Hegemony in my own words

Hegemony is a means by which dominance of one social group over another has become naturalised. This does so  unconsciously rather than through the consent of the audience, through creating social constructs that seem to be naturally occurring.

Super-Market Sweep

Supermarkets often provide different ranges of the same products, that range from an everyday value option, to a more extravagant or luxury option. For Asda, these are the "Asda Smart Price" range and "Asda Extra Special". I have chosen to analyse the differences and similarities between Asda "Smart Price" chocolate chip cookies and Asda "Extra Special" All-butter Belgian chocolate cookies.
      Packaging is the first major difference apparent when comparing the two products. In the case of the "Smart Price" cookies, the packaging consists of a plain white packet, with green and black lettering. It simply states the product inside the wrapper, using the description "cookies containing chocolate chips", and the nutritional and ingredients. Although it is very simplistic, the design is quite iconic, meaning that it is instantly recognisable as Asda "Smart Price". Whereas the packaging for the "Extra special" has a much more regal theme. With a dark purple box, with cream and gold lettering. The Extra Special logo also contains a five star motif, suggesting that the quality of these biscuits is higher than other options available to the customers.  The packet describes its contents as "Rich and crumbly, baked with dark & milk Belgian chocolate chips", making them sound much more appetising than its Smart Price counterpart. Three sides of the box have the same design on them, with the fourth containing all of the ingredients and nutritional information.
      Another difference evident before opening the packaging is the difference in the amount of biscuits per pack. Although the Smart Price cookies have alot more biscuits, the Extra Special individual cookies are alot bigger in size.
     There is a distinct taste difference between the two ranges. While the overall taste, and chocolate richness was far higher in the Extra Special cookies than the "Smart Price" version, the "luxury" option was completely hollow. Even though the picture on the front of the packaging for these cookies depicts a very full, deep cookie. Suggesting that, although the packaging suggests that these cookies are the best quality, their actually, not as good as you'd expect.
      There is a big difference in price, with the "Smart Price" cookies costing only 38p, while the Extra Special cookies cost £1.67, meaning that the Extra Special cost more than 4 times as much as their value equivalent.
The Extra Special cookies are more attractive to look at, as well as looking like they are more expensive. This could mean that, according to the theories of Verblen, Badrillard, and Bourdieu , these are the biscuits someone would buy in order to show that they have a better social status than others, that they can afford to buy the better biscuits.  
      In conclusion, the Extra Special range of cookies, although they did taste the better of the two, were not very good value for money. They do however depict a better sense  of "taste" than their cheaper counterparts.
 
http://i826.photobucket.com/albums/zz190/RobynLouise23/cookiespic.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5gi68Xxtrk



Rhod Gilbert making fun of my home :(, and where I did my work experience! How Dare He!

6 weeks in!

I'm now 6 weeks into my university career. Its gone so fast. I suppose I should take this time to explain what exactly I've been doing, and how everything's going.
   So lectures, obviously the most important bit about this whole debt building exercise. I have three lecturers, and three modules a week. The first of which is Ashley, who teaches "Being Academic" at 9:15 AM on a monday morning. I'm finding this subject particualrly helpful for the other two. The jump up from Alevel writing to Univeristy writing is huge, and the prospect is pretty daunting, but this module is helping me become more confident with my wirting. Ive learned about things like plagerism, which, obviously when studying at university, is not only a huge temptaion, but also something thats easy to do accidently. Scary Stuff! This blog is for her module, and I have to present it tomorrow, which agian, is a little daunting. I do think this blog idea is great though, so much more fun, personal, and alot easier than writing and presenting a diary.
   Tuesday morning brings Cath's "An introduction to theory", which I must say, I'm finding the most enjoyable at the moment. The theories are really interesting, Particulalrly the feminist and post-feminist ideas.
   And so, onto my final lecture of the week, from Andy, "Consturcting meaning", also a very interesing topic. We've just submitted our first assaignment for Andy, a 2000 word Litreture Review of Semitocs. Although i found it difficult to write 2000 words, pretty much for the first time, I'm now feeling really confident about the course, as Im hoping (Fingers crossed) that I did quite well in it.
   So 6 weeks in, and im still enojying myself, I'm slowly getting used to the 9am starts agian. Ive confirmed to myself that media is the course for me, and im looking forward to the next 3 years :)
  

BA Media with Visual Cultures

Hi, I'm Robyn, i've just started studying for my degree in Media Studies and Visual Cultures at Uwic, Cardiff. Although i'm not intirelly sure what i'd like to do on leaving university, i'm 100% sure that media was the choice for me. The media as an industry is the biggest in the world, and I want to be a part of that. The film and music industry are a particular intrest of mine, and would like to presue it futher. Im so excited about starting university, and moving away from home. The course is very interesting so far, and i can't wait to really get my teeth into it!