Battle of Recruitment

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Uppsala University

Department of Informatics & Media Bachelor Thesis

Spring 2020

Battle of Recruitment

A Comparative Study of German and Swedish Militaries’

Recruitment Films

Authors: Anton Rosén & Charlotte Hamrin Supervisor: Martina Ladendorf

Examinator: Philip Zetterlund

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Sammanfattning

Studien syftade till att undersöka skillnader i framställning i två militära rekryteringsfilmer från Tyskland och Sverige. Syftet uppfylls genom multimodala analyser av filmerna och genom en fokusgruppsintervju beståendes av tyska och svenska studenter. I den multimodala analysen kartlades relevanta meningsbärande modaliteter för att ta reda på hur organisationerna framställer sig själva i filmerna. Fokusgruppsintervjun gav underlag till en kvalitativ innehållsanalys där publikens tolkning av filmerna kartlades med ett särskilt fokus på hur kultur har för betydelse för tolkningen.

Studiens teoretiska bakgrund utgörs dels av Althussers teori kring ideologier och statliga anordningar och interpellationskonceptet som det vidareutvecklas av Judith Williamson. För tolkning av fokusgruppsintervjun applicerades Stuart Halls teori om Encoding/Decoding och Kim Schröders multidimensionella mottagarmodell.

Studien kommer fram till att filmerna syftar till att interpellera, tilltala, publiken på skilda vis vilket leder till att två olika ideologier reproduceras. Innehållsanalysen av fokusintervjun pekade på att den kulturella bakgrunden kan vara en central faktor som förklarar varför filmerna tolkades olika av deltagarna. Ur ett samhälleligt perspektiv är studien relevant då den påtalar militära organisationers reproduktiva makt över ideologier i samhället. Förslagsvis kan framtida forskning undersöka kulturens roll för avkodning av militära rekryteringsfilmer på en mer detaljerad nivå. Till exempel skillnader i mottagande mellan landsorts- och stadsbefolkning. Studiens begränsningar utgörs främst av den korta tidsram inom vilken den genomförts och bristen på triangulering av data.

Keywords: military recruitment films, cross-cultural studies, state ideologies, interpellation, encoding/decoding, Swedish military, German military

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1. Introduction

For organizations, recruitment of skilled new workers is essential in order to guarantee their survival.

The better qualified a worker is, the better for the organization. In both the private as well as the public sector, some organizations have a harder time recruiting new labor. This can be the cause of several factors. Whether the company in question has a good reputation, is within an ethical industry and has a good work-life balance are, just to name a few, factors that people might take into consideration when choosing where they want to take up work. Military organizations in Sweden and Germany are not among the lucky ones who have had an easy time in their recruitment during the last decade (Ekot, 2018; Financial Times, 2019). These two military organizations are struggling to keep up. Trying to find a solution, they have turned to modern recruitment possibilities.

Over the last decade, communication through social media platforms has become one of the most important and effective tools in order to organize, mobilize and inform people. For public institutions, social media platforms as a tool has hence become quintessential for their communication and recruitment strategy (Deverell & Wagnsson, 2016). Therefore, it is all the more expected of militaries to have their own official accounts on social media (Riley-Smith, 2016). Sweden and Germany both use YouTube as a platform where they regularly post films for recruitment purposes. But how do they portray themselves in these films? What is being shown? What are they trying to communicate, and to whom? These are questions that have made us curious and that we wish to gain deeper knowledge in.

We believe that an investigation of recruitment films from each country could provide a clue to how countries with a somewhat similar culture and military organization structure are battling their recruitment problem. By taking a critical approach to the films, the values displayed in the films as a means to recruit more people will be connected to larger power structures. With our approach, we aim to tie together the field of critical media studies and cultural studies.

In the following, we will introduce our topic of research closer and explain our objective, presenting our research questions and a disposition of the study. This chapter is aimed to not only give a presentation of our choice of topic, but also a motivation to why it is relevant from a critical media and cultural studies perspective.

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1.1 Problem Definition

With the turn of the century, many military organizations in Western Europe shifted from conscription based service to relying on new recruits on a voluntary basis, so called all-volunteer forces or AVFs (Boene, 2011). Conscription is the mandatory enlistment in the military service. Because of this shift to AVFs, militaries had to re-organize themselves in order to attract new recruits. Sweden and Germany, two European countries that are geographically as well as culturally close to each other, are among the states that abandoned conscription in favor of all-volunteer forces (AVFs) by the end of the last decade (Washington Post, 2018). As a result, the number of new recruits decreased drastically. In Sweden, the shortage of recruits has been described as a “continuous problem” (Ekot, 2018) and in Germany the amount of new recruits reached an all time low in 2019 (Financial Times, 2019). It is to be noted that Sweden's military has partially returned to conscription. In 2019, approximately 20 percent of new recruits applied as volunteers (Rekryteringsmyndigheten, 2019). Albeit this reversal to mandatory conscription taking place in Sweden, we believe that the 20 percent figure shows that Sweden is still dependent on the active choice of its citizens to join the military. Competition against other organizations and companies on the labor market are therefore a reality for the military organizations in both countries.

Films are a powerful tool to reach out to an audience, whether it is a product one is trying to sell or to increase awareness of an organization or communicate values (Williamson, 1978; Blackman &

Carriere, 2016). The practice as such to use films for the means of employer recruitment is not a new phenomenon. However, the need for military organizations to use them in a digital context as a result of ongoing trends is interesting to look at from both a critical media as well as a cross-cultural perspective.

By choosing the most recently released recruitment films published on YouTube from Sweden and Germany, we will be analyzing both films in its content through the critical lens of Louis Althusser's theory on state apparatuses and ideology. We seek to gain a deeper understanding of what the films in each country signify in relation to ideological ideas and values. Judith Williamson's adaptation of Althusser's theories in her book “Decoding Advertisements” (1978) will also provide a theoretical framework on how the recruitment films will be analyzed. Since we are aiming to do a comparison between the two films that will also lead to a discourse in cultural difference, Stuart Hall’s audience reception theory will be applied, supplemented with Kim Schröders multidimensional model of audience reception. We believe that this balance of Althusser and Hall, two thinkers who each in their field have had enormous success yet differ from each other in their understanding of how an audience

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perceives commercialized films, will hopefully lead to new and interesting insights that will be of useful contribution in the fields of critical media studies and cultural studies.

1.2 Objective and Research Question

The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how the recruitment films from the military of two countries differ from each other. This comparative approach ties together with cross-cultural research that acknowledges the importance of culture when investigating social phenomena, i.e military recruitment films (Bryman, 2016). We consider this to be particularly worthwhile to investigate, as an enhanced understanding can be provided on the influence of culture over not only how the films were produced, but also how an audience with differing cultural backgrounds will receive the message. In a broader sense, the aim is to see how media and culture are intertwined with one another in order to create meaning. The choice fell on Sweden and Germany, as both countries are geographically and culturally close to each other. We find them to have a relatively comparable situation in their militaries with regard to the lack of new recruits due to current full AVF-system (Germany) or partial volunteer systems for recruitment (Sweden). Both countries' military organizations have turned to publishing recruitment films on their YouTube channels to attract attention. Lastly, the choice to compare Sweden and Germany was also made due to the fact that our research team has significant life-experience from both cultures, hence facilitating the comprehension of the film material in both languages.

From a micro perspective, we look to identify modes in each film that highlight their similarities as well as their differences. More specifically, we want to take on a multimodal approach in analyzing both films. From a macro perspective, we want to bring our findings into the context of how these films through a media perspective are being utilized in order to help military organizations attain new recruits. We are particularly interested in looking at cultural differences between Sweden and Germany in regard to their approach to the films. Therefore, we wish to gain insights from both Swedish and German perspectives on how these films are being perceived. We want to find out from a Swedish perspective how both films are being received, and the same goes for the German perspective.

We have three research questions that we wish to answer through conducting a study:

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- How is the German military portraying itself in their recruitment film “Alles Wir - Alles Hier”? How is the Swedish military portraying itself in their recruitment film “Många har många frågor”?

- How are the films perceived by Swedish and German students alike?

- What role does culture play in order to form opinions, experiences, and in a broader sense create meaning for the viewers watching these recruitment films?

Our study is mainly positioned in the field of critical media studies and takes on a qualitative cross-cultural comparative design, where we are concerned with the role of the media in legitimizing and reproducing power structures through the way it represents itself in recruitment films. Putting the focus on how people with different national backgrounds respond to the media also places this paper in the field of cultural studies.

1.3 Key Concepts

Digital Age: When talking about the Digital Age, we have oriented ourselves around Simon Lindgrens definition of the digital revolution (2017, p. 46). Lindgren explains that the digital revolution occurred from the 1990s onward, where a “digitally networked social reality instigated by the internet” has led societies to transform. As the term ‘digital revolution’ suggests a shorter time period than the Digital Age, we have used the latter term in this paper to highlight the fact that digitalization has been an ongoing transformation of society.

Digital Native: Lindgren defines a digital native to be a person that has a high affinity towards the usage of digital technologies (2017, p. 53). Lindgren diverges with his definition from other researchers as he claims that being born into an age where digital technologies were already widespread does not guarantee a high skill in usage. We accept this definition and hence refer to it in this thesis as well.

Recruitment films: Recruitment films as such can span from a great variety of video content that in one way or the other is used to recruit new workers for a company or an organization. In this thesis paper, we only refer to recruitment films that are used by military organizations.

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1.4 Scope and Limitations

Due to time constraints, our study will be kept within a reasonable scope so that a sufficient amount of time can be placed on our field investigation. Analyzing how media is being used by military institutions in order to attract new recruits can be inexhaustibly broad to investigate, as many different media tools can be subjected to analysis. We hence decided to only focus on two recruitment films - one from each country - in order to compare them to one another. Our research questions will therefore solely be based on the film Många har många frågor from the Swedish military (Försvarsmakten, 2020) and Alles hier - alles wir from the German military respectively (Bundeswehr, 2019). The reason for choosing these films in particular are due to the fact of them being the recruitment films that were released most recently, hence providing a fairer base for comparability than choosing films that are further away from each other's date of release. Although it would have been interesting to look at recruitment films from more than just two countries, or more films from each country, we decided to only focus on the two since it would otherwise have exceeded the scope of this study. In regards to the focus group interview, we were only able to conduct one.

According to Bryman, studies that use focus group interviews usually employ 8 - 15 groups (Bryman, 2018). Consequently, the findings in the content analysis will not be based on data that have sustained theoretical saturation.

1.5 Disposition

Chapter one of this thesis discussed the situation German and Swedish military organizations are exposed to today. We briefly mentioned our theoretical foundation and how these are relevant to study objects. Chapter one was concluded with a presentation of the aim of the study, research questions and limitations. Chapter two consists of background information about large-scale geopolitical changes and the development of new digital media in the 21st century. Chapter three primarily summarizes previous research on military recruitment films but also research on military recruitment in general and on films in general. In chapter four, the theoretical frameworks are presented. We discuss the Althusserian concepts of ISA (ideological state apparatuses), RSA (repressive state apparatuses) and Judith Williamson's application of interpellation to advertisement. We also present Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding-theory and Kim Schröder’s multidimensional model for audience reception.

Chapter five outlines the methods and methodology that were used to collect and analyze data. We also describe limitations and ethical considerations of this study. In chapter six we present our results and analysis. We first present findings from the multimodal analysis and then our qualitative content

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analysis which is based on data collected from a focus group interview. In the final chapter we discuss our findings at length and describe the possibilities for further researching on military recruitment films.

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2. Background

This chapter provides a short overview of two significant historical developments that carries weight for our research topic. We believe that this will put our research into a specific context and provide the reader with a better understanding of the importance of the research topic. Firstly, we will specify the primary reasons for the increased marketizations of military recruitment in Europe. This will give an understanding to why increased self-advertisement of the military has become so important over the years. Secondly, we will specify the development of the cultural turn towards visuality in the Digital Age, where as a result imagery and films have increased in importance from a communicative perspective. This will highlight the trend alongside technological developments to produce films for marketing purposes.

2.1 Ideological Shift in Western Governance

In the late 1980s, the post war period of geopolitical tension known as the Cold War was coming to an end and Francis Fukuyama, a renowned political scientist, conceptualized the neo-liberal end of history: "not just ... the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government " (Fukuyama, 1989, p. 4). We merely use Fukuyama's statement as a characterization of the ideological and political setting that the military organizations in Sweden and then newly formed Federal Republic of Germany would find itself in during the beginning of the 21th century and not an explicit truth-claim. Nevertheless, the threat from the Soviet Union had been dissolved and neoliberalism had triumphed. Neo-liberal ideals of marketization, economic efficiency and personal freedom coupled with a significantly reduced threat from Russia laid the way for a restructuring of the military recruitment systems in many European countries (Washington Post, 2018). The restructuring shifted the basis for recruitment from conscription to volunteering. Marketing and outreach thus grew in importance. The military organizations became a brand in itself that citizens freely consumed, i.e choose to join, rather than being forced into. This outreach and marketing is still an ongoing trend (Svenska Freds, 2018).

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2.2 Development of Digital Media

The early web and digital media were largely text based and static, creating little opportunity for a two-way or many-to-many forms of communication. A traditional webpage would consist of very few options of interaction. This form of layout on the internet is commonly referred to as web 1.0. In the 2000s, a new form of the web began to take form. New sites emerged that were designed to allow for more options of interaction to users. The interactive form was named web 2.0. The sites of web 2.0 thus introduced new sociological dimensions to digital media. Internet-users were now able to add and befriend others on social media platforms such as Facebook, or like a video on YouTube by clicking an icon. Today, these notions seem ubiquitous, but in the beginning of the 21st century these concepts of digital sociality were just starting to be introduced. The most essential difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0 were however that in the latter, any participant had the potential to be a content creator (Lindgren, 2017, p. 28-29). The predominance of sociality on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook allowed them to grow while at the same time transforming the information and communication ecosystem. On YouTube, organizations and people are able to create channels that function as video repositories available at any time. Whilst photographs and films for a long time mainly captivated people based on their realism, digitally mediated visuality can be fabricated, packaged and manipulated in many different ways. The dominance of platforms such as YouTube has, according to Simon Lindgren, led many scientists to argue that a communicative shift towards visuality has happened in the Digital Age. This has led to a visual turn in sociological and cultural studies: an increased interest in studying digital visuality (Lindgren, 2017, p. 109-111).

To summarize, the importance of outreach and marketing increased for military organizations at the beginning of the 21st century. Even though a reversal back to conscription based recruitment systems is happening, as for example in Sweden, outreach and marketing continues to be important for the military organizations. This is exemplified by their activity on YouTube. At the same time, culture in the Digital Age seems to have an inclination towards visual communication. Coupled with an increased ability to depart from strict realistic visual representations and freely package messages due to technological achievements, we draw the conclusion that audiovisual outreach such as recruitment films are increasing in importance, hence also the study of them.

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3. Previous Research

This chapter concludes previous research that investigates audience reception of military recruitment material, content analysis of military recruitment material and other studies we believe to be relevant.

Studies that specifically investigate military recruitment films in a digital context have been given priority. We believe that these findings have extra significance. Accounting for previous research will help distinguish the relevance of this study in particular. We will also refer back to this chapter in our results and analysis. The previous research referred to below was found by searching Uppsala library’s web portal and Google Scholar.

3.1 Pop-Cultural References in Recruitment Films

Narratives spread in multimedia form have been concluded to have a stronger impact on audiences than for example texts only (Manor & Crilley, 2019, p. 126). However, research has also shown that persuasive effects depend on the receivers preconceived notions of the sender (Chaiken, 1976, p. 254).

Influence is therefore connected to both the modality of communication as well as the receivers pre-existing notions about the sender. Contemporary concerns regarding media influence are largely focused on the effectiveness of modalities within certain contexts. For example, whether and in what ways violent terrorist videos function as powerful recruitment tools (Aday, 2019, p. 141). One interesting finding is that videos from the terror organization ISIS utilize pop culture references in order to affect wider audiences. These references function to create an emotional distance between the audience and the violent message (Aday, 2019, p. 142). Pop cultural referencing can thus be seen as a practice regulating audience spectatorship. Undoubtedly, this is connected to the increased ability to

“package” (audio)visual content in the Digital Age and has implications for this study. Do legitimate military organizations also make use of pop cultural referencing and if so, does the practice in some way relate to our first research question? Carriere and Blackman (2016, p. 402) suggest that recruitment films can be categorized as action-oriented or community-oriented. They argue that action-oriented recruitment films are stylistically similar to Hollywood productions, whereas community-oriented films take an approach more focused on society. Jester argues that first-person perspectives applied in military recruitment films immerse the viewers “as video games do” (2019, p.

6). Consequently, legitimate military organizations seemingly also make use of pop cultural referencing. We feel that our thesis has potential to offer further insights into how militar organizations use pop cultural referencing.

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3.2 Gender Representation in Recruitment Films

Of further relevance are studies that investigate representation of gender and sexuality in military recruitment films. Their discoveries can help us better understand military representation and audience perception of military recruitment films through the lens of gender and sexualities. Militaries have long been perceived and reproduced as stereotypical masculine organizations that focus on risk, aggression through use of force and strict gender binary identity (Jester, 2019, p. 6). However, research suggests that representations of the military are becoming more inclusive and equal (Jester, 2019; Strand & Kehl, 2019). Strand and Kehls (2019) investigation of advertisement campaigns from the Swedish Armed Forces suggest that representations of inclusivity is important in order to portray and reinforce an image of both the organization and the nation as progressive, the so called Swedish progressive exceptionalism. According to Strand and Berndtsson (2015), the discourse propagated through recruitment material should be understood as a dynamic negotiation “between the dreams and aspirations of the individual soldiers and the societies from which they are recruited” (p. 17).

However, the progressive turn has been criticized on the basis that the projection of a forward-thinking self can construct backwards-thinking and dangerous “Others”. The progressive move to make women visible within the armies also “makes it harder for policymakers and wider society to label and question violent practices within militaries because it is taken as common sense that women are a force of good” (Jester, 2019, p. 13). Although not expressed explicitly, we draw that the performance of gender and sexuality in recruitment films regulates audiences' spectatorship and sensemaking. We previously mentioned Carrier and Blackmans categorization of action-oriented and community-oriented recruitment films. Whilst action-oriented films focus on high-quality videography and Hollywood-styled representations of the military, community-oriented films depict social life and interviews (2016, p. 402). We believe that some connections can be drawn between Carrier and Blackmans research and the research done on gender and sexuality in military recruitment material. A combined reading suggests that action-oriented recruitment films display Hollywood-isitic representations of military strength and aggression which are associated with traditional representations of gender and sexuality. Consequently, progressive representations of gender and sexuality should be more frequented in community-oriented films. Interestingly, Carrier and Blackmans research also suggests that community-oriented films are more appreciated by audiences than action-oriented films (ibid.).

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3.3 Interactive Meaning in Films

We also want to account for previous research regarding interactive meaning of visual semiotics. This research does not have a specific focus on military recruitment films. However, we still find these studies to be relevant since they are fundamental to understanding the construction of meaning in multimodal materials. To begin with, Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen have suggested that social relations between viewer, objects and actors can be materialized through contact, social distance, attitude and modality (2006). We will expand on contact, social distance and attitude, but not modality. The reason for this is that modality revolves around multiple markers that concerns high levels of technicality, such as color differentiation and illumination. We will not have time to focus on these technical markers in our analysis. Kress and van Leeuwen argue that presence of gaze creates an imaginary emotional connection between actors and viewers (2006). The absence of gaze creates an imaginary disconnection that suggests a more formal and factual relation between actors and viewers.

Camera shots can be used to facilitate distance between actors and viewers. Long shots creates a distance that signifies public relations, close shots express intimacy and medium shots signify social relations. Attitude relates the point of view to how involved the represented actors are. A frontal point of view signifies involvement from actors within the film while a slanting point of view signifies detachment. Power is associated with vertical angles of the camera. High angles, bird eye perspectives, suggests that the viewer holds the power, eye level suggests equality and low angels suggests that the actors have authority or power over the viewers (ibid.). We understand that this section is somewhat theoretical and could be considered unfitting to account for under previous research. However, Kress and van Leeuwen’s framework has been established in many empirical studies yielding a high degree of trustworthiness. For example, Yao and Zhuo have applied the framework in their multimodal discourse analysis of a promotional video of the Chinese city of Hangzhou (2018). While this argument could be used to put any of our theories under previous research as well, we merely thought Kress and van Leeuwen's ideas too important to leave out.

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4. Theoretical Frameworks

In the following paragraphs, we will introduce two main theories that will lay out the foundation of our study. First, Louis Althusser's ideas about the state and its close link to ideology. Althusser argued that state institutions such as the military were in need of an instrument that conveyed an ideology in order to secure reproduction of labor (Althusser, 1971). He also discussed the concept of interpellation which was further developed by Judith Williamson, specifically applying it on advertisement (Williamson, 1978). A critique against Althusser is that he failed to consider the differing receptions of audiences. He understood them to be passive absorbents of an ideology. Stuart Hall recognized that audiences react differently to impressions from the media depending on multiple factors, which he stipulated in his Encoding/Decoding theory (Hall, 2006). However, Hall's theory has also been criticized on several points. We will present this critique and account for Kim Schröder’s multidimensional model of mass media reception. Schröder’s model is based on Hall's ideas but builds on empirical findings that contradict or mismatch the theory of Encoding/Decoding

4.1 Critical Theory on State and Ideology

As this study is aiming to take a critical approach toward the recruitment films, applying Louis Althusser's theory on state institutions and ideologies seemed to be an adequate choice. Althusser looks at the military as a state institution through a critical lens that makes use of media instruments in order to convey an ideological message. Furthermore, the concept of interpellation that was coined by Althusser provides a classical approach within critical studies on media. Despite Althusser's theory being a few decades old, his theories remain applicable and interesting when trying to understand the motivation of state institutions coupled with the use of media(Althusser, 1971).

In line with other Marxist thinkers, Althusser believed the state to be a repressive one. The state, as a repressive machine, lets the ruling class, either referred to as the aristocracy or the bourgeois or both, dominate the working class. Consequently, the working class is subjected to the capitalist exploitation of the former (Althusser, 1971, p. 92). Althusser thus refers to Marx’ definition of the state apparatus, where not only the police, prisons and courts are included, but also the military. Nevertheless, Althusser found Marx’ definition of the state apparatus to be rather vague, claiming it to still be in a

“descriptive'' state where no specified theory can be deducted from it (ibid.). This is why he went on to make a distinction between the repressive state apparatus (RSA) and the ideological state apparatus (ISA), which will be further discussed in detail in the section below.

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Besides Althusser's understanding of the state, it is also interesting to take a closer look at his conception of ideology. The reason Marxists were so interested in ideology in the first place is that it is an important concept for social critique. One big question they tried to answer was: why do people opt for an outcome that is in fact not in their best interest? Althusser believed that the people’s internalization of ideology already started in school (which he also describes as the most influential ideological state apparatus). Through the educational system, we are not only taught how to read and write, but also taught social code and the way to think - all carefully designed to fit the capitalist agenda (Althusser, 1971). It hence helps the ruling class to maintain the status quo. The working class thus internalizes ideology because they are lacking self-consciousness (ibid.).

“Ideology is a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence” (Althusser, 1971). So, what this means is that an ideology is not the reflection of the real world as it presents itself. Instead, it is the relation that we think we have to it is what is the defining factor for the ideology that is internalized. This is an important concept, since he here takes on a different approach than Marx in The German Ideology, who claims that ideology is a pure illusion.

Ideology, according to Althusser, is not an illusion. It exists within reality (Hamza, 2016, p. 68; Kang, 2018).

4.1.2 Repressive State Apparatus & Ideological State Apparatus

After having introduced Althusser's ideas around the state as an apparatus and his definition on ideology, one ought to take a closer look at the distinction he made between the RSA and ISA. RSAs maintain rule by force (physical or otherwise) and operate to support capitalist class structure by repressing threats to those structures. The RSA are institutions that belong to the public domain, building the foundation blocks of our society - the government, the administration, the military, the courts, the police, etc. (Althusser, 1971, p. 96). The RSA is to be seen as one entity, one structure of state. It constitutes an “organized whole whose different parts are centralized beneath a commanding unity” (Althusser, 1971, p. 100).

ISAs, in contrast to RSAs, operate less by force and repression and more through ideology. They hence encourage individuals to imagine their place in and relationship within the societies in which they live. Althusser gives examples such as the religious ISA, the educational ISA, the family ISA, and the media ISA (Elliott, 2006, p. 206). The ISA provides in this sense a much broader plurality of domains than the RSA. Whereas the RSA secures its position under one centralized unity, a

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representation of the ruling class that is, the only thing that unifies the ISA is ideology - the ideology of the ruling class (Althusser, 1971, p. 100; Hamza, 2016, p. 68). It is however important to note that one state apparatus cannot be without the other - if the RSA were to be without an ISA, having a structured society would not work, and vice versa. This goes back to the classical Marxist idea that first, there is rule by fear (RSA), and this in turn needs to be enforced by an ideology (ISA). Hence, they are in a continuous interplay with one another (Althusser, 1971).

Apart from the fact that the RSA and the ISA are necessary in order to keep the ruling class at power without any revolutions and revolts, these two apparatuses are also incredibly important to secure production and reproduction in a capitalist system. In order for production, but especially reproduction to occur, there has to be some ideology that the great masses believe in. Production and reproduction is not just about commodities, but also about labor. Althusser made great advances in the Marxist way of thinking by explaining that - besides wages - the only way to secure reproduction of labor is through an ideology (Hamza, 2016, p 70; Mieszkowski, 2006, p. 157). Ideology and ISAs work through interpellation. Institutions like churches, schools, families, and mass media “call” on citizens to enforce them to think in particular ways about their own identities, as well as their relationships to social institutions, in order to act accordingly that is in line with the capitalist system (Wolff, 2005, p.

3).

4.2 Interpellation

Interpellation is a concept that is relevant in order to understand how we embody and act out an ideology. A simplistic example is of you walking down the street, then hearing somebody call out

“Hey, you there!”, which inevitably makes you react and turn around with the intention of responding, recognizing that you were the individual subject being spoken to. This is an act of interpellation (Althusser, 1971). Judith Williamson (1978) took this idea around interpellation and applied it to how people perceive advertisements. Advertisements target us in a way that makes us feel spoken to, despite not knowing exactly who the speaker is. If somebody is depicted within the advertisement itself, we might get the sensation that that person is speaking to us, but the actual creators of the appellation from the advertisement are people we neither hear nor see. Due to advertisements not having a ‘subject’, the person behind an advertisement is unknown to the receiver, hence leaving a gap between the speaker and the listener. We must therefore instill this gap with meaning creation, which is done through the ideological ideas that we have built our belief system around. This internalization of an ideology is interpellation. The individual is “always already a subject”

(Althusser, 1971) - never autonomous, human agency hence being an illusion. Through the process of

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interpellation, the individual becomes the agent of an ideology. Williamson makes the point that in advertisements, an appellation towards ‘you’ is being made. In reality, the advertisement does not know who ‘you’ is, they are hence speaking to an imaginary ‘you’. It is only through interpellation that we exchange this ‘you’ with our actual selves (1978, p. 50). We instill meaning into the advertisement so that it was us in particular being spoken to. Humans are social creatures that want to feel a need to belong, a place in society that we can orient ourselves around. Products are often advertised in a way that give us this sense of belonging - whether it is to a big group within society as a whole, or a small exclusive group. “People like you[...]” is an example of a phrase used in advertisements that depicts this phenomenon well. Who are “people like me”? We make up our mind on who we associate ourselves with, and this is entirely done upon an ideological concept of who we are within society. We think that we determine for ourselves who we define ourselves to be, but it is exactly this fallacy of individualistic perception that Althusser sees as being part of the reiteration of ideology. Through interpellation, we fail to notice that the advertisement in fact speaks to a great mass of people, since it appeals to the individuality and the uniqueness of character in every one of us. By believing that the advertisement only speaks to us, we as the advertisement’s subject do not realize that by thinking we are unique in this sense of it speaking to us as an individual, we are actually part of a homogenous group of people who all believe that it is only us the advertisement is appealing to (Williamson, 1978, p. 52-54). Targeting individualism has proven to be an effective tactic within advertisement. As interpellated subjects, we are “trapped in the very illusion of choice; in the illusion of an identity choosing its action in accordance with its inherent characteristics (Williamson, 1978, p.

54).

4.2.1 Interpellation and Media

Apart from analyzing interpellation through the lens of advertisement, numerous theorists have applied Althusser's interpellation on several forms of media. In the late 70s, cultural theorists such as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer have argued that the homogeneity of mass media interpellate passive subjects (1979). Adorno and Horkheimer hence agreed with Althusser that the people submit to ideologies that interpellate them as passive, thus complying with their own domination. In the same manner, Gauntlett echoes Adornos and Horkheimer's argument by saying that “interpellation occurs when a person connects with a media text: when we enjoy a magazine or TV show, for example, this uncritical consumption means that the text has interpellated us into a certain set of assumptions, and caused us to tacitly accept a particular approach to the world” (Gauntlett, 2002).

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In order to better understand the relationship between a medium and its audience, many film scholars have made use of the interpellation theory. Structural film critics see the film as a “pre-existing structure… that interpellates the spectator, so constituting him/her as a subject” (Lapsley & Westlake, 1988, p.12). Particularly feminist film theorists have incorporated the notion of interpellation by taking the stance that the classical cinema as an ISA positions viewers to identify with the male protagonist (Mulvey, 1975).

4.3 Encoding/Decoding

Cultural theorist Stuart Hall developed his theory on audience reception called Encoding/Decoding in the 1970s. The theory was developed in response to the dominant theories of communication at that time, who often viewed communication as linear and had an underlying behavioristic perspective. The theory sought to incorporate audiences' sensemaking as an important factor to understand the influence mass media had on society (Bengtsson et al., 2017, p.74; Hall, 2006, p.166). In essence, Hall argues that there can be no influence of mass media without meaningfulness and that meaningfulness can be achieved in different ways. Hall viewed communication as a complex process consisting of connected yet distinct modalities: encoding/production, distribution and decoding/consumption (Hall, 2006, p.163). According to Hall, the production and reception stages in this process act as determining moments for the formation of meaningfulness. Institutions that produce messages and the audience of these messages do not exist in “empty space”. They are part of the broader socio-cultural and political fabric with specific frames of knowledge, relations of production and technical infrastructures. On the production end, Hall argued that producers, e.g. the military, code the dominant ideas and norms of society into the message in order to make it as viable as possible to larger audiences (Berglez, 2012, p.59). By encoding messages according to a majoritarian logic, powerful institutions try to control audiences’ interpretations of messages, privileging some interpretations before others. The message then becomes realized in an act of consumption by the decoders and this is when meaningfulness arises.

However, the audience does not necessarily decode the message according to the privileged interpretation handed to them. The incoded discourse and the decoded discourse can be asymmetrical to varying degrees (Berglez, 2012, p.60). Hall categorizes three hypothetical positions of interpretation. In the dominant-hegemonic position^, audience members follow the interpretation enjoined by the producer. The viewer operates inside the dominant codes, more specifically they reproduce the same codes, and in extension the same discourse which the producer does (Hall, 2006, p.171). In the oppositional position, the viewer opposes the enjoined interpretation. They operate

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within an oppositional set of codes. Hall gives the example of a person who listens to a debate on limitation of wages but decodes mobilizations, mentions, of “national interests” in the message as

“class interests” (Hall, 2006, p.172-173). Between these polar opposite positions is the negotiated position. According to Hall, this is the most common position of interpretation (Bengtsson et al, 2017, p.75). An interpretation in this position contains both hegemonic and oppositional elements. As Hall puts it: “It accords the privileged position to the dominant definitions of events while reserving the right to make a more negotiated application to “local conditions”, to its own more corporate positions.” (Hall, 2006, p.172). The interpretation adheres to the dominant position on macro levels but opposes micro levels. Hall gives the example of a worker who listens to an argument about limiting the right to strike. On a level of “national interest” the decoder adopts the hegemonic definition and agrees that wild strikes are bad for the economy. However, this has little or no relation to the workers own willingness to go on a strike for better pay and conditions (ibid.).

In sum, the reproduction of societal ideology, the influence mass media has over society, can never be fully controlled by either encoders or decoders since the message is open to interpretation and the members of the audience are not simply passive receivers.

Fig. 1: Stuart Hall - Encoding/Decoding, 2008, p.165 in Media and cultural studies: KeyWorks ^by Durham & Kellner

4.3.1 Limitations and Critique of Encoding/Decoding

In the study The “Nationwide” Audience^, David Morley sought to falsify Hall's theory. The theory was applied to the audience of the British current affairs television program Nationwide. The investigation hardly found any interpretations that could be categorized as oppositional, the closest was when individuals shut off the TV in frustration (Bengtsson, 2017, p.75). The Encoding/Decoding

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theory focuses on collective production processes situated in a traditional mass media setting.

However, the production processes in for example a digital setting look different (Bengtsson, 2017, p.77). Kim Schröder criticizes the Encoding/Decoding-theory of being too one-dimensional. Schörder argues that the categorization of dominant, oppositional and negotiated interpretations presupposes that messages carry the dominant ideology and that encoders inherently strive towards creating cultural dupes out of decoders. This perspective focuses too much on class and ideology according to Schröder, and does not differentiate various positions media producers may take in relation to the dominant ideology. The theory also simplifies the complexity of actualized audience reception (Schröder, 2003). We believe that this critique warrants that we supplement Hall’s theory with Schröders more recent multidimensional model.

4.4 Multidimensional Model of Mass Media Reception

In order to account for the flaws of Encoding/Decoding, Schröder developed an empirically based multidimensional model of audience discourse. The model consists of six dimensions: Motivation, Comprehension, Discrimination, Position, Evaluation and Implementation (Schröder, 2003).

The motivation aspect deals with how motivated the receiver is and what type of motivation the receiver has. According to Schröder, this aspect involves both cognitive and affective processes.

When investigating the motivation aspect, we are actually determining the “link of relevance”

between the receiver's values and the values in the message, i.e the values of the producers. Schröder gives the following example: “[...] a reader feeling so hostile towards the Greenpeace logo recognized in the corner of an ad as to immediately turn the page of the magazine without bothering to make sense of the other verbal and visual signs in the ad.” (Schröder, 2003, p.244-245). The motivation aspect should be understood as a continuum. It varies between degrees of weak to strong involvement and a priori motivations towards specific genres may exist (Schröder, 2003, p.245).

The comprehension aspect deals with culturally established signs within the framework of social semiotics. The encoded media meanings can be decoded varyingly by the audience according to macro-social factors (nationality etc) and micro-social/situational relations. The comprehension aspect should be understood as a continuum where audience members can totally diverge from or correspond to the intended meanings (Schröder, 2003, p.245-246).

The discrimination aspect deals with how the audience perceives the message from an aesthetic perspective. More specifically, does the audience feel that the message has been constructed or is it an

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“unquestionable, transparent representation of social reality [...]” (Schröder, 2003, p.247). Here the continuum varies between immersion to critical distance (Schröder, 2003, p.248).

The position aspect deals with subjective attitudes audiences have towards the message. The continuum deals with attitudinal responses that vary from acceptance to rejection of the message position and the elements within the message which the audience claim to determine its position.

Acceptance of a message does not mean that the audience member ascribes to the dominant-hegemonic interpretation conceptualized by Hall. Rather, it means that the audience member is in agreement with what they perceive the message to be. According to Schröder, acceptance is often an unaware position. We do not really think why we are in agreement with what we perceive. When audiences reject a message on the other hand, it is often the result of a conscious effort (Schröder, 2003, p.248 - 249).

The evaluation aspect connects directly to Hall's categories of interpretation. This aspect seeks to understand the audience's interpretation of the message along a continuum of social discourse where positions can vary from hegemonic to oppositional. According to Schröder: “[...] readings may represent any position on this continuum, including the ‘negotiated’ position of the Hall model, or may ‘commute’, between positions in ideologically contradictory ways.” (Schröder, 2003, p.250).

Commution in this context means that a viewer can alternate between positions (ibid.).

Lastly, there is the implementation aspect. This relates to how the receiver makes use of the message in everyday life - for instance in meetings with institutions and other people. This connects audience reception to social change. Schröder mentions the example of interest groups who monitor television programs in order to improve conditions for certain groups (Schröder, 2003, p.253).

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Figure 2: Multidimensional model of reception discourse - Schröder, 2003, p. 243

4.5 Theoretical Summary

In the following study, Althusser’s concept on ideology as well as the RSA and ISA will be applied.

Despite the controversies around Althusser's work from fellow scholars, we acknowledge that, despite leaning to a Marxist approach, Althusser’s work has intellectual value. His structuralist views on dominance and power in societies lets ideological apparatuses founded throughout social, governmental, religious, and educational sectors play an essential role in social formation. This is inclusive of military recruitment films. Althusser’s notions can be helpful in order to understand how state institutions such as the military operate through maintaining an important role in the functioning of a state by making use of recruitment films. Althusser's stance on individuals' ideas and beliefs being nothing but a byproduct of pre-existing institutions provides an interesting theory to personal agency being an illusion. Ideologies, working through individuals without them realizing it, provides a possible explanation to the motivations of how state institutions brand themselves, in our case the military through recruitment films, in order to have appeal to the people. Although Althusser provides us with a framework to make sense of the recruitment film as a tool to legitimize the military's position, his understanding of individuals being passive recipients of the films is a standpoint that fails to consider the fact that not all audience members experience films in the same way. This is where we take a step back from Althusser and take on the ideas of Stuart Hall on reception analysis, and

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extensively Kim Schröder’s adaptation on Hall. Hall acknowledged that the sender encodes a message influenced by ideology, but that the decoding process of the audience must take into consideration certain socio-demographic categories in order to make sense of how they receive the message. The focus hence lies in understanding the interplay between culture, audience, and power so that a conclusion can be drawn as to how a dominant ideology can be replicated or changed through audience reception. It is thus our aim to achieve a combination of the ideological views of Althusser as well as the approach of Hall by considering cultural differences that give room to the notion of individuals perceiving films differently.

Since the analysed material will be films, a particular focus on audience reception theories was formed. Therefore, Halls and Schröders theories became suitable for a framework that lets us better understand the reaction of audiences. Since Althusser specifically theorized on military institutions and their use of media as a power tool, this became instantly relevant for this study as well. The concept of interpellation that Williamson conceptualized in advertisement strategies was included as well in order to provide a further theoretical framework of the content of the films and how the audience is being captured. Both Althusser and Hall themathize extensively on the topic of ideologies in states, which couples these two main theories well together.

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5. Method

In this chapter, we will present our methods chosen that build the foundation for our research analysis.

We will discuss the advantages as well as drawbacks with each method, and why we believe each method is best suited to help answer our research questions. A constructive approach will be applied, which means that we understand the social reality to not be an objective one, but rather that it can be interpreted in different ways, all depending on the individual's understanding and interpretation of the world (Sohlberg & Sohlberg, 2013). The social reality is hence a social construct that can be interpreted with the help of an understanding of how others make sense of phenomena around them.

For us as researchers, this means that the social reality is reliant on the interpretation of the researcher, since it is lacking in objectivity (Sohlberg & Sohlberg, 2013). We will therefore be taking an empirical inductive approach within epistemology. An idealistic as well as phenomenologist approach in ontology will also guide our study.

5.1 Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Multimodality is a term commonly used to describe communication, representation and interaction as something more than just language in itself. In multimodality, the social interpretation of language and its meanings are extended to modes. These modes consist of semiotic resources that are employed in culture. Semiotics is a term meaning “the study of signs”. Examples for such semiotic resources or modes would be image, writing, gesture, speech and posture. Therefore, by looking at the modes and semiotic resources someone chooses for communication, the traditional conjunction of language is put in the background. It ought however to be made clear that multimodality in no sense aims to side-line the importance of language, but takes on the perspective that language is nested and embedded within a wider semiotic frame which ought to be analyzed (Jewitt, 2009). The aim lies essentially in understanding how the combination of semiotics interplay with one another in order to create meaning (Machin & Mayr, 2012; Ledin & Machin 2018). Typography also plays an important role when analyzing textual elements in this form of analysis as a semiotic resource. Serafini (2012) suggests looking at weight, color, size, slant, framing, formality and flourishes in order to analyze textual elements.

In recent years, a multimodal approach to the study of video and films has become all the more popular due to the complexity in their meaning-making processes (Jewitt, 2009). Films include

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multiple elements involving communication, such as text, music, symbols etc., this approach provides a holistic understanding of the meaning conveyed by the film medium. This model also takes into consideration the structures in society, trying to highlight ideas, sets of values, as well as identities that incuse its communication. Discourse as such is in the multimodal analysis understood to be closely linked with social practices. Hence, this model is applicable for questions involving political as well as societal processes and how its communication favors or disfavors specific groups in society (Eriksson & Johansson, 2019, p. 255). This involvement of socio-political processes makes the multimodal approach relevant for this study, as it is the aim to understand in a wider context how the films are reiterating societal and cultural norms. Furthermore, this approach seems the most eligible since the focus lies within recognizing parts in each film not only in order to put them in contrast to one another, but also to put them into a greater perspective of how meaning has been created.

A multimodal approach to putting films into a greater socio-cultural and socio-political context knits on smoothly to our theory on meaning creation through interpellation of an ideology. Discourse in itself is always present in the sign at every level and the sign itself is what forms the ideological consciousness; i.e the system of interpellation. The analysis of the recruitment films offers a greater sociological imagination for us to understand the wide discourses and institutional processes and dynamics of hegemony that shape the choice to use them (Machin, 2016). Recognizing that the content of a film is not solely just what is objectively conveyed; instead rather seeing a necessity of looking at semiotics that go beyond the surface, is what this study is aiming to do. Focusing on specific modes and comparing them between the two films will be helpful in order to understand how they differ from each other, hence providing a foundation once we move on to trying to understand how Swedish and German spectators of the films react to them.

When taking the multimodal approach, the researchers are given the choice of deciding which modes to focus on during the analysis (Jewitt, 2019). In case of the military recruitment films, it is important to state which modes will be observed beforehand. Applying these modes on both films consequently provides us with the comparative approach that we wish to take throughout our analysis. Nevertheless, what needs to be kept in mind is that due to this freedom given to the researcher, a certain amount of subjectivity will remain impossible to omit.

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5.2 Focus Group Interviews

Focus group interviews is a research method where one conducts an interview with a group of people.

A focus group interview allows the researcher to observe meaning formation in a social setting. The main point lies in trying to gather the participants opinions and understandings of the research topic in question, but also to observe the dynamics within the group when having a discussion (Bryman, 2008, p. 447-449). Focus group interviews are considered a qualitative approach. They are non-structured or semi-structured in nature. This is because the participants should be given the flexibility to utter their own thoughts within a matter, creating a flow of discussion that should feel as natural as possible.

Bryman (2008) also explains that a focus group interview can be useful when the researcher wants to gather several opinions on a matter. Oftentimes, throughout this type of interview the participants will argue with each other and question their respective opinions, leading to an interesting set of discussions where they will need to reflect upon their own stance on a matter (p. 449).

Particularly within audience reception studies, focus group interviews have been a common choice of method (Hansen & Machin, 2013). In order to analyze the recruitment films, conducting group interviews will be the second step after having analyzed both films in depth through the multimodal analysis. The focus group interview is hence not supposed to be an explorative approach in this study.

The focus lies on examining how audiences react to the films, therefore on predetermined topics based on modes that were analyzed prior. Focus group interviews are a vital step in our analysis in order to answer our research question on how the recruitment films are being perceived and valued.

Discussions formed in focus group interviews are more stimulating and eliciting in the sense that there are different dynamics at hand than in individual interviews (Hansen & Machin, 2013, p. 226), which is another reason this method in particular seems fitting. The research design has a comparative approach, as it intends to map out the reception of Swedish and German military recruitment films.

We believe that a dynamic discussion within a group of representatives from both countries provides an understanding of how recruitment films are being perceived, and the discussion within the groups will also facilitate the comparison of the films.

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5.3 Approach and Implementation

5.3.1 Multimodal Analysis

For our multimodal approach, we have analyzed two military recruitment films - one from Sweden, and one from Germany. Since both militaries have published many recruitment films over the course of the years, criterias for the selection process of which films to analyze were made. First, the films had to be recently published. Secondly, that had to be similar in length of time. Thirdly, they had to be published on each military’s official YouTube channel respectively.

By analysing the most recently published recruitment film, the study is aimed toward investigating the current portrayal of the military. In order to maintain an amount of relevance, our focus does not lie within how militaries portrayed themselves several years ago, but how they are portraying themselves now. In order to maintain comparability, the importance of having two films that are about the same length also comes into play. If one film were much longer than the other, more information, leading to a greater possibility of formation of meaning through the film, would possibly create a skewed basis of comparability. Lastly, in order to guarantee that the messenger indeed was the military organization of each country, the third criteria was used.

Through this selection process, we chose Många har många frågor and Alles wir - Alles Hier ^{. The} aim was to make a comparison between the two, trying to identify differences and similarities and how these appeal by means of specific ideologies. At a face value, the films looked very different in terms of structure, content, and the portrayal of the military as such. However, in order to conduct structured analysis we had to identify certain points that we wanted to focus on in particular within the films. The multimodal analysis allowed us to do exactly that.

Många har många frågor was published at the Swedish Armed Forces YouTube channel 24th of February 2020. It is 40 seconds long and had amassed 33 056 views, 830 likes and 78 dislikes by the 23rd of April (Försvarsmakten, 2020).

Alles wir - alles hier - die Bundeswehr auf YouTube, henceforth referred to asAlles wir - alles hier ^, was published on the German Armed Forces YouTube channel 1st of July 2019. It is 55 seconds long.

By the 23rd of April it had amassed 184 936 views, 7 400 likes and 213 dislikes (Bundeswehr, 2019).

At the beginning of the analysis, one focuses on semiotic elements separately, but it is also important to note that all elements - visual as well as verbal - are at interplay with one another (Ekström &

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Johansson, 2019). The particular elements that we have identified as relevant for our analysis were the following:

● social actors

● attributes

● audio visual cues

● lexical choices

When identifying which modes to analyze, we drew inspiration from Ekström and Johansson (2018) and Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). The social actor mode was chosen because it informs the analysis about for instance gender, body physique and actions of social actors. Analyzing actions as part of the social actor mode differs from Ekström and Johansson's approach. They connect actions to the lexical choices mode. However, we felt that actions were better suited in the social actor mode since the actions are entangled with the actors performing them. We also felt that the large amount of speech and textual elements identified at a face value in the films motivated for a mode of its own. The attributes mode followed Ekström and Johanssons approach with some moderations in order to fit our study. At face value music and sounds filled important functions in the film. We thus created the mode audio visual cues.

As noted in section 3.3, when conducting a multimodal analysis the modes related to the technical production of a film can also play an essential part. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) propose looking at transitioning of scenes, camera work, and other modality markers such as salience and framing.

Although we acknowledge that this can also be of relevance when conducting the analysis, a lesser focus was put on these forms of modality. However, certain aspects of technical modalities were still incorporated into the four modes which we analyzed. For instance, actors' position and interaction with the camera was analyzed in the social actor mode.

We compartmentalized the modes further in order to create a more comprehensive structure. Fig. 3 depicts our own model for the multimodal analysis. Each mode, depicted in the blue fields, consists of several dimensions that we identified as relevant based on previous research and at face value when looking at the films.

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Fig 3. Modes chosen for analysis and relevant dimensions included in each mode

The mode ‘social actors’ was broken down into three dimensions: gender, actions, and appearance.

We deemed these relevant in order to fully comprehend how social actors are being involved in both films. This division was based on previous research and our theoretical standpoint. Further, ‘action’

and ‘appearance’ were divided into subcategories. ‘Action’ as a dimension consists of internally directed actions and outwardly directed actions. More specifically, actions directed towards objects and persons in the films and actions directed towards the audience. ‘Appearance’ was broken down into skin complexion, body physique and anonymised versus identifiable appearance. Anonymized appearance means that the face of the actor is not clearly visible to the spectator.

The ‘attributes’ mode was compartmentalized into three dimensions. Military artefacts, civilian artefacts and ambiguous artefacts. We classified military artefacts as objects with a distinct connection to military life. We classified civilian artefacts as objects commonly circulating in civilian life. We classified ambiguous artefacts as artefacts with connections to both military and civilian life.

Audio visual cues were analyzed through two dimensions: background music and aggregated sounds.

Aggregated sounds have been classified as sounds originating from attributes in the film.

When analyzing lexical choices, we focused on speech from social actors and textual elements in the films. Textual elements consisted of both written speech and graphic icons such as the insignia of respective countries’ military organizations. An analysis of the textual elements based on Serafini and Clausen (2012) was incorporated in order to better understand the semiotic resources through the texts.

Battle of Recruitment

Battle of Recruitment

A Comparative Study of German and Swedish Militaries’

Recruitment Films

Sammanfattning

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 Problem Definition

1.2 Objective and Research Question

1.3 Key Concepts

1.4 Scope and Limitations

1.5 Disposition

2. Background

2.1 Ideological Shift in Western Governance

2.2 Development of Digital Media

3. Previous Research

3.1 Pop-Cultural References in Recruitment Films

3.2 Gender Representation in Recruitment Films

3.3 Interactive Meaning in Films

4. Theoretical Frameworks

4.1 Critical Theory on State and Ideology

4.1.2 Repressive State Apparatus & Ideological State Apparatus

4.2 Interpellation

4.2.1 Interpellation and Media

4.3 Encoding/Decoding

4.3.1 Limitations and Critique of Encoding/Decoding

4.4 Multidimensional Model of Mass Media Reception

4.5 Theoretical Summary

5. Method

5.1 Multimodal Discourse Analysis

5.2 Focus Group Interviews

5.3 Approach and Implementation

5.3.1 Multimodal Analysis