ABSTRACT

This study is an attempt to explore the representations of gender

inequality in Vietnamese culture displayed in TV advertisements, particularly
through the category of food and drink products. The data of the study
includes one hundred TV commercials broadcasted in the national channels
from 2016 to 2020. The research approach is based on multi modal discourse
analysis which employs the framework of Fairclough’s (2001), and Kress and
van Leeuwen (2006).
The result of this study reveals the clear difference between men and
women’s portrayals in the media. Women are visually presented with the
dominance in household tasks while male characters are displayed in more
important social roles. These gender stereotypes express the discrimination
toward women and perpetuate gender inequality. It is argued that Vietnamese
culture mirrors the existing ideologies on gender in TV advertisements and
the gender equality is still controversial issue in Vietnam’s society.

1
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION.......................................................................................................1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................2

ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................3

PART A......................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................6

1. Rationale of the study.......................................................................................6

2. Objectives of the study.....................................................................................8

3. Research questions...........................................................................................8

4. Research methods and scope of the study........................................................8

5. Structure of the study.......................................................................................9

PART B....................................................................................................................11

DEVELOPMENT...................................................................................................11

CHAPTER I. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND..................................................................................................11

1.1. Literature review.........................................................................................11

1.2. Contextual background of the study............................................................12

1.3. Gender Inequality......................................................................................14

1.4. Review of theoretical background............................................................15

1.4.1. Critical discourse analysis as a theoretical approach............................16

1.4.2. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model framework...............................18

1.4.3. Multimodal critical discourse analysis..................................................21

1.4.4. Kress and van Leeuwen’s grammar of visual design framework.........22

2
 CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY......................................................................27

2.1. Research setting...........................................................................................27

2.2. Research questions......................................................................................27

2.3. Research approach.......................................................................................28

2.4. Data collecting procedure............................................................................28

2.4.1. Collecting and logging data..................................................................28

2.4.2. Viewing data.........................................................................................29

2.5. Data analysis method...................................................................................29

2.6. Summary of the chapter...............................................................................31

CHAPTER 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION................................................32

3.1. Findings and discussion of research question 1..........................................32

3.1.1. Gender representations in family roles.................................................32

3.1.2. Gender representations in occupational roles.......................................45

3.2. Findings and discussion of research question 2...........................................52

3.3. Findings and discussion of research question 3...........................................55

PART C....................................................................................................................59

CONCLUSION........................................................................................................59

1. Recapitulation.................................................................................................59

2. Limitations of the study and suggestions.......................................................61

REFERENCE..........................................................................................................62

APPENDIX................................................................................................................I

3
 PART A

INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study

The development of human society is the long history of eliminating

injustices, including gender discrimination. According to the United Nation,
gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but also a necessary
foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

In Vietnam, with the great efforts and commitment of Vietnamese

Government, the disparity between men and women has reduced significantly
over the last few decades. These include the approval of the Law on Gender
Equality in November 2006, the ratification of the National Strategy for the
Advancement of Women by 2010, and the new National Strategy for Gender
Equality for the period of 2011-2020. Now, Vietnamese women receive better
medical care, education as well as good opportunities in politics and
economy. However, this achievement has not met the expectations. The report
of Global Gender Gap Report 2020 has shown that Vietnam’s gender equality
ranking in 2019 has dropped ten places, from No. 77 to No. 87, compared to
2018 (World Economic Forum, 2020). This reality has presented a slow
process or even a regression in implementing gender equality in Vietnam and
it is noticeable that media plays an important role in advocating for gender
equality. Media involves transmitting the messages and educating as well as
enhancing the belief of people. Among various kinds of media, Television is
the most powerful tool of communication. People watch TV for updating
news, for entertaining as well as learning. And people believe that TV

4
provides them faithful and unbiased information. However, that is not always
the case. Therefore, it is significant to analyze the information broadcast
through critical discourse analysis.

In this study, the author focuses on the advertisements on TV to

examine the images of women and men in the current society with the
reflection of the existing traditional conceptions. It can be seen that
advertisements on TV surround people’s lives every day. Chang and Thorson
(2004) found that advertising on Television and the web could attract higher
attention, high trust in the perceived message, and customers will have more
positive thoughts than the effect of repetition in the use of the single medium.
Thereby, advertisements on TV consciously and unconsciously shape our
beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors. By analyzing the representation of
gender in TV advertisements, this study is an attempt to bring the
understanding of social interactions, ideology on gender differences, and
gender discrimination.

The thesis selects the food and beverage advertisements on TV. These
are the essential products in daily life, therefore, the relationship between
women and men in family and society is expressed in detail visually and
verbally. These non-linguistic and linguistic elements are analyzed based on
the multimodal critical discourse analysis method – a new extension of
critical discourse analysis (CDA). It is seen as “one of the most influential
and visible branches of discourse analysis” (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000).
While the traditional CDA has been focusing on verbal mode, the new
extension has moved forwards broader multimodal conceptions by
incorporating visual images into concepts of discourse (Kress & Leeuwen,

5
2006). This combination is a useful tool to investigate the use of power and
ideology in media discourse.

2. Objectives of the study

The study aims at analyzing the discourse features of food and beverage
advertisements on television in the perspective of multiple modes of
communication including both linguistic and non-linguistic symbol resources
to achieve the best effects. To go further, the thesis attempts to investigate the
gender inequality underlying television advertisements in Vietnam and how
ideologies are mediated through both visual and linguistic means. The final
goal of the research is to raise people’s awareness of the hidden perpetuation
of gender identity assumptions and normalization, which eventually
disadvantages women and reinforces gender inequality.

3. Research questions
The study aims to answer the following research questions:

3.1. Are the portrayals of men and women equally manifested in TV

commercials?

3.2. Do the socio-cultural norms and ideologies influence gender gap in

society?

3.3. To what extent do these gender representations sustain or challenge

gender equality in society?

4. Research methods and scope of the study

The methodological approach is built entirely on the foundation of
discourse analysis. The study applies simultaneously the three-dimension
model given by Fairclough (2001) with the grammar of visual images by

6
Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). The research focuses on both the visual
images and the linguistic elements in the voiceover of the commercials. The
data of the study includes one hundred TV advertisements broadcast from
2016 to 2020 and they are related to food and drink products. The study
proposes the integrated framework with three levels as follows:

- Discourse descriptions: the first layer draws on how the discourse is

designed and depicted visually and verbally. Regarding verbal elements (if
any), Vietnamese message/text and its translation into English are analyzed
with Transitivity, Mood, and Theme. For the Inter-mode relations, both visual
and verbal elements are simultaneously evaluated.

- Discourse interpretation: the second layer explores how the production and
consumption of this discourse influence viewers.

- Social explanation: the third layer explicates the hidden ideology that
influences the production and consumption of this discourse.

5. Structure of the study

The thesis is structured in three main parts as follows:

Part A: Introduction. This part introduces the statement of the problem, the
aims, the methods, the scope as well as the design of the study.

Part B: Development, consists of three chapters.

Chapter 1: Literature review (This chapter sets out the contextual

background of the study and makes clear the concept of gender equality as
used in this study).

7
Chapter 2: Methodology (This part explains the theories that the study bases
itself on and the framework which is used in the study. It also explains in
details how the framework was applied to the data to tease out the findings).

Chapter 3: Findings and discussion (This sector gives the findings and
discussion of the research).

Part C: Conclusion which summarizes the research, acknowledges

limitations, and suggests ideas for further research.

8
 PART B

DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I. LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL

BACKGROUND

1.1. Literature review

The topic of gender and gender discrimination has been of great

interest to researchers in the world for many years.

In the field of feminist linguistics, since the 1990s, many types of

research have focused on the discursive construction of gender, focusing
on both how language is used by male and female, and how language is
used to say things about men and women (Litosseliti, 2006). Recently,
many studies have researched the construction of (new) femininity and
masculinity such as Kosetzi and Polyzou (2009) on the construal of
masculinities in a Greek men’s lifestyle magazine, and Johnson and Young
(2002) on gender identities constructed through the voice over of an
advertising program. Other studies focused on gender stereotypes such
as Milestone and Meyer (2012) investigating the representation of
women as sex objects in men’s magazines, Al-Mahadin (2003) on gender
stereotypes in cartoons, and Shifman and Lemish (2011) on gender
differences in humor.

In the domain of media studies, gender representation has gained

attention since the 1950s (Gauntlett, 2008). However, not until the

9
“second wave” of feminism in the 1960s that systematic research into
media images of women flourished (Carter & Steiner, 2004). Some
researches were carried out, mostly focusing on how women were
portrayed in a wide array of media forms such as television, movies,
women’s and men’s magazines, and advertisements. Numerous reviews
about gender representation in the media can be found in Gauntlett
(2008), Byerly and Ross (2006), Cortese (2004), Thornham (2007), and
Bentz and Mayes (1993).

Regarding the research which applied the perspectives of Critical

Discourse Analysis (CDA), a number of studies have examined printed
advertisements namely Vahid and Esmae’li (2012), Kaur et al. (2013). In
terms of analyzing the women’s portrayal on TV commercials, it marks
the presentation of Mohammadi (2011) from Iran and Hag (2011) from
Bangladesh. In Vietnam, only a few studies on gender equality have been
implemented in the Vietnamese context. Nguyen (2011) presented her
study on gender ideologies in print media and Ngo and Phan (2015)
studied the sexist language used in football commentaries. These two
authors pointed out that sexism and gender inequality exist in discourse
in the context of Vietnam.

Extending these previous studies on gender discrimination, this

study is an attempt to explore the women’s representation in Vietnamese
TV advertisements based on adopting the perspective of Critical
Discourse Analysis. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) appear
as a useful approach, not only for analyzing texts and images adequately

10
but also for putting them in analyzable relations to socio-cultural
processes and changes.

1.2. Contextual background of the study

Gender issues originate from the historical, political, and social

context, hence, from the fundamental tenets of CDA, it is essential to
understand the contextual background in doing the study. To better
account for the gender issues in Vietnam, it is important to review the
history of gendered ideology and norms in the country, especially the
influence of Confucianism in Vietnamese society.

During the Chinese rule, Confucianism was introduced into

Vietnam and today it still keeps its development. Experiencing thousands
of years, Confucianism, the most influential religion throughout the long
history of Vietnamese culture, remains strong in Vietnam at the
contemporary time with influence on Vietnamese people’s beliefs and
traditional values. Confucianism caused vigorous impacts on Vietnamese
culture in various aspects namely politics, culture, religions,
predominantly in society. Under the view of Confucianism, the family is
the core of society, however, Confucianism refused to recognize the
important role of women in the family although they did everything and
took care of the family. Women have always been subjected to the
Confucian rule of the following submissions: submission to the father
before their marriage, submission to the husband during their marriage,
and submission to the elder son when widowed. Women were always
depending on men. They were raised and educated that they had to obey
and respect their father to become a good daughter and good wife. They

11
had no voice in family things as well as no decision in solving family
problems. Thus, women were not allowed to study, their place is at home.
When the Feudal period was replaced by the French Colonial time, the
situation of Vietnamese women was slightly better. Meanwhile, in rural
areas, they had to follow strict regulations.

Then, the August Revolution brought the change of Social and

Cultural norms. Women’s position moved to the next important step after
the victory in 1945. Vietnam attempt to increase gender equality through
legislation and social programming. In the country’s constitution, women
have been equal to men in all respects since 1946 while internationally it
is well documented that the Women’s Liberation Movement in Western
countries started in the 1960s and 1970s (Hannam, 2007: 7). Alongside
Laws on gender equality, Laws on prevention of domestic violence
became effective in 2008, prescribing how to educate people about,
prevent people from and punish people for crimes that had been
protected by the patriarchal society for long. Nevertheless, it can be
found that women are expected to be “good at national tasks” and “good
at household tasks” from society. This was reflected in the Three Criteria
Women Campaign by the nation Women Union in the decade of 1900s,
which stated that women should “study actively, work creatively, raise
children well and build happy families”. Such demands placed
tremendous pressure on women (Schuler, Anh, Ha, Minh, Mai,& Thien,
2006).

12
 In this context, the study aims to look at the gender ideologies
underlying TV advertisement discourse and to see if those ideologies
challenge any existing gender ideologies in society.

1.3. Gender Inequality

For the past decades, the topic of gender and gender inequality has
been of great interest to researchers in a wide range of fields such as
psychology, sociology, economy, especially in recent years, gender
discrimination has gained its attention of many linguists.

Discrimination occurs in various forms in everyday life. It is

defined as any distinction or preference made based on race, sex,
religion, or national extraction which has the effect of impairing equality
of opportunity (UNESCO, 1960). Discrimination psychologically implies
the unfair treatment toward one subject. It is generally understood as
biased behavior that can directly disadvantage one group.

According to The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of

Discrimination Against Women, 1979, “Discrimination against women
shall mean distinction, exclusion or restriction made based on sex which
has the purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of
equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms
in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field”.

Furthermore, The Law on Gender Equality issued in 2006 stated

gender discrimination is the act of restricting, excluding, not recognizing,
or not appreciating the role and the position of man and woman leading

13
to inequality between man and woman in all fields of social and family
life.

Regarding this issue, Vu Hong Anh – the author of “Hiện trạ ng Bấ t

bình Đẳ ng Giớ i trong cộ ng đồ ng ngườ i dâ n tộ c thiểu số ” – The 2010
report on sexism among ethnic minorities – stated her view on gender
discrimination, which is the inequality in comparing the role, the position
and the voices between men and women. It is the value attached to the
roles of males and females, which is socially recognized that decides how
their voices will be heard.

From the above definitions, it can be inferred that gender

discrimination is the negatively imposed viewing toward on gender
group that possibly cause the threat to gender equality.

1.4. Review of theoretical background

1.4.1. Critical discourse analysis as a theoretical approach

Current research in the field of language and gender in general, and

feminist linguistics in particular, has been carried out using various
approaches and methods such as sociolinguistics and ethnography,
corpus linguistics, conversation analysis (CA), discursive psychology,
CDA, and feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis (Harrington et al,
2008). This study has chosen CDA as its theoretical approach, for CDA
starts with social issues and it “aims to show non-obvious ways in which
language is involved in social relations of power and domination”
(Fairclough, 2001: 229). CDA sees language as “a form of social
practices”, which is socially determined and determinative at the same

14
time (Fairclough, 2001: 22). According to Van Dijk (2001: 352), CDA is “a
type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social
power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and
resisted by text and talk in the social and political context”. Hence, CDA is
theoretically well placed to identify gendered discourses. CDA is probably
the most comprehensive attempt to develop a theory of the inter-
connectedness of discourse, power, and ideology.

Many theorists in CDA present the general principles of CDA in

their terms (van Dijk, 1993; Wodak, 1996; Fairclough and Wodak, 1997).
Fairclough and Wodak (1997: 271-80) summarize the main tenets of CDA
as follows:
a. CDA addresses social problems
It is undeniable that language is a social phenomenon and is part of
society, not somehow external to it (Fairclough, 2001). CDA follows a
critical approach to social problems in its endeavors to make explicit
power relationships that are frequently hidden. It aims to derive results
that are of practical relevance to the social, cultural, political, and even
economic contexts (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997).
b. Power relations are discursive
CDA explains how social relations of power are exercised and
negotiated in and through discourse (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997).
c. Discourse constitutes society and culture
This means that every instance of language use makes its
contribution to reproducing and transforming society and culture,
including relations of power (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997).
d. Discourse does ideological work

15
 Ideologies are often produced through discourse. To understand
how ideologies are produced, it is not enough to analyze texts; the
discursive practice (how the texts are interpreted and received and what
social effects they have) must also be considered (Fairclough and Wodak,
1997).
e. Discourse is historical
Discourses can only be understood concerning their historical
context. In this perspective, CDA refers to extralinguistic factors such as
culture, society, and ideology in historical terms (Fairclough and Wodak,
1997; Wodak, 1996, 2001). Analyzing discourse means not just analyzing
texts, nor analyzing processes of production and interpretation, but
analyzing the relationship between texts, processes, and their social
conditions. Social conditions include both the immediate conditions of
the situational context and the conditions of institutional and social
structures on a higher level (Fairclough, 2001).
f. The link between text and society is mediated
CDA is not a deterministic approach but invokes an idea of
mediation (Fairclough, 1993). Fairclough studies this mediated
relationship between text and society by looking at “orders of discourse”
(Fairclough, 1989; 1993). Van Dijk (1997) introduces a “sociocognitive
level” to his analysis, and Scollon studies mediation by looking at
“mediated action” and “mediational means” (Scollon, 2001).
g. Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory
CDA goes beyond textual analysis. It is not only interpretative but
also explanatory in intent (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997; Wodak, 1996,
2001). These interpretations and explanations are dynamic and open and
may be affected by new readings and new contextual information.

16
 h. Discourse is a form of social action
From the point of view of CDA, discourse is a form of social action.
The principal aim of CDA is to uncover opaqueness and power
relationships. CDA is a socially committed scientific paradigm. It attempts
to bring about change in communicative and socio-political practices
(Fairclough and Wodak, 1997).
In summary, CDA is a type of discourse analysis, which has been
developed in connection with transdisciplinary research on social
change. It contributes to social research a focus on how discourse figures
concerning other social elements in discourse as an element of social
processes and social events, and also an element of social practices. It
encompasses other forms as well as text, such as visual images and body
language, and texts with different semiotic forms (Fairclough, 2005).

1.4.2. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model framework

Among various methods of doing CDA, the study applies

Fairclough’s three-dimensional model as the analytical framework for
this model highlights the relation between discoursal and social
processes with the following illustration:

TEXT

DISCURSIVE PRACTICE
(production, distribution, consumption)

SOCIAL PRACTICE (orders of discourse)

17
 Figure 1: Fairclough (2001)’s three-dimensional model

The first dimension represents “the object of analysis (including

verbal, visual or verbal and visual texts)” (Janks, 1997). All the semiotic
indications including images, signs, colors, sounds, etc. are also seen as
text.

The second dimension can be described as “the process by which

the object is produced and received by human subjects” (Janks, 1997). At
this stage, a text is seen not only as a result of the process of production
and also as a resource in the ace of interpretation. The features of text
and context serve as cues for being interpreted based on a background of
common-sense assumption.

Finally, the third dimension can be illustrated as the “power behind

discourse” or as social practices, because it is containing “the socio-
historical conditions that govern the process of production and
reception” (Jank, 1997).

According to Fairclough, each of these dimensions requires a

different kind of analysis:

 For the first dimension: text analysis (description). The

descriptive dimension presents text analysis. In this step,
linguistic features and other modalities are closely examined. In
Fairclough’s framework, he acknowledges the presence and the
importance of visual images in texts; however, he does not
suggest any analytical moves for this modality. In this thesis,
both linguistic and visual images of the texts are analyzed.

18
 However, due to the nature of TV advertisement discourse
which is in the form of video clips, the author focuses on
studying the visual elements rather than linguistic elements.
Therefore, the model “Grammar of visual design” by Kress and
van Leeuwen is incorporated in this stage for study.
 For the second dimension: processing analysis (interpretation).
This dimension is the processes by which the object is produced
and received by human subject (Janks, 1997). At this stage, a
text is seen not only as a result of the process of production and
also as a resource in the ace of interpretation. The features of
text and context serve as cues for being interpreted based on a
background of common-sense assumption.
 For the third dimension: social analysis (explanation). In this
stage, discourse is seen as part of social process, as social
practice, showing how it is determined by social structures,
sustaining them or changing them (Fairclough, 2001: 135)

1.4.3. Multimodal critical discourse analysis

There has been a new extension of critical discourse analysis–

multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), recently. It is seen as “one
of the most influential and visible branches of discourse analysis”
(Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000) whose typical representatives are Gunther
Kress and Theo van Leeuwen. While the traditional CDA has been
focusing on verbal mode, the new extension has moved towards broader
multimodal conceptions by incorporating visual images into concepts of
discourse (Kress & Leeuwen, 2006).

19
 After the new trend of critical discourse analysis – MCDA was
introduced by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006), more and more researches
have examined non-linguistic semiotic elements consisting of
photographs and other graphic elements so far (e/g. Kress & van
Leeuwen, 2006; Jewitt, 2009). The importance of considering the visual
components such as facial expression and gesture in the analysis of
conversations is highly recognized by Fairclough (1989). Furthermore,
van Leeuwen highlighted the value of investigating visual elements of
images, for instance, color, frame, and composition, showing that those
non-linguistic elements convey meaning and it is worth examining them.
Considering as one branch of critical discourse analysis, multimodal
critical discourse analysis also aims at investigating how the visual
components are used to construct and express social power plus
ideologies. Ideological views of one text can be expressed in the choice of
different vocabularies as well as different grammatical structures; visual
structures in the form of images do convey ideological meanings too.

1.4.4. Kress and van Leeuwen’s grammar of visual design framework

As indicated in the title, the research is conducted from a

multimodal perspective, therefore, to analyze the images in the data
source, Kress and van Leeuwen’s framework is applied.

Theo van Leeuwen and Gunther Kress are pioneers in the analysis
of the visual. The importance of visual images is also stated briefly in the
saying “the image is no longer an illustration: the image carries the
meaning, the words come second” (Kress & Leeuween, 2006: 26).
Therefore, they want to treat forms of communication employing images

20
as seriously as linguistic forms have been. They propose that analyzing
visual communication is, or should be, an important part of the “critical”
discipline.

In their framework, Kress and van Leeuwen adopted Halliday's

theoretical viewpoint in seeing that the visual, like all semiotic modes,
fulfills the three meta-functions namely ideational, interpersonal and
compositional (or textual) as following:

 The ideational metafunction: It is the function of using

language to describe the speaker’s experience of the world
including describing events, states, and the entities involved.
In other words, it has to be able to express how people see
the world and what they consciously know.
 The interpersonal metafunction: The function that language
serves as a medium between people. Individuals utilize
language to interact, establish and maintain relations with
one and another.
 The textual metafunction: The function that explores how
language is employed to relate speech acts. When language is
in use, playing the above two functions, it naturally forms a
text (Kress & Leeuwen, 2006).

These metafunctions defined above can apply to not only written

text but also images because of semiotic change and there is an
emergence of a new type of text to mediate communication – the
multimodal text which is moving from textual to more displaying, visual
representations (Kress & Leewen, 2006). Hence, the theorists realize the

21
need for extending the work of Halliday (Halliday, 1985) to create new
and suitable theories of representations.

In Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2006),

Kress and van Leeuwen introduced Visual Grammar, which is a clear
multimodal approach to visual communication and gives a thorough and
systematic illustration of the grammar of visual design. They named
representational meaning, interactive meaning, and compositional
meaning in correspondence with Halliday's ideational, interpersonal and
textual metafunctions.

Representational meaning

“Any semiotic mode has to be able to represent aspects of the

world as it is experienced by humans. In other words, it has to be able to
represent objects and their relation in a world outside the
representational system” (Kress &van Leeuwen, 2006: 42).
Corresponding to Halliday’s ideational metafunction, visual grammar
introduces representation meaning which functions well in visual mode.
Objects or elements existing in visual images will be called “participants”
which compose of people, places, and things of various kinds represented
in and by images. Actually, every semiotic act comprises two types of
participants, one is interactive participants and the other is represented
participants. Interactive participants are those in the act of
communication, “who speak and listen or write and read, make images or
view them” (Kress &van Leeuwen, 2006: 48). Represented participants
mention those “who constitute the subject matter of the communication;
that is, the people, places and things (including abstract “things”)

22
represented in and by the speech or writing or image, the participants
about whom or which we are speaking or writing or producing images”
(Kress &van Leeuwen, 2006: 48).

Representational meaning can be classified into two categories:

narrative representations and conceptual representation.

- Narrative representation refers that “when participants are connected

by a vector, they are represented as doing something to or for each other”
(Kress &van Leeuwen, 2006: 59)

- Conceptual representation, in contrast with the narrative structure,

represents “participants in terms of their more generalized and more or
less stable and timeless essence, in terms of class, or structure or
meaning” (Kress& van Leeuwen, 2006: 79).

Interactive meaning

The interaction between the producer and the viewer of the image
(interactive participants) is the second dimension presented by Kress
and van Leeuwen (2006) and it is based on Halliday’s interpersonal
function. According to them, producers visually encode social meanings
into images through the gaze of the represented participant, the
distance of the participant from the viewer, and the angle from which
the participant is seen by the viewer.

Compositional meaning

The third dimension of the framework is related to Halliday’s

textual metafunction. The focus here is on “the composition of the whole,
how the representational and interactive elements are made to relate to

23
each other, the way they are integrated into a meaningful whole” (Kress
& van Leeuwen, 2006). The image elements can be analyzed according to
three systems: information value, salience, and framing.
- Salience: The elements or participants are made to draw the
attention of the viewer to different degrees, as recognized by
factors such as placements in the foreground or background,
relative size, contrasts in tone value, differences in sharpness
(Kress & Leeuwen, 2006).
- Information value: It is the placement of elements or
participants that relate them to each other and to the viewer.
Their placement endows them with the specific informational
values attached to the various “zones” of the image: left-right,
top-bottom, center-margin (Kress &Leeuwen, 2006). It means
that different positions of the participants in one image refer to
different meanings.
- Framing: The presence or absence of framing devices, for
example, diving lines or actual frame lines. They disconnect or
connect elements of the image, indicating that they belong or do
not belong together in some sense (Kress & Leeuwen, 2006).

To analyze images in these three “grammatical” categories, it is

necessary to base on various principles which are culturally dependent.
Visual analysis cannot be done separately from the cultural knowledge
from which the visual is produced. In this study, when applying the
analytical guidance by Kress and van Leeuwen to investigate the data, the
aspects of Vietnamese cultures and social norms are examined to
interpret the hidden meanings behind the images on the TV ads.

24
1.5. Summary of the chapter

This chapter has presented the contextual background of the study

as well as the theoretical background for studying. Methodologically,
gender inequality has been studied with a multimodal critical discourse
analysis-based approach. The related studies are also reviewed to
recognize the significance of the research.

25
 CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY

2.1. Research setting

In modern society, people's life is daily affected with advertisements,

which consciously and unconsciously shape our beliefs, values, attitudes, and
behaviors. Along with various types of media, commercials on TV attract
higher attention from everyone. Dastjerdi et al. (2012) agree there is no doubt
that television commercials are among the most pervasive of all media
products in the world. It can be seen clearly that the frequency of television
commercials is consecutive and repetitive in the period of time. The content
of those adverts creates a great impact and influence on the audience every
hour, every day, in which language and images are the crucial and important
features of ads on television. The words are carefully chosen and images in
the videos are purposely selected to meet particular needs for social and
commercial functions.

As a result, there is no doubt that advertising plays a powerful role in

helping to shape social norms and reinforce gendered ideas about what it
means to be a woman or man and how women and men are valued in our
society. Fairclough (1989) indicates that social products, such as
advertisements are sites where language and society interest, with ideologies,
both being produced by and reproduced in the advertisement. Therefore, the
study of advertising discourse is becoming increasingly important to
understand the social practices and ideologies on gender.

2.2. Research questions

26
 In tailoring the methodology for the research, it is beneficial to refer back
to the three questions posed in the first chapter, which are:

(1) Are the portrayals of men and women equally manifested in TV

commercials?
(2) Do the socio-cultural norms and ideologies influence gender gap in
society?
(3) To what extent do these gender representations sustain or challenge
gender equality in society?
2.3. Research approach

This thesis adopts multimodal critical discourse analysis – a new

extension of critical discourse analysis as the methodological approach. The
three-dimension model given by Fairclough (2001) is applied simultaneously
with the grammar of visual images by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) to find
out the message.

2.4. Data collecting procedure

2.4.1. Collecting and logging data

Firstly, the researcher collected TV advertisements on the internet. The

data of the study include a hundred advertisements broadcast on TV from
2016 until 2020. These ads are related to food and drink products from the
different brands and they last from 20 to 45 seconds. Due to the timing factor,
the analyst researched the commercials broadcast in previous years, therefore
to make sure the authentic data, the videos with logo of popular channels in
Vietnam such as VTV, HTV, and so on are selected and saved.

27
 Secondly, the collected videos are classified to assist the researcher in
the analysis process. For easy follow-up, the TV commercials arranged in
order from Ad1 to Ad100, along with the brand’s name of products shorted in
abbreviation and numbering. For example:

Ad20-Choco1: is the twentieth video in the list of data and this is the
first frame of the advertisement “Choco Pie” brand.

In the following step, the author started logging the information of each
advertisement such as the duration of video, the timeline that video was
posted, the context of advertisement, the number of participants (females and
males) in the video with their attitude, actions and gestures were taken notes.

2.4.2. Viewing data

In the next step, the author viewed the videos repeatedly. Video data
was viewed with both sound and image. In order to see the data in different
ways, the analyst watched the advertisements with vision only, sound only,
both sounds and images, fast forward, in slow motion. This helps recognize
various modes used in the videos.

By viewing data, the important images were taken snapshots and saved
for non-verbal elements analyzing purpose. And for the verbal mode (if any),
recordings of voiceovers were transcribed and entered into the database.
These texts were later translated into English and were taken into
investigation.

2.5. Data analysis method

28
 In this thesis, the researcher chiefly uses multimodal critical discourse
analysis plus qualitative content analysis to seeks the answers to the stated
research questions. Content analysis is the method of analyzing text written,
verbal or visual communication messages (Cole, 1988). As in most qualitative
research studies, discourse analysts often begin with collecting data,
describing and analyzing them to bring about findings and conclusions and
ultimately to attain the goals specified. Hence, the qualitative analysis is
appropriate to investigate gender representation and the ideology behind the
content.

Applying the proposed analytical frameworks, the data after recorded

from the website were analyzed at three levels as follows:

a. Discourse description: The first layer shows how the discourse is

designed and depicted visually and verbally. Regarding visual elements, the
author captures featured screenshots and examines the elements such as
participants, distance, angle, and gaze.

Regarding verbal elements (if any), Vietnamese voiceover/text and its

English translation are analyzed with Transitivity, Mood, and Theme. For the
Inter-mode relations, both visual and verbal elements are simultaneously
evaluated.

b. Discourse interpretation: This section explores how the production

and consumption of this discourse influence viewers.

c. Social explanation: The section explicates the hidden ideology that

controls the production and consumption of this discourse.

29
 These steps are taken not separately but intermingled to yield findings
and arguments. The data is examined from its surface; that is looking at the
images and listening to the voice-over as many times as needed. The author
takes notes on the social actors, the participants, and how they are presented
(doing what? with whom? and being whom?) then explicates the underlying
meanings of the advertisements discourse. In the process of interpreting the
hidden meanings, the researcher attempts to see how the patterns occur then
based on the knowledge of gender issues, these patterns are investigated in the
social context. It is important to look back at the data again to make sure all
the elements are analyzed carefully. The analysis is performed frame by
frame. The chosen frames are ones in which either the women and/or the men
appear in the frame or the verbal language contains gender difference.

After investigating carefully all the data, the result of the study is
presented in the following chapter (chapter 3). In presenting the findings of
the study, the researcher presents the images of women and men presented in
the TV advertisements with supporting evidence from data analysis. It is
necessary to reveal how their opposite gender is reflected in those
advertisements. And the underlying ideologies found, are also discussed in
the socio-political context.

2.6. Summary of the chapter

This chapter is devoted to presenting the data for analysis and the
methods that will be deployed. The steps of collecting and logging data are
described in detail for the analysis process. And the methodology section
outlines the analytical tools that will be deployed to seek the answers to the
proposed research questions.

30
 REFERENCES
Al-Mahadin, S. (2003). Gender Representation and Stereotypes in Cartoons:
A Jordanian Case Study. Feminist Media Studies, 3(2), 131-151.
Beaseley, C. (1999). What is feminism? An introduction to feminist theory.
London: SAGE publications Ltd.
Bentz, V.M., & Mayers, P.E.F. (1993). Women’s Power and Roles as
Portrayed in Visual Images of Women in the Arts and Mass Media.
New York: The Edwin Mellen press.
Blommaert, J., & Bulcaen, C. (2000). Critical Discourse Analysis. Estados
Unidos: Annual Reviews.
Bloor, M., & Bloor, T. (2013). The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis.
Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Byerly, C. M., & Ross, K. (2006). Women and Media: A Critical
Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Cook, G (2001). The Discourse of Advertising. London: Routledge.
Carter, C. & Steiner, L. (2004). Critical Readings: Media and Gender.
Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Cortese, A. J. (2004) 2nded. Provocateur: Images of Women and Minorities

in
Advertising. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and Power (2nd ed.). London: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual analysis for social
research. London: Routledge.
Gauntlett, D. (2008). Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction (2nd ed.).
London and New York: Routledge.

31
Ha, N. T. T. (2011). Gender ideologies in Vietnamese printed media, in
D.Majstorovic & I. Lassen (eds.), Living with Patriarchy.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 195-218.
Hannam, J. (2007). Feminism. Harlow: Pearson Longman.
Halliday, M. A. K. (2014). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (4th
ed.). London, UK: Routledge.
ISDS Report (2015). Social determinants in gender inequality in Vietnam.
Hanoi: Hong Duc Publishing House.
Johnson, F. L. & Young, K. (2002). Gendered Voices in Children’s
Television Advertising. Critical Studies in Media Communication,
19 (4), 461– 480. DOI:10.1080/07393180216572
Kosetzi, K. & Polyzou, A. (2009). ‘The perfect man, the proper man’:
Construals of masculinities in Nitro, a Greek men’s lifestyle magazine
– an exploratory study. Gender and Language, 3(2), 143 – 180.
DOI:10.1558/genl.v3i2.143
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of
Visual Design. London: Routledge.
Litosseliti, L. (2006). Gender and Language: Theory and Practice. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Luật bình đẳng giới 2006 (Law on gender equality 2006). (2009). Hanoi:
Labor Publishing House.
Luật phòng chống bạo lực gia đình 2001 (Law on prevention of domestic
violence 2001). (2008). Hanoi: Labor Publishing House.
Machin, D. (2007). An Introduction to Multimodal Analysis. London: Arnold
Publication
Milestone, K. & Meyer, A. (2012). Gender and Popular Culture. Cambridge:
Polity Express.

32
Shifman &Lemish (2011). “Mars and Venus” in Virtual Space: Post-feminist
Humors and the Internet. Critical Studies in Media and
Communication, 28(3), 253-273.
Tuan, N. V. & Huong, P. T. M. (2015). Sexism Hidden in Verbal
Expressions Showing Emotions in English – Vietnamese Football
Newspaper Commentaries: A Critical Discourse Analysis. VNU
Journal of Science - Foreign Studies, 31 (2), 61-70.
UNESCO (1960). Convention against Discrimination in Education. Records
of the General Conference. Paris.
United Nations (2020). Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all
women and girls. Retrieved from
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/
Van Dijk, T.A. (2001). Critical Discourse Analysis, in D.Schiffrin, P. Tanne
& H. Halminton (eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Malden,
MA: Blackwell, 352-371.
Wodak, R. & Meyer, M. (2001). Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis.
London: SAGE publications Ltd.

33
 APPENDIX

No. Products Category Advert’s name

1 7 Up - 01 Drink Ad1-7up.1
2 7 Up - 02 Drink Ad2-7up.2
3 Acecook Instant noodles Food Ad3-Ace
4 Ajiquick 01 Food Ad4-Aji1
5 Ajiquick 02 Food Ad5-Aji2
6 Alpenlibe 01 Food Ad6-Alpen1
7 Alpenlibe 02 Food Ad7-Alpen2
8 Anpha Gold Dielac Drink Ad8-Dielac1
9 Aquafina 01 Drink Ad9-Aqua1
10 Aquafina 02 Drink Ad10-Aqua2
11 Bá nh LU Food Ad11-LU
12 Beer 333 - 01 Drink Ad12-333-01
13 Beer 333 -02 Drink Ad13-333-02
14 Beer Hà Nộ i 01 Drink Ad14-HNB1
15 Beer Hà Nộ i 02 Drink Ad15-HNB2
16 Beer Tiger 01 Drink Ad16-Tige1
17 Beer Tiger 02 Drink Ad17-Tige2
18 Bibica 01 Food Ad18-Bibi1
19 Bibica 02 Food Ad19-Bibi2
20 Chocopie 01 Food Ad20-Choco1
21 Chocopie 02 Food Ad21-Choco2

I
22 Coca Cola Tết 2016 Drink Ad22-Coca1
23 Coca Cola Tết 2021 Drink Ad23-Coca2
24 Con bo cuoi 01 Food Ad24-Phomai1
25 Con bo cuoi 02 Food Ad25-Phomai2
26 Cosy Biscuit, Kinh do Food Ad26-Cosy1
27 Cream O Cake Food Ad27-Creamo
28 Custard cake 01 Food Ad28-Custar1
29 Custard cake 02 Food Ad29-Custar2
30 Dielac Alpha Milk Drink Ad30-Dielac2
31 Fami 01 Drink Ad31-Fami1
32 Fami 02 Drink Ad32-Fami2
33 Grow Plus (4:19) Drink Ad33-Grow1
34 Grow Plus (4:42) Drink Ad34-Grow2
35 Halida 01 Drink Ad35-Hali1
36 Halida 02 Drink Ad36-Hali2
37 KFC Food Ad37-KFC
38 Knorr 01 Food Ad38-Knor1
39 Knorr 02 Food Ad39-Knor2
40 Kokomi 01 Food Ad40-Koko1
41 Kokomi 02 Food Ad41-Koko2
42 La Vie 01 Drink Ad42-Lavie1
43 La vie 02 Drink Ad43-Lavie2
44 MacCoffee - Café pho 01 Drink Ad44-Cfpho1
45 MacCoffee - Café pho 02 Drink Ad45-Cfpho2
46 Malkist Biscuit Food Ad46-Malki
47 Matcha tea plus Drink Ad47-Matea
48 Meizan 01 Food Ad48-Meiz1
49 Meizan 02 Food Ad49-Meiz2
50 Mì 3 miền Food Ad50-3mien

II
51 Mì Cung đình 01 Food Ad51-CD1
52 Mì Cung đình 02 Food Ad52-CD2
53 Mì Kokomi Food Ad53-Koko
54 Mikita Candy Food Ad54-Miki
55 Milo 01 Drink Ad55-Milo1
56 Milo 02 Drink Ad56-Milo2
57 Modern Instant Noodles Food Ad57-Mode
58 Nam Ngư 01 Food Ad58-NNgu1
59 Nam Ngư 02 Food Ad59-NNgu2
60 Nam Ngư 03 Food Ad60-NNgu3
61 Neptune Food Ad61-Nep
62 Nescafe 01 Drink Ad62-Nescf1
63 Nescafe 02 Drink Ad63-Nescf2
64 Nescafe, Café Viet Drink Ad64-Nescf3
65 Nestle Cerelac Drink Ad65-Nesce
66 Nướ c chấ m Long Đình Food Ad66-LD
67 Nướ c khoá ng Ga Đà nh Thạ nh Drink Ad67-NKDT
68 Nutifood, Enplus Diamond Drink Ad68-Enplus
69 Omachi 01 Food Ad69-Omc1
70 Omachi 02 Food Ad70-Omc2
Optimum Gold 2019, link tổ ng
71 Drink Ad71-Opti1
hợ p 4 (0:48)
72 Optimum Gold 2020 Drink Ad72-Opti2
73 Oreo Biscuit 01 Food Ad73-Oreo1
74 Oreo Biscuit 02 Food Ad74-Oreo2
75 Pepsi 01 Drink Ad75-Pep1
76 Pepsi 02 Drink Ad76-Pep2
77 Snack Oishi 01 Food Ad77-Oish1
78 Snack Oishi 02 Food Ad78-Oish2
79 Yogurt Ba vi Food Ad79-Bavi
80 Yomost 01 Food Ad80-Yomo1

III
81 Soya milk vinamilk Drink Ad81-Vnsoy
82 TH True milk Yogurt 01 Drink Ad82-THY1
83 TH True milk Yogurt 02 Drink Ad83-THY2
Thai Long Rong Vang fish
84 Food Ad84-TL
sauce
85 Trà Birdy Drink Ad85-Bird
86 Trà Dr. Thanh 2017 Drink Ad86-Dr.T1
87 Trà Dr. Thanh Tết 2021 Drink Ad87-Dr.T2
88 Tea Lipton Drink Ad88-Lip
89 Tea C2 - 01 Drink Ad89-C2.1
90 Tea C2 - 02 Drink Ad90-C2.2
91 Tea O long Drink Ad91-Olo
92 Twister (04:04) Drink Ad92-Twis
93 Vina café Drink Ad93-Vncf
94 Vinamilk 01 Drink Ad94-Vinamil1
95 Vinamilk 02 Drink Ad95-Vinamil2
96 Vinamilk Sure Prevent Drink Ad96 -Vinamsure
97 Vinamilk yogurt 01 Drink Ad97-Vinayo1
98 Vinamilk yogurt 02 Drink Ad98-Vinayo2
99 Wake up Café 247 Drink Ad99-Wucf
100 Yomost 02 Drink Ad100-Yomo2

IV
V