Key assessment - March

Compare and contrast the ways in which viewpoints and ideologies are encoded in Woman and Adbusters.

Woman and Adbusters display completely different ideologies. Adbusters have an anti-capitalist, complex and subversive ideology. Whereas Woman presents a singular, stereotypical and patriarchal ideology. Adbusters doesn't have any adverts and Woman focusses on stereotypical views. Ideologies are the belief's and views of the producer. 

One way adbusters encode their ideology is through the double page spread showing a person in a bath and a Zucchetti tap. The mise-en-scene of her hands in a gesture is a symbolic code for her begging for water however the image on the right shows an incredibly expensive tap which is a binary opposition showing the difference between the rich and the poor. This highlights one of Adbusters ideologies, anti-consumerism. The double page spread is a direct criticism of a luxury brand that some people may buy and suggests that if you buy the tap you are causing poor people to suffer even more. Adbusters also uses this double page spread to present a deliberately confusing and subversive ideology to challenge it's target audience who are the likely ones to buy this tap. Adbusters costs £11.99 which is expensive showing how their target audience are likely to be middle class. The woman within the bath is not presented in a sexual way due to the fact the close up shot focusses on the models hands and knees making it confusing and complex. Both of the pictures are high angled shots drawing a link the woman in the bath and the tap yet the two images are completely contrasting showing the binary opposition of rich and poor which highlights Adbusters ideology of anti-capitalist and anti-consumerist. 

On the other hand, Woman presents a completely different ideology to Adbusters and it is encoded through the Breeze advert. The woman within the advert is stereotypically pretty, which reinforces the idea to the target audience that woman need to look nice all of the time. This makes the audience want to buy the soap because if you buy it, you will become stereotypically pretty. The woman within the advert is not wearing any clothes and making the advert sexualised which reinforces the ideology of patriarchy within Woman Magazine. Because the advert has been sexualised it appeals to men. The target audience of Woman Magazine , working class, middle aged woman, are constantly being told how to look stereotypically attractive in order to appeal to men. This shows the singular and stereotypical ideology that Woman Magazine hold. The lexis of "because you're a women" alienates men, making women feel special that this soap is specifically for women and men can't use it. The article also includes lexis like "to be sure you are all over feminine" suggesting that woman must be pretty and using this soap will make it easier for them. 

Another way Adbusters encode their ideology within the double page spread is through the lexis of "pollution and interruption of water supplies have led to epidemics" which is making the audience feel guilty and putting the blame on them. Adbusters are saying it's as if their audience have caused people to not be able to get clean water and that they are the reason behind the epidemics. Guilt and blame are constantly reinforced throughout Adbusters to try and make their target audience see that they need to do something to help. Another ideology of Adbusters is the complexity of their magazine and how many of their articles lack anchorage. Within this double page spread it is unclear as to whether the woman is poor, why she has her hands is a cupped gesture, why there is a tap and many more questions that are left for the audience to decide. Adbusters purposefully lack anchorage allowing for their target audience to chose their preferred reading of the polysemic article.

Adbusters also have a very strong environmentalist views and how the world has many problems. This can be seen through their anti-consumerist ideology of how people buy things because of the brand name and that consumerism is causing our world to have many problems. These ideologies are highlighted within the article "Save the Planet, Kill Yourselves" which is instantly going against many regulations set by IPSO. However they believe that the audience are to blame because of consumerism so they need to stop buying things in order to save our planet. Within this article Adbusters list many things that are wrong with the planet yet never tell the audience how they can help the planet showing the complexity of the magazine and how they are inconclusive. 

Woman also encode their simple and stereotypical ideology throughout their magazine. They have the view that men are in charge of women and that hegemonic norms should be reinforced. Women target a lower class, 25-50 audience yet Adbusters target a well educated middle class target audience which reinforces the idea behind their simple ideology. In the article "Are you an A-level beauty?" many of the ideologies can be seen. The repetition of "A-level girls" makes it aspirational to the target audience yet very clear that they aren't A-level beauty. This shows how Women Magazine believes that the target audience aren't well educated and need help and guidance to be able to become A-level beauty. Women magazine also present incredibly sexist viewpoints that women should wear makeup to look pretty and fit in with society. The stereotypical view that all women are meant to be housewives and stay at home and cook, clean and look after the children is reinforced within this article because they can only reach to a-levels and don't have the intelligence or time to advance any further. Furthermore, the mise-en-scene of the faces is simple and generic which is anchoring everyone to be able to use it and further emphasising how the target audience of woman aren't intelligent. Women Magazine also makes assumptions that their audience are going to like makeup because it is a hegemonic norm and that they need to look attractive for men. Woman magazine is also very conventional and is a normal magazine whereas Adbusters aren't conventional and are complex to challenge their audience. Woman magazine has a brand identity and the mast head doesn't change week by week making it easier for the audience to recognise the brand.

To conclude, Adbusters and Woman have completely contrasting ideologies within their magazines which can be seen within the articles. Adbusters lacks anchorage, doesn't have any adverts and is polysemic whereas Woman has adverts to promote and reinforce stereotypical and hegemonic views showing woman how they should act yet also keeping their ideologies simple and clear allowing the stereotypical woman, who didn't have a good education, able to read the magazine.