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Essay / analysis - 697
This is an advertisement for DKNY (Donna Karan New York), a company that makes money by selling fashion items to men and women. The text encourages the reader to accept that it is not so much about perfume as it is about the beauty of nature: “delicious gold”. The phrase that makes up the text of this image is dominated by the image of a young girl biting an apple. The word in the upper left corner thanks those who purchased this perfume for helping the environment rather than the company. Let us now use the three types of reading proposed by Stuart Hall. A dominant reading is one that reads with the clues of the text, accepting the values that the text signifies. A dominant reading constructs a recipient position based on the obvious meanings (denotations) that the text signifies. A dominant reading of the DKNY text would accept that DKNY is a positive institution, contributing to the well-being of society. This is supported by cultural codes in which the image of injured children being nursed back to health acts as a metonymy for the restoration of health to society as a whole. If we substituted a young adult for the child (switch test), the meaning would change because the paradigmatic values would be slightly different. Children signify (connote) innocence and hope for the future in a way that adults do not. A negotiated reading is one that, for the most part, agrees with the dominant reading and accepts the addressee's position, but negotiates with some aspects of it. For example, I might generally agree that it's a good thing for companies like DKNY to contribute to climate well-being, but I might not agree that DKNY perfume is a good perfume. An oppositional reading refuses the address.... . middle of document ......how children's health depends on complex medical and bureaucratic discourses and practices that require resources in many ways, through public and private funding. An oppositional reading does not necessarily condemn the text for not saying these things, but simply highlights the way it closes off this possibility, thereby oversimplifying the actual social and institutional relationships upon which a child's health relies. This could contribute to a more progressive way of thinking as charity, as part of the solution to managing children's health. It would also cast suspicion on the link between private enterprise, gambling and state responsibilities. She would dare to imagine a world differently, in which the possibilities suggested by the image, but closed in mythical expression, are explored and considered...