Critical Pen - Echendu Sonia

  Power in Pixels: A Formal Media Analysis of Peter Obi’s Presidential Campaign Poster In the 2023 Nigerian presidential elections, the visuals of politics were as ferociously contested as the ballot. Among the most eye-catching campaign materials was the presidential poster of Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate. As a visual artifact, this poster does more than announce a candidacy, it constructs an image, evokes emotional resonance, and encodes political values through its formal elements. Through the lens of formal media analysis, this essay explores how colour, typography, image composition, and symbolism work hand-in-hand to communicate Peter Obi’s political identity, reinforce messages of reform and unity, and position him as a credible alternative in Nigeria’s democratic. Colour: The dominant colour palette of Peter Obi’s campaign poster is rooted in green, white, and red which echoing the national colours of Nigeria and the Labour Party’s flag. Green, which connotes...

  The Invisible Hand of Capital: Chief Daddy as Middle Class Symbol Chief Beecroft, the titular patriarch, never seen alive in the film. However, his presence dominates the story through the wealth he has stored and shared before his death. According to Karl Marx, the middle class are those who own the means of production and control societal power because their economic dominance. His unseen empire in oil and gas represents not just capitalist wealth but also the exploitative history of postcolonial Nigeria. What is crucial and revealing is the absence of depiction of labour. We never see the workers in Chief Daddy’s company, but they rewarded of their labour and are showcased in the luxury of his family. Inheritance and Fetish Wealth Following Chief Daddy’s death, the film centers around his will. In Marxist terms, this document becomes the instrument through which private property is redistributed among idle middle class. The family members do not contest labour rights t...

  Framing Protest: A Stuart Hall Reading of CNN’s End SARS Coverage Introduction:   October 20, 2020, Nigerian youth assembled at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos in silent protest police violence, especially the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). What ensued was a bloody night of violence that became the center of both country wide lament and international uproar. CNN’s investigative report, "How a Bloody Night of Bullets put down a Young Protest Movement," reconstructs that night using eyewitness accounts, verified video evidence, and crime scene analysis. Applying Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model to this media allows us to see the ideological intentions fixed in CNN’s coverage (encoding), and the various ways audiences—local protesters, the Nigerian government, and international viewers (decoding). Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Theory Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model challenges the one-dimensional perspective of communication by challenging that med...

  Who Owns Her Image? Male Gaze vs. Oppositional Gaze in Tiwa Savage’s Koroba In the stunning visual music video for Tiwa Savage’s Koroba , we see a showpiece that is politically layered as it is visually captivating. Directed by Clarence Peters, the video presents Savage as both an alluring symbol of modern femininity and a conscious observer on power, gender, and society hypocrisy. But who controls this image? Using Laura Mulvey’s concept of the “male gaze” and bell hooks ‘of the “oppositional gaze,” this essay examines the representation of Tiwa Savage’s body, voice, and space in the music video, and how these layers are seen differently and interpreted by Black women. The Male Gaze in Koroba: Aesthetic Objectified Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze, first expressed in her 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” shows how mainstream media often place women as sexualized figures. Through framing, camera angles, and narrative positioning, women become bodies ...

 Laura Mulvey’s “Male Gaze” Theory Feliz Navidad Nigeria! Closeup Ad: A Dual Feminist Critique Introduction The “Feliz Navidad Nigeria” Closeup ad aims to celebrate love and holiday cheer, combining global and local elements to advertise toothpaste as a hold between love and attraction. While ad sparkles with festive music and cheerful differences, a much deeper analysis shows how pictorial language, symbol, and power versatile are fixed.   To understand this, we move to two important female critics Laura Mulvey and bell hooks and each offering different frame to unveil the most-hidden messages inside media texts. This essay shows us two detailed critiques of the ad: first is the Laura Mulvey’s lens, which emphasize the male gaze and gendered pictorial pleasure and second through bell hooks’ lens, interrogating how race, class, and capitalism globally construct representations of love and identity in Nigeria.   Analysis Using Laura Mulvey’s Theory of the Male Gaze...

  Critical Analysis of Gucci x Dapper Dan A/W ’18–’19 BTS Campaign   Introduction The alliance between Gucci and Dapper Dan during the Autumn/Winter 2018–2019 season is seen as a moment in fashion and representation. Dapper Dan, a Harlem-based designer, was a pioneer who merged contemporary fashion with casual appeal brand logos during the 1980s. After decades of marginalization, his partnership with Gucci symbolized a different merging of culture with the main fashion world. This campaign, particularly its behind-the-scenes serves as a rich text for critical analysis. To understand how meaning is created and interpreted, this paper applies Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding model, focusing on the negotiated reading of the campaign - reveals how audiences not fully accept Gucci’s message while questioning its realness and implication.   Stuart Hall’s Negotiated Reading: Theory Overview Stuart Hall’s theory pinpoints the idea that media messages carry fixed meanings, Hall...

  Marxist Analysis of the Gucci x Dapper Dan A/W ’18–’19 BTS Campaign   Introduction The Gucci x Dapper Dan alliance for the Autumn/Winter 2018–2019 campaign represents more than a fashion moment; it is an example of the interplay. Marxist theory explores culture, capitalism, and power Dapper Dan, a Harlem-based designer was marginalized and even legally challenged by the luxury fashion houses. Yet later on, he became a major partnership with Gucci which shows symbolically how capitalist systems understand commodify which was once rebellious. Marxist Theory Overview Marxist theory pinpoint on the capitalism structure and how they shape culture, ideology, and social relations. Its core idea is the class conflict between those who own the means of production and control cultural institutions, and the working class, who sell their labour. In cultural analysis, Marxism highlights how transforming them into items for profit rather than genuine expression. It critiques how dominant ...