He-Die-Yacht

I remember in my history class, we learn about the Leopold Von Ranke: Historicism. One of my favourite quote of him is ‘wie es eigentlich gewesen ich’ which basically means how things actually were. What Ranke was trying to imply is that we as historians must write history the way it actually happen. The same goes for photojournalists.

Another thing that Von Ranke was trying imply is that you must write history truthfully, just like how it happen. Now in writing history is not really based on truth but we’re looking at the historians’ perspectives. We cannot really be subjective when it comes to writing history. However, for photojournalism, there are ethics that must be follow. The reason for this is so that the audience will not be manipulated.

Photojournalist must never manipulate the picture, as in photoshopped it. It is journalism, you must provide evidence when doing one. The evidence must never be tainted, it must be the original picture.

This is a Elle magazine cover showing Gabourey Sidibe’s pictures. You clearly can spot the difference there. On the magazine cover, her skin tone is much lighter and her nose has been fixed. Gabourey Sidibe was born with dark chocolate skin tone and her nose are big. You can see there’s an alteration or photoshopped going on.

The reason it must never be photoshopped heavily is because it gives the wrong message to the audience. It does not matter what is her status, the photograph must never be manipulated for anyone’s purposes.

REFERENCES:

‘Leopold Von Ranke: Historicism’ retrieved from: http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/historian/Leopold_von_Ranke.html

Zelizer, B. (2005). Journalism through camera’s eyes. In Allan, S. (ed.), Journalism: Critical issues (pp. 167-176). Berkshire: open university Press. Retrieved from the reader.

Information graphics is the way you visually representing a data in terms of graphs, bar chart and so and so. In my opinion it is much better representation, much easier and very efficient. In terms of visually presenting a data, it also must follow the rules. It must be a clear title, a key to explain symbols. When presenting a graph in a conference, they must be in colour. The reason is if it is in black and white colour, nobody could tell which key represent the graph lines.

Information graphics can come in many forms like a pie chart or a bar graph. An example of an information graphic:

Above is just a representation on attendance rates in 2002. Each bar represented different colours. This is what we normally see in maths book.

Now compare this with graphic below:

On the left, you can see a skull smoking. You probably think this is another propagandised smoking campaign which links smoking with death. You probably wondering why I put a picture which basically just showing packs of ciggarettes. Well, once the image of the skull image being zoomed in, they will show this packs of ciggarettes. This still does not give much information. This photographs are taken by Chris Jordan called ‘Skull with Ciggarette, 2007’. It also has a caption which says:

Depict 200,00 packs of ciggarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die from ciggarette smoking every six months.

When I was shown to this, I was completely at awed. I was impressed and it is represented better than just saying all the data. Saying all those datas and not visually represent it will make it even more dull and certainly no one will remember this image or being moved by it. Hence, representing data is better represented visually.

Another form of information graphic is mindmapping. Mindmapping is another form to organize all the informations into one diagram:

This is an example of a mind map. Notice that most of the information are being shortened and pictures are being used. Information graphics also a way for a person to organize and remember everything. The use of colour stimulates the brain, and makes it even more interesting and make it easier to remember things.

In conclusion, information graphics is a way to represent information like data so that it looks more presentable and more understandable. Going back to study of signs, each of these images of graphs carries a message with it and the audience interpret it.

References:

Lester, P.M. (1995). Informational graphics. Visual Communication: images with messages (pp.187-211). California: Wadsworth Publishing.

Petterson, R. (1993). Visual Information (2nd ed.) (pp. 169-175). New Jersey: Educational technology Publications.

Do you agree that you are cyborgian in nature?

The newspaper, film, media, books and many other texts has become my eyes, looking at the world issues. The media texts has become my only source of information. I only uses social network to communicate with my friends. The traditional way to communicate for me is just too lengthy and wasting time.

I rely so much on technology, that i had become too dependent or too clingy. This is just the case for every other people out there. I dont actually play War of worldcraft or second life. I do play some other RPG games which allows me to create my own characters. My favourite game is Tony Hawk’s Proving Grounds. Just like any other RPG games it allows me to become God, creating a character which is never exist but do exist in my skateboarding world. Sometimes I imagine myself as this character. And I called myself ‘Harold Lee’ (a geeky character in Harold and Kumar).

Societies nowadays are fully dependent on technology that somehow their human values or human characteristics slowly fading away and they become a cyborgian. In other words, the human characteristics were transferred to the technology used. For example, our shoes act as our feet, mass media became our eyes to view the world. Our indigestion system also act like a machine. Just like it was depicted in Bicentennial man (1999).  

This scene is where the robot had a face, a human face.

Japanese people wearing robot suit.

In conclusion, we rely so much on technology that it turns all of us into a cyborgs. Some of the games are not real, however we make it real because we already live in it.

REFERENCES:

Robins, K. (2000). Cyberspace and the world we live in. In Bell, D. and kennedy, B.M (eds.), The cybercultures reader (pp. 77-95). London: Routledge.

Cultural literacy is basically just to educate other races about one’s culture. For example, I live in Asia so therefore my dominant culture is the asian, specifically, Brunei culture. I am asian-centric. However, i was also being exposed to some western ideologies especially to hollywood films. It makes me to appreciate the other culture and try to be autonomous with the western culture.

Below are some examples of American movies and somehow give a little bit of knowledge about the background of the country and some issues in America.

1) Precious (2009)

Above is the movie poster for Precious. When you look at the poster, the main character is a big girl and she’s black. Normally, in a movie, big girls like Gabourey Sidibe are normally a comedian. However, in this movie, her character was even more deep and somehow I felt connected to it. She’s going through a lot of tough times, dealing with her weight issues, her abusive mother and her second pregnancy. And, what is even more interesting, she is only 16 years old. There are some moments in the movie that she always daydream about becoming famous and becoming white and thin. She was sort of running away from the reality which is basically running away from her past ( her father raped her) and her mother who becomes an enemy to her.

At the last bit, we see that she had dealt with her most of her problems but her relationship with her mother becoming even more like a stranger. I thought initially the mother is the cruel and the most vicious mother because of the way she treated her daughter. At the end of the movie, the mother was actually mentally-unstable.

This movie taught me not to be judgmental even towards the cruellest and most abusive person. They become very abusive for certain reason, normally associated with personal and emotional issues. This movie is definitely an eye-opener to everyone. It taught you not to be judge people.

2) Boys don’t cry (1999)

This movie based on true story. It is a a romantic tragedy story, a love between two women. The main character, Brandon Teena, is biologically born as female but she identify herself as a man. Over the year, there has been homophobic slur and murder. This movie taught us again not to be judgemental and to appreciate the person’s individuality. Film director normally gave this dramatizes most of the scenes and makes the movie even more believable.

REFERENCES:

Hartley, J. (1999). Knowledge, television and the ‘textual tradition’. Uses of television (pp. 55-70). London and new york: Routledge. Retrieved from the reader.

Why do we consider photography as a form of Cultural Critique? Is every photograph able to do so?

The picture above shows an Indian man in a very poor condition. This is one representation of poverty in India in which many westerners see this as something that needs to be work on. Poverty in India also being depicted in a movie called slumdog millionaire (2008).

Some photos are not considered cultural critique especially something mysterious or supernatural. For example picture below showing Lochness monster.

The use of camera had given so much power for everyone to see what was happening in other countries. According to Nick Lacey in Image and representation (1998):

It is wrong to say, however, that the camera lies; as technology, it is neutral. The ‘lying’ can occur through human agency and digitisation undoubtedly makes this easier.

In conclusion, photographs not only help to make sense of the world, but it also helps us in understanding other culture.

REFERENCES:

Lacey, N. (1998) Image and representation: Key concepts in media studies. London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD

Batchen, G. (2004) Forget me not: Photography ad rememberance (pp. 6-16). New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Retrieved from the reader.

Narrative is how you structure a storyline which includes plot, characters, time and so and so. Narrative is not just about that. It also gives identities to the characters.

Why is narrative important when shaping a visual image to the audience?

Before the start of post-structuralism in the 1960s, most of the movies are depicting the binary oppositions. The discourses of any movie are normally man-woman, power-powerless, white-black and so on. The narrative components are being placed together  for example the setting and the description of a person.

The description of an actor is classified or being typified. For example, in Gone with the Wind (1939), the housekeeper is being classified as black, fat and being called ‘mammy’. Whereas the main character is being classified as white and thin. Furthermore, the classification is normally, the white girl belongs to the rich family and the black woman are being stereotyped as the one who attends the white, rich family. For over many years, black people are always being depicted as fat, having an Afro hair, fat lips and so and so. The narrative components define the people’s identities. This also shape the mind of American about the black people that the white is more superior than the black people. Some black people call the white people as ‘the man’. The grudge between these two group continued even in the present-day. 

This also goes for when structuring a fairytales stories. In fairytale story, the narrative structure are normally ends with god happy ending or end up with marriage. Aladdin (1992) is a very good example of a good happy ending story. Aladdin is being classified having a strong-will, street rag, who just happen to be lucky to meet a genie who had made a  major impact in his life. The moral of the story was quite uncertain whether it says the good guys is always win or anyone can get lucky by just impersonating as a prince. Clearly, this does not give any good, succinct interpretation about the person’s identity. The conclusion is very much important, which is a happy ending.

The post-structuralist condemns the structuralist narrative because they make assumption that:

1. classifying a character define the people’s identities (binary oppositions)
2. It is a story about a character confine to its norms.
3. It always follow structure like beginning-middle-end. In this way, the meaning will be clear.

Andy Warhol perhaps the first post-structuralist film maker. He direct ‘sleep’ which basically just showing him sleeping for the whole 10 mins. Another great example of post-structuralist film maker is Jon M. Chu for his movie: LXD: The Uprising Begins. According to Saussure, written language determines the Parole (speech). In other words, if there is no language, how could we understand the meaning and how do we interpret it?

In this movie, there are like separated by chapters, showing different stories about dancers and how do they egt through with their life. In this movie, the characters barely speaking. They only dance. Even through their dance, we still know what it means. One of my personal favourite is duet dance between two lovers. Unlike any other movies, they normally say ‘I love You’ or some corny pick up lines like: ‘You had me at Hello’. In this movie, they just dance. Nothing else.

In conclusion, narrativism is about how you structure the storyline or plots. Narrative also can structure and give a functional role for each characters in a context. The post-structuralist condemns the structuralist assumption about classifying the characters and confine them to their justification of the world.

REFERENCES:

Huisman, R. (2005). Narrative concepts. In Fulton, H., Huisman, R., Murphet, J. and Dunn, A. (eds), Narrative and Media (pp 11-27). Cambridge: Cambridge University press.

 Aristotle’s rhetoric theory is mostly about how the speaker or orator convince his audiences using persuasion. According to Aristotle, to achieve an effective rhetoric, the person must have a very good arguments. In Griffin (2009), he put forward the aristotle’s rhetorical proof: logos, ethos and pathos.

Logos:

Logo means logic in speeches, on how you structure you reason to achieve your reasoning. There are two types of reasoning: the deductive and inductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning is where two premises in one conclusion. For example:

Premise 1: Chris is very strict when it comes to assignment.

Premise 2: Singaporeans are very well known for its strictness.

Conclusion: All Singaporeans are very strict.

For Inductive reasoning, it only require one premise for its conclusion. Chris uses this as an example:

Premise 1: John ate rotten fruit and had food poisoning.

Conclusion: All rotten fruits gives you food poisoning.

Another form of Logos is enthymeme, which is the unexpressed premise. This means that the premise is not stated obviously. Its purpose is to let the audience figure out what is the missing or unexpressed premises.

Ethos:

Ethos means the ethical proof, which comes from the speaker’s intelligence, character, and goodwill toward the audience,as these personal characteristics are revealed through message (Griffin, 2009). This means that the speaker’s personalities is very important because the audience will only listen to the people who are highly educated, virtuous and well-intentioned.

Would you rather listen to the world-renowned scientist on the matter of martian life, or would you rather pick an undergraduate student to argue about the martian life? For sure, everyone will choose the scientist, because of his reputation and also highly educated.

Pathos:

This is how the speaker bring about or evoke emotions through its speeches. When the audiences felt angry, the speaker brought about the issues that angers them. However, this cannot achieve if the argument is not being structured effectively.

It is to be noted that Aristotle only apply this theory on verbal communication. The three rhetorical can still be applied visually. There is also many arguments about when applying the rhetorical proof. One of the arguments is visual text does not contain grammar, in which we have covered in week 4.

Advertisement like pepsi’s challenge does contain argument, because it is still persuasive. It works on how the have the unexpressed premises In visual communication, the use of sign are very much important. It is because it could change someone’s beliefs. For example, the pepsi’s challenge is where the person react to when he tasted two different type of drinks. The person chose pepsi, because it tastes better and it also had unexpressed premises. This is a demostration on logos.

The image above shows an Indian boy peed on the walls. This is considered immoral act, however, the typing said ‘Just do it’, it somehow give a different argument. For me, it says, you can do anything, even breaking the law.

Have you ever notice an advertisement that shows people in labcoats, as if they had done a research on that product? Take Head and Shoulder shampoo advertisement. These ‘doctors’ will tell you that Head and shoulder shampoo clears dandruff for about 99.9% and it is way better than the other shampoos. To some people who are not visually aware, the advertisement will appeal to them. This is called an appeal to ethos, as it was noted by Blair (2004).

Rhetorics in film:

This documentary is a response to the AlGore’s Inconvenient Truth. This Documentary provides argument about how global warming IS just a theory. If you have watched this documentary, you probably notice there are too many cuts of the interviews. It seems like most of the interview’s are being cut and only being carefully selected on the arguments that propagandised the author’s intention. It is still persuasive, not in the way that the audience will suddenly did not believe in global warming anymore. But in way that the audience react to this documentary. The data shown are fabricated and too much editing especially the interviews.

Rhetoric is not just an act of persuasion. According to Blair (2004), what seems to be a necessary ingredient in persuasion as a kind of cause of behaviour change is that the person persuaded assents to the pressure of the vector of influence. The person consciously assents, and that implies that he or she is free to resist the causal influences. The three rhetorical can still be apply on visual communication as it still had meaning and argument attached to it.

Bibliography:

Woo, C. (2010) The ancient art of rhetoric and persuasion. [powerpoint]

Blair, J.A. (2004). The rhetoric of visual argument. In Hill, C.A., and Helmers, M.H. (EDS.). Defining Visual Rhetorics (pp. 41-61). New Jersy: Lawrence Eribaum Associates.

Griffin, E., (2009) At First Look Communication Theory: Rhetorics (pp.279-287). Mcgraw-Hill, New York. Seventh Edition.

 The whole is different from the sum of its part- Wertheim

This blogpost focused more on a psychological theory on how the brain process the image that they see. Couple of weeks ago, we have been introduced to how we perceive image. We have understood that you need to use five senses in order to perceive. Let me demonstrate the biological process on how we perceive. When you touch a hot kettle, the stimulis in your hand send neurons to the brain. These neurons contain information transmitted to the brain and tell it is hot. Since you perceive it is hot, then you move hand away from the kettle.

When your senses gets activated, the stimuli send information to the brain and the brain will process the information. According to Lester(1995), ‘knowing the four visual attributes the brain responds to- colour, form, depth and movement- is only part of the stroy of the visual communications. Gestalt Effect is about how does the brain processes the information, noticing the pattern before we perceive. Gestalt is the german words for shape and form.

Is is to note that Gestalt Effect only focusing on how brain recognize the items in groups. There are five laws of Perceptions:

1. Proximity: Proximity means the distance of the items.
2. Similarity: It just basically means items that are looks the same are grouped together.
3. Pregnantz: It means that despite the diversitiness of many different items, it still constitutes one group.
4. Closure: This means that the brain filling out the gap or anything that is missing from the group.
5. Common fate: The items follow the same direction.

SCHEMA THEORY

In relation to the Gestalt effect, Schema theory strives to explain how knowledge is created and used by learners. (Tracy & Morrow, 2006) The best example perhaps how student making notes using mindmap.

The central idea is about time management. The other ideas are presented in the mindmap which is related to time management. Schema is more like a concept that having some items that constitutes the whole thing.

There are two arguments about schema theory in terms of its definition- the narrow and broad definition. Firstly the narrow definition. Schema theory is only specific to only as a form of representation for generic knowledge. In other words, it cannot take in new information just yet. Schema theory in a broader definition means that this can be apply on anything. However, brain could retain that vast infrmation involving names, events and so and so.

There are two types of Schema theory. They are the incongruity and the congruity. Incongruity means the image is quite unconventional, could be provocative and unorthodox and still gets a lot of attention. Congruity basically is just the opposite of the incongruity.

Gestalt effect provides us with an understanding on how the brain process the image through grouping the items or subjects together. Schema theory demonstrate the gestalt effect on how a person uses what they had perceive as a knowledge. Schema theory can also be apply in school on how the students will us their knowledge in the class and its easiness to talk about it.

APPLYING SCHEMA THEORY ON TEACHING

The task was to apply the schema theory on how would I present about fire safety and how to prevent fire accidents at home to a group of children between the ages of 8-10 years old. I assume they do not know much about the fire safety and fire accidents due their young age. Therefore I had to be really illustrative when teaching them.

Firstly, I will talk about what causes fire to spark. It could be from firecrackers, matches and unattended cookings.

Next I will show the image what will happen when the fire spark. This means the effects from fire.

First thing is that, you will get burn and secondly, you probably could set your house on fire.

Next is on fire safety. Since they had learn that playing with firecrackers or matches can lead to burning themselves and also burn their house, they already learn some form of fire safety. Another fire safety they need to learn is what to do when there is a fire:

I will use several posters to illustrate my presentation:

To prevent accident at home:

The reason I have chosen these images is because it is congruent. It means that I have chosen it to make the group of young children to understand in a much simpler way and I had to make sure that the image does not evoke any kind of fear or phobia.

Bibliography:

Lester, P.M.(1995). The sensual and perceptual theories of visual communication. Visual communication: Images with messages (pp. 52-58). California: Wadsworth Publishing. Retrieve from the reader.

Tracey, D.H. and Morrow, L.M.(2006) Schema Theory. An introduction to theories and models (pp. 51-54). New York: Guildford Press. Retrieved June 21, 2010, from Universiti Brunei Darussalam Ebrary Books Website. retrieved from the reader.

du Plessis, E.(2005). Advertised mind. (pp. 46-53). London, GBR: Kogan Page. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from Universiti Brunei Darussalam Ebrary Books Website. Retrieved from the reader.

Semiotics is define as the study of meaning. This week’s blogpost will focus on how the meaning is being constructed, transmitted using chosen medium and interpreted by the receiver. In semiology (following Saussure’s tradition), language is very much important in constructing the meaning. The three branch of linguistics (syntax, pragamtics and semantics) can be apply on visual communication.

SYNTAX

Syntax basically means how you structure a text. It is to be noted that image is also considered a text. In visual communication, we mostly deal with advertisement. Image cannot be structure because it does not have words or sentences to . To apply the semiotics analysis on image, we must consider the rules that structure it. There are four rules that visual communicators should identify:

1. Eye movement.
2. Rules of colour.
3. Syntactic rules of lines.
4. Syntactice rules of composition.

• Eye movement:

We normally read from left to right, that is how we trained our brain. When looking in advertisement or an image, we do not look from left to right. Our eyes look at the one that caught our eyes first. For example in this image:

The first thing that I look in this image is the hand, sort of like rubbing the perfume. The eye level went down to the text which says: Tom Ford, The first fragrance for Men from Tom Ford. The one that the others least look at is perhaps on the top right side, because there is no activity or anything happen.

• Rules of colour:

When we see certain colour, it evoke certain feelings to it. How is colour related semiotic analysis? The use of colour is important in getting people to look at the advertisement or a website. According to Langer, as cited by Lester in his journal syntactic theory of visual communication (2006), Color is the basic visual element. Color, as a form of light, gives shape and substance to the visible world.

UBD library’s website had the ugliest page ever, because everything is too dull. Too many dull background can make the readers to turn away or probably could not remember anything from the website. Note that every colour represent different meanings, depend on the context. Also, we must never mix and match the light, bright colours next to white. Readers find it very uninteresting.

• Syntactic rules of line:

what are the effects of having this rule? The readers will know where to start to look at and if you give a border to a certain image, the subject in the image will stands out from the rest. It also gives the sense of movements to the subjects.

• Syntactic rules of composition:

It is more about how the subject is arranged in the image. The arrangement of the subject should creates the sense of balance in it. This will apply syntactic rules of colour and and rules of line. Let me demostrate this rule:

Applying syntactic rule of line, you will look at the building from the bottom and by the time you reached to the top of the building, your eye movement will stop. Another thing that you will notice is the colour; it is in sepia, giving that rustic value to the image. The last thing you probably will notice is the person who looks as if he had jumped off the building.

SEMANTICS

This is more focusing the relationship between the sender and receiver. Semantics means the study of connotative meaning, in which to understanding what does the symbol or sign represent. This is where the sender encode the message and transmit it through medium and the receiver will decode the message.

Semantics not only applicable to the interpreter of the message, but also the sender of the message on how they construct the meaning. The use of chosen medium functioned as to clarify and to illustrate the meaning. The receiver will then decipher or debunk the meaning.

PRAGMATICS

Pragmatics is the study of the symbol in a certain context. The symbol or sign used in a deifferent time and space can change the meaning. To illustrate this, I will use the example which is used by Griffin, in his book At First Look at Communication theory, in explaining the semiotic theory. The yellow ribbon initially means a symbol of unrequited love, the love of a convict to his lover. Then overtime the meaning had changed during the Iraq war. It is now symbolise national pride for the Americans who support the US troops.

WHY SHOULD WE STUDY SEMIOTICS?

Forget the history of semiology or semiosis. The definition of Semiotic is the study of sign. By now, we must be aware  to take everything that you see for granted because everything carries meaning and it is socially constructed. Barthes coined the word ‘mythologies’ on connotative meaning, because he finds that the sign or symbol can carry different meanings or ideologies. As stated by Chandler (2005), signs serve ideological functions. Deconstructing and contesting the realities of signs can reveal whose realities are privileged and whose are suppressed. The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality.

Bibliography:

Chandler, D.(2005). Introduction. Semiotics for beginners. Retrieved June 19, 2010, from Prifysgol Aberystwyth University Media Website: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/documents/S4B/sem01.html Retrieved from the reader.

Lester, P.M. (2006). Syntactic theory of visual communication. Retrieved from Communication Faculty of Fullerton University Website: http://commfaculty.fullerton.edu/lester/writings/viscomtheory.html Retrieved from the reader.

Griffin, E. (2009). At First Look in Communication Theory: Semiotics by Roland Barthes (pp 223-332). McGraw-Hill, New York. Seventh Edition.

I remember few days ago I watched the banned advertisement on Youtube. The 45 secs ad shows a father and his son went shopping. The son nagged and having a rant when his father refused to buy sweets for him. Everybody in the store was annoyed and looked over the father who was really uncomfortable and felt helpless. Then there came the words which said ‘Use condoms’.

To watch this clip, please click on the URL: http://youtu.be/nojWJ6-XmeQ

Perhaps, the way I described the clip is not very clear. It may seems funny but the message that it gives is quite harsh. For the condom ad, they are saying: ‘You won’t have to deal with this, if you had wear a condom.’

For this week blogpost, I will make a semiotic analysis on advertisement and their message. As you have probably know, signs can be polysemic, which means it has lots of meanings. However, it also depends on the purpose of the producer of the advertisement: what message do they want to convey? I will explore more on how the sign is being constructed and how does it refer or represent the real world.

According to McNeil (2006), Barthes used the word ‘Myth’ to analyse ‘contemporary society, false representations and erronous beliefs current in the France of the post-war period’. You might asked what is the connection between Bathes’ myth and the study of sign. Both concerned about how the coded message being decoded or interpreted.

If I said the word ‘DOG’, you straightaway think about the four-legged creature. However, you probably picturing a certain type of dog, for example, a Chihuahua. When I said ‘DOG’, I meant the bulldog. This is just a demonstration on how the sign is being decoded or interpreted. You thought I was talking about Chihuahua when actually I was talking about the Bull Dog.

How does the ‘Decoding message’ works?

We use the Denotation and connotation when analyzing an image or a text. Denotation means the description of the image whereas a connotation means what does it means or what is it implying to. The above picture shows Zac Efron covered in dirt. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt, showing his toned muscle and wearing a jeans. He looks like he was trying to rub the dirt off his face. This image is implying: ‘Zac Efron still looks good, even if he is covered in dirt.’

Women and advertisements.

The image above shows a woman in sexy lingerie, holding a bundle of asparagus. Notice that the model is skinny. And another thing is that, she looks as if she had orgasm. What does this connote? You must keep it in mind that this is one of the banned PETA ads. Maybe we should explore the goal or the purpose of PETA.

PETA is the abbreviation for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Their purpose is to advocate animal’s right. Why is that? This is taken from http://www.peta.org/ :

• Animals are not ours to eat.
• Animals are not ours to wear.
• Animals are not ours to experiment on.
• Animals are not ours to use for entertainment.
• Animals are not ours to abuse in any way.

These are some of the reason why they advocate animal’s right. But the advert does not make any sense. Does it connote:

1. If you become vegan, you will look skinny just like her.
2. If you eat aparagus, you will get orgasm.

The one that is listed above is the way I interpret the ad. Why does it have to involve women? There is also another PETA advert that might be degrading:

The model is not only nude, but parts of her body being marked. So does this means that only women had the same parts as animals? It makes everyone asked why men is not depicted as having the same parts as the animals’. They use women as a signifier to signified animal. It is no longer Animal=animal. It broaden its meaning to women.

Semiotic in mass communication can be very deceptive and just serve the purpose for consumerism. We have learn that a sign is polysemic and can be use in any way as the producer wants. In the words of Umberto Eco, Semiology is the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie, because if something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth; it cannot, in fact, be used to tell at all (Griffin,2009).

Bibliography:

Griffin, E., (2009) At First Look at Communication Theory Seventh Edition: Semiotic by Ronald Barthes (pp. 323-333). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Stokes, J., How to do Media and Cultural Studies, pp.71. Retrieved from: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubdlib/doc?id=10080991&ppg=78

McNeil, T., Ronald Barthes: Mythologies. Retrieved from:

http://seacoast.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0tmc/myth.htm

Irvine, M., Media Theory and Semiotics: Key Terms and Concepts. Retrieved from:

http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/Theory-KeyTerms.html