1. “Analysing Gender in Media Texts” or, “Welcome to Media Studies...” By, Gill

2. Standard Critical Approaches Content Analysis Semiotics Ideological Critique Additional Approaches... Discourse Analysis/Theory Social Science Empirical Data Postmodernism Post-colonialism Queer Theory

3. Approach: Content Analysis Quantitative (counting!) technique measuring specific frequency of various occurrences Produces raw data

4. Approach: Semiotics Sign = Signifier + Signified Signifier = the word or speech sound (rain) Signified = mental concept (the concept of water droplets falling from the sky)

5. Semiotics: Types of Signs Iconic Indexical Symbolic

6. Semiotics: Levels of Signification Denotation = Literal Meaning (1 st level of signification) -- that ring is literally compressed carbon encased in platinum. Connotation = Cultural Meaning (2 nd level of signification) – that ring represents love, engagement, commitment

7. Semiotics: Culture Bound Signs are arbitrary cultural contructions Myth = transformation of historical into natural

8. Semiotics: How Ads Work Ads construct myths about who we are and who we aspire to become Interpellation = consumers are in the subject position and are “hailed” by the ad Ask yourself “Who does this ad think I am?”

9. Approach: Ideological Critique Ideology = a system of ideas and ideals Ideological Critique looks at cultural power and is focused on how meaning maintains the social order

10. Ideological Critique: Marx Social relationships are based on domination and injustice and these are seen as natural and inevitable by those who benefit least.

11. Ideological Critique: Gramsci Hegemony = process through which a group is able to claim, through consent, leadership or power throughout a society – it is not domination.

12. Ideological Critique: Gramsci Articulation = non-determinist approach (just because you’re in the military, doesn’t mean you’re politically conservative) Discursive Phenomenon = ideology is fragmented and contradictory and in flux Constructed Subjects = ideology creates new identities for us to occupy

13. Approach: Discourse Analysis Discourse = all forms of talk and texts Discourse analysis interested in texts themselves, rather than seeing texts as a way of “getting at” some reality behind the discourse

14. Approach: Discourse Analysis (Social Psychology ) Four Main Themes: 1.Concern with discourse itself 2.View of language as constructive and constructed 3.Emphasis upon discourse as a form of action 4.Conviction in the rhetorical organization of discourse (all language is persuasive)

15. Approach: Discourse Analysis (Michel Foucault) Power is panoptic Ideology is a power/knowledge nexus (representations aren’t true or false, they just show power relations) Disciplinary Power (self- monitoring and self-surveillance) Gender is a discipline and is constructed

16. Postmoderism Artistic movement Cultural trend (mix of high/low culture, irony) Historical epoch (time period since the 1960s) Epistemological crisis (there is no universal knowing)

17. Postcolonialism Tied to political reform, nation building, global economics, marginalization – refuses a binary reading of texts.

18. Queer Theory Questions the heteronormative order as “natural” – points out complexity in sex, gender, and sexual orientation. Opposes a binary reading of sexuality.