AN37012BA
READING ADVERTISEMENTS
GYÖRKE ÁGNES
AUTUMN 2011
Information and Communication
Specialization
Thursday 14.00-15.40
Main Building 106
Office hours:
Thursday, 16.00-17.00 (116/4)
Friday, 14.00-15.00 (GÖCS 202)
Email: gyorke.agnes@arts.unideb.hu
This seminar is intended as an introductory seminar to advertising and cultural studies. After
clarifying the main theoretical concepts and issues of cultural studies, we are going to read and
"decode" advertisements, explain how these images address customers, how they create identities,
and so on. The key terms of the course are ideology, as it is defined by Louis Althusser,
communication, gender, and identity (national, social, etc). The primary material we are going to
analyse are printed advertisements and videos; the secondary sources will include excerpts from
Catherine Belsey’s, Dyer Gillian’s and Judith Williamson’s books and some theoretical texts by
Freud, Jessica Benjamin and Teresa Brennan.
Course requirements
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Reading the assigned material for the classes
Taking part in classroom discussions
Attending classes (grade cannot be given after 3 missed classes)
Passing vocabulary tests
Group presentation
Endterm test
In-class essay
Grading
The final grade for the course will consist in the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
In-class essay: 30%
Endterm test 40 %
Group presentation 20 %
Participation: 10%
Students have to reach 50% in order to get a grade for the course.
The in-class essay is a 300-400 words long essay written in class on a topic provided by the
instructor. Students will be able to choose from three different topics (obviously, they will only
have to write on one), and they will also get a “sample topic” on the week before the in-class
essay, so that they will know what to expect.
The endterm test will consist in short essay questions that students will have to answer in 5-6
sentences and some basic terms (ideology, etc.) that they will have to define.
Students have to form 5 groups and deliver a 15 minute group presentation (+ 5 minutes for
discussion). The presentation can be based on any topic related to advertisements. Students will
have to form their groups and start working on their projects by week 7, 27th October.
1
Grading Policy (N.B. NO GRADE CAN BE OBTAINED UNLESS ALL THE COURSE
COMPONENTS ARE FULFILLED)
Course components
Percentage
classroom work
10%
endterm test
40%
in-class essay
30%
group presentations
20 %
Total
100%
In-class essay evaluation
Statement of thesis
Quality of argument
Coherence of structure
Level of language
Total
Overal
percentage
87-100%
75-86%
63-74%
51-62%
0-50 %
8
12
12
8
40
Grad
es
5
4
3
2
1
Week Date Topic
1
15
Orientation
Sept
2
22
Introduction to advertising and consumer psychology; decoding
Sept advertisements. Reading: excerpts from Judith Williamson’s Decoding
Advertisements
3
29
Sept
Introduction to techniques of persuasion and effective communication; the
concept of ideology. Reading: excerpts from Dyer Gillian’s Advertising as
Communication
4
6 Oct Thematic sessions 1: Gender in advertising: perfume ads 1
5
13 Oct Thematic sessions 2: Perfume ads 2
6
7
20 Oct Thematic sessions 3: Tobacco ads
27 Oct In-depth sessions 1: from Armand Mattelart, Advertising International, “The
Weapons of Criticism and the Criticism of Weapons: A new Subjectivity?”
8
9
3 Nov Reading Week (No class)
10
In-depth sessions 2: from Leiss, Kline, Jhally, Social Communication in
2
Nov
Advertising, “Two Approaches to the Study of Advertisements”
STUDENTS HAVE TO FORM GROUPS AND CHOOSE THEIR
PRESENTATION TOPICS!
10
11
12
13
14
17
Nov
24
Nov
1 Dec
8 Dec
15
Dec
In-class essay
Film viewing: Thank you for smoking
Discussing Thank you for smoking
Student group presentations
Endterm test
Evaluation: in any office hour in the exam period.
Reading:
Belsey, Catherine. Critical Practice. London: New York, Routledge, 1980.
Dyer, Gillian. Advertising as Communication. London: Routledge, 1996.
Freud, “On Narcissism.” On Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis. Harmondsworth: Penguin,
1984.
Jessica Benjamin, The Bonds of Love: Psychoanalysis, Feminism, and the Problem of Domination. New
York: Pantheon, 1988.
Teresa Brennan, History after Lacan. London: Routledge, 1993.
Williamson, Judith. Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising. London: Boyars,
1994.
Recommended reading:
Althusser, Louis. Essays on Ideology. London: Verso, 1993.
Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard
Howard. New York: Vintage 1965.
Giles, Judy and Tim Middleton. Studying Culture: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
Hall, Stuart, ed. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London : Sage
Publications, 1997
-- . and Jessica Evans, ed. Visual Culture: The Reader. London: Sage, 1999.
McFall, Elizabeth Rose. Advertising: A Cultural Economy. London: SAGE, 2004
Pécheux, Michel. “The Mechanism of Ideological (Mis)recognition.” Mapping Ideology. Ed. Slavoj
Zizek. London: Verso, 1994.
Thompson, Kenneth, ed. Media and Cultural Regulation. London: Sage, 1997.
Williams, Raymond. Problems in Materialism and Culture: Selected Essays. London: Verso, 1997.
3