This chapter explores public mobile communication technology as frontstage and back-stage phenomena. We explore the design aesthetics of the mobile phone from the standpoint of its commercial origins and public re-interpretation, emphasizing fashion and identity in the co-creation and consumption of mobile communication technology. The mobile phone in this context is analyzed as both a physical icon and an item of decorative display related to fashion and design. We begin by noting how the early telephone, because it enabled people to communicate efficiently over distance, served as a status symbol. We then highlight the role of fashion and display to show how the symbolic meaning of telecommunication has been evolving. In terms of fashion, we look at the way in which fashion and style have been used to promote the mobile phone by industry. In terms of display, we look at the collateral promotion of other products by reference to the mobile phone and body–technology relationship. Finally, we examine co-constructions that extend beyond the narrow, utilitarian purposes for which the mobile phone was originally designed to show how novel links are forged to deeper psychological and existential processes. That is, the mobile phone is strongly connected with ingrained human perceptions of distance, power, status and identity. A few words concerning formal theory may be in order. Among the most prominent and influential sub-perspectives of the functionalist school are the “domestication” and “uses and gratifications” perspectives. They have been frequently employed by earlier researchers on mobile

Mobile Phones as Fashion Statements: The Co-creation of Mobile Communication’s Public Meaning

In the ordinary language of everyday life, as in the extraordinary language of sociology (be it academic sociology or Marxist), “ideology” is stigmatized as a pathological object. It is seen as irrational cognition; as defective discourse; as false consciousness; as bad sociology. That low opinion was one (not the most important, but one) reason why some scholars prematurely celebrated \"The End of Ideology.\" As the subsequent history of the 1960s demonstrated, the rumors of the death of ideology were much exaggerated.* The truth, of course, is that ever since Auguste Comte's critique of \"metaphysics,\" sociologists have been cheerfully celebrating such a death.

The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology: The Origins of Grammar and Future of Ideology

https://cyberleninka.org/article/n/1025438.pdf

Language for Tourism: A Review of Literature

Language is not neutral; there is a strong yet hidden relationship between language, ideology and power relations (Fairclough, 2003; Janks et al., 2013). The focus of this research is a global commercial English Language Teaching (ELT) textbook written in one part of the world and used to teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in another part of the world. This can often be problematic because the socially constructed system of content that it contains may be unquestioned by the educational system, administrators and instructors and, consequently, passed on to EFL students as legitimate knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, in other words, as reality. The first aim of my research was to interrogate the ELT textbook Top Notch 2 (TN2), which is used in South Korean university EFL classes for its ideological content. The second aim of my research was to investigate the same textbook for the ways in which it presented power relations. A further aim was to invite South Korean studentsl reactions to ELT textbooks and to my research findings. The ultimate aim was to determine the discursive manifestations of ideology and power in the discourse and images in TN2. The methodological framework of this thesis was selected to achieve the research aims and is based on the work of Fairclough (2001; 2003) and Kress and van Leeuwen (1996; 2006). To analyse ideology and power relations, I conducted critical discourse analysis on multiple samples and critical image analysis on multiple images. I used phenomenological research methodology, theorised by Husserl (1970), to identify South Korean participantsl responses to images of South Korea in the ELT textbook and certain general results of my analysis. My critical discourse analysis shows that TN2 includes five recurring ideologies: imperialism, linguistic imperialism, colonialism, orientalism and UScentrism largely through the discourses of consumerism. TN2 promotes discourses in which people are portrayed as social equals. The nature of the discourse of lfriendsr creates an unrealistic worldview which places foreign language students at a disadvantage because the need for a variety of pragmatic strategies is withheld, the lack of knowledge of appropriate pragmatic use can result in further unequal power relations being imposed on South Korean students. The critical analysis of the demographic data from TN2 and the critical image analysis demonstrate that high status power relations have been attributed to the USA, while lower subaltern status has been attributed to South Korea. My research contributes to the discipline of critical pedagogy, in which the social natures and lives of students are acknowledged (Norton, 2000; Janks, 2013 et al.). I argue that textbooks inclusive of South Korean representations of the world would better serve cohorts of compulsory EFL classes at typical universities in South Korea. Such a change would be both emancipatory and empoweringn

Ideologies and power relations in a global commercial English language textbook used in South Korean universities: A critical image analysis and a critical discourse analysis

Over the past 40 decades, spurred by McLuhan’s prediction and the growing importance of international marketing and communication in a shrinking world, studies on the role of advertising as it relates to culture have grown. Despite the increased interest on the subject, few, if any studies, have dealt with an African country. This article serves as an attempt to bridge that gap.The article used semiotic analysis to explore the cultural values conveyed in 500-plus advertisements in the Nigerian mass media. This semiotic analysis of the 500-plus advertisements determined that, excluding texts, the most common symbols found in Nigerian advertisements were photos of human beings and products. The study also found that Nigerian advertisements did not employ well-established Nigerian ethnic or national symbols. For example, most of the advertisements did not use or combine any of the major or minor Nigerian languages.

Advertising and Culture Semiotic Analysis of Dominant Symbols Found in Nigerian Mass Media Advertising

Advertising appeals to people in such a way that it affects their choices. Adver- tisers operate on the basis of different discourses that are both verbal and non- verbal. This article explores how contemporary discourses of advertising interpellate individuals as subjects. Furthermore, ideological work in the dis- courses, as Althusser has put it, are discussed on the basis of "voices" of adver- tisers. The theory is brought into practice in the analysis of the case studies: two of Mobitel's advertisements promoting the mobile phone. The semiotic- structuralist approach is used to discuss the denotative and connotative mean- ings of the advertisements and to point to the ideological nature of advertising and the discourses promising new identities and desired lifestyles. Advertisements are one of the most important cultural artifacts affecting life today. Even if one does not read newspapers or watch television, the images posted over our surroundings are inescapable, and advertisements have an immense influence. Their existence in several media gives advertisements a sort of independent reality that links them to our own life. As they appear con- stantly and thus share continuity, they form a world experienced as real. Advertisements provide a structure that transforms a language of objects to that of people and vice versa. Contemporary Slovene advertising is making that transformation through discourses and representational forms discussed in this article. We explore the advertisements of a new communication technology com- pany in Slovenia both because of the recent invention and rapid spread of mobile phoning in this country and because of the transparent introduction of new advertising techniques. It is the intention of this article to explore—using semiotic-structuralist analysis of the advertisements—how contemporary advertising discourses are practiced. Slovene national mobile phone operator Mobitel has created a systematic and organized advertising campaign that

Mojca Pajnik

Papers

Observing Discourses of Advertising: Mobitel's Interpellation of Potential Consumers