A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representations of Females in Printed Advertisements (Case study of Payame Yaghoot Medical health Iranian Journal)

Abstract

AbstractPrint advertisements not only directly try to persuade buyers but also indirectly play a role in shaping their social attitude. An interesting area of research that as yet has received little or no attention is the study of the representations of females in magazines that their readers are mostly women. This study examined print advertisements in local family and health magazine from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective. It mainly focused on the use of women in advertisements and strategies employed by advertisers to manipulate and influence their customers. The analysis is based on Fairclough's three -dimensional framework. It demonstrates how the ideology of ‘women's portrait' is produced and reproduced through advertisements in popular local women's magazines. The findings indicated that advertisers used various strategies to take advantages of women. The advertisements promote an idealized lifestyle and direct readers to a certain extent into believing whatever that is advertised is indeed true. This study revealed how the ideologies of beauty and health are constructed and reconstructed through magazines by stereotyping how advertised products are synonymous with a better life. Advertising language is used to control people's minds. Thus people in power (advertisers) use language as a means to exercise control over others.Keywords: critical discourse analyses, gender role, advertisement, magazine