ENCODING AND DECODING - DIVA
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Encoding and decoding
Researching the controversy of Kamala Harris’ Vogue cover
Kodning och avkodning
En undersökning av kontroversen kring Vogues omslag med
fotografier av Kamala Harris
Selma Kristjansdottir
Bachelor in Visual Communication, 15 HP
VT 2021, K3, Malmö University
Supervisor: Dennis Augustsson
Examinator: Tina-Marie Whitman
1
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine how visual communication can be interpreted in
different ways and even in opposition to the creator’s intention, and to understand how
different visual signs in images convey meaning to explain audience’s oppositional reading.
Through a qualitative methodological approach, a semiotic comparative analysis of two
covers of the fashion magazine Vogue featuring Kamala Harris will be carried out, a digital
cover and a print cover. Theoretically, the analysis is grounded in postcolonialism,
representation, and Stuart Hall’s encoding and decoding model of communication. The
results suggest that there are signs in the photograph on Vogue’s print cover that can be
interpreted from a postcolonial perspective, and both oppositional and preferred readings are
discussed.
Abstrakt
Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur visuell kommunikation kan tolkas på olika sätt
och till och med i motsats till skaparens avsikt och att förstå hur olika visuella tecken i
bilderna förmedlar mening för att förklara denna oppositionella läsning. Genom ett kvalitativt
metodiskt tillvägagångssätt kommer en semiotisk analys för att jämföra två omslag på
modetidningen Vogue med Kamala Harris, både digitalt omslag och tryckt omslag. Teoretiskt
är analysen grundad i postkolonialism, representation och Stuart Halls kodnings- och
avkodningsmodell för kommunikation. Resultaten tyder på att det finns tecken på fotografiet
på Vogues tryckomslag som kan tolkas från ett postkolonialt perspektiv och både
oppositionella och föredragna avläsningar diskuteras.
Keywords
Representation, Stereotypes, Vogue, Magazine cover, Postcolonial theory, Encoding,
Decoding, Preferred reading, Oppositional reading, Semiotics
Nyckelord
Representation, Stereotyper, Vogue, Tidningsomslag, Postkolonial teori, kodning, avkodning,
Önskad läsning, Oppositionell läsning, Semiotik
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Table of contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................2
Abstrakt ...........................................................................................................................2
Keywords ..........................................................................................................................2
Nyckelord .........................................................................................................................2
Introduction .....................................................................................................................4
Background......................................................................................................................5
Vogue...................................................................................................................................... 5
Kamala Harris ........................................................................................................................ 5
Vogue’s intentions for Kamala Harris’ cover.......................................................................... 6
Problem and Purpose .......................................................................................................7
Research questions ...........................................................................................................7
Delimitations ....................................................................................................................7
Theory..............................................................................................................................8
Representation ........................................................................................................................ 8
Preferred and oppositional reading ........................................................................................ 9
Postcolonial theory ............................................................................................................... 10
Stereotypes and the Other ..................................................................................................... 10
Semiotics............................................................................................................................... 11
Semiotic terminology ...................................................................................................................................11
Related research .............................................................................................................12
Method and material ......................................................................................................13
Analysis and results ........................................................................................................14
Denotation ............................................................................................................................ 14
American Vogue digital cover:.....................................................................................................................14
American Vogue print cover: .......................................................................................................................15
Connotation .......................................................................................................................... 15
American Vogue digital cover:.....................................................................................................................15
American Vogue print cover: .......................................................................................................................15
Myth ..................................................................................................................................... 16
American Vogue digital cover:.....................................................................................................................16
American Vogue print cover: .......................................................................................................................17
Summary and discussion ................................................................................................17
Further research ............................................................................................................21
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................23
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Introduction
A magazine cover is the ‘face of the magazine’ and is meant to intrigue readers to buy the
magazine. The more interesting, controversial, or popular the cover model is, the more
magazine issues will be sold. Being the ones who decide who is on the cover, media editors
hold the power to influence people’s opinions by deciding who is heard and seen and who is
not. From my perspective, this power should come with a responsibility to avoid
stereotyping, including the stereotyping of people of color as they have historically been less
visible than white people in mainstream media.
On January 10th, 2021 American Vogue published the February cover picture
featuring the newly elected vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, on their
Instagram. On the cover photo, we see Harris standing in front of a green and pink backdrop
wearing a black blazer over a white t-shirt, black jeans, and Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers.
The comment section soon flooded with people’s reactions and they were not positive, many
said that they expected Vogue to do a better job with the photographing and styling of the
shoot and that the photograph they chose did not do Kamala Harris justice as the second most
powerful elected official in the United States of America. Vogue then published the cover
picture for the magazine’s digital edition featuring Harris in front of a golden backdrop
wearing a powder blue Michael Kors suit. That picture sparked a huge controversy as to why
that picture was not used on the cover of the printed magazine as well as the digital one. My
initial reaction was that the picture that was chosen for print was too casual and did not
radiate the same power as the digital cover. Then I started to wonder why, what is the
difference in these pictures and how do we come to these conclusions?
I am neither an American nor of African descent, I am a white European and thus
there is a lot about the context and phenomena I am studying that I can’t fully understand.
This is however a valid topic for me to study as a future visual communicator and for the
scholarly field of visual communication as well to learn more about representation and
stereotyping of people of color. I will be part of the coming generations of creators who
create, and consequently decide how things are represented in the media and so it is an
essential part of the role of a visual communicator to critically analyze pictures, especially
pictures that evoke such a response as Kamala Harris’ Vogue cover did, to learn from them.
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Background
Vogue
The magazine Vogue is a monthly lifestyle and fashion magazine originally published in
1892 as a weekly high-society journal for New York City’s social elite covering news of the
local social scene and traditions and culture of high society. Condé Nast publications bought
Vogue in 1909 and transformed it into a women‘s fashion magazine that focused on beauty
and etiquette (Britannica.com, 2021). Vogue is a global brand with publications in 27
countries all over the world, for example Vogue Paris, Vogue Russia, and Vogue Japan.
American Vogue is the head brand and the foundation of Vogue‘s leadership and authority,
the photographs that are analyzed and discussed in this thesis appeared in American Vogue
(CondéNast.com).
American Vogue has become increasingly more involved in American politics in
recent years. In the 2016 presidential elections, Vogue publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton for
president of the United States. The magazine published an article online where it was written
that the publication had no history of political endorsements but that given the stakes of this
election a decision was made that the magazine would endorse Clinton. Vogue had covered
Hillary Clinton‘s career for years and she had been profiled by the magazine six times
(Vogue.com, 2016). In March 2020, Anna Wintour wrote an article that was published on
Vogue’s website where she voiced her negative opinions on President Trump and said that
she believed that Americans should choose Joe Biden for president (Wintour, 2020a).
In May 2020, Wintour wrote another article that was published online titled „Joe
Biden Should Choose a Woman of Color to Be His Vice President – and He Should Do It
Now“ where she wrote about her negative feelings towards President Trump again and the
turmoil in the country due to the Covid-19 pandemic and civil unrest following the murders
of several black people. She goes on to write that Joe Biden should choose a woman of color
to be his vice president (Wintour, 2020b).
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris became the 49th vice president of the United States in January 2021. She was
the first woman and the first African American to hold this office, she had previously served
in the U.S. Senate and as attorney general of California. She studied political science and
economics at Howard University and earned a law degree from Hastings College. She sought
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the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and later joined presidential candidate Joe
Biden as his vice presidential running mate (Britannica.com, 2021).
Vogue’s intentions for Kamala Harris’ cover
Vogue published an article titled Kamala Harris’s Vogue Cover Is a Tribute to Her Sorority
Days where they explain the photographers’ vision and prompts for the photoshoot. When
describing their intentions they say ‘As the nation’s first madame vice president-elect,
Kamala Harris represents a new dawn in American politics. So naturally, the backdrop for
her print and digital Vogue images were going to be wholly original’ (Okwodu, 2021).
Meaning that they wanted to create something completely new to represent the changes
happening in American politics. The article goes on to say that Harris styled herself for the
print cover shoot with Converse sneakers - her trademark on the campaign trail, and a casual
blazer. The article further expands on the print cover shoot saying that the background is a
nod to Harris’ sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha at Howard University, the first historically
African American sorority (ibid.). Their colors, salmon pink and apple green are iconic as
they have remained the same for more than a century and are instantly recognizable to
members and anyone with knowledge of the Greek system of sororities and fraternities. The
photographer, Tyler Mitchell, shares that when conceptualizing the cover, he decided that he
wanted to honor Harris’ college days and the powerful women who comprise the ranks of
historically black sororities such as Alpha Kappa Alpha (ibid.).
Tyler Mitchell became the first and only black photographer to do a cover shoot for
American Vogue in 2018. He is a young activist, filmmaker, and photographer who looks to
‘revitalize and elevate the black body’ in his work (Nnadi, 2018).
For the topic of this study, which is the mismatch between producers’ encoding and
audience’s decoding, this is interesting information. This insight into the producers’ thoughts
and plans for the cover is valuable to the research as it tells us Vogue’s intentions for the
cover, it tells us how the producer encoded the material and how they intended it to be
decoded by the audience.
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Problem and Purpose
It appears, based on my informal analysis of people’s reactions to the Vogue covers on social
media, that the audience has adopted an oppositional reading for the photograph that Vogue
chose as the print cover as many people voiced their disappointment, confusion, and even
anger at Vogue’s decision (Hall, 1973). Oppositional reading is a term coined by the cultural
theorist Stuart Hall, and it refers to the audience's negative reactions to visual material. This
term will be further expanded on in the theory section of this essay.
Visual communicators create and thus decide how things are represented in the media and
with this role comes power and responsibility to consider the intended message and how
different audiences could interpret it and with what effect. Expanding on this argument,
visual communicators have a responsibility to avoid harmful stereotyping, which includes the
stereotyping of people of color (Hall, 2013 p. 219).
The problem area for this study concerns how visual communication can be interpreted in
different ways and even in opposition to the creator’s intention. The purpose is to understand
how different visual signs in the images convey meaning to explain this oppositional reading.
To investigate this, I will make a comparative analysis of the two magazine covers using a
semiotic method through a postcolonial lens.
Research questions
This study poses two research questions:
1. What signs can be found and interpreted from a postcolonial perspective in the
pictures of Kamala Harris that Vogue chose as February’s print cover and the digital
cover?
2. How can a postcolonial perspective explain the oppositional reading of the image
from the print cover?
Delimitations
For this research, I have decided to apply postcolonial theory as a tool to analyze and decode
signs to find an underlying message in the photographs. Of the many critical theories possible
I chose this one because I find that it has space for a broader spectrum of possible readings
than for example gender theories that mainly focus on representation of gender, feminism,
7
and queerness. To support this argument, Stuart Hall wrote on the topic of difference that
what is said about racial difference can equally be applied to other dimensions of difference,
such as gender, sexuality, class, and disability (Hall, 2013 p. 215). Postcolonial theory covers
these issues through the use of the term ‘The other’ which will be explained in greater detail
in following sections. In short, the term refers to those minorities who are marginalized and
excluded because of stereotyping. (Sturken and Cartwright, 2018) That being said, having
chosen a critical perspective such as post-colonial theory can make it challenging for me as a
researcher to remain unbiased and neutral in describing the research material as the chosen
theoretical framework essentially has an agenda. Therefore, critical thinking is essential when
analyzing and evaluating visual material because we can never be completely objective as our
interpretation of the material will be from our own point of view. It is therefore vital to be
critical of our thoughts in the research process.
In her book Visual Methodologies (2016), Gillian Rose presents a framework of
methods that researchers working with visual material can use. The framework is based on
thinking about visual materials in terms of four sites: The site of production (where an image
is made), the site of the image itself (the images’ visual contents), the site of circulation
(where and how it is distributed) and the site of audiencing (who sees it and where). For this
research I will focus on the site of the image itself which includes the images’ visual
contents, focusing on the image’s composition, its visual and spatial structure, and effects. In
short, I will be analyzing visual signs in the photographs and discussing possible
interpretations of them from a postcolonial perspective.
Theory
The following section will present the theoretical framework from which the research is
performed and introduce terminology that will be relevant for the discussion that comes after.
The main critical theory that the research is based on is postcolonial theory accompanied by
theories on representation with the many concepts, ideas, and terms involved in this subject.
The chapter ends with a section presenting the theoretical framework and concepts of
semiotics as an analytical tool.
Representation
Representation is the process by which people of the same culture use language, be it verbal
or visual language, to make meaning. Stuart Hall (2013, p 3) writes in his book
Representation that there are two processes or systems of representation involved in making
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meaning. The former is the process of constructing mental representations, both abstract and
concrete in our heads. The latter is language so that we can translate and share our ideas and
concepts with words, written or spoken, as well as with sounds or visuals. Hall argues that
things do not have any fixed or true meaning but that it is up to us, as individuals in society to
make meaning (2013). He goes on to explain that meanings will always change from one
culture or time period to the next because we must share the same conceptual map of the
world in our heads to be able to communicate and understand each other. To share the same
conceptual map means that we share mental representations and codes and we interpret signs
in the same way. Social and linguistic conventions change and evolve over time and therefore
can meaning never be fixed. Hall expands on parts of this topic with his theory on preferred
and oppositional reading (ibid.).
Preferred and oppositional reading
In his essay Encoding and decoding in the Television Discourse (Hall, 1973) Stuart Hall
argues that media texts are encoded by the producer and then decoded by the audience.
Essentially that means that the producer encodes messages into their media that are then
decoded by the audience and the producer has no power as to how their text will be decoded
by different audiences. Different audience members will play an active role in making
meaning by decoding the media in different ways based on the individual’s cultural
background, economic standing, and personal experience. The viewers might even change the
meaning of the message themselves through collective action if the majority of audiences
adopt an oppositional reading. Hall states that the audience subconsciously use one of the
following three positions when decoding the text.
• Preferred reading – how the media producer wants the audience to decode the text.
Audience members will take this position if the message is clear and if the audience
member shares the same worldview, is the same age, of the same culture as the
producer intended, or if it has an easy-to-follow narrative and deals with themes that
are relevant to the audience.
• Oppositional reading – when the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates
their own meaning for the text. This can happen if the media contains themes that the
audience member disagrees with or doesn’t relate to or understand, possibly because
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of different culture and beliefs, age or different time periods than intended by the
producer.
• Negotiated reading – a compromise between the dominant and oppositional readings,
where the audience accepts parts of the producer’s views but has their own views on
parts of it as well.
Postcolonial theory
In order to understand postcolonial theory, colonialism must first be described. Colonialism
has a long history in the West as a way to control countries in different parts of the world
(Kohn and Kavita, 2017). Westerners inflicted violence, exploitation, and coercion upon non-
Western countries to achieve political domination over them. (ibid.)
Postcolonial theory refers to the cultural and social context of the countries, that were
formerly defined in relationships of colonialism, both the colonized and colonizer, with the
focus of explaining societal issues that these formerly colonized and colonizers face today as
a result. Postcolonial theory is disparate and hard to explain in concrete terms but in rough
terms, it is about how the image of Westerners as rational and intelligent beings is made by
Westerners by depicting other countries as irrational and mystical. (Sturken and Cartwright
2018). Sturken and Cartwright write about the term “the Other”, coined by the philosopher
George W.F. Hegel in relation to postcolonial theory. They argue that when it inevitably
comes to power struggles between individuals or groups, in the case of colonialism these
groups are Western countries and other countries. One of the groups becomes the Other
which is described as the party that has lost all power and as a result, the other party becomes
more powerful. This term is central in postcolonial studies where it is asserted that Western
countries have all the power and non-Western countries are the Other. (Sturken and
Cartwright, 2018)
Stereotypes and the Other
Stereotyping is a way to reduce people to a few, very simplified, characteristics which are
presented as ingrained and built-in. Stereotyping reduces a person to these characteristics or
traits, that are then exaggerated and simplified. It is central to the representation of racial
difference, carrying out a strategy of splitting as it divides the normal and acceptable from the
10abnormal and unacceptable while excluding everything that is different, leaving no room for
a spectrum of people and characteristics but polarizing characteristics into ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
(Hall, 2013 p. 247) Stereotyping usually occurs when there are gross inequalities of power
which is directed against the excluded minority group. It classifies people based on a norm
and constructs the excluded and marginalized as ‘the Other’. (ibid.)
’The Other’ is a term that refers to that which is understood as the as the symbolic
opposite of the “normative category”, such as the woman to the man, the black person to a
white person et cetera (Hall, 2013 p. 225). In theories that question the functions of binary
oppositions in understanding society and social relations, the Other is that which defines the
opposite of the dominant pole of the binary opposition, for example black being defined as
not white, and which can be understood as disempowered through this opposition. (ibid.)
Semiotics
The meaning encoded and decoded in visual communication can be analyzed using semiotics.
Semiotics refers to the study of signs in society and how they communicate meaning
(Bignell, 2002). Semiotic analysis can be used to analyze both language and visual material
as in either case there are signs that carry meaning.
Gillian Rose presents different approaches to analyzing and making meaning of signs in her
book Visual methodologies (2016). Semiotics, in her words: „confronts the question of how
images make meaning head on“ (Rose, 2016 p. 106). What she means by that is that it is
neither descriptive nor does it rely heavily on quantitive research but rather presents many
analytical tools useful for taking an image apart and tracing how it works in relation to
broader systems of meaning (ibid.). Semiotics digs deep under the surface of the visible to
uncover the power struggles at play and shine a light on the deep social assumptions
embedded, for example in the visual imagery that saturates our modern life (Rose, 2016 p.
106). The research presented in this essay uses semiotics as a method as I will describe the
images and find signs that prove important for the theoretical application and then I will
discuss and analyze these signs from a postcolonial point of view.
Semiotic terminology
There are many schools of thought within semiotics and I have chosen to use the terms
denotation and connotation in this research as well as the term myth, all of which were coined
11by semiotician Roland Barthes, for the postcolonial critical interpretation. These terms will be
presented in the following sections.
Denotation and connotation
Denotation refers to a visual description and the literal meaning of a sign. Details, colors, and
composition are represented through denotation. Connotation on the other hand refers to the
culturally constructed meaning of the sign and what ideas and values are presented. To be
able to decode the sign we have to have shared conceptual maps, meaning that we have to
come from a similar culture with a similar background to be able to decode the message
(Hall, 2013 p. 23).
Myth
Roland Barthes’ myth is defined as a system of communication (Hall, 2013 p. 24). When
describing visual text Barthes discusses the signifier, the signified, and the sign; the sign is
considered to be the visual text, the signifier is the form of the sign, and the signified refers to
the concept or meaning that is associated with a signifier. Myth is the 3rd level of meaning,
the 1st and 2nd levels being denotation and connotation. Myth is a secondary language that
presents a socially constructed ideology as if it were a natural fact (Hall, p. 24). Barthes’
myth requires a critical perspective to illuminate systems and underlying ideologies
embedded in the signs in a visual text and I have chosen post-colonial critical theory for this
research. (Rose, p. 131)
Related research
While this research doesn’t exactly examine oppositional and preferred reading or post-
colonial theory, it is no less important to the discussion of my research. Looking at
researchers who have explored this topic let us explore representation of powerful women in
the media, the media’s power to influence people’s perceptions and behavior, and how signs
are decoded by the audience.
In her thesis ‘The Portrayal of Powerful Women in the Media’ (Milligan, 2007), Kristin
Milligan investigates and discusses the portrayal of powerful women in the media to gain a
perspective of different ways the media tend to elaborate and focus on gender issues to a
greater extent than the public may think. She presents her hypothesis that although women
12are making strides in the right direction, the often-negative portrayal of powerful women in
the media can be unwarranted and lead to an unfair perception of women in powerful
positions. To demonstrate that the media do focus on gender issues when portraying powerful
women, she investigated how three specific women in power have been represented by the
media. She chose to examine media portrayals of women from various fields such as politics,
corporate America, and journalism. She chose Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett
Packard, Katie Couric, anchor of CBS Evening News, and Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the
United States House of Representatives as subjects for her research.
Milligan concluded that the media tends to enhance and focus on gender issues of powerful
and influential women (ibid. p. 38). According to her conclusion, the media has a tendency to
concentrate on the women’s clothes, appearance, their time spent at the hairdresser, or their
personal life which trivializes the position of power these women find themselves in.
Milligan goes on to write that women who are able to achieve promotions to powerful
positions are already faced with tougher critics than their male counterparts, and often find
themselves having to prove a lot more to their superiors. According to Milligan, the media is
not helping these women by concentrating on their clothing and appearances and trivializing
the roles they play (ibid.).
Relating this research to my own, it is important to note that Milligan does not consider the
aspect of race, but rather focused on powerful women in general and she did not focus on the
viewer’s general decoding of messages from the media. That being said, the results from
Milligan’s research do tell us that the media holds power to influence people’s perceptions,
behaviors, and opinions which sheds light on the media‘s responsibility to think about their
representation of different groups. This allows us to consider Milligan‘s results in relation to
the research presented in this essay.
Method and material
The material was analyzed using qualitative comparative analysis. The two covers were
visually analyzed with semiotic methodology and then compared from a postcolonial
perspective.
The first step was to generally analyze the elements in the cover photographs at the
denotative level and to select signs relevant for continuing the analysis. These signs were
13then interpreted at the connotative level. The connotative interpretations were the basis for an
analysis from a postcolonial perspective at the level of the myth.
Figure 1. Vogue digital cover, February 2021 Figure 2. Vogue print cover, February 2021
Analysis and results
The result of the analysis will be presented in the following sections under the titles of the
three analytical levels: Denotation, connotation, and myth.
Denotation
American Vogue digital cover:
Harris is photographed at eye-level standing in front of a yellow saffron-colored background
draped with gold fabric. In front of the background behind her is a fabric-draped object,
likely a table. She is photographed from just below the hips and up wearing a powder blue
suit with jewellery consisting of a pearl necklace, bracelets, a ring, and the American flag
pinned to her jacket. She is smiling and looking into the camera with her arms crossed across
her chest. The composition is symmetric with Harris in the centre. Her head is in the
foreground of the magazine’s title, partly covering the G in Vogue. Spread across the bottom
half of the cover are the words “Madam Vice President! Kamala Harris and the new
America”.
14American Vogue print cover:
Harris is photographed at eye-level standing in front of a fabric draped background consisting
of a green patterned fabric behind pink fabric that covers the floor irregularly, forming
creases and wrinkles. We see her whole body wearing a white shirt under a black jacket,
black ankle-length pants, and black Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers with pearls grazing her
neck. Her hands are tied in front of her waist and a smiling expression on her face with
eyebrows slightly raised. Harris is centred in the composition, but the pink draped fabric is
placed a bit to the right making the composition appear somewhat asymmetrical. Her head is
in the foreground of the magazine’s title, partly covering the G in Vogue. On the upper right
side of the cover placed beside her upper arm are the words “By the people, for the people
The United States of fashion”. Spread across the bottom half of the cover are the words
“Madam Vice President! Kamala Harris and the new America”.
Connotation
American Vogue digital cover:
Ms. Harris stands upright, looking to the camera with a smiling impression and a determined
gaze with her arms crossed connoting to the viewer that she is a person of confidence, power,
and authority. Her powder blue suit is well cut and looks well-crafted giving the impression
that it is expensive, as does the jewellery she is wearing. White pearls are commonly worn by
female politicians and first wives (Thomann, 2019) but Harris has chosen to wear blue and
grey tinted pearls around her neck, a possible interpretation of which is that she will do things
differently and not conform to the norm of American politics. However, she wears the
American flag pinned to her jacket commonly worn by American politicians which connotes
her patriotism to the viewer in a subtle yet definite way.
The gold color in the background connotes status, wealth, and power. Gold is historically
associated with these terms tracing back to medieval art and European altarpieces
commissioned by the church to show their wealth (Pooke and Newall, 2008). The color
yellow, often associated with the sun and flowers, connotes light, hope, optimism, and
enlightenment (Bourn, 2010b).
American Vogue print cover:
Ms. Harris’ smiling expression with brows raised may be interpreted as a surprised
expression, giving the photograph a ‘candid’ sense, as if the shot was not planned but rather
15happened by accident when Harris was not ready. Her body language amplifies this
argument, her hands are gripped together and casually placed in front of her waist and her
stance is asymmetrical with her left foot firmly standing straight while her right foot is
slightly more relaxed. Her clothes and shoes are casual which connotes that she is not elitist
but rather relaxed and ‘one with the people’. Her shoes play a big role in this connotation as
Converse is a well-known affordable American brand and their shoes are worn by a very
large group of people, including the lower and middle classes.
The green and pink background colors are vibrant and playful, the heavy materials and
pattern on the green fabric is reminiscent of baroque style interiors. The color green,
associated with nature, leaves, and grass connotes growth, rebirth, and fertility. Pink is often
associated with femininity and connotes affection and approachability among other things
(Bourn, 2010). A preferred reading of the cover would be that the relaxed and casual nature
of Harris’ stance and clothes, as well as the colors used in the background, is a way to
showcase her as an approachable person instead of the rigorous and formal setting often
associated with politics (Hall, 1973).
Myth
American Vogue digital cover:
The visual elements in the digital cover combined, creates a rather typical representation of
American politicians which we often associate with formal clothing and powerful body
language. However, in the picture we see an African American woman in this setting most
often occupied by white people (Buchholz, 2021). The photograph in combination with the
text “Madam Vice President! Kamala Harris and the new America” connotes that a black
woman can become Vice President of the United States and be celebrated for it despite the
country’s history with racism and racial discrimination (Roberts and Rizzo, 2020). This
interpretation is likely the producer’s intentions, making it the preferred reading of the image.
An interpretation of the image through the lens of post-colonial theory could be that it is a
way to conform Harris to the role of a traditional politician that is authoritative and
inaccessible through her body language consisting of crossed arms and a determined gaze. An
oppositional reading of the cover could be that visually representing Harris as a traditional
politician is a way of ignoring the fact that she is a minority in politics (ibid.) and that she
will most likely do things differently than her white male predecessors, being the first African
American and female Vice President of the United States.
16American Vogue print cover:
According to the connotational interpretations, Harris’ clothes and body language as well as
the print cover’s backdrop is a way to showcase her as approachable, as the intention was
described by Vogue themselves (Okwodu, 2021). This would be the preferred reading, but
this can be interpreted in a different way through the lens of post-colonial theory. Harris’
clothes as well as her shoes are casual, arguably too casual for a picture to commemorate
such a historical moment in African American history. The pink fabric that is draped across
the background and lies on the ground beneath her feet takes the focus away from Harris, and
her seemingly unprepared facial expression with raised eyebrows as well as her stance
connotes surprise and uncertainty rather than power, strength, and leadership which would be
more representative of the role of a Vice President.
From a postcolonial theory point of view, the casual nature of the photograph can be
interpreted as a way to diminish her accomplishment of becoming the first African American
and the first woman to be elected as Vice President of the United States, by representing her
with a photograph that seemingly does not match the high editorial standard of photography
that Vogue is known for or the significance of the role of a Vice President (Britannica.com,
2021). This oppositional reading could even include the idea that the visual signs combined
represent a stereotypical representation of a minority in politics: African American women.
Summary and discussion
The questions posed for this study were:
1. What signs can be found and interpreted from a postcolonial perspective in the picture
of Kamala Harris that Vogue chose as February’s print cover and the digital cover?
2. How can a postcolonial perspective explain the oppositional reading of the image
from the print cover?
The analysis supports the theory that there are signs in the pictures of Kamala Harris that
Vogue chose as February’s digital cover and the print cover that can be interpreted from a
postcolonial perspective. In the myth section of the analysis, I discussed two possible
interpretations of the Vogue covers, on the one hand a preferred reading of the text according
to Vogue’s intentions (Okwodu, 2021) and on the other hand an oppositional reading from a
postcolonial perspective. Both interpretations are plausible, which reflects Stuart Hall’s
argument that our cultural perspective affects how we make meaning of visual material and
17that the producer’s intentions and encoding is not always understood or decoded by the
audience as the producer intended (Hall, 1973).
The digital cover contains visual elements that connote power, while the print cover contains
visual elements which are associated with weakness and vulnerability, according to the
analysis. For example, Harris’s stance and body language on the digital cover connote power
and authority while her seemingly unprepared stance and body language on the print cover
connote surprise and uncertainty. From a post-colonial point of view, the representation of
Harris on the print cover can be interpreted as a way to diminish her power and authority by
photographing her in casual clothes with a surprised expression on her face. And by doing so,
the producers of the photograph would be contributing to sustaining racial discrimination
within U.S. politics, where there are fewer black Americans than white Americans within the
highest ranks of government (Gal et al., 2020). By representing Harris with a surprised
expression and body language that can be interpreted as uncertainty can connote to the
viewers that she is not reliable or equipped to take on the position of Vice President.
Figure 3: Chart retrieved from: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-systemic-racism-in-charts-graphs-data-2020-
6?r=US&IR=T on May 7th, 2021.
18My argument, based on my interpretation of the results is that the photograph that Vogue
chose for the digital cover would have been better representative of Harris’ status and more
appropriate to put on the print cover as well as the digital cover. My interpretations of the
covers are based on my own cultural background and personal experience and thus other
people will interpret these covers differently based on their own background and experiences,
meaning that there will never be one conclusion on the matter of which photograph should
have been used for the Vogue covers (Hall, 2013). These results should be taken into account
by all visual communicators regardless of their specialties. Photographers, illustrators,
filmmakers, and graphic designers alike need to be aware of the fact that the audience might
interpret the message in another way than the producer intended.
As visual communicators, we will be part of the media, which holds power to influence
people’s perceptions, behaviors, and opinions (Milligan, 2007) and so we have a
responsibility to communicate in a non-discriminatory way, especially on complicated and
sensitive topics such as race. In the book Visual Communication: Understanding Images in
Media Culture, the authors write about a study of news images conducted by Messaris and
Abraham which indicates that visual material can deliver subtle racist cues that evoke well-
worn stereotypes of African Americans (Aiello and Parry, 2020 p. 91). Based on these
arguments, it is important for us as visual communicators to avoid the use of racial
stereotypes and to examine our work critically before publishing. Adding to that, visual
communicators must be aware of the harmful effects of racial stereotypes and be willing to
learn about the history and practise of racial discrimination against people of color and how it
relates to postcolonialism (Hall, 2013 p. 251). I would say that this applies in particular to
visual communicators of European descent that are born and raised in European countries
where the majority of inhabitants are white and have therefore never been a part of a racial
minority, known as ‘the Other’ within postcolonial theory, a term that gains its meaning as
the symbolic opposite of the normative category, the “normative category” in this case being
white Europeans. (Sturken and Cartwright, 2018). White Europeans might thus be somewhat
oblivious to the struggles that people of color face when it comes to racism and racial
discrimination.
The terms within postcolonial theory are, in my opinion, problematic as they convey racist
connotation by presenting a racial hierarchy which I find paradoxical when discussing
harmful consequences of racial hegemony, hegemony refers to the dominance of one group
19over another. It is for these reasons I have chosen to hyphenate the term “normative category”
when referring to white Europeans in the paragraph above.
In regard to the method used for the analysis, it is important to take into account that in a
qualitative visual analysis it can be difficult to convey the subjective feel of a photograph or
other visual material fully. Gillian Rose discussed this in her book Visual Methodologies
(2016, p 34) in relation to visual research methods, more specifically a visual analysis of the
site of the image itself that “There is a subjective feel that is ineliminable in our seeing
something” and that this ‘feel’ is just as much a part of analyzing and understanding images
as the interpretation of their meaning but can be difficult to explain fully in words (ibid.).
Another important aspect in terms of methodology is that I chose postcolonial theory as a
critical theory before I began analyzing the material and my interpretations are thus
influenced by my chosen theory.
The results of my analysis are nonetheless valid for the purpose of answering my
research questions, which were centred around if there were signs in the photographs that
could be interpreted from a postcolonial perspective and if a postcolonial perspective could
explain the audience’s oppositional reading of the print cover.
Vogue meant no harm with their choice of photograph for the print cover, according to the
article published on the subject by them (Okwodu, 2021). Their intentions were to embrace
Harris as Vice President and to emphasize the change she would bring to American politics
with her unique perspective. To do so, they hired a young black photographer, Tyler Mitchell
to shoot the cover photo (ibid.). However, some audiences seem to have adopted an
oppositional reading for the cover as has been discussed in this essay.
Vogue has been criticized for a lack of diversity among their staff, designers, chief editors,
executives, and photographers as well as racial insensitivity in their publications (Helmore,
2020).
20Figure 4: A Vogue cover from 2008 that received criticism because of
racist connotations. (archive.vogue.com)
The chief editor of American Vogue, Anna Wintour, has apologized and taken full
responsibility as well as promised to do better in the future (ibid.). This goes to show the
importance of racial diversity in the media, not only general diversity in terms of staff but
also in the highest echelons of the media, among the chief executives. With racial diversity
comes diversity in perspective and that is important when it comes to the production and
publication of racially inclusive material, and inclusivity is key when it comes to social
sustainability and social equity.
Further research
This research has looked at the issue of encoding and decoding, preferred and oppositional
readings from a somewhat subjective perspective. It would be relevant and interesting to
conduct a qualitative analysis of this through interviews with a large group of the magazine’s
audience to research and understand which reading might be thought of as the most common
21one in the case of Vogue’s February 2021 covers featuring Kamala Harris and what we as
visual communicators might learn from that information.
22Bibliography
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25Samtal på riktigt
Illustrerade samtalstips
Selma Kristjansdottir
Examensarbete i Visuell kommunikation, 15 hp
VT 2021
K3 Malmö Universitet
Handledare: Oskar Aspman
Examinator: Tina-Marie Whitman
1Innehåll
Bakgrund ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Problemområde och syfte .......................................................................................................................... 3
Avsändare ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Målgrupp................................................................................................................................................... 4
Offentliggörande........................................................................................................................................ 4
Relaterade medieproduktion ...................................................................................................................... 5
Material och tillvägagångssätt .................................................................................................................... 7
Grafisk profil och moodboard..............................................................................................................................7
Val av verktyg ....................................................................................................................................................11
Dokumentation av slutresultat ................................................................................................................. 24
Reflektion ................................................................................................................................................ 30
Källförteckning......................................................................................................................................... 32
2Bakgrund
Många i samhället lider av ensamhet, särskilt nu i samband med Covid-19 pandemin
(mind.se). Unga människors mående har i synnerhet påverkas negativt på grund av pandemin
eftersom de har behövt kraftigt minska socialt umgänge med vänner, familj och kollegor
(news.cision.com). Det sociala umgänget bidrar till en känsla av tillhörighet, så förminskning
av det har en stor påverkan på personlig utveckling i ung ålder. De hårdast drabbade är i
åldersgruppen 18–29 år (ibid.).
För att bekämpa lidande i dessa tider behöver alla hjälpas åt och visa medmänsklighet, genom
att prata om känslor och psykiskt mående. Därför är det viktigt att sprida kunskap om det
medmänskliga samtalets kraft och hjälpa människor att prata om hur de mår (mind.se).
Organisationen Mind har tagit fram och publicerat på sin hemsida fem samtalstips på hur folk
kan göra för att få sig och andra att prata mer om sitt psykiska mående. Det handlar inte
enbart om svåra problem men om att öppna upp för samtal kring livet som det faktiskt är,
samtal som känns viktiga på riktigt (mind.se).
Problemområde och syfte
Hur kan man använda visuell kommunikation för att få folk att ta del av information som finns
på nätet? Hur gör man det på ett inbjudande och intresseväckande sätt?
Mind publicerade samtalstipsen på sin hemsida i form av text på bilder som folk kan bläddra
mellan. De innehåller inga illustrationer utan endast text och en siffra i en cirkel. Jag valde att
definiera målgrupp för detta projekt och göra intresseväckande illustrationer riktade mot
målgruppen med syftet att göra de mer benägna att gå in på Minds hemsida och läsa
samtalstipsen.
Avsändare
Mind är den fiktiva avsändaren. Det är en ideell organisation som arbetar mot att
uppmärksamma och aktivt motverka psykisk ohälsa och jobbar mot målet att personer med
psykisk ohälsa blir respekterade och får det stöd de behöver.
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