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Media theory in adverts


This is a music video called 'Jesus of Suburbia'. It is by the American punk band, Green Day. The video shows a wide range of representations and links to a lot of media theories. There are a lot of semiatics. Semiatics is a theory by Barthes in which all media has signs and signifiers which the audience decode. For example, the main character of Jesus (Billie Joe Armstrong) is clearly not a typical Jesus. He is wearing eyeliner and edgy clothing which shows that the video is supposed to be comedic.  The signifiers appeal to a certain group of people. This is mainly young people or emo/punk people. This is decoded by the audience to have a sense of relation and belonging.
Another theory is representation by Hall. This is present in the music video as there are many signs and codes that can be read by the viewer. One of which includes the clothing of most characters in the video. In particular, the main character played by BJA. He wears dark clothing with chains and dark eyeliner. He is therefore giving signs to the audience that he is of the emo type. This relates to an aspect of the same theory that stereotypes create meaning. An average viewer may stereotype this character to be a troublemaker or a suicidal maniac. These stereotypes could come from inequalities. The characters in the video are clearly mocking religion and this could come from a working class background in which people became rebellious and non-religious. Also, these stereotypes would usually reduce people but in this video it may not be the case. Compared to Bridesmaids where women are arguably presented in a bad way which is not representative, this video actually represents emo and punk people in a more realistic way of being rebellious and careless. Although, they exaggerate hugely in the video.


The trailer for the first season of 'Preacher' uses a lot of media theories in it too. The first of which is Hall's reception theory. The viewers would decode this trailer in different ways (which goes against the hypodermic theory of everyone interpreting media in the same way). The dominant factor here is that this is a modern western show with a lot of action and little dialogue. However, not everyone would agree with this. Someone may negotiate if there id a romance aspect here because of the kiss between the girl (Tulip) and the preacher (Jesse). However, the same person may also consider the show to be a Michael May type movie which lacks in a deep storyline. This is clearly present with the explosions and even the tone of the trailer. Someone may completely oppose this as a western film because of the traditional view of what a western film really is and what codes are in it. It is definitely an abstract trailer with no definitive way to look at it and think of it. 
Another theory which is used here is the identity theory by Gauntlett. This trailer has many different stereotypes of American people and many of which are considered to be 'badass' or admirable by the creators and a portion of the audience. For example, Jesse is a typical western, cool character and this theory says that because he is this way, the audience who decode this will have their identity shaped like Jesse's. 

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