Norman Fairclough's Theory Of Unequal Encounters

Norman Fairclough said that in all conversations there will be a clear dominant speaker and someone who is less powerful, although this could change throughout the conversation.

In this example text of two friends speaking on the phone, we can clearly see how power has been asserted:

Maureen: hi, Juliane
Juliane: Maureen (.) hold on a mo (1) I'm just er finishing this er work off
Maureen: okay [laughs] do you want me to call you back

Although Maureen has called Juliane first and therefore has power to call her the power is taken away when Juliane stops Maureen, "hold on a mo" the use of clipping shows that it is informal and is a conversation between two friends. Fairclough's theory is clearly established here as she is asking Maureen to wait whilst she finishes off her work. Maureen then continues to lose power :"[laughs]" Maureens laughter could show negative face as she is lowering her status and giving Julianne the authority in the conversation as she now has to wait for Julianne to finish her work before the conversation can continue.

Comparing and grouping texts

                                     Comparing and grouping texts:

Strong inclusions A, B, C and D are all adverts to some extent. A and B appear in magazines, which would be browsed through and could catch the eye of a variety of audiences with A using a large image to entice the reader along with both using adjectives and metaphors.

A uses “your skin is alive” this adds to the large image of human bodies which emphasises the fact that ‘your skin is alive’. The participant A also uses a rhetorical question “what are you doing to keep it healthy?” this could make the reader think about what they are doing to keep their skin healthy. It could also suggest that you need to feed and take care of your skin, just like you do with the inside of your body. This product could also suit an audience that could have skin conditions “sensitive skin” this broadens the audience even further as it could attract the attention from mothers caring for their children, to adults and an older generation who want to look after their skin. Text C is the back of a shampoo bottle, whilst the purpose isn’t strictly to persuade as the consumer may have already purchased the product, it seems the primary purpose is to inform the audience as it includes philosophy, tips and why you should use their shampoo. C uses a lot of verbs which is how the audience could be persuaded “driven”, “dedicated”, “create” these verbs might make the audience believe that the company are focused on giving the best care for the consumer.

Text D is the label of a water bottle the purpose of the product is to inform the purchaser about how the water is made “tasty hydration” the adjective “tasty” could suggest that this particular brand of water would be more enjoyable as it is flavoured. The word “tasty” is mentioned many times throughout the product label this could be to encourage the audience to buy the water. Text B has a primary purpose which is to persuade as it is an advert for holidays, it is from a newspaper therefore it could be glimpsed though by a range of audiences. Text b uses the adjective “enticing” this makes the audience want to see more to see why the adjective is used. The word “tempting” is used many times throughout the text this makes the audience curious as to see how they can be tempted.

Texts A and B can be grouped on the genre of the pieces, they are from a magazine and a newspaper which means they can be viewed as the readers are flicking through the newspaper/magazine. The target audience for A are adults as it is  a shower gel specialising in products that contain less chemicals to make your skin healthier, this could persuade this target audience to buy the product as they could have children, skin allergies or just want to benefit their skin. This is similar for participant B as it is an advert for a cruise, the audience would be adults as they would have to be eighteen to book the cruise and able to afford to pay for it.  

Texts C and D are similar as they are labels from the back of a water bottle and a shampoo bottle. Text C is the back of a shampoo bottle, the purpose is primarily to inform the consumer about the product however there is a secondary purpose which is to persuade as it uses rhetorical questions, and imperatives to instruct on how to get the best out of their product. Text D is the back of a water bottle, again the same principles apply in that its main purposes are to inform and persuade by explaining how the water is filtered, and verbs are also used to entice the reader. The audience for text D I find is more for young adults, as there is a combination of words between the adjective fantastic and the word lemon to create “Lemontastic” this appeals to a younger audience. Additionally text C also could appeal to a younger audience although I think that it could include older adults too as it is informative.  

 

Grouping Texts

Grouping Texts:

 

Strong inclusions A, B, C and D are all adverts to some extent. A and B appear in magazines which would be browsed through and could catch the eye of a variety of audiences with A using a large image to entice the reader along with both adjectives and metaphors. A uses “Your skin is alive” this adds to the large image of naked human bodies which emphasises the fact that ‘your skin is alive’. The participant A also uses a rhetorical question “What are you doing to keep it healthy?” this could make the reader think about what they are doing to keep their skin healthy this could suggest that you need to feed and take care of your skin, you need to treat the outside of your body like the inside. This could suit an audience that could have skin conditions “sensitive skin” this broadens the audience further. Text C is the back of a shampoo bottle whilst the purpose isn’t strictly to persuade as the consumer may have already purchased the product, it seems the primary function is to inform the audience as it includes philosophy, tips and why you should use their shampoo. C uses lots of verbs which is how the audience could be persuaded “driven”,”dedicated”,”create” these verbs might make the audience believe that they are focused on giving the best care to the consumer. Text D is more of a weak inclusion as it informs the audience on how the water is made, “tasty hydration” the adjective “tasty” could suggest that the water would be more enjoyable as it is flavoursome. The word “tasty” is mentioned many times throughout the water label this could be to persuade the audience to drink or buy the water. Text B has a primary purpose which is to persuade as it is an advert for holidays as it is from a newspaper and could be viewed as anyone could be reading the newspaper. Text B uses the adjective “enticing” this makes the audience want to read more to see why the adjective is used. The word “tempting” is used many times throughout the text this makes the audience curious as to see how they could be tempted.

Pinterest- Affordances and Constraints

The affordances of using Pinterest is that it allows you to have your own pin board, therefore you can pin anything to your own pin board e.g. the image above shows somebody has created a pin board about hair this allows them to pin pictures that they find pretty or that they would like to do to their own or somebody else's hair. You have the ability to pin anything, if you were interested in cooking then you could pin recipes that you could try out. It is also useful as you can go back to them whenever you want instead of spending hours scrolling through Google to find what you are looking for. It also allows users to pin things that they like from other peoples board to their own board, you also have the ability to follow other peoples board which keeps you updated if you like a certain thing that they have pinned.  You can also leave comments so the user can see your opinion.

Constraints of Pinterest are that there is no face to face communication and you could hide behind your personal profile which might not be such a bad thing if you want to keep your identity hidden for various reasons. In my opinion there aren't many constraints of pinterest, even though you can comment many people rarely do and many comments just say "nice" or "what a great idea" it is very rare that you would ever come across an offensive comment. Pinterest is different to other social media sites as it is more focused on your interests, not because you want to communicate with your friends as you cant talk to people on pinterest.

I think the audience is from teenagers and upwards as it would be too hard for someone younger than a teenager as they wouldn't have enough time or have enough interests to have their own pinboard. Pinterest is easy to use and a great way to keep your ideas or interests organised in one place.

Tony Thorne's Slang Theory

In class we have been looking at language and the internet, we were given a sheet which provided us with a lot of information about how language is changing. I decided to do some further research on Tony Thorne and this is what i got...

Tony Thorne is an author, linguist and lexicographer who specialised in slang and jargon. He talks about how language is changing and how we use language in our lives. Thorne’s theory was that more articulate children use internet slang as acronyms and initialisms, this is called code switching. He believes that teenagers are the ones that are responsible for new words and phrases as they use special terminology to exclude outsiders from conversations and so they have their own identity. He also said that prisons and schools create new languages; he said that new words are formed when you adapt and play with existing language.

Transcript

K: right(2) in the middle of the page(1) but more towards the left(1) draw a capital z but(1) on a slant to the left hand side.
E: how big?
K:(2) quite big
L:(4) im done
E: same
K: ok in the top left hand corner draw three lines(2) as if your playing the game when youre filling in missing letters.
L: which way are they going?
K:um, pointing down towards the z
K: then in the left hand side towards the bottom(2) but not directly at the bottom drawfour circles(1)in the shape of a slanted square
E: which way are they slanting?
K: more towards the right
L:(4)done
E: yeah

This is a small snippet from our transcript, i found it really challenging to try and explain to louis and ellie where it would be on the page from their point of view. I could havesaid things in more detail for example i could have said whether the lines were horizontal or verticle. I also noticed that i pause alot which was because i was trying to think of the best way to explain it to them.

Mini Saga

                                                                 Roller coaster




I squeezed my eyes shut.
I screamed until i lost my voice.
UP..UP..
My hands tightly squeezed the bar. White knuckles.
My stomach was in my mouth as butterflies danced inside.
My mother reassured me that everything would be fine.
My eyes opened- it was just a roller coaster.