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1. WaterAid and Representation
Lesson Objective
How can we analyse media products using Representation in relation to their
contexts and through the use of academic theories?
How useful are the academic theories? (evaluate)
What judgements and conclusions can be drawn?

2. Applying Semiotics (Barthes)
Apply Barthes’ Narrative code
Hermeneutic (enigma) - how does the opening section of the advert create suspense to engage
the audience?
At what point is the enigma resolved? How do the audio codes in the advert support this
resolution?
Semantic code - 0.31-0.45 How do the lyrics here “make me feel, make me feel, like I
belong...don’t leave me…” add another layer of meaning to the visual codes and enhance the
message of the advert?
Symbolic - what does the drought-ridden landscape symbolise to the viewer?

3. You need to understand Context….
WaterAid Historical, Social/Cultural and Political Contexts
Launching the Rain For Good campaign, Water Aid said that it had “deliberately broken
away from the traditional charity ad formula” in response to the public’s
desensitisation to traditional fundraising tactics.
The stereotypical ‘victim’ needing our help is an archetype with which the audience
would be familiar from many other charity adverts. This would perhaps make the more
positive representation of Claudia as a healthy, independent and musically talented
woman stand out to an audience who might otherwise have become immune to the
emotive representations conventionally deployed by this advertising sub-genre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiy3dkTw
PcQ

4. Social Context
An interesting intertext to consider would be Water
Aid’s ‘No Choice’TV advert from 2013 which is more
conventionally constructed and represents the
suffering of its main ‘character’ in a more explicit and
emotive way
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szT7grQn
HRU)

5. Analysing Representation
What are the stereotypical features of this charity advert?
How does the representation of Claudia break away from the stereotypical
representations and why did WaterAid choose to do this?
How is Claudia dressed? How does this contribute to her representation?
Find evidence in the advert which suggests:
• Claudia has had to grow up too fast because of the tough environment in which she
lives (Consider mise-en-scene)
• Claudia is independent (Consider camera shots/angles, editing and sound)
• Claudia is confident and happy, therefore someone the audience can identify with
(Consider mise-en-scene, editing and sound)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiy3dkTwPcQ
During the class discussion
add additional notes

6. Stuart Hall – Theory of Representation
Representation is the production of meaning through the signs in
a text.
He believed that stereotyping, as a form of representation,
reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits with
stereotyping tending to occur where there are inequalities of
power, as subordinate or excluded groups, are constructed as
different or ‘other’
Applying theory
Can we apply Halls theory to WaterAid?

7. David Gauntlett – Theories of Identity
Gauntlett believes that the media provide us with ‘tools’ or
resources that we use to construct our identities In the past the
media tended to convey singular, straightforward messages about
ideal types of male and female identities, the media today offer us
a more diverse range of stars, icons and characters from whom we
may pick and mix different ideas.
Applying theory
What kind of ‘identity’ might Claudia offer the audience according
to Gauntlett?

8. Liesbet van Zoonen– Feminist Theory
Van Zoonen believed that gender is constructed through discourse (spoken or
written communication) and that its meaning varies according to cultural and
historical context
Applying theory
How does the advert challenge cultural stereotypical representations of women?
How does the advert support cultural stereotypical representations of women?

9. Paul Gilroy – Ethnicity and Post
Colonial Theory
Gilroy believed that colonial discourses (spoken or written communication) continue to
inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era. We are now in
a ‘post-colonial’ era, this suggests the influence of colonialism is past. Postcolonial theory
suggests it is not.
Postcolonial theory looks at the legacy of colonialism, the continued dominance of white
culture.
Post-colonialists argue that when analysing images we should look at what is not there, just
as much as what is not
Applying theory
How could the representations of race within the advert be seen to reinforce colonial
power?