Week 4 Visual Analysis

Warm-up: Draw a Raccoon!

Answer explanation

Making sure your Quizizz is working, tell me if it is not!

Why do sociologists, culturalist and media studies practioners study images?

• Because pictures never lies and it can tell you about the current cultural and political climate.

• Because pictures speak louder than words, shape perceptions of social issues, and can manipulate our viewpoint.

• Because pictures are democratic and can be analysed without preconceptions.

Answer explanation

The correct answer is, as mentioned in lecture, that pictures speak louder than words, shape perceptions of social issues, and can manipulate our viewpoint.

What are Signs?

A sign is quite simply a _____ - whether object, word, or picture - which refers to or stands for something.

(Fill in the blank)

Answer explanation

Yes, signs are just a thing. It is when you combine both the Signifier and the Signified.

What is the Signifier here? And what does it signify?

• Signifier - The animal cat

  Signified - The word 'cat'

• Signifier - The word 'cat'

  Signified - Represents the drawing of a cat

• Signifier - A drawing of a cat

  Signified - Represents the animal cat

• Signifier - The animal cat

  Signified - Represent the drawing of a cat

Answer explanation

The answer is:

Signifier - A drawing of a cat

Signified - Represents the animal cat

The drawing of the cat represents the actual cat animal.

Which of the followings are examples of signs?

(You may select more than 1)

• Signifier - Water droplets from the sky

  Signified - Rain

• Signifier - A coffee cup gifted from a friend

  Signified - Friendship between you and the person

• Signifier - Wedding ring on finger

  Signified - The person is married

• Signifier - A child's teddy bear

  Signified - Comfort and relief

Answer explanation

Anything can be a sign as long as some interprets it as signifying something.

Signs can be naturally formed, be a social construct, have a local constructed relationship, or a personal constructed relationship.

All images have meanings and they are constructed by people producing the image.

What does Stuart Hall's Encoding means?

• Encoding of a message is the production of the message. It is a process by which an image is constructed by its producer and represents their values and interest.

• Encoding of a message is the process by which audiences reads, understands and interprets a text.

• Encoding is a traditional process of communication model where the meaning of the images are created by the audience.

Answer explanation

First developed by Stuart Hall in 1973, Encoding is part of the Encoding/Decoding model of communication.

It is a system of coded meaning where the producer (i.e. encoder) uses verbal/non-verbal symbols they believe the audience (i.e. decoder) will understand.

In the case of a visual ads, the picture / image / poster is the result of the encoding of the message.

Encoding/Decoding is the translation for a message (in this case, an image) to be easily understood.

What does Stuart Hall's Decoding mean?

• Decoding is when the producer of the image and the audiences share the same interpretation and meaning of an image.

• Decoding the producer of the image creates meaning and interest for their audience.

• Decoding is when an audience reads, understands, and interprets a text to unpack its meaning into a comprehensible form.

Answer explanation

Decoding is when an audence trysto give meaning and interprets the image to get its underlying meaning and interest.

It is possible for the audience's interpretation to be completely different from the producer the image.

An audience can have 3 different interpretations (or readings) of the meaning in an ad. Which of these is an example of an Oppositional Interpretation of the diamond ring ad?

• Diamonds have no intrinsic value and the act of giving a ring to propose marriage is a social construct. They are not worth our money.

• Diamond will last forever, the same way the love between 2 lovers will last forever.

• It is a socially accepted custom to propose using a diamond ring, thus not proposing with a diamond ring may be seen as odd by others.

• Diamond ring are elegant and beautiful, thus you can be elegant and beautiful if you also wear a diamond ring.

Answer explanation

The 3 interpretations (or reading) of an image by an audience includes:

Dominant: Support the producer's meanings

Negotiated: Audience accept part of the meaning but have their own views as well

Oppositional: Audience rejects the meaning offered by producer

Now that we know about decoding, there are 3 levels of deconstructing an ads. They are:

1. The Surfacing Meaning

2. The Producer's Encoded Meaning

3. _____________________

(Type in your answer below)

Answer explanation

The correct answer is the cultural meaning, in which the message is built upon a shared cultural belief in a given society (I.e. the color red in a Chinese-majority area as good luck, joy and happiness).

This provided the audience the dominant and oppositional interpretations.

Bonus question!

Qualitative Research is part of the....?

• Positivistic Paradigm

• Deductive Reasoning

• Content Analysis Paradigm

• Interpretive Paradigm

• Ethnography Research Paradigm