Semiotics
Study of signs:
- Signifier – The form that you can see
- Signified – The idea or mental constructs created by the thing or form
e.g. A male toilet door. The male toilet door generates ideas to what could be behind the door being sterotypical things you would expect to see behind the toilet door.
- Denotaion – What you can litteraly see
- Connataion – The cultiral or emotional association
Representation
Cage of identity:
- Gender
- sexuality
- Age
- Class
- Disability/Ability
- Region
- Ethnicity
Representaion is a process:
Stuart Hall, an academic said, “Texts are encoded with meaning by the creators. The audience and then decodes the menaing “
- Preffered or dominant reading which is closest to producers inteded meaningly.
- Negotiated reading – The audience agree with some meaning but regrets some parts.
- Oppositional reading – The audience is in conflict with the text itself and its meaning.
Stereotypes
An example of a stereotype could be a negative stereotype “A widly held but fixed and over simplified image or idea of type of person, froup or thing”
Objectification
- Seeing a person as a thing disregarding their personallity, self capability.
Sexual Objectification:
- An instrument of sexual pleasure.
- Negative body image
Sandbox games Male and Female characters
Elizabeta Torres (Grand Theft Auto IV)
Elizabeta “Liz” is a charcater in Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) and The Lost And Damned (2009). Elizabeta’s role within the game is a high end drug dealer in Bohan in Liberty City. Elizabeta is very successfull and well connected, She has employed both Niko Belik and and Johnny Klebitz. She has a very strong and threatning appearence. She likes to wear clothes that could be considered to be indecent and lower class as she likes to wear animal printed tops and fur coats. The way she moves and speaks in the game makes her out to be threatening and dominating, She uses a lot of hand gestures and movements when she talks. Elizabeta was born in 1977 in Puerto Rico though the LCPD thinks she was born in Bohan Liberty City. She claimed that she killed a man who tried to rape her when she was less than 14 years old. When Elizabeta was 14 years of age, she moved to Bohan, Liberty City, during this time, she started her drug dealing business, shortly becoming very wealthy and successfull. Elizabeta’s has good gun skills as she often involved in gang wars and makes a strong leader. Elizabeta appears to be one of the strongest and threating females compared to others in GTA IV who are usually the damsels in distress or prostetutes which are just seen as an instrument of sexual pleasure.
Bonnie MacFarlane (Red Dead Redemption)
Bonnie MacFarlane is a major charcter In Red Dead Redemption. Her role within the game is a primary ally of John Marston. She is forst seen on the train from Blackwater where she is visiting her one surviving brother. Bonnie rescues John by the road after he is seriously wounded. Bonnie pays for him to seek medical attention and then provides a lodging for him whilt he recovers. Bonnie is the owner of MacFarlans ranch. She had six brothers but five of them died from illness or foolish choices. Bonnie is a very independant women as she manages the ranch herself, She is equipt with two weapons, a reveolver and the Repeater Carbine which she uses to defend her territory. Bonnie has a very working class life, she wears working clothes which include a very plain dress with a blouse and a waistcoat. She has her hair tied back and looks as though it is not looked after, She also does not wear makeup. Bonnie is very skilled at her working life as well as defending her territory. Compared to other women in the game who are mainly showgirls for the mens sexual plesure, Bonnie is very strong and proactive and will hold out well if she were being attacked.
Niko Bellic (Grand Theft Auto)
Niko Bellic is the main protagonist in GTA IV. Niko spent seven months on a cargo ship from eastern Europe which eventually smuggled Niko into Liberty City. Niko grew up in Yigoslavia, present day Serbia, where he fought in the Yugoslav wars. He later worked for organized crime sydicates in Liberty City. Niko moved to Liberty City beacuse he wanted a new life by living the american dream with his cousin Roman Bellic. Niko assisted Roman with his gritty taxi depot where he then went into organised crime for various mafia bosses. Niko is very protective over his faily and friends. He is withdrawn among strangers but has good manners and shows a softer side with with various love interests. Niko’s overall appearence is a scruffy with his shaved head and unshaven stubble, He has a very basic dress sense consisting of tracksuit bottoms with a turtle neck sweater and plain brown or greay coat. His animtion gives off a threatening appearence bu the way he walks and talks. He is a very strong character who can easily fend for himself in any situation. Compared to other charcters such as Bruce Kibbutz who likes to live in luxury, Niko doesnt mind ‘Slumming’ it in various safehouses across the city and living rough.
Yusuf Amir (Grand Theft Auto – The Ballad Of Gay Tony)
Yusif Amir is a billionaire real estate developer in Grand Theft Auto The Ballad Of Gay Tony (2009) Yusif was born in 1977 in Dubai to Abdul Amir, an extemely wealthy real estate developer. Throughout his life, Yusuf seeks to impress his father, a highly conservative businessman who frowns upon Yusuf’s life a reckless orgy of sex, drugs and spending. Yusuf was born wealthy as he claims to have a golden train which was given to him as a child. Yusuf is very relaxed and carefree man. He almost never worries about the problems in his life. Yusuf is also very cheerful and hyperactive. Yusuf Is a very skilled businessman and always gets his own way even if it means buying it. His only weakness would be his father who he always tries to impress and seeks gratification from. Compared to other male characters in the game, he is very strong because of his wealth.
Grand Theft Auto represents crime and violence as a positive thing. It is what the game thrives on and if there were no crime or violence it would not demonstrate what makes Grand Theft Auto what it is. Even the title of the game is about stealing cars. The crime in GTA is glamorised to give the character happines as they are rewarded. In the game, you are asked by gang leaders to kill another gang in which the character will be awarded with luxury items including cars, boats and houses as well as money and the character kills many gang members without any hessitants or worry about the law.
Audience Theories
Hypodemic Needle theory – Information from texts passes into the masses conciousness of the audience unmediated the experience and intelligance of the audience is irrelevent/not relevant.
Uses and gratifications
Audience are active and approach/use media for different reasons.
e.g
- Youtube – escapism, entertainment
- Facebook, Twitter – Socialise
– Entertainment
– Personal Identity – comparing yourself with identities in the media
– Personal relationships/interaction – Identification with character consume meaida to discuss with others.
– Information/education
Lara Croft
Positive
- Hyper sexualised
- Objectified
- ideal
- role model – Strong – very capable
- aspire to – Male roles
- goodie – Independant to men
Negative
- Aspiration – Might not be appropriate.
- Negative body image
- Ideal idea of women
- Still sexualised despite capability
Behaviour
Videogames are often seen as more ‘powerful’ or persuasive in terms of messages and representation and the effect they have on the audiences. This is because the experience is more interactive and immersive than other types of media – the audience has to take an active role in the experience and assume an identity.
This is why they are many Behaviourist theories used to understand games – the idea that the audience learn behaviours through imitation.
If we look at Bandura’s 1961 Bobo Doll behaviourist theory we can see why representations of violence, happiness or behaviour could have effect on the audience. Bandura believed there was four steps to learning from others behaviour.
Bandura – observing and imitating others
attention – to absorb the knowledge
retention – being able to remember
reproduction – duplicating the action
motivation – Positive (being rewarded)
Negative (fear of punishment)
If we take this theory and apply is to the representation violence in GTA we can see how it could potential effect the audience. For example, In the game the player is taught how to pick up prostitutes in a car and then take bake their money either by shooting them or running them over.
The effect the aggression may have in real life could be to solve situations
jackcraig94 