Representation Of Children In Pakistani Television Commercials: A Visio-Semiotics Analysis

Abstract

Television (TV) commercials in Pakistan nowadays improvise novel ideas in order to build secondary discourse and power relations. Current study probes into the representation of children in Pakistani TV commercials over the past five years. We have selected the images of the children from 2018 to 2022 in Pakistani TV commercials and analyzed under the theoretical framework of Visual Semiotics presented by Roland Barthes. Barthian semiological analysis of evaluating an image on both levels of significance i.e. denotative and connotative was used as analytical framework. The results of the current study demonstrate that the TV commercials are usually inclined towards social stereotypical notions and traditional division of masses as "haves" and "have nots". Moreover, the division amongst the masses on the basis of color and gender is also reflected significantly.