Representations

Cristiano Ronaldo

Text 1 - The Independent - Article August 2015

In this photo, Cristiano is wearing a smart suit. There is nothing that you can say about this other than the fact that this suit portrays him to be rich. 

The encoders of the text, in this case the editors and journalists at The Independent newspaper have represented Cristiano as a down to earth athlete. They are showing that he donates to charity and they have actually classed him as the "The most charitable athlete". I think that that the encoders of this text have used this picture for a number of reasons. Firstly, in this picture, Ronaldo looks like he is a professional businessman of some sort whereas if they were to use a picture of him when he is on the pitch then a different representation will be shown. On the field Ronaldo isn't favoured for his actions. This actions may consist of being smug, arrogant, being a foul player and diving. In the image above, the encoders have tried to portray Ronaldo as some sort of role model, as a professional athlete who is perfect in every way.

The preferred reading of this is that we accept that Ronaldo is a very charitable footballer however those who take the oppositional reading may disagree. As you can tell in the title of this argument it says "Thousands". This may appeal to the people who take an oppositional reading to the text due to the fact that they may think that footballers are overpaid. This may result in them believing that Ronaldo should actually be donating even more money to the charities due to the amount of money he earns. The picture can also be used in an oppositional reading. This is because he is wearing a suit which more likely costs more than most peoples salary. This shows that Ronaldo is still willing to leave himself better off than to donate to those who need stuff.

Text 2 - Nike Advert

This is a very simplistic advert which contains Ronaldo and a copy with says "JUST DO IT" followed by the Nike logo. The background in this advert has been blurred out to put the main focus on Ronaldo. This poster hasn't been created just by taking a photo from a match situation but it has been taken from Ronaldo modelling the new Portugal kit. This is a normal celebration for Ronaldo but as you can see, he looks extremely passionate. This may be because he is wearing his countries official kit however as you can see he is pointing towards the Nike logo whereas in a normal situation then he would be pointing towards the badge of the team that he is playing for. This shows that Ronaldo is really passionate towards his country therefore making him a very patriotic person.

But if you were to look at this a different way then you could say that Ronaldo looks very full of himself. He may actually be pointing at himself. This implies that he is the best and this gesture is basically saying "Look at me, I am the best. But overall I believe that Ronaldo is only pointing at the badge simply because he is advertising the Nike brand.

Text 3 - Picture From His Clothing Range / Modelling

This photo is advertising Ronaldo's clothing range which is known as "The CR7 collection". This photo has 2 sections to it. One half of it is the socks that are apart of the collection and then the second half of it is Ronaldo himself. The picture of Ronaldo has been used in this advertisement due to the fact that if you were to advertise the sock half of the poster then nobody would buy it so Ronaldo has been used due to the fact that he is admired persuading people to buy the products.

People would argue that the Ronaldo section of this poster is pretty irrelevant and that it has been put in there so that it can boost Ronaldo's vanity. The encoders want to create this arrogant representation of Ronaldo so they put an irrelevant picture of him in this poster.

Text 4 - Ronaldo & His Family

In this photo Ronaldo is with his son. Whereas the other pictures have shown that he is arrogant and in love with himself, this picture shows that he is a family man. He obviously loves his son by taking him onto the red carpet and dressing him in a suit that probably costs more than most peoples salaries. However the encoders do a pretty good job at mediating Ronaldo due to the fact that you only ever see him in pictures where he is showing off and where he looks pretty arrogant. Whereas actually he is a very charitable and down to earth person who loves his family.