Mae's A Level Media Blog

Explain how representations in adverts are constructed to promote the product. Choose two of the adverts that you have studied. The product in the Old Spice advert is promoted in an unusual way as they have put different/ random items together for example Isiah Mustafa on a white stallion and holding a bottle of Old Spice shampoo on some diamonds in a beach. All these things don't really relate to the product they are promoting, the only thing that does relate to the product is the speech. Even though it is unusual, it is unique so it makes it stand out from other products and adverts which could make it more popular. The setting of the product being a beach, promotes the product as being luxury as the beach looks like paradise. This setting also links to the original advert for Old Spice as that was at sea. This would attract more of a wider audience as the advert is more modern than the original so appeals to more people. The advert suggests that men are 'unmanly' ...

1. Explain the political significance of the concept of 'press freedom' and its relationship to representative democracy. Why do you think freedom of the press is important? How much influence do you think the government should have about the things reported in the UK press? Press freedom is significant as it presents media institutions with the ability to produce stories in any political alignment that they desire and also publish any stories they feel are in the public interest. This is important as it means the public can receive news stories that they need to hear about even if they damage other people's reputations. It allows all news to be given to the public so that we have all the information we might need about politics and economics as well as celebrity stories in the tabloid newspapers. Without press freedom we would live in a country with state censorship where the government controlled the news we received. This means that they could only publish stories in th...