My analysis of " On Reading a Video Text"

In Robert's essay he is trying to explain how a simple video text can be broken down into so many thoughts and ideas even though it may only last 30 seconds. He gives us many methods the commercials use to capture the viewer. One of the methods is visual facination meaning that the person is not only informed but entertained. This often goes hand in hand with narrativity, or what Scholes describes as cultural reinforcement. By this he means the process through which video texts confirm viewers in thier ideological positions and reassure them as to their membership in a collective curtual body. A sucessful advertizement will make the viewer feel like they belong and can relate to others and because of this are more likely to buy the products. This is an extremely important elemnt of video textuality and has been used throughout history. What the epic poem did for ancient cultures, the media, especially television, now do for the commodified, bureaucratized world that is today. It seems that we can know Amerian culture from some TV commercial. This is because commercial shows us American cultural knowlege and information more easily and obviously.