It's All In How You Look At It

Well, fall is here. Excellent. It's my favorite season. However, with the gorgeous changing of the leaves, comes the beginning of school years nationwide. This means (due to my chosen profession) I'm surrounded by lots and lots of kids. Kids coughing and sneezing, picking their noses, putting their entire hands inside of their mouths, followed by more coughing and sneezing because the previous kid that was coughing and sneezing has now gotten the rest of the class sick. You see, they do these things and then they touch me. Ipso facto...I am sick. Thank you small children of the world. Other than the fact that it's terrible, I have had a lot of time to watch television (something I also rarely do due to my chosen profession). I had this homework assignment (you're reading it) to learn about 8 critical approaches or lenses to media text. So, with my sick and lazy weekend I sat and watched television in these 8 different ways. Let's talk about what I learned shall we?

The first approach presented in my text for this class is a rhetorical/audience critical analysis. This is always an interesting way to view something. The way that I understood this lens is to look at a television show, movie or commercial (or anything else for that matter) and critique it as to whom it is directed, trying to reach or influence. They key questions I came up with from this analysis were: how does this make or change my perceptions, who is this trying to influence, does it make me change or question my values or beliefs, and do I identify with this? We'll use a commercial for an example. Essentially, commercials generally try to sell you something or in this time of year, every four years, convince you of something. The people that create these commercials know who their target audiences are and may try and manipulate them (no way). So what do you think of John McCain now? I mean other than the fact he looks like an English Bulldog.

The second perspective I looked at was that of a semiotic analysis. This theory focuses on the social and cultural meaning of codes and signs. The meanings to decipher are based upon relationships among an object, its implied meaning, and what it refers to. Believe it or not these meanings have deep roots in our social and cultural ideologies. Do you think it's a coincidence that the Pepsi logo colors are red, white and blue? No, silly! It's the great American soft drink! Or is that Coke? I don't know, I'm more of a Dr. Pepper kind of gal. The second part of this approach is that of a narrative analysis. This view looks at how particular events are depicted in terms of how they function in the show, movie, commercial etc. How do such events help develop the plot, organize the story line, fill in gaps or help predict what's going to happen next? These are questions that take on a narrative perspective. However, due to societal cultural values and norms, a narrative analysis might also ask: what is also left out?

The third analysis is that of poststructuralism. This approach looks at the classic good versus evil, male versus female, black versus white, etc. oppositions and what they represent, mean, and equate. You may not believe this but in media, such oppositions are often stereotypical. No. Oppositions like high/low and light/dark influence both characters and the audience. With a poststructuralist point of view, there are no truths or "exactnesses" (I made that word up). However, it's more likely that things like football are going to be associated with men rather than women, and the latest Dove commercial with women rather than men. Now I'm not just a big fan of that either (I like football, Go Packers!), but at least with the knowledge that such oppositions take place, I am able to see a commercial the way it was "intended" to be seen, and the way I want to see it.

The fourth approach is that of critical discourse. We each have our own discourse based upon our backgrounds and whatnot. We may even have more than one. For example, a doctor has a medical discourse and a lawyer-can you guess it- a legal discourse. Such discourses "define the social and power relationships within a certain culture or community." Thank you Richard Beach. They mold how people see themselves and the world around them. There are discourses of class and of race that actually remind me of a favorite movie I watched over the weekend, My Fair Lady. Okay yes, it's a musical. Whatever. It's fantastic and Audrey Hepburn is classic. Anyhow, she plays Eliza Doolittle and is a poor girl that sells flowers. She takes speech lessons so that she may pass as a lady. Didn't you know, she clearly wasn't a lady before with her incorrect grammar and accent? Eliza sees herself, and is seen, as indecent because of how she sounds and undoubtedly because of how she looks. Only after she has changed her clothes and learned to speak "properly" is she accepted by those around her.

The fifth analysis is a psychoanalytic theory. This idea revolves around the notion that texts are shaped by one's needs, fears and subconscious desires that are apart of their identity. A person's subconscious drive influences what they see and how they interpret meaning. The viewer of a film may attach a dangerous, bad or evil association to a character in the film due to a subconscious fear. Or an audience member may try to become more like a film character because of a subconscious desire.

The sixth analysis is a feminist perspective. One focus is the sexist portrayal of women as well as men in media texts. Women are often sexualized or have female norms defined for us that are often negative or unrealistic. The media has a tendency to represent men and women based on current cultural and social customs or beliefs. Because such social and cultural constraints change, so do the gender representations. Media texts also play into characteristics that men and women are "supposed" to have because they are supposedly more feminine or more masculine.

The seventh perspective is an postmodern analysis. This theory compromises the modern notions of fact, truth and reality. It is hard to decipher what is true and what is false (who is to say that anyhow), and some say media in itself is a reality. There are plenty of films out there that distort reality. Don't reality shows actually do just that? Postmodernism, in my opinion, can be seen in at least two ways: as a parody or an actual critique of a system of values and beliefs. I guess I argue that one in return does the other. Regardless, it's all about questioning.

Lastly, I learned about the postcolonial approach. This looks at how colonial or imperialist ideas of the world we live in are portrayed in different texts. My text for this class had a great example of how the media often represents third world countries, or previously colonized areas as the "other," essentially not like us, non-European. The "other" is always more dangerous, mysterious, and primitive. Often times in media, the "others" are stereotyped and portrayed in a sense that reflects our own insecurities and our shortcomings. Wouldn't you like to be Muslim in our world right about now? A postcolonial approach provides an alternative view on how we see our individual roles in the world.