Conversation and representation task

Transcribing my relevant contributions to the conversation
Callum: So Fin, do you or your parents have jobs?
...
Fin W: They are obviously both responsible people as they have to decide what happens to other peop-
Callum: Do you want to do that?
Fin W: No
Callum: Why not
...
Callum: Junior talk about your job in the co-op.
...
Fin W: Um-
Callum:   So (.) just tell me, what does your job involve?
Fin W: Um (.) I work at a trampoline park sort of place- 
Callum: Is that 'Jump'?
Fin W: No
Callum: The one in Cribbs Causeway?
...
Callum: Anyway (1) my parents (1) my (.) my mum is a social worker (.) who works (1) with people with learning difficulties (1) and (.) my dad is a service manager for an engineering company which does have a lot of responsibilities as he (.) in a way (.) takes care of the engineers

Relating to Tannen's difference model and that men are competitive in conversations, it seems I try to gain the authority by being the agenda setter, interrogating Fin, starting with a discourse marker, "So Fin, do you or your parents have jobs?" Although I believe myself to be a confident speaker, I wouldn't necessarily believe I would try to dominate and take authority in the conversation, despite the fact it may seem that way. Again relating to Tannen's theory that men are competitive, I interrupt Fin again with an interrogative which is unmitigated, without fillers or hedges, and straight to the point "Do you want to do that?" In reference to Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies, it could be argued that I use a bald, straight forward 'face', suggesting I was very confident in the conversation and possibly seemed as if I held the authority and didn't need to be overly polite, which was not the case. It could also be argued that, as the powerful participant, I was using constraints by asking a closed question to Fin to reduce his airtime. 
Again relating to the bald face, I used an unmitigated imperative, again agenda setting, saying "Junior talk about your job in the co-op". Because we cannot see paralinguistics such as tone of voice and facial expression in the transcript, which I believe are a vital part of my communication, it seems I am being quite 'bossy' by using imperatives to demand someone else to talk, when actually my tone of voice could suggest I am actually being cooperative and trying to include people to talk.
Contrastingly to being cooperative, it could be argued that when in latched conversation with Fin, I am using a stereotypical male use of language by trying to be correct by questioning the speaker confidently; the fact that I also interrupted Fin also shows the confidence I had and, although there were no participants who were female, Zimmerman and West's theory of men interrupting frequently is shown in the transcript, as I interrupt quite frequently. However, it could be said that when interrupting, I am just trying to find out information and make the speaker expand on what they are saying, which I think was my intention.
When predominantly speaking, my air time was quite long and interrupted like a monologue, which could represent that the others did not feel confident or 'hold the power' to interrupt me; it may come across this way, but it is not the case. The pauses could also reflect on me trying to 'hog' the air time, or it may actually contrast from that and suggest me being nervous and not prepared of what to say.

Gender Representation holiday task

 This advert relates to the negative connotations that surround women, that even the most stereotypical women’s job requires somewhat ‘manly’ traits, believing you need to be man enough to be a nurse, the job stereotypically labelled to women. This text also uses a somewhat reverse semantic derogation, as usually women receive bad connotations in the words relating to them, however here it seems that women are ‘strong enough’ to be a nurse; however, authoritative words such as ‘strong’ are usually linked to men, as Mary Beard said that men hold more authority than women due to some characteristics they have such as ‘deep-voiced’, therefore it is implying that nursing should in effect be a job for men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8gz-jxjCmg

This video also uses semantic derogation but this time showing negative connotations towards women, aiming for people to realise how often women are given negative connotations compared to the powerful connotations men receive, aiming to try and balance how equally genders are treated. For example, there are harsh opposites that men and women receive relating to the same sort of incident, such as washing; men are considered neat compared to the vain woman; when people from the opposite sexes are presumably talking to persuade, the men are persuasive, however the women are pushy; this semantic derogation links to Lakoff’s theory that women’s language is deficient compared to men, as their actions make them come across as ‘deficient’ compared to men, despite the fact their actions are relatively similar.

This very controversial advert links to John Grey’s book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” and the fact that one statement declared that women care more about language than men, and are more verbally skilled, therefore the opposite relating to men being more direct and straight forward with their language, and mocking women for talking more frequently, saying it is in effect wrong. This again links to Lakoff’s theory that men’s language is the norm, and females being deficient as this advert believes that women sing more words than they should be using is in fact deficient.

Language and representation task - Charity

Great Ormond Street Hospital - http://www.gosh.nhs.uk/about-us/who-we-are

The slogan of Great Ormond Street Hospital is 'The child first and always'. This declarative shows that all of their work and attention is involved in helping out the children as much as possible in any way possible, and states that they will help them before anything else and nothing else. Because of the severity of the children's conditions dealt with at the hospital, the carers of the children are assured from this as they will interpret the hospital will be doing everything in their power to make their experience as joyful as possible during the tough times.
Being an 'international centre of excellence in child healthcare' it would seem that the hospital is declaring it will offer top quality and world class treatment for the children, which is essentially their sole goal - to offer treatment to cure life-threatening illnesses.

It seems that its target audience of the webpage is adults, as although there is a hint of graphology which may be intended for children such as different colours to underline different pages of the website, it is mainly a plain, sophisticated site with relatively plain colours throughout and, more importantly, uses formal language which would seem directed at adults with an interest or knowledge in the lexical field of health and medication, for example "we form the UK’s only academic biomedical research centre specialising in paediatrics". 
Throughout, they declare their intentions to do their very best in finding and giving treatment to the children, alongside giving the children a happy experience when at the hospital to do their best to make them forget about the conditions they are in, through adjectives like 'dedicated', having a 'mission' to provide the best treatment possible and having 3 main priorities of 'Safety, Effectiveness and Experience', showing they equally want everyone associated with the hospital to stay safe, give treatment that can potentially cure successfully and quickly, and give the children and parents a, somewhat, enjoyable experience.