Friday, 15 April 2016

Gender equality speech

"I'm not sexist. Being sexist is wrong and being wrong is for women".
Sexism occurs everyday in conversations between friends, family, colleagues. Between girls and boys. Sexist behavior can happen somewhere as casual as a street or in a formal setting such as a courtroom.When we think of the word 'sexism' we often think of discrimination against women, however it can happen to anyone Prof. Sonja Starr's research on federal criminal cases suggests that "men receive 63% longer sentences on average than women do,". .

Fighting for gender rights is often frowned upon when a male is the one fighting, especially when they are our age. Teenage boys are often mocked for talking about gender equality and often have their sexuality questioned when doing so. Even though they are fighting for their own rights too, there is an idea that it is wrong to  stick  up for the opposite gender either. Why is it seen as weak for a male to fight for gender equality when it affects them too?

In 1970 an equal pay act was created which meant men and women got the same amount of pay for doing the same job. However even now in 2016, 46 years later this is still not the case. Campaigners   say that women still earn £5,200 less per year than men. It even affects top professions like lawyers, a full time female lawyer on average earns £10,000 less than their male counterparts. The actress Jennifer Lawrence took to Facebook to express her anger when she found she earned less than her male counterparts.

Thursday, 10 March 2016

Cambridge elevate 13.5.1-13.5.4

13.5.1
The logo on the Olympic flag consists of five differently coloured rings representing the five main inhabited regions of the world, with the rings interlinked to represent friendship and unity. This logo represents everything to do with Olympics and is used on all products related with the Olympics. Just like this logo stands for the Olympic organisation, words and phrases can stand for people.


13.5.1-Activity 11

The FedEx logo represents the company it stands for. The white arrow between the E and x of Ex represents speed and reflects how the company will deliver your parcel quickly and directly to you as the arrow is pointing towards the x which may represent the destination relating to 'x marks the spot'. The word express is also used in the logo to also show how quickly they will deliver your parcels.

Evian is a water company. The logo represents the company by having the words 'live young' in the logo. To look young and be young is seen as desirable so by adding this to the logo it interests the audience. The picture above the words Evian is of blue mountains. It creates this ides of freshness and the water coming from these mountains which may encourage the audience to buy it.

13.5.2

Representation can be name calling which can ha different extents, it could be children in a playground or debating politicians.
In a Mail online article David Rose wrote about how he was unsure about some claims on global warming. He did this by using derogative terms. One of the phrases he used that stood out to me was  'McCarthyism', this word has many negative connotations as it relates to McCarthy who was famous for the communist witch hunts in America. This was when many people were prosecuted for being, 'unamerican'. These people were punished for their opinions and so this relates to the climate change article as he is suggesting climate change professionals are acting similarly to McCarthy.



Tuesday, 8 March 2016

British stereotypes article analysis

13.5.4 stereotypes.

Chapter Header ImageThe article creates a jokey feeling around the subject of stereotypes and uses humor to approach the subject. The first piece of humor we see is in the title 'British stereotypes:do mention the war, please!' The belief that British people always want to talk about Britain's victory is mocked in this title as it uses the verb 'please' to create sarcastic undertones straight away so that the reader is aware not to take the article too seriously. If the reader still was not sure whether the article was serious or not it goes on to say that these British stereotypes are 'a thumbnail sketch, not the whole picture'. This clears up that the writer knows these stereotypes are not the whole picture and that they are clearly using the stereotypes for comic affect.


The genre of the text is an article from The Guardian which could be online or physical newspaper. The article would be received by anyone who reads The Guardian on a regular basis or perhaps someone who has searched for articles on stereotypes online and has come across this. The audience would be these guardian readers or online readers who have searched for something similar. The purpose of the article is to entertain as it is written quite informally. We can see this in the first word of the article 'Brits', this is a contraction/abbreviation of Britons. This use of abbreviation makes the article seem more casual. This shows how it is used to entertain rather than inform. The reader would maybe expect for the article to inform them on some more factual information and not really expect for it be so entertaining.

Thursday, 3 March 2016

Answers

a)This is a website made to help teachers inform students on Fairtrade and how they can help. We can see this as the first thing you come to is the options of what level of students you are teaching and all the different options to teach. The website would be received by teachers maybe being told by other teachers or they may find it when researching the subject themselves. The website is engaging as it gives you multiple options and accessible drop down lists to choose from. The graphological features of the text help interest the audience. The writing is spread out across the page and each section is accompanied by a picture. This helps identify what each part of the text is about and encourage the audience to read more as it makes the page seem easier to read. The red, larger writing gives prominence to important words and draws the readers eye to them. The words at the top of the page are ion a red box which makes them stand out, these are clearly what they want the reader to see as the box offers for you to donate, get involved or sponsor a child.
The affordances of the text is that it gives teachers different options so that they can inform any age group of pupils about the cause, from key stage 1-5. The constraints of the website is that people can use the resources and not actually donate to the cause. The page is limited on how much it can encourage donations as it may come across as excessive. However the page overcomes these limitations by making the reader empathize with the 'Fairtrade grower' so that they want to donate rather than feel they need to.

b)The genre of the text is an online article that is informing its readers on Fairtrade failing to help poor farmers as the company claims it does. The website would be received by Daily Mail readers who tend to be older more conservative or someone who is looking up Fairtrade online may come across the article. The purpose of the article is to inform readers on the negative sides of Fairtrade. It does this by having a negative title 'fails to help poor farmers'. The verb 'fails' implies that the company were incapable of helping the farmers and the adjective poor makes the reader feel empathy for the farmers and encourages them to find out how they could treat these deprived farmers badly. The bulletpoint strapline gives the reader a brief understanding of what the article contains and may encourage the reader to carry on reading. The graphology of this article is fairly simple which helps the reader concentrate on what the article is about.

c)The first website's graphology is very bright and spread out with large writing in bright red. This is used to draw the audiences eye to the features they want to stand out, such as donating to the cause. The articles graphology is much more simple and dense, this is because the article is not trying to get the reader to interact or give money, it just wants to push the message across. The websites show a contrast with how they want their readers to relieve them. One article encourages interaction and the other does not at all. The Fairtrade website is in bright colours with equally bright pictures, this makes the page seem positive. Contrastingly the Daily Mail article is fairly bland with only a couple of pictures that are dull and lacking in the positive vibes the other website gives off.


On the Faitrade website the verb 'donate' is right at the top implying that you can help the cause. However on the Daily Mail article the verb 'fails' stands out in the title and  straight shows the negativity. The daily mail also uses statistics to back up its points even in the strapline. Whereas the Fairtade website uses personal stories to make the reader empathize with the people the charity want to help. The pictures and names on the website make the audience feel a personal connection to the farmers.

The websites hold different purposes. The first website is to create a teaching resource for schools and to inform what the charity is and how to help. It does its by using drop down boxes and creating lots of links to take the reader to different parts of the website. The article is to inform and create awareness. This article does create empathy for the farmers as it informs the reader how the charity are not actually helping them properly.

Monday, 22 February 2016

Representation


Me: What does your job involve?
Ellie: I'm a waitress
Charlie: Are you very good with customers?
Ellie: I am
Me: Do you get tips?

...

Charlie: What did your job at Diesel involve?
Des: Jeans.
Me: Did you sell many jeans?
Des: Yes
Ellie:How did that go?
Des: It was great.
Charlie: Can you tell anyone their jean size?
Des: yeah

...

This transcript of our conversation in lesson opposes Zimmerman and West's dominance theory. The girls seem to be asking questions and leading the conversation. I start the conversation by asking an interrogative to Ellie. After she replies Charlie continues to ask another. This shows women being dominant in a conversation as Des, the only male in our group, did not interrupt or take over the conversation. However the girls in the group are more comfortable around each other and this may have contributed to how we interacted with each other. By asking questions quickly after Ellie had answered may seem as though Charlie and I are using constraints to reduce Ellie's airtime, However this was not the case we were trying to keep the conversation flowing.

In the second part of the transcript we can see the interaction between three females and a male which clearly does not support the dominance theory. The females hold dominance through the conversation by asking interrogatives in latched talk so that the conversation is rapid without hesitation. The interrogatives are asked so quickly after Des' answers we could have been interrupting him which is the opposite of stereotypical mixed gender conversations. This may be because there are more females. The interrogatives we were asking did show an interest in what others had to say as we asked questions about their occupation,

Saturday, 13 February 2016

Gender representation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufsnk27SK9I
This link takes you to the advert for a pink glue by Pritt stick. The advert straight away says 'just for girls'. The words are written in a pink bubble with yellow flowers surrounding it. This is stereotyping typical traits girls are supposed to like. the add then goes on to say 'Because it's just for girls, it's pink' again this is pushing that girls must love all these stereotypical qualities. The use of the adjective 'Just' implies that no one can use it except girls, representing girls as different to boys. This can relate to John Gray's book Men are from Mars, women are from Venus  which discusses how different men and women are.
'It's perfect for making cards, posters and scrapbooks.' This implies that these are all activities girls do. The glue has no traits different from the gender neutral, white, original Pritt stick besides being pink and therefore this makes it for girls in the eyes of the company.

This video shows all the negative connotations there are around women and how they act.When a female word has a negative connotation its called semantic derogation. This video shows just how women can be labelled with such negative words when their actions are no different to men. Although the video is overall trying to give a positive message it does reflect how negativity women are seen in society. Lakoff believes that women's language is deficient and men's language is the norm. This negative look on women is what the video is trying to stop.


 This advert  was made  by Bic for women day. The advert caused a lot of upset as it seems to create an image of men being smarter than women. 'think like a man' was the part of the picture that caused the most upset as it implies that women's thoughts are deficient. This relates to the deficit theory by Lakoff. The advert was originally made to celebrate women but it seems to empower men more. The women in the picture is wearing a shirt and blazer which is typically what a man would wear. Although the graphology of the text is not stereotyping women it comes across as boring and does not seem empowering.

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Charity analysis

The RSPCA website uses many different techniques to persuade and inform specifically graphology. The main aspect of the website that stands out the most is the pictures. The pictures of the animals instantly interest the reader as they are most likely an animal lover as they are on the RSPCA website.
The verb 'traded' on the picture at the top reflects how poorly the animals are being treated. The noun 'scrap' also on the picture reflects the terrible way the puppies have been cared for and compares it to how you would treat rubbish.
This is the homepage of the website so they have put all the main features they want you to see. Please donate is put in a red/pink box which contrasts with the blue/ green theme of its surroundings. This makes it stand out and show its importance. The other words in boxes of the same colour are also important such as'get involved'.
The target audience of the website would be animal lover or people who are interested in animals as they would have to search it to find it. The website appeal to these people as it gives many options to help or learn about animals.