the
visual text encodes overtly sexist
stereotypes.�� (p 20)

? We would like you to recall a seminar
we have seen in class before and ask
you to reflect on this sentence: ��I?ve
maxed out your credit card.�� Then,
combine this verbal text with the
image in the following slide.

? It goes without saying
that Hope?s lingerie
ad stirred up
embarrassment and
anger on people,
specially among
females, when Gisele
B��ndchen taught
women how to
seduce their partners
while giving them bad
news.

P.S.: We would like to thank the girls
of seminar 1 for giving us this idea.

? ��Language in its spoken form is a natural
phenomenon, common to all human groups.
Writing, however, is the achievement of only
some��.(p 22)

? Anybody can and always could speak, but only a
minority of cultures had always had that
privilege. In the American continent, for
example, lots of native cultures died for a lack
of written registry. Despite this question of
survival, writing became a matter of being
practical. How else would a shepherd manage
to keep track of his herd of sheep, for example?
Human memory is not like computers?.

? In a nutshell, language is like a living being
susceptible to evolution. ��A wavy line
eventually became the Chinese ideogram for
��water��; the hieroglyphic image of the ox?s
head which initially ��stood for�� ox�� eventually
became the letter ��aleph�� , ��alpha��, and then
��a�� (p 21), originating, thus, the alphabet we
know today.

? Historytells us that the logic path
of society is for normally letting
visual texts become secondary to
written language.

? When images are secondary, when
they are unstructured reflections
of the real world, the concept of
��old visual literacy�� is seen.

? ��New visual literacy�� occurs when
language and visual representation
co-exist perfectly. In the next
slide, an example of this is shown.

? This picture is a representation of a ��bathroom�� of the real
world as people know it. There is no other reason for these
objects to be there than the fact that they are typical
bathroom objects. They are not connected, thus, the verbal
text could be maintained and the picture changed by
another bathroom?s, that the message behind them would
remain untouched. Reality and the image are analogous, as
normally people would think by seeing the realistic features
of it. ��It is a message without a code��.(Barthes, 1977: 17) In
other words, people do not need to ��convert�� information to
understand the picture. They just look at it and perceive
things.

? Now, this image is a bit different. No words can
be seen, consequently, the reader is not
induced to think anything besides what it is
shown. But that doesn?t diminish their
importance and participation, it just makes it
different.
? By being unrealistic, this image now has a code.
The reader must look at the elements and
associate them, by using the said code, with an
element in real life that resembles it: ��trees��
and ��birds��, for example.

? The first pictures brings less freedom to the mind
of a person, but is more realistic. It is good for kids
to memorize and associate words and sounds with
things from the real world. It is like a documentary
with real pictures and a voice is guiding you
through the whole process.

? The second picture is free of shackles. It values
more the image but it also does the same with
language because it lets the reader interpret and
tell a story the way he prefers. A father can, for
example, tell a story about a bird sleeping on a
tree, or the same bird can be waiting for someone,
for a friend, etc. There are unlimited possibilities
as long as the elements are coherent towards one
another. It compares do a film in which ��the
selection of images and in the sometimes hardly
noticeable ways in which these images are edited
together��. (p 29)

? Images can also suffer a transformation and an
��uncoded�� image can become coded. The position
of the people in question, the objects they hold,
where they are looking, their gestures, facial
expressions, etc, can all form a code. One example
of this, a picture from the movie ��Rocky 4��, from
1985, is shown here in the next slide.

? The code here allows people to see flags that represent
countries, USA and USSR, with the left side representing the
West and East on the right. And also, the American flag
representing capitalism and the soviet corresponding to the
red color of the communist side. Finally, it is a good thing to
remember that this film was released during the Cold War,
so the subtleties meant a lot more in that time than it does
today.

��Is the move from the verbal to
the visual a loss or a gain?��

��The world represented visually on the
screens of the ��new media�� is a differently
constructed world to that which had been
represented on the densely printed pages of
the print media of some thirty or forty years
ago.�� (p.31)

��Could it be the case that
information is now so vast, so
complex, that perhaps it has to
be handled visually, because the
verbal is no longer adequate?��

If it is a gain or a loss it is unclear. What is
clear, however, is the move from verbal
to visual. Kress and Leeuwenn summarize
their views in order to better understand
this change:
(1) Visual communication is always coded. It seems
transparent only because we know the code already, at least
implicitly �C but without knowing what it is we know, without
having the means for talking about what it is we do when we
read an image. A glance at the ?stylized? arts of other cultures
should teach us that the myth of transparency is indeed a
myth. We may experience these arts as ?decorative?, ?exotic?,
?mysterious? or ?beautiful?, but we cannot understand them as
communication, as forms of ?writing? unless we are, or
become, members of these cultures.

(2) Societies tend to develop explicit ways for talking only
about those semiotic resources which they value most highly,
and which play the most important role in controlling the
common understandings they need in order to function. Until
now, language, especially written language, has been the
most highly valued, the most frequently analysed, the most
prescriptively taught and the most meticulously policed mode
in our society. If, as we have argued, this is now changing in
favour of more multiple means of representation, with a
strong emphasis on the visual, then educationalists need to
rethink what will need to be included in the curricula of
��literacy��, what should be taught under its heading in schools,
and consider the new and still changing place of writing as a
mode within these new arrangements.

Speech and written language being the
main source of expression is quite
arguable. What we call ��speech organs��
are an adaptation of organs developed
for something else. Considering this, a
change from verbal language to visual
language seems more acceptable. Verbal
language became the main
communication device through cultural
reasons and it is also cultural reasons
that generate this change.

��The new realities of the semiotic
landscape are brought about by social,
cultural and economic factors: by the
intensification of linguistic and cultural
diversity within the boundaries of nation
states; by the weakening of these
boundaries within societies, due to
multiculturalism, electronic media of
communication, technologies of
transport and global economic
developments. Global flows of capital
and information of all kinds, of
commodities, and of people, dissolve
not only cultural and political
boundaries but also semiotic
boundaries.�� (p.36)

Language use (in public
communication) is changing from
the mode of communication to
one mode among others.

Using the example if the child Kress
and Leeuwen illustrate how complex
meaning-making relations can be
expressed through the visual medium
alone.

��Speech was the mode used for
?ratifying? and for describing what
had taken place without it.��(p.36)

MAIN PURPOSE:
? Analysis of semiotic codes of the
front covers of teenage magazines
to demonstrate how the media
constructs the image and
behavioural ideology of the teenage
girl.

CORPUS OF THIS ANALYSIS:
? The issue 359 of More! (December 27
th 2001 - January 8th 2002) and the
January 2002 edition of 19.

MAIN IDEAS

? Magazinesdemonstrate an
up-to-date representation
of constructed femininity
in our media and society
and therefore arguably
represent to the reader
what constitutes the
modern teenage girl.

?A magazine is ��just a collection a signs��.
(Bignell 1997: 78).

Signs are paradigmatic and
syntagmatic elements such as the
title of the magazine, the fonts
used, the layout, the colours, the
texture of the paper, the language
adopted, the content of the
articles and so on, and each of
these signs have been chosen to
generate a meaning.

? The magazine is a complex collection of signs
that can be extensively decoded and
analyzed by its reader. The magazine is a sign
in itself, which "connects together the mythic
meanings of femininity and pleasure" (Bignell
1997: 66).

? Paradigmatic and syntagmatic elements
determinate the dominant ideology of
teenage femininity in the media.

? Signs consist of signifier and signified;
there is meaning when "it has someone to
mean to" (Williamson 1978: 40).

? This is the ?decoding? process: basic
recognition, textual comprehension,
interpretation and evaluation of its
meaning. (Chandler, web source Semiotics
for Beginners).

? As the relationship between the signifier
and the signified is arbitrary and meaning
is rooted in cultural values, we can argue
that the potential interpretations of any
given magazine are therefore endless.

? McRobbie (1996):
We can see that it becomes a magazines seek
familiar friend for the female: to "further
it advises her, and provides consolidate and
entertainment, amusement and
escapism for the reader and
fix an otherwise
speaks to her in a language she more unstable
understands - the lingo of sense of both
teenagers is used self and gender"
in 19 and More!, for example
"Top Totty".
? Curran (1996):
magazines seem
to be central to
society as they
create a culture,
a culture of
femininity where
a common
experience of
girlhood is
shared.

? Function of magazines:

a) "to provide readers with a sense of
community, comfort, and pride in this
mythic feminine identity" (Bignell 1997:
61).
b) to promote a "feminine culture
(McRobbie 2000: 69)
c) to define/shapes the woman's world"
(McRobbie 2000: 69)

? The magazine therefore symbolizes a
lifestyle, a life of luxury and pleasure.
The magazine claims to be
simultaneously a luxury item and a
familiar friend to its reader.

? Itattempts to convince us that it is not
a fictive document, that it is a true
reflection of reality

? It is argued that the average teenage
reader will be a heterosexual girl
seeking a boyfriend (or seeking a way to
gratify the needs of her
boyfriend),enjoying shopping, fashion,
and popular culture and needing plenty
of advice on sex and love.

? This is the reader to
whom most teenage
magazines cater; they
broadcast to a
stereotypical mass -
which is arguably an
artificial representation
and does not reflect the
identities and lives of
all teenage girls).

? Front Cover of magazines:

? It initially attracts the
reader and is a taster of
what can be seen within
the contents of the
magazine. It is an
"important
advertisement" and
"serves to label its
possessor" (McLoughlin
2000:5).

? It will also promise that
"the contents of the
magazine�� will fulfill the
needs of the individual
and her group" and sells a
"future image" of the
reader as "happier, more
desirable" (Bignell
1997:67).

CONTRASTING
MORE! AND 19 FRONT COVERS:

? Title: it anchors the texts to the genre
of teenage magazines.

19 seems to be directed More! also acquires this
at a person who is 19, quality of idealism, but
or at least who thinks as the word stretches
she is as mature as a across the width of the
19year old. As the title page it could be
stands boldly in the top suggested that
left-hand corner of the the More! reader is
page, this is the image more sassy and larger
that the eye is initially than life in comparison
If we drawn towards. and Leeuwen's theory of layout, or
are to adopt Kress to the more mature this
will also give the magazine a sense of idealism, reader
sophisticated suggesting
that the reader should aspire toof 19 (this is further
attain the life and image
referred to within the pages (in Bell 1997: 193). by the
substantiated
exclamation mark -
More! - and by the
girlish pink colour of
the 19 logo).

? The taglines reinforce these ideas as they
are placed directly underneath the titles in
a contrasting black font; as the reader will
presumably be familiar with the content of
the magazine, the polysemic nature of the
tagline will not be apparent to them.

19 states that the More?s tagline - "Smart
magazine is "Barefaced girls Get More!�� suggests
Cheek!��. It gives that smart girls buy the
extensive coverage of the magazine as they know it
issues of sex, love and will provide pleasure and
fashion to the reader. information for them,
However this tagline and also that smart girls
could also be interpreted (the
(perhaps to a non- attractive More! reader)
teenager reader) as get more out of life,
implying that the reader love, and, most
of 19 is cheeky and importantly, sex.
impertinent Reading More! will
improve your life on
many levels, if you listen
to the advice offered
within the magazine.

? The tagline adopted by More! is therefore
effective as the modern British teenage girl
will construe an appropriate interpretation
that will give them the urge to buy the
product.

? Both 19 and More! also attempt to attract
their readers by placing a female character in
the center of the cover, as we can see in the
next slides.

? According to Bignell,
the images of
beautiful women on
the covers of female
magazines are "iconic
signs which represent
the better self which
every woman desires
to become" (Bignell
1997: 69).

? The figure thus
represents the self for
the reader, a future
image that is
attainable for her if
she continues reading
The model seen on the cover
of 19 is the typical girl next-door,
and learning from the
blonde haired, tanned, tall and magazine.
slim girl with perfect complexion
and perfect features. ? On a male magazine
She embodies the message
however the same
that 19 habitually transcribe to figure would
the reader - look innocent and represent a sexual
beautiful and yet be in control of image, an object to
your own sexuality and your be attained by the
relationships. male reader.

? The model in the cover
of More! again embodies the
self for the reader, she
represents the more! "ethos of
youthful, cheeky impertinence"
(in Curran 1996: 189) Her hair
and red, low-cut dress suggest
that she is sassy; a vixen that
has sexual needs and is not
afraid to fulfill them.

? This model does not appear as
innocent as the 19 model. The
innocence is challenged here as
the More! model raises her
eyebrow into an arch; she has a
glint in her eye and pouts her
lips proudly.

? As we notice the presence of a man in the left hand
side of the front cover, we therefore interpret this
facial expression as sexual prowess - this girl knows
what she wants and she knows exactly how to get
it.

? The male figure is not personalized; indeed we
only see a leg, an arm and a crotch and yet we are
fully aware of the masculinity of the character.
This could suggest that, in subversion to the
representation offered within male magazines, the
man is the sexual object here.

? Women watch themselves being looked
at �� Thus she turns herself into an
object - and most particularly, and
object of vision: a sight" (Berger in
Vestergaard & Schr?der 1992: 81). This is
a somewhat negative interpretation of
the centrality of women on the covers of
magazines.

? However, Bignell sees that "while the
cover image is for a woman to look at, it
is constructed with reference to a wider
social code in which being feminine
means taking pleasure in looking at
oneself, and taking pleasure in being
looked at by men" (my italics, Bignell
1997: 71).

? Bignell therefore seems to empower the
woman in his analysis of cover models,
noting that women simultaneously enjoy
looking and being looked at.

SOME CONCLUSIONS
? As McRobbie notes, sex now fills the space of
the magazines' pages. It "provides the frame
for women's magazines in the 1990's" and
"marks a new moment in the construction of
female sexual identities" (in Curran 1996:
177).

? It is worrying to think that the explicit
sexual representations within the magazines,
sex has been packaged as a "commodity"
(McLaughlin 200: 13) by these magazines in
recent years and the young readers have
eagerly jumped at the chance to buy such
(what was previously) censored material.

? Indeed, fifty years ago the teenage
magazine industry differed greatly to that of
today. According to Vestergaard we have
seen a shift from "motherhood and childcare
to the maintenance of physical appearance"
(Vestergaard & Schr?der 1992: 81)

? Kimberley Phillips argues that these magazines
therefore "reinforce the cultural expectations
that an adolescent woman should be more
concerned with her appearance, her relations
with other people, and her ability to win
approval from men than with her own ideas or
expectations for herself��. It can also be
argued however that young women are
encouraged to develop independence by these
magazines.

? The magazine is therefore a "powerful
ideological force" in society (McRobbie 2000:
69); the image and behavioural ideologies
presented within the magazine covers become
the stereotypical norm for the teenage girl.

? Teenage magazines may not provide an
altogether accurate representation of all
teenage girls today, but it is certainly a
medium that provides escapism and enjoyment
for the reader whilst subliminally educating
and informing at the same time.

? We observed that there has been a shift to
more visual communication, written and
spoken language may not be the most
effective communication mode. Nowadays,
through images we can also carry messages
and points of views.

? A magazine is a collection of signs �C which
are paradigmatic and syntagmatic
elements �C that share ideology.

? Teen magazines front covers are especially
built to attract the attention of the teen
readers by semiotic elements.

? The cover model?s photo, the title of the
magazine, tagline, colors, fonts, lexis
choice are signs of identification not only
of the content of the magazine but also the
behavior and beliefs of the reader.

? To the teenage girl reader, her favorite
magazine symbolizes a community that she is
part of, where she can express herself and get
informed about topics that are ?polemic?, like
sex.

? However, teen magazines do not represent
individuality because they have a determinate
view of ��girl�� (heterosexual, interested on
beauty/fashion tips and on dating a boy), not
being able to cover particularities of each
reader.

? We believe that these semiotic elements are
perceptible to the teen reader just in the
sense of creating an identification to the
magazine, it does not sound as an affirmation
of a female stereotype, or an ideology.

? Personally, you only can identify the other
purposes if you have the tools (like discourse
analysis knowledge) to do it. It is not
commonly possible to be realized by teenager
readers searching for fun/information.

? Finally, we can conclude that there
is a shift on communication, which
means a change on how the message
is spread and what message.

? Media, generally, is more attached
to visual than verbal elements to
attract readers ?attention on buying
their products.

? But Media also worries about what
their public wants, their needs; if
fifty years ago ?sex doubts? would be
a banned section in teen magazines,
nowadays it is common to have it. It
shows a change on behavior and
thought of teenage girls and society,
in general.

? Kress, G.; van Leeuwen, T. The semiotic
landscape: language and visual
communication. Reading Images: the
grammar of visual design. London:
Routledge, 1996: 16-44.

? Davies, Si?n. Semiotic Analysis of Teenage
Magazine Front Covers. Available on:
www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/sid9901.
html - Access on November, 16th, 2012.

�ݺ�ߣ

The grammar of visual design seminar 6 adriena casini, diego guedes, ramon dos santos

More Related Content

The grammar of visual design seminar 6 adriena casini, diego guedes, ramon dos santos