Disarming Britain- Practice Question

1.     What representations are offered in this poster- what representations might the audience expect to find in the programme it is advertising?

The poster represents youth as violent which we see from the child using his hand as a gun. We would normally see this as children playing but the dark lighting and the aggressive facial expression of the child aiming his fingers presents it as violent. The fact that they use children to advertise a programme called “disarming Britain” also represents to us that to get and use guns in the UK has become nothing more than child’s play.  It also represents to the audience how growing up for children in the UK is a very dark and difficult thing. They do this by using dark lighting and making the whole picture look almost dirty which makes us think it is very tough for these children to live in society the way it is. The picture also represents our society as one that often victimises others by having a clear contrast between the boys with one clearly being a victim with sad facial expressions and the other playing the criminal or bully with angry expressions. The audience could expect to see a representation of what could happen to their children, as the target audience is clearly parents, if gun use in Britain stays how it is. This is shown by how they use actual children in a violent scene you would expect to instead be occupied by young adults.

2.       What techniques is this poster using to attract an audience?

The target audience of this piece is clearly parents of young people living in the UK which we see from a lot of use of children and informing us what can happen to them when they get involved with guns which would certainly interest parents. The poster builds and attracts this audience in many ways. One way it attracts them is by having the imagery of a young child having a gun pointed at his head. This would shock parents and worry them it could happen to their child and make them want to watch the programme. They also use the fact that people seek out media that regards their personal relationships and that evokes emotion in someone, like in the uses and gratifications theory. They use this by making people who may have had some experience with guns causing harm or a child that has been endangered before want to watch the programme as it is something they can relate to and will connect with on a personal level. They also invoke fear in their audience to attract them to watch it. It states in the title that it is not areas but all of “Britain” that is at risk which would make people feel uncomfortable or even unsafe so they would want to watch the programme to feel more knowledgeable about the subject so that they can then feel safer. This plays on how it is human nature to want to know more and learn how to survive as best we can which would definitely draw in a wider audience.