Wag The Dog.

The 1997 film, 'Wag the Dog', shows the role media plays regarding the production of reality that is mediated to the public.
" Of course there's a war I saw it on TV." - Conrad Brean.

 TV, print media and radio are our traditional source of newsworthy information. It is an assumption on our part that the information being mediated to us is through these platforms are provided by credible sources. Despite the credible intentions of a reporter, 'Wag The Dog,' suggests  powerful governmental officials may take advantage of the reputation they have by deliberately leaking fictitious stories to the media.

The film itself was based on the Novel 'American Hero' by Larry Beinhart. The president's character was based on George H.W. Bush and his dealing of, Desert Storm (Gulf War) . It is ironic that prior to the movies release, the clinton sex scandal occurred which gave the film even more relevance. Looking at a film like this and applying it to Ireland, whats not to say the horse meat scandal was created to divert attention from something else, something bigger.

The reality of this 'deception' is its a necessary in today's world. Everything we see and hear in media is intensely analyzed by experts from body language, to how somebody drinks a bottle of water, to the clothes they wear. One small step out of line can lead to an intense media scrutinisation. In the case of the President of the U.S.A, or politicians in general, it is perhaps justifiable as these people hold the most powerful positions in the world and their actions affect millions of lives. It is therefore unsurprising that PR teams and spin doctors are required to 'cover up' or seize an opportunity to divert controversy. TV can make you look bad but it is also a platform that can make you look great. If the President is seen as weak, the United States of America is seen by the world as weak. A projected image of power must be sustained at all times and the best way to do this is by controlling the 'reality'.

Watching a film like this can make a person question a lot of events. I wrote in a previous blog about the bull-horn speech in the aftermath of 9/11.  The speech Bush gave, standing on a mound of rubble high above a crowd of cheering volunteers, beneath an American flag blowing in the distance, contains all the elements of a staged event.

In popular culture South park has also provided a commentary on this on more than one occasion, the episodes ' A Ladder to Heaven' and 'Mystery of the Urinal Deuce,' providing an excellent social commentary on the aftermath of 9/11. Behind the satire the message is the same. 'A Ladder to Heaven,' parodied a famous American country western singer, Alan Jackson, who wrote song about 9/11. The song was released in the wake of the destruction and was debuted on the Country Music Television channel. It received airplay across America the next day.

What does this say about the credibility of the viewing public?
It says that they are being decieved by people who are the best of the best at what they do. Its nothing to be ashamed of. The reality is, people don't have time to question everything. TV traditionally is something that you view after a long day of work. When you switch on, you switch off, it can even be a form of escapism. Even those who are aware of the deception merely comment on it. No action is ever taken against it. If you are not a creditable source you will be laughed at, if you are a credible source willing to speak out, you will be silenced. Until somebody actually proves 9/11 was a conspiracy, I don't think the public can be seen as gullable. So long as its only the people on the TV who are being affected, the viewer probably won't care enough to question it in a meaningful way.

CA2: Semiotic Print Advertisement Analysis.

Advertising Agency: PROVID. Published: Ukraine, 2008.

Upon waking up with a hangover the morning after the night before, the feeling is normally one of a pounding puzzlement as to exactly how and why you ended up in this latest predicament. Washing the dishes is, usually, the last thing a person in this state, thinks about doing. Perhaps an Alka Seltzer tablet or two can solve the problem. This is the image the advertisers for Alka Seltzer are trying to reproduce.

There are various denotations in this ad. The man, the robe and marigold gloves he is wearing. The running tap, the plate, the suds on the counter, and the kitchen environment. The cat, the line of print 'Hangover is dangerous.' and of course the box of Alka Seltzer tablets complete the list.

When we examine the signs that are presented to us, we begin to connect the sequence of events together. The light blue colour of the kitchen suggests a tranquil/calming tone, feelings often associated with the clear blue sky of morning after a stormy night. The fact the man is wearing a robe suggests he is either ready for bed or he has just awoke from a slumber. The indexical sign of the swithced-off lights in the, perceived, kitchen, suggest that it is in fact morning time - early mid day, the realistic timeframe for waking up with a hangover. Further indexical signs such as the running tap and the suds on the counter suggest that the man is neglecting the task in hand of washing the dishes.

The iconic sign of the marigold glove washing the plate is one that historically resembles a myth within our culture that this is a female task. The presence of the cat sandwiched in between glove and plate is a sign of disorientation. Looking at the ca,t it is worried about getting wet and the fact the man doesn't know what he's doing causes further conern. The key paradigm in this advert is the word 'hangover'. It sets the syntadigmatic context of the word dangerous. Usually, this is a word that connotates something may be at risk of harm, but hangover is a word that symbolizes a night of heavy drinking. In this instance, the man is, seemingly, in the safety of his home which suggests that the paradigmatic relationship of the jaded looking man coupled with the word 'hangover' indicates that the word dangerous connotates a wild and crazy night which consequently has resulted in the man assuming the role of homemaker. the grammatically incorrect sentence, 'hangover is dangerous.' is further indication of the disorientation caused by the hangover, the man can't even string a sentence together.

Taking everything we have looked at into consideration so far the signified meanings now become the second signifiers for various different retrospects. Upon further inspection of the man, his hair-style is iconic. Add the scruffy overgrown hair and sideburns to the man's facial features, and we get an image that resembles that of Jack Torrance from the movie 'The Shining'. This in turn signifies the male subject, is perhaps, going slightly crazy. This is backed up by the fact he is using a cat to wash the plate. Not only does it show that he is, perhaps, unfamiliar with this domesticated role, another myth within our culture, but because 'The Shining' is a movie about a man going crazy and seeing ghosts,  it adds a new paradigmatic relationship when considering the image of the startled cat.

In roman mythology a cat was a symbol for the guardian of the home, and a goddess. A cat is also seen in celtic tradition as a guardian of the otherworld. The cat 'gazes with guile upon a world that does not see or understand the depth of their knowledge.' In our own culture, the cat is certainly a creature shrouded in mystery.

In this incident, considering the cat as a guardian of the otherworld, its stare could perhaps indicate a worried look that the man perhaps may be reaching a state worthy of seeing dead people. The vacant stare of the male certainly suggests that he is in a world of his own. The cat is willing the man with his eyes to have an Alka Seltzer tablet. Maybe the cat is controlling the man to look in the direction of the Alka Seltzer box. The light blue colour of the box can also symbolise healing, this maybe a cure to the bewilderment and confusion.

The Cat, through its 'depth of knowledge,' is aware that the man has neglected his work because he has played too much. The cat realises that 'all work and no play make Jack a dull boy', so Jack has to 'play' from time to time.  An Alka Seltzer will not only return the man to his senses ensuring a return to normality, but also ensure that the man can both 'work' and 'play' with the aid of an Alka Seltzer. Because the image of Jack Torrance is so striking to us, we can invoke a particular narrative of a crazy, disillusioned man.

Formulation

Below is an interview between Sky News' Eamonn Holmes and Ryanair's CEO Michael O'Leary. I have chosen this interview as an example of formulation, bias and how to cleverly answer difficult questions.

Click here to watch (embedding not available).

In this interview there is formulation, more so from the interviewee, Michael O'Leary. 

The interviewer, Eamonn Holmes projects a bias during the interview insinuating that the reason for Ryanair's increased profit is down to the fact they provide an extremely poor service. Holmes sets the tone from the very onset of the interview by, almost sarcastically, suggesting "I'm going to speak to a very polite man now in the London Stock Exchange." Before we even see the interviewee, the interviewer has subtly hinted to what lies in store through his irony.

Michael O'Leary throughout the interview takes aspects of what Holmes has said and uses them to suggest that passengers fundamentally want cheap flights and to arrive on time, which is what, O'Leary claims, Ryanair offers. When Holmes, suggests that he could spend Ryanair's profits on "a special lounge for the passengers", O'Leary swiftly dismisses it by suggesting "Our passengers don't want to be delayed in lounges, they just want to get on the plane and go." By competently dealing with the negative aspect of the question first, O'Leary sets up his answer to finish with the slogan, "People don't want to spend all their money on other airlines being delayed they want to come to the low fare airline thats always on time." 

Holmes uses conversationalisation on numerous occasions, most notably when using the term 'My bits' to describe what he brings with him on a plane. "Let me tell you about my bits,  I  have my newspapers, my magazines, my I-pad." and when referring to the nets on the back of the seats for placing such objects he raises his voice to say 'You haven't got them on your plane anymore.' Holmes is nearly breaking from the public tone of voice associated with a news reporter, this could, perhaps, show he is a man of the people, he cares, and this is possibly how they would react if faced with with the Ryanair Boss.

O'Leary addresses the question by  suggesting that Holmes, has this problem because he has become accustom to private jets and a 'rockstar' lifestyle. O'Leary continues by suggesting "The good news is people tend to take their papers with them so we have to spend less time cleaning on turnarounds. . . so we can welcome more rockstars on Ryanair." O'Leary sidesteps the issue by dis-associating Eamonn Holmes from the people and referring to him as a 'Rockstar'.

Interestingly Holmes, later starts using animated body language and words such as 'We' to suggest he is still a man of the people. Through his actions he re-enacts how "of course, we've got to put all these things into coats and waist coats."

O'Leary, interestingly, responds in turn by using an animated tone and clenched fist himself as if he's representing the viewer's voice "Oh this is a very clever way, we're breaking the Ryanair rules". The interviewee's sarcastic response undermines the interviewers animated body language which, as a viewer, could be seen as a patronising dumbing down in the first place. O'Leary again has disassembled Holmes question to set his reply up with the punch line "if you show up in a yashmak covered in books, you'll still be welcome, you'll always be welcome on Ryanair Eamonn." 

By his clever replies and his un-ashameable plugs, the Ryanair boss has ensured that the interview has become an exchange of banter as opposed to a serious interview. Whether this was the intention of the interviewer is hard to say but when Holmes says " I admire you because the more you treat people like rubbish the more people love you, the more money they spend, it is incredible." He categorically confirms his bias against the Ryanair boss.

The effort of both, interviewer, and interviewee to come across as men of the people, through the use of words such as "we" and animated tone of voice and body language suggests that both are conscious of the perceived social context of the 'targeted audience'. In this example, the target audience being the combined demographic of people getting ready for work  and stay at home parents, potential customers of the "low fare airline thats always on time."

Semiotics

Semiotics, the study of signs, can be applied to many things. In relation to media discourse and analysis, we are concerned with mediated text.

Roland Barthes used an example of a menu in a restaurant. Although it has been drawn up with reference to structure, this structure will change depending on the time and place.
its a cultural value that we agree to i.e Steak and chips for breakfeast is not the norm.

Langue - conventions/rules.
Parole - the action. (Understanding Langue).
For example: if you are watching a western and the villain is wearing a black hat, the langue is that the colour black signifies evil and the parole is our understanding of this and our enjoyment of the fact that we understand such a connotation.

Signifier- a trigger that establishes a signified object in our head.
Signified- the meaning we draw from the signifier in our head.

For example: if a traffic light turns red, the signifier is the light turning red and the signified meaning in our head is to prepare to stop.

"signifiers may simultaneously convey meaning on different levels." -Barthes.

Denotation- most immediate level of meaning.
example a photo of a street is a dennotation that this is a photograph of a street which was taken at a certain time.

Connotations - second order or associative meaning. According to Desaussure. i.e. a connotation for the picture of the street could be that it has a orange filter applied suggesting a warm tone which can be seen as welcoming.

Paradigm - vertical set of units (what defines the meaning).
Syntagm - horizontal units - (constructed meaning).
Meaning is arrived through the process of combination and selection.

A paradigm can change the syntagmatic meaning. The paradigm is a substitution. For example the sentence. 'Freedom fighter escapes from prison.' has a different syntagmatic meaning to ' Terrorist escapes from prison.' The substitution of the word terrorist for freedom fighter is the paradigm.

We will be focusing of semiotics within the context of print advertisements.

"A sign is anything that can be used to tell a lie." -Umberto Eco.
'Cultural Paradigm', a chain or collection of signs which invoke each other because they are culturally related.
Margritte's says that an image or sign of a 'thing' is not the 'thing' itself. An image of an apple is not the apple itself.

An object will result in an interpretant which results in a representanum.
For example, the word rose, the object, may signify a type of flower in our head, which results in the representanum, a rose flower.

Below is an example of a retrospect.
Connotations involve signifying, signs that become the signifier for a second singnified. So the signified rose may become a second signifier which triggers a second signified, such as passion, which is often associated with a rose.