DOCUMENT D: Dudley MBC’s ‘What’s your culture?’

Critical process

At first impact, I would say the image is colourful, attracting and interesting. In the middle of the image there is a big heading and as a background there are different coloured lines representing the different cultures.

Referring to Lasswell’s model the sender is Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, the message included probably wants us to really know and discover more about our culture and the sender is everyone who might see it. Dudley MBC probably used advertisement as the channel trying to get people attention.

Following the classification of the text, I will now focus on the genre and then consider in detail what in fact we are being offered. First of all, defining the formal structure we can talk about the signifier, which, in this case, is represented by the words and the coloured vertical lines. Besides, we can notice the syntagm in the image with vertical lines, different colours, not perfectly straight. The register is semi-formal English and the vocabulary is direct, explicit and easy-understanding since it tries to trigger a positive reaction in people. The Mode of Address is constituted by a short question and few words, precisely because it is direct to its aim. Furthermore, the message contains also bias and hidden believes: for instance, we can predict that MBC thinks people don’t really know enough about their culture. The main function is making curious and eager of discover, learn and know more about themselves and their past and new traditions and habits. Lastly, the significance of the background is surely connected to the difference of the use of colours, which reminds to the existence of different cultures around the world.

 Besides, it means that everyone has his own ‘background’, which might be mixed with other cultures as well. In fact some colours are in sharp contrast representing the cultures that are completely different and far from being similar; others, referring to the purple one, are slightly shaded to let us intend the existence of cultures that might be similar to others or might have inherited codes from others as well.

Special K Be a Loser advert

No.6 Special K Be a Loser advert

Look: It is eye-catching because of the actress’s appearance; beautiful woman, sexy dress and looks healthy body. It is an advertisement of Special K (cereal) saying ‘Be a Loser’ to health conscious people. It wants us to buy the Special K. The sender is Kellogg’s (producer).Picture of Special K’s box is printed in right-down side, it is not so big, however, ‘K’ is very clear to see.

Read: ‘Be a Loser’ this is written by red colour, it is the same colour of the logo of Special K, therefore it is clear and well defined. Also the text said ‘You’ve got nothing to gain and everything to lose’, in this case, it is positive meaning to lose weight. Other texts said that eat this for breakfast, replace to snacks and enjoy other meals as normal. As a result, people can lose weight.

Explore: Much of the intended meaning of the advertisement depends on how much conscious about their weight; for example, people who really want to loseweight, they are interested in buying and trying this cereal, however, people who do not need to worry about their weight or who do not like cereals, they will just see through this advertisement. This picture of actress is wellselected; in generally speaking, blond hair women are symbol of beauty in some countries. Also she is not too thin or fat, everybody feels she looks healthy; this can affect various age groups, sex and the degree of healthconscious.

Review: This text is well-organised; at the first sight, this actress is very attractive and Special K’s logo is easy to see because of the colour (based white and K is red). This suggests us how to lose the weight and in the terms of‘loser’ is basically negative meaning, however, in this case of losing weight is positive meaning. This is clever and ironic way to advertise.

Respond: To catch the trend of health conscious is very clever way to gather attentions. And subconsciously, we are looking at blond beautiful woman, this advertisement use this tendency well. Also this actress is not extremelythin, therefore they can appeal this food healthy food. In addition, they use the term ‘loser’ as a positive meaning, it is also clever way to catch the attentions.

What’s Your Culture?

The third text, titled “What’s your culture” illustrates different colours, they represent diversity of cultures.

The noticeable thing from the text would probably be the question asked about our culture, the author wants to find out how much we know about our culture, because our culture determines our relationship and communication with others.

Colours like yellow and purple appear in two different forms. They mean that although people have their various traditional backgrounds. Many cultures seem to have similarities or are inter-woven to each other, but differ with major or minor differences.

The text can also be interpreted as showing different aspects of our culture, with colour red representing attractiveness, yellow shows the sacred and imperial feeling of our culture, purple signifies the royalty and wealth of our cultural sophistication, and colour brown shows the durability of our cultural heritage.

The different cultures also represent different barriers to communication. In order words, people experience limitations while communicating, due to the fact that everybody has a different culture, compared to others.  Until people cope with other cultures, difficulties will be encountered by both parties involved.

It demonstrates a wide variety of cultural interests which we all possess. This shapes our personality and determines how we relate and communicate with others. This goes as far as distinguishing the type of people we associate ourselves with, our moral standards, codes and ethics.

 The colourfulness of the image shows the beauty of our diverse cultures, when we interact in togetherness. The colours display our emotions and the way we respond to things, ideas and the society at large. The colour red is a sign of passion and love. Moreover, it signifies danger. Yellow symbolises wisdom, joy and happiness.

The process of all colours of different shades coming together is the definition of communication and culture.

Analysis

I see a poster, rather an advertisement of a cereals “Special K” by Kellogg's. A big image of women which is standing in the underwear is attracting people’s attention. Firstly, I paid my attention on the picture of women, and only then started to read an advertisement.
The ad speaks about an attractive way to lose weight. It consist of a picture and a motto, which looks very encouraging and interesting. Everything is written clearly, and the whole contrast is also selected very properly. Also there is a data, when products have been completed.
As for the structure, it is easy to notice the domination of the women on the poster. Undoubtedly, text and the picture are selected very harmoniously; there are no excesses, just the main information to inform the reader, and the picture, to attract his attention. The result of combination of two very incompatible concepts, like cereal and women in the underwear is quite simple - it will works independently of whether you are a woman or a man. The idea of comparing two completely different things looks very smart and appropriate. But we have to pay attention to a very important detail, that makes whole ad very ambiguous, the phrase – "Be a Loser" provokes the reader also as women in the underwear. This device plays here a role of a great provoker; it induces the reader to find out why and for what this word is written here. However, the true value of this word here was picked up greatly. "Loser" is not for a person, who lose the game or don't have a power, it's for a person, who try to lose the weight.
Analyzing this poster I have discovered for myself that the key for successful advertisement is to compare two different things, even if they aren’t connected with each other. Of course, to find original and unique duo, requires a great skill. Originally, I thought that this kind of idea can be useful but now I’m convinced that it is not only appropriate, but also very effective.
As I said in the previous paragraphs, my reaction on this advertisement is very positive - I liked the main idea and the execution was also on the high level, but I think, the motto should be bigger and needs to be written with different color than the text in the whole advertisement. In my opinion, people have to see the motto instantly, because it makes a large part of success.

Coursework Outline

University Foundation/Pre-Masters Programme

Subject Pathway Coursework

Communication and Culture Studies

In the process of doing the coursework for this module, you will have the opportunity to use your analytic skills to examine a range of texts. 

Relation to course objective:

·        You will be able to use the process and semiotic approach to carry out own in-depth analysis of texts, using practical examples and case studies.

Part One

See pages 160 – 161 of your coursebook 'AS Communication and Culture'

Respond to the three questions asked for each document H, I and J. 

For each of the documents:

·        Question 1 is worth 4 marks

·        Question 2 is worth 6 marks

·        Question 3 is worth 10 marks.

Total = 60 marks

Words = 1000 words minimum.

Part Two

See pages 172 and 173 of your coursebook 'AS Communication and Culture'

Analyse the two texts featured on these pages using the process developed in class.  You should write about what you think about them and consider how else the texts could be interpreted.

Total = 30 marks

Words = 500 words minimum.

Overall number of marks available = 90 marks.

Preparation for Week Five: Launch of Coursework

Your coursework will be an analysis of texts using the Process and Semiotic Approach.

In preparation for next week, read Chapter Four from your coursebook: 'Toolkits: The Process amd Semiotic Approach' (pages 97 - 147)

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