“I knew I was being exploited but it was a fact that I was attracted”
-Judith Williamson
By focusing on the use of ‘image’ and ‘text’ in media, this study can be viewed as an attempt to understand the underlying principles behind the development of our social psyche regarding certain concepts. Concept such as ideal Women, Father, Son, Mother, Daughter, Man, House, Marriage are heavily exploited by media.
Where we all know that the word ‘Ideal’ and ‘Real’ are also mere concepts.
My interest to study semiotics:
The first question, which came to my mind when our semiotics class started, was that how this study of semiotics will help me? As now I understand that semiotics is a study of signs, which help us communicate certain ideas with our self and society.
My observation around the city, billboards, television serials, and advertisements pointed out to me how these sign and codes have contributed to the society I live in.
Thus in this exercise I am reacting to media which I interact on day-to-day basis.
Why this subject?:
My subject for this assignment is related to my daily life. How every day at 9 pm, my 13 yrs old sister and my 65 yrs old grandma seats in front of the television and watches these particular serials, which takes them on an emotional ride. Later some where in their actions, behaviour and talks they also reflects it without even being conscious about it, which is a very disturbing site as it shows the deep rooted impact these the serial leaves on us.
So everyday newspaper headline, printed advertisements, statements and excerpts from the serial have been chosen by me to highlight the process which goes in constructing the image of women through media around me.
Medium:
I am concentrating on how text, dialogues, images combine and construct reality.
My final submission is in an Audio/Visual compilation of newspaper cuttings, excerpts from the serial, sounds and music.
As this medium provides with the flexibility to juxtapose and construct meaning/reality which may not be directly attached to the individual image or text.
Text, thus created putting them together is an assemblage of signs (such as words, images, sounds and /or gestures) and is interpreted with reference to the conventions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication.
My objective of making this video is to raise certain questions and point out the stereotypical representation of gender drawn across the media.The ambience, their clothing, gestures, dialogues, expressions are codes to understand and interpret these images.
Some observations…
• We do not question what is going on because we see it as ‘already true’.
• Women are suppose to act in a certain way…
• It also shows an attempt to revive our culture and tradition; surprisingly this burden barrier is always a woman.
• Ambience, clothing, gestures, dialogues, expressions lead to construct an identity.
• Women characters in these serials represent a stereotypical image of women. They are represented as either all white or black.
• Through this process the women is constructed through social signifiers of what makes a women
• These serials aim to take a stand and define moral values for our society
• Here feminization is explored through fear, suspicion, vulnerability, anxiety and uncertainty forced upon us by juxtaposing feminine and masculine identities.
Conclusion:
While working on this project and working with the audio/visual medium I realised that it is extremely important for one to be very conscious of what meaning one wants to create and emotions on screen could really affect one psychologically.
I feel that media should act responsibly while portraying any ‘image’. I understand through this journey while working upon this subject and medium, that we should celebrate our differences but one has to be very responsible to use such images for selling purposes while exploiting people’s dreams, aspirations and playing with their emotions.
We can use language to say what isn’t in the world as well as what is.
Books referred: semiotics for beginners by Daniel chandler
Introduction to Communication theory
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