Group 2 Post here

reply to this post with your questions

MEDIA LITERACY
Sarah Cifuentes, Ivana Grahovac, Gillian Craig, Julie White


Key Concept #1: All media are construction
1. What decisions have to be made when constructing this medium?
2. What technologies are used to construct this medium?
3. Who is constructing this medium?
4. What elements go into the construction of this medium?

Key Concept #2: The media constructs reality
1. What does this medium say about the way the world works?
2. What reality is this medium constructing?
3. What expectations does this medium portray of reality?
4. Whose version of reality is being projected?

Key Concept #3: Audiences negotiate meaning in the media
1. How is each code & convention of this medium interpreted by the audience?
2. What factors influence the interpretation of the audience? (for example; cultural background, gender, racial & sexist attitudes, etc.)
3. Could the message of this medium be offensive to certain audiences?
4. How could the message of this medium be misinterpreted?
5. What audience is the message of this medium targeting?

Key Concept #4: Media have commercial implications
1. Who is profiting from this medium?
2. What are they trying to make money off of?
3. How do these commercial implications influence what the message is trying to communicate?
4. What techniques are being used in order to sell this product?

Key Concept #5: Media contain ideological and value messages
1. What values of society does this medium imply?
2. What does this medium say about the importance of certain values in society?
3. How are these values portrayed in this medium?
4. Who is this medium targeting?
5. Is this medium portraying explicit or implicit messages?

Key Concept #6: Media have social and political implications
1. What does the media imply about the ideal social roles in society? How?
2. What kind of influence does the media have on politics?
3. What political and social messages are being portrayed? How are they being portrayed?
4. Which political point of view is being conveyed in the medium?

Key Concept #7: Form and content are closely related in the media
1. What form does this medium take?
2. How does the form contribute to the message of this medium?
3. What form best suits the content?

Key Concept #8: Each medium has a unique aesthetic form
1. What makes this media pleasing to the eye?
2. What senses is this appealing to?
3. What makes this media unique?
4. How are different aesthetic properties used to target different audience groups?

This is a perfume ad for Dolce & Gabbana. The models are both clad in minimal clothing as well as provocative poses which were all evidently chosen to reflect the advertiser's wishes. They were also digitally enhanced using a computer to construct a reality in which men and women are superficially attractive with perfectly toned bodies. Some people may interpret the ad in a way that is offensive and degrading towards women while others may find it aesthetically pleasing. This medium implies that it is acceptable as well as the social norm for men to objectify women. This medium targets a trendy, youthful audience and it explicitly implies that youth and beauty are both important values of society. This medium takes the form of a magazine ad on the right side of the magazine in order to target the audience more effectively. The form of a magazine ad contributes to the message of this medium because this perfume is targeting a trendy, youthful audience therefore this ad could be placed in a teenage fashion magazine. This medium should be found to be aesthetically pleasing by the audience that it is targeting.

i think that the deconstruction of this medium was worded very professionally. i agree with much that was said, except that this picture doesnt appear derogetory to women to me. The woman in the picture looks like she is having just as good of a time as the man, and in order to advertise this perfume they would not want to put women down, but the opposite.

In my opinion the question you listed of "What makes this media pleasing to the eye?" was not answered. I believe that you could have talked about how this was aesthetically pleasing to males and to females in different ways. The ad shows a phsyically fit male in order to attract women's attention and please there eyes however the female audience could be turned off by the product because of the woman in the see through shirt. The ad also shows a good-looking, in shape woman with a see-through shirt on in order to please and attract the eyes of men.

I feel that group number 2 did a good job explaining their thoughts and ideas about the ad being displayed. I feel that a big part of it was left out; they got too carried away in describing how it can be interpreted as being offensive and how it degrades women. But I feel that the main question of why they were chosen together wasn’t discussed. Ads aren’t just made in a day they take time and effort in order to be created. Firstly, the images need to be chosen, and then photo shopped together. Colors and added effects are always a necessity to make the image look more aesthetically pleasing to the viewers. And there was obviously a reason for the sweaty man and woman to be associated with the perfume bedsides the fact of selling the product. So instead of group 2 just explaining why the image demeans women, they should have elaborated on how the ad was created in a way to sell the product and not just the object used to enhance it.

I agree that the D & G media piece uses youth and beauty to relate to their target audience but I don't think the creators of this advertisement were trying to objectify women and use sexism in order to sell their perfume considering the fact that this advertisement would probably shown in a magazine like, Vogue, where the large majority of their audience are women. In fact, the male model is as equally as exposed as the female model. I feel as though the message the creators of this media were trying to illustrate is that if you use this perfume you will become as wanted, confident, exclusive and as sexy as these models.