Gender Representation in the Mediayear Level: 11

Gender representation in
the mediaYear level: 11

Unit of work contributed by Victoria Anstey, Chancellor State College, Qld

R2910 Beauty contest, 1970. From the collection of the National Archives of Australia. Photograph by Australian News and Information Bureau.

About the unit

Unit description

In this unit of work, students examine and analyse how gender has been constructed in advertising and across a range of media over time,and the consequent stereotyping of both male and female identities. Students deconstruct the way the media and advertising appeal to and target young people as a lucrative market, and examine how this process influences both young people and the broader community.

Knowledge, understandings, skills, values

• Students understand that consistent and persistent messages about particular groups can lead to stereotyping.
• Students understand that the media can use particular techniques to influence the way audiences respond to itsmessages.
• Students learn to check information sources for authority, accuracy and objectivity.
• Students understand the need to analyse media texts carefully in order to identify and comprehend their underlying messages.

Focus questions

• What are the most common stereotypes thatthe media and advertising present us with?
• How do the media and advertising exploit these stereotypes to target particular markets?
• What techniques are used to manipulate a message so as to influence readers or viewers?
• How can a text be critically analysed so its message becomes clear?

Resources

Digital curriculum resources

Other resources

• Collection of magazines, newspapers and advertising brochures
• Examples of modern media advertising campaigns, including tourism campaigns for New Zealand and recruitment campaigns for the defence forces
• Collection of contemporary magazine and television advertisements featuring young men and young women
• Collection of magazines aimed at a youth audience such as Chick, Girlfriend, Cosmo, Waves, Russh and Ymi Australia:the magazine for generation Y
• Clips from YouTube about Charles Atlas
• Clips of advertisements from YouTube focusing on beer, rugby and cricket
• ‘Fake or Foto’ website:

Attached printable resources

The following teacher-created learning resources referred to in the unit of work are available for you to modify, print and use in your own teaching and learning context.

• Glossary: gender and advertising
• Retrieval chart
• Examples of common fallacies

Teaching the unit

Setting the scene

Resources

• Glossary:gender and advertising (page 13)
• Collection of magazines, newspapers and advertising brochures

Teaching and learning activities

Hot potato

Use a ‘Hot potato’ strategy to investigate what students already know and understand about the intention and impact of advertising aimed at their age group.

Divide the class into six groups.Using six large sheets of paper, write one of the following focus questions on each sheet as a heading, and hand out one sheet to each group.

What messages do young people receive in advertising about how they should or shouldn’t behave?

What messages do young people receive in advertising about how they should or shouldn’t look?

What messages do young people receive in advertising about what they should or shouldn’t have?

How do advertisers target young people?

What sorts of images of young men and women dominate our TV screens and magazines?

What are the sources of the advertising that targets young people in Australia?

Each group elects a recorder for its responses to the question, and is given two minutes to record its responses. At the end of the time the sheet is passed to the next group, which records ideas that have not yet been suggested. No repeats are allowed. The cycle continues until all six groups have responded to all six questions. At the end of the cycle, each group shares with the class the listed responses tothe last topic it has considered.

As the responses are read, analyse them to identify a common theme or message. Have each student summarise their understandings of each topic in their scrapbook.

Have studentscreatea glossary of relevant terms using Glossary: gender and advertising (page 13).

A picture of me

In pairs, students cut out images and text from magazines, newspapers and advertising brochures or pamphlets to construct a collage poster depicting how they see contemporary media and advertising constructing their identities as young men or women. Students then present their collages to the class, explaining their choices. Pairs could be mixed or same gender depending on your classroom context.

As a class, analyse the posters. Ask:

What kinds of images dominate?

Is there a pattern of depicting particular kinds of objects, tools, body images, gender constructions, celebrities or products?

Whoor which groups are omitted or marginalised from the constructions used?

Are the depictions on the posters realistic or achievable?

Assessment

Have students keep a scrapbook of relevant texts such as articles,journal responses,photos and advertisements. Have them analyse the texts using critical literacy frameworks, and annotate and comment on the representations they have collected.

Investigating

Resources

• Retrieval chart (page 14)
• R5116 Canoe poi dance poster, 1950s
• R2279 Second World War AAMWS recruitment brochure
• R5045 New swimsuit styles, 1939 - asset 1
• R2268 'Mister, here's your hat!'
• R2731 Department of Commerce poster, 1942
• R7211 Persil Washing Powder - Their Day, 1946: 'Persil dazzle'
• R10856 General Motors Holden - The Time Is Now, 1966
• R2910 Beauty contest, 1970
• R5707 Sales promotion leaflet for Victa dealers, 1970 - asset 2
• R2270 'Shooting breakers?'
• R2729 'Wanted - these men to fight for Australia'
• R10936 General Motors Holden - FE Holden: The Average Man, 1956
• R10916 General Motors-Holden's - Monaro, Three New Models, 1968
• R10946 'Life. Be in it.' fitness campaign, 1977
• R10620 'Advertising Australia', 1880s-1954
• Examples of modern media advertising campaigns including tourism campaigns for New Zealand and recruitment campaigns for the defence forces
• Collection of contemporary magazine and television advertisements featuring young men and young women
• Clips from YouTube about Charles Atlas
• Collection of magazines aimed at a youth audience such as Chick, Girlfriend, Cosmo, Waves, Russh and YmiAustralia: the magazine for generation Y
• Clips of advertisements from YouTube focusing on beer, rugby and cricket

Teaching and learning activities

Being critical

To hone their critical literacy skills,have students examine a number of advertisementsfrom different media, including magazines and television, as theyconsider questions such as the following.

Who has produced this text?

To whom is the text addressed?

What is the text about?

How is the text structured? Is it typical of this genre?

Are readers directly involved in the text through the use of inclusive language such as ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘you’ and ‘our’?

Which groups will benefit from the text? Which groups will be disadvantaged?

What are the key messages of the text?

What attitudes underpin each message?

Whose interests are being served by the text?

Ask students to identify and list some of the specific techniques advertisers use to hook the reader or viewer in and to sell their products.

Missing in the action

View R5116 Canoe poi dance poster, 1950s, an advertisement for New Zealand tourism from the 1950s. Read the accompanying educational value statements. Ask:

Who is the target audience for this advertisement? Why?

What is its message?

What would you expect to see if you went to New Zealand on the basis of this advertisement?

Is this a true and fair representation of the country and its culture? Why or why not?

Would this advertisement entice you to visit New Zealand? Whyor why not?

Compare this poster with more recent New Zealand tourism advertisements such as the ‘100% pure’ campaign. Ask:

How have the audience, medium and message changed? Why have they changed?

Would this campaign entice you to visit New Zealand? Why?

As a follow-up activity, have students use the Retrieval chart (page 14)to compare the representations of young people in the two tourism campaigns.

View R2279 Second World War AAMWS recruitment brochure and read the accompanying educational value statements. Ask:

What was the historical context for this advertisement?

What was the apparent message of the brochure?

What was omitted? Why?

What could be the effects of this omission?

How does this advertisement reinforce the stereotyping of women that existed at the time?

How does it challenge that stereotyping?

Compare the brochure with a modern recruitment advertisement for the defence forces. Ask:

How have the audience, medium and message changed? Why have they changed?

~

Have students write an explanation, with examples as evidence, for why advertisers choose to omit vital information in their advertisements or include it only in the ‘fine print’. Investigate with the class their legal obligations for disclosure.

For richer or poorer

Show or identify a number of advertisements that target young people in your students’age group,as well as television programs that students are watching, and ask students to identify the main socioeconomic group that they target and portray.

Have students use the Retrieval chart(page 14) as a basis for the task.

Discuss the messages that are conveyed when advertisers focus on one socioeconomic group. Ask:

Is it okay to be poor?

What sorts of advertisements and programs promote or feature those in lower socioeconomic groups?

How do these kinds of images affect theaspirations and beliefs about themselves that young people in these groups might adopt? (The effects might be positive or negative.)

Investigate the growing problem of credit card debt, particularly amongyoung women. Set up a class debate on the statement:‘Advertising is the main cause of growing credit card debt’.

The body beautiful

Examine images of both men and women in advertising and movies, and identify the kinds of bodies that are portrayed as being desirable and acceptable. Ask:

How is beauty defined?

What constitutes acceptable and unacceptable body types?

How have developments in modern technologies such as imageediting changed the way the body is represented in the media?

Compare R5045 New swimsuit styles, 1939 - asset 1 with a modern swimwear advertisement.

View selected clips from YouTube about Charles Atlas.

Set up a class debate on the following statement:‘Advertising is the main cause of eating disorders’.

The changing of the guard

Use the following resources as a basis for discussing how the role of women was viewed by advertisers and the media in the middle of the 20th century, when technology made mass production possible, affordable and accessible to all.

• R2268 'Mister, here's your hat!'
• R2731 Department of Commerce poster, 1942
• R7211 Persil Washing Powder - Their Day, 1946: 'Persil dazzle'
• R10856 General Motors Holden - The Time Is Now, 1966
• R2910 Beauty contest, 1970
• R5707 Sales promotion leaflet for Victa dealers, 1970 - asset 2

Compare these representations with portrayals of women in advertisements found in magazines targeting young people today, such as Chick, Waves, Russh and Ymi Australia: the magazine for generationY. Ask:

What are the key changes?

Why have these changes occurred?

Investigate and identify the effect that the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s had on perceptions of women and their portrayal in the media.

Use the following resources, as well as a selection of advertisements from YouTube featuring beer, rugby league and cricket, to explore and explain the changing approaches over time to advertising that targets young men.

• R2270 'Shooting breakers?'
• R2729 'Wanted - these men to fight for Australia'
• R10936 General Motors Holden - FE Holden: The Average Man, 1956
• R10916 General Motors-Holden's - Monaro, Three New Models, 1968
• R10946 'Life. Be in it.' fitness campaign, 1977

Compare the approaches as well as the products in the earlyexamples with those used today in the media and advertising. Ask:

Have the changes in the way men are portrayed been as significant as the changes in the way women are portrayed?Why?

Discuss why advertisers both create and exploit stereotypes and the effect that this can have on young people and society in general.

Extension activities

Compare the number of advertisements targeting male and female audiences respectively, both in a newspaper and throughout the 7–11pm timeslot on television. Explain the differences in numbers and the reasons for them.

Examine the advertisements screened on television on weekdays between 9am and 3pm.

What sorts of assumptions have been made about the people who watch television during this time period?

What sorts of stereotypes arethese advertisements creating?

~

View R10620 'Advertising Australia', 1880s-1954, a collection of Australian advertisements that shows various advertising techniques from the 1870s to 1954, depicting the changing nature of Australian society.

Assessment

Have students select one of the issues dealt with in this section and critically analyse it using examples and evidence to support their arguments.

Bringing it all together

Resources

• Collection of magazines aimed at a youth audience such as Chick, Girlfriend, Cosmo, Waves, Russh and Ymi Australia: the magazine for generation Y
• ‘Fake or Foto’:
• Examples of commonfallacies (pages 15–16)

Teaching and learning activities

Magazine messages

Have students examine how gender has been constructed in magazines aimed at a youth audience, focusing on:

• appearance – clothing styles and colours, facial expression, body language
• depictions of the relationships between the models
• bodily representations of both young men and young women, and the activities they are respectively engaged in
• the language used, including the most common words and those associated with action, feelings, thinking or deception
• the types of articles and how they identify and represent the aspects of life that the target market for the magazine regards as being important.

Have students either write an article or construct an advertisement that would be suitable for one of these magazines.

In the media

Have students read or view news articles, media clips or programs about contemporary youth issuesand respond to the following questions.

Whose perspective is being presented, communicated or promoted in the report?

Whose quotes or opinions on the issue have been selected or included?

Whose views are mentioned first and thus portrayed as being the most important?

Whose viewpoints are not included?

Which other people or organisations are involved in the issue but have not been consulted?

Why do you think they have been left out or given little emphasis?

What is the purpose of the report?

What techniques have been used to appeal to the audience or create a particular slant?

Facts, faults and fallacies

Sometimesmedia reportsdeliberately attempt to appeal to readers’ emotions, create controversy or provoke public response to an issue by using generalisations or other techniques.

Have students collect examples of the techniques described in the Examples of common fallacieschart (pages 15–16), and include them in their scrapbooks.

Media manipulation

Engage the class in discussion about the concept and purposes of digital manipulation. Ask students to provide examples, such as the digital enhancement of particular celebrities and models. Show the class the ‘Fake or Foto’ website ( to explore examples and how difficult it can be to spot image manipulation.

Have them consider the implications for young people when images aimed at them in print and visual media (eg magazines, advertisements, film, and music clips) are enhanced.

When is digital manipulation acceptable? When is it not acceptable?

When should viewers or readers be notified that an image has been digitally enhanced?

How does the context affect our response to digitally manipulated images?

What are the social concerns relating to digital enhancement of photos or images?

Have students write a letter to the editor of a magazine that has announced it will no longer use digitally manipulated images, expressing their support or otherwise for the decision. Have them justify their position using examples and other evidence.

Drawing conclusions

Assessment

Have students prepare and givean 8–10 minute audiovisual presentation thatanalyses a magazine, television program or series of advertisements using the critical literacy techniques identified and used in thisunit. The presentation should include an introduction, a statement of position, evidence and examples to support this position, and a conclusion.

Writer:Victoria Anstey, Chancellor State College, Qld

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