Theorists

Media language - yellow, representation - blue, industry - purple , audiences - red

Neale’s genre theory(similarity)

Neale’s genre theory(similarity)

• levels of verisimilitude (reference to the real world)

• narrative similarities

• character-driven motifs

• iconography (mis en scene)

• audience targeting

• representational effects - application of gender specific representations

Neale’s genre theory (difference)

• audience needs - audience gains pleasure in identifying moments that subvert genre expectations

• contextual influences - genre driven content is adapted as a result of social, political & historical influences

• economic influences - lack of engagement from an audience may result in genre adaptation

Todorov

1) equilibrium

2) disruption of the equilibrium

3) recognition of the disruption

4) an attempt to repair the damage

5) new equilibrium

Propp Character types

• villain - creates a complication in the narrative

• donor - gives the hero something that will help in the resolution

• princess - has to be saved by the hero

• dispatcher - sends the hero on a task

• hero - central protagonist, saves day and restores equilibrium

• false hero - appears to be good but is revealed to be bad

• the helper - helps the hero in restoring the resolution

story

the sequence of events that tell us what happened

narrative

the way the stories structured

Levi Strauss Binary opposition

believed that opposites create a good narrative

serves to create conflict

eg good vs evil or life vs death

Roland Barthes

• suggests that stories have certain codes that audiences understand and respond to

> action code - parts of the narrative which are related to things happening caused by previous points which lead to other actions eg car chase

> enigma code - mystery that isn’t immediately solved

> semantic code - hidden meaning

>symbolic code - symbolism within a text

>cultural code - anything in a text that requires cultural or historical knowledge to understand it

structuralism theory

refers to a theory that attempts to explore the ways in which audiences gain meaning from a text “things can’t be understood in isolation”

Ferdinand de Saussure (semiotics)

> we culturally agree on the signified (how we interpret it) - we inherit the meanings of signs

> therefore most signifiers (the name of the sign) have no direct link to the signified - they are said to have an arbitrary relationship

>sign - the understanding the audience has

>signifier - the language used to express the concept

>signified - the concept that is represented by the sign

Meaning arises from the differences between signifiers there are two kinds : syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution)

Paradigm - a signifier and its links to other signifiers outside the same system of signs

Syntagm - a signifier and its links to other signifiers within the same system of signs

Roland Barthes (semiotics)

> signifier - denotation (literal meaning)

> signified - connotation (meaning associated with something)

Pierce (semiotics)

• icon - has a physical resemblance to the signified (thing being represented) eg a photo

• index - shows evidence of what’s being represented eg image of smoke to represent fire

• symbol - has no resemblance between the signifier and the signified (culturally learned)

bell hooks - gender theorist

• bell hooks believes that white, male upper class people control the media industries and their values and beliefs are the ones we see in the vast majority of media products

• Meaning people who aren’t white male and upper class will not see their values in media products and means that whole groups of people and their values can be miss-represented or ignored

• Women aren’t all discriminated against in the same way or to the same extent - closely tied to class and ethnicity

• You have to be politically active to be a feminist

Gilroy - black Atlantic theory

• Ethnicity and national identity aren’t actually fixed or permanent

• The movement of people back and forth across the ocean has created a dynamic intercultural identity that’s beyond national borders

Stuart Hall’s reception theory

• audiences receive and understand the media in different way based on their backgrounds and beliefs

• Dominant reading → the intended reading of the producer - the way its meant to be dad and the way that most people will receive the text

• Oppositional reading → the audience understand the intended meaning but reject this meaning and instead take a contradictory or contrasting reading of the text

• Negotiated reading → the audience understand the intended meaning but instead read the text somewhere between the intended and oppositional readings; this often means rejecting parts and accepting others

Jospeh Gelfer - gender theorist

• suggests the way masculinity is represented is changing

• “Previously masculinity was mostly presented in one of two ways either a glamorous James Bond style masculinity that attracted the ladies or a buffoon-style masculinity that was firmly under the wifely thumb”

• The five stages of masculinity:

  Stage 1 → “unconscious masculinity” traditional view of men

  Stage 2 → “conscious masculinity” as above but deliberate

  Stage 3 → “critical masculinities” feminist; socially constructed

  Stage 4 → “multiple masculinities” anyone can be anything

  Stage 5 → “beyond masculinities” it doesn’t exist

David Gauntlett - identity theory

• He believes that while everyone is individual people tend to exist within larger groups who are similar to them. He thinks the media doesn’t create identities but just reflect them instead

• In older media items men and women had set gender representations where men were shown as strong/dominant/powerful etc and women were shown as housewives/mothers/carers etc. - simple ideas about gender and identity

• In newer media products gender representations are more diverse on gender - not simple messages about identity

• Symbiotic relationship between media audiences and produce

Butler - gender theory

• Gender is a social construct - its about how you feel and behave

• Gender is constructed through performance - so performing certain activities makes you feel more feminine/masculine

• She belies these performances are like rituals

VanZoonen’s - gender theory

• in patriarchal culture - women’s bodies are represented as objects is different to the representation of male bodies as a spectacle

• Gender is perform active - ideas about femininity and masculinity are constructed in our performances of these roles - it is what we do rather than what we are

• Gender is contextual it changes with cultural and historical context

• She believes that the media portray images of stereotypical women and this behaviour reinforces societal views. The media does this because they believe it reflects dominant social values and male producers are influenced by this.

Gilroy - Post colonialist theory

• colonialism - taking over another country to run and exploit it

• Gilroy believes that we can still see the effects of this colonisation in the media now

• Belies ethnic minorities are often shown as powerless, weak, dehumanised, marginalised and “other”

• white western people are often shown as more powerful, successful and important

Alvarado

• he believed that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are represented in one of four main stereotypical ways

• Stereotype 1 → PITIED - someone who is vulnerable and in need of help and sympathy

• Stereotype 2 → DANGEROUS - aggressive or violent and needs to be feared

• Stereotype 3 → EXOTIC - someone who is unusual, strange, exciting or “other”

• Stereotype 4 → HUMOROUS - someone who is funny and should be laughed at or with

Edward Said

• His theory is mainly about the false image of the priest fabricated by western thinkers as the “other” in contrast with the civilised west

• He believes that the consequences of colonialism are still persisting in the form of chaos, coups, corruption, civil wars, blood shed, which permeates many ex-colonies

• People of the orient have been ignored or distorted

Laura Mulvey - feminist theory

• She believes women are often represented to us through a “male gaze”

• This means the media products assume the audience is straight and male and presents women to them for their pleasure

• She found that men in film are often at the centre of the action and narrative. Often represented as powerful and dominant playing an active role in the plot

• She found that women in film were often passive playing minor roles in the narrative. They had Things done to them rather than doing themselves

Orientalism

• is a type of racism in which “the west” - generally understood as Europe and North America → projects Savagery and beauty onto the “east” cultures and people as both alluring and a threat to western Civilisation

Some key terms

African diaspora → black identity is formed by the scattering of people across the world

Double consciousness → seeing yourself through the eyes of others eg usually hegemonic, white male

Post colonial melancholia → an attachment to the airbrushed version of British colonial history

Demographics

• age, gender, social class, ethnicity, income, location and political leanings

• Demographics table:

• A → upper middle → higher/senior managerial person

• B → middle → middle managerial e.g teachers

• C1 → lower middle → supervisory e.g office supervisors

• C2 → skilled manual → skilled manual worker e.g electrician

• D → working → unskilled manual e.g dustmen

• E → casual/unemployed → pensioners, students

Psychographics

• mainstreamers → seek security, conform to conventional values and behaviours

• aspires → materialistic, focus on image and appearance see what’s in fashion

• Succeeders → self-possessed, confident, strong work ethic

• Resigned → traditional values and attitude to authority, driven by prejudices

• Explorers → seek new ideas, energetic and enthusiastic, values are different/ newer

• Strugglers → seeks escape, alienated and disorganised average purchaser of junk food and alcohol

• Reformers → socially aware, makes independent judgements, materialistic but tasteful

Hesmondhalgh

• commodification - refers to the process of “transforming objects and ideas into commodities”. The transformation of goods, services, ideas and people into commodities or objects of trade ; in the case of media it is the perception of media products and the audience as commodities to be traded for rather than as artistic/educational properties

• Conglomerates in cultural industries try to minimise risk and maximise audiences this is carried out through horizontal and vertical integration

• Horizontal integration - different parts of the same company doing the same part of the production process eg Disney - owns multiple production studios including Pixar, Walt Disney, Marvel studios

• Vertical integration - different parts of the same company doing the different part of the production process - Disney is vertically integrated as it owns production companies such as Marvel studios but also distribution companies like Walt Disney motion pictures and exhibition companies such as Disney channel

Baudrillard

Postmodernism

• Reality vs artificial

• Loss of reality in media today

• Heightened reality

• Simulacra - artificial copies - not really linked to reality

• Simulacra becomes hard to tell apart from reality - hyper reality

• simulacrum - is a copy of something with very little link to reality

• Audiences often prefer simulacra to real life

Hall

• The media often use stereotypes

• Stereotypes reduce people down to oversimplified cliches

• Stereotypes are often negative eg ethnic minorities

• Stereotypes result from inequality of power - dominant hegemonic groups - white middle class men

Curran and Seaton

• Media industries are dominated by a small number of giant conglomerates

• Driven by profit and power

• The idea that media concentration generally limits or inhibits variety, creativity & quality

Livingston and Lunt

• Regulation - rules

• Regulation of the media is hard

• Often to do with protecting audience from harm

• Regulators have to balance protecting people with offering choice

• Technology has made regulation much harder

• Downloading, streaming, piracy etc means people can bypass the controls like age certificates

• The vast nature of the internet makes it impossible to control

• Powerful companies can avoid regulations

Shirky

• Audiences are no longer passive due to the way social media operates

• Technology has changed our behaviour instead of just consuming media passively we also contribute to it (prosumer)

• Interacting with the media

• Technology has changed our expectations and behaviour

Jenkins

• Fans are devoted followers of media texts who actively engage with the products to construct their own meanings and interpretations beyond the original message

• Fans will cosplay their favourite characters, write fan fiction, post their own theories etc

Bandura

• Suggested that modelling in the media introduced attitudes responses and conduct that would be acquired by audiences

• The idea that audiences would imitate media violence is a main principle

• Bobo doll experiment - children imitated adults violent behaviour

• Children would copy behaviour they saw

Gerbner

• Cultivation theory

• Repeated exposure to television can over time subtly cultivate viewers perceptions of reality

• The effects of media build up over time

• The cultivation of effects of the media can change the dominant ideologies of society