Due: The finished paper is due on April 25 by 6 pm

1953 Alcoa Aluminum advertisement

Overview

You will be reading and annotating an excerpt from Roland Barthes’ 1977 essay, “Rhetoric of the Image.”

Rhetoric is the ‘technique of using the means of expression to persuade’.
The hallmark of all rhetoric is that it involves at least two levels of language,
the proper or denoted and the figurative or connoted.”
Aesthetics of Photography

This essay is challenging, but it contains important tools for deconstructing advertising using a semiotic approach and for the “close reading” of visual images.

Assignment

The second 2-3 page paper, due April 25, will be a response to this article.
In this paper, you’ll critically examine a contemporary advertising image in a manner similar to Barthes’ approach. You will be expected to employ the logic and terminology that Barthes uses in this text.

Stereotypes have a long history in advertising media, marketing, and visual communications.

Select a 20th or 21st-century print or TV advertisement that uses obvious and/or documented racial, ethnic, or gender stereotypes to sell a product and demonstrate how mainstream media intentionally or unintentionally reinforces societal biases.
It should be a recent full-page print advertisement organized around a single photograph.
Using rhetorical analysis, examine the meaning of the image and text.
Consider the effectiveness of the advertisers’ attempts to persuade and influence the audience at the time and consider how today’s audience might respond.

NOTE: The advertisement must use photographic or illustrative imagery and must include text. Use the resources provided in Week 9 Agenda > Stereotype in Advertising Media

Approach

1: Read

Because this can be a difficult text with many new terms, consider reviewing some or all of the following before reading the text:

Key Themes and Takeaways

Roland Barthes was a prominent French thinker associated with the field of semiotics and the Structuralist movement. This essay was written in response to a series of articles that Barthes had been following in a well-regarded linguistics journal. In his essay, Barthes attempts to demonstrate that images contain most of the same semiological elements, ie, signs, signifiers, signifieds, as a spoken or written language.

        • Semiological elements are present in an image, yet they differ from language in that they imitate nature, and are non-linear.
        • Every image, especially photographs in advertisements, consist of 3 messages:
          (1) a linguistic message,
          (2) a non-coded iconic message, and
          (3) a coded iconic message
        • The linguistic message of an image is the textual component that works alongside representational aspects of an image (most advertisements combine text and image)
        • A linguistic message can direct the viewer toward a clear interpretation, or invite unexpected interpretations
        • The non-coded iconic message of an image is the objective, denotational, literal, perceptual, innocent meanings that can be understood from the image.
        • The coded iconic message of an image is the subjective, connotational, cultural, symbolic, ideological meanings that can be understood from the image.
        • Images are rhetorical in the sense that coded elements perform functions similar to those of persuasive linguistic devices

2: Write

Step 1:  As you read, make notes to include with your submission

      1. make note of all important terms
        (ie. polysemy, linguistic sign, connoted, denoted, etc.)
      2. make brief notes that answer these questions:
           • How do images hold and convey meaning?
        • What are they trying to say?
        • How do they persuade and influence us?

Step 2:  When you’re finished your notes: Paper 2

Write a deep analysis of your chosen image-based advertisement using critical perspectives from the theorists we’ve looked at recently: Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, and Hall.

Expanding on your notes for  “Rhetoric of the Image,” critically examine and deconstruct your chosen historical advertising image using Barthes’ approach. You will be expected to employ Barthes’s logic and terminology to deconstruct the advertisement. Include references to Saussure, Peirce, and Hall’s theories covered in the Week 3 and Week 10 Agendas.

It will also be especially helpful to review the post “Decoding Images and Image Rhetoric — Explained by Lesley Lanir.

Audience

You are writing this paper for possible submission to the City Tech Writer, an undergraduate journal for writing and research. Assume that your reader has no background in design theory and is not familiar with the theories and concepts you are presenting. Be sure to explain the theories and concepts as you present your analysis.

 

Process

1. Open the reading

2. Enable Hypothesis

Login to your account and select our group (IMPORTANT!) from the dropdown to make sure your annotations and highlights will be recorded in the group.

3. Read & Annotate

    1. make note of all important terms
      (ie. polysemy, linguistic sign, connoted, denoted, etc.)
    2. make brief notes that answer these questions:
         • How do images hold and convey meaning?
      • What are they trying to say?
      • How do they persuade and influence us?

This will be part of your grade.
Make at least 3 annotations in Hypothesis, including your questions, definitions, and ideas
Add the tags: Barthes and Reading Response 9 to your annotations.

4. Write Paper 2

The second 2-3 page paper, due April 25, will be a response to this article.

    • Critically examine a contemporary advertising image in a manner similar to Barthes’ approach.
    • Select a 20th or 21st-century print or TV advertisement that uses obvious and/or documented racial, ethnic, or gender stereotypes
      to sell a product and demonstrate how mainstream media intentionally or unintentionally reinforces societal biases.
      It should be organized around a single photograph.
    • Write a deep analysis of your chosen image-based advertisement using critical perspectives from the theorists we’ve looked at recently: Saussure, Peirce, Barthes, and Hall.
    • Expanding on your notes for  “Rhetoric of the Image,” critically examine and deconstruct your chosen historical advertising image using Barthes’ approach.
    • Use the logic and terminology that Barthes uses in this text.
      Include references to Saussure, Peirce, and Hall’s theories covered in the Week 3 and Week 10 Agendas.
      It will also be especially helpful to review the post “Decoding Images and Image Rhetoric — Explained by Lesley Lanir.

Audience

You are writing this paper for possible submission to the City Tech Writer, an undergraduate journal for writing and research. Assume that your reader has no background in design theory and is not familiar with the theories and concepts you are presenting. Be sure to explain the theories and concepts as you present your analysis.

Structure

Your introduction should present the main research question in your own words: “How do racial, ethnic, and/or gender stereotypes affect the meaning and reception of 19th and 20th-century advertisements at the time and today, and in what ways did advertisers intentionally or unintentionally reinforce societal biases?”

Using Barthes’ rhetorical analysis and close-reading skills, start by contextualizing the advertisement (date, product, country of origin, advertising company/designer, intended audience). Describe the advertisement in as much detail as possible, examining the characteristics of the objects, models/characters, environment, layout, typography, the interaction of picture elements, image quality, and composition of the entire ad.

Using Barthes’, Saussure’s, and Peirce’s terms, make your best attempt to articulate the meaning of the image and text used in the advertisement. Try to identify all of the signs at work. Using semiotic terms, identify the signifiers and the signified.

        • What is the linguistic message?
        • What are the non-coded iconic messages?
        • What are the coded iconic messages?
        • Identify the denotative and connotative aspects.
        • Are the signs icons, indexes, or symbols? Explain why.
        • Consider the cultural codes being conveyed in the advertisement.
        • Do you observe polysemic signs, myths, or naturalization?

Using Stuart Hall’s theories about reception and representation, consider the effectiveness of the advertisers’ rhetoric and attempts to persuade and influence the audience at the time.

        • What was the original dominant/preferred reading?
        • How have the designers/creators tried to ‘fix’ a meaning using stereotypes?
        • Who created this advertisement, and who was the intended audience during the time period when it was circulated?
        • Why would the intended audience identify with this advertisement?
        • Did the advertisement serve any other purpose besides the sale of a product?
        • What impact has this advertisement or similar advertisements had on society?
        • Finally, is your personal reading of the ad dominant, oppositional, or negotiated? Why?

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Formatting

Your paper will be submitted as a 750-1000 word typewritten paper, double-spaced 12 pt. Times New Roman.

        • Use Google Docs to write and organize your final draft.
        • Use the MLA style to format your paper. See MLA example paper here.
        • Cite all materials researched for historical context, any related writings, and image sources.
        • Include images of the work you are referencing and any other relevant illustrations.
        • Use Grammarly or similar to review your paper for grammatical and spelling errors before submitting.

Citations / Works Cited Page

Use The Citation Tool
        • Use the Google Docs Citation tool > set to MLA to add citation sources to your paper.
        • IMPORTANT: Add citations within your paper for every fact, visual reference, or quotation that you reference in your paper. (See Adding in-text citation at 0:50 in the video for details.)
        • When you are done, add a Works Cited page at the end of your document. This can be done with one click using the Insert Work Cited button. (See Inserting a bibliography at 1:16 in the video for details.)

5. Edit with Easybib

6. Submitting Your Paper

    1. Create an OpenLab Post. (Example Post)
      • TITLE: Research Paper 2 – Your Initials
      • CATEGORY: Research Papers
      • TAG: Research Paper 2
      • TAG: Your Name
    2. Add the title of your paper as a heading.
    3. Write a brief introduction to your paper.
    4. Use text to indicate the link to your paper (ie: Research Paper), select this text, and make it a link to your Google doc.
      (Do not paste the entire Google Doc link in the post)
    5. Make sure the Google Doc link is set to “Anyone with the link” and Commenter is selected.
      This will allow others to comment on your paper.

Due: The finished paper is due April 25,  6 pm