Media Theories

Aice media studies

Theory of Media Language

Semiotics

• Roland Barthers

• The study of signs and meaning texts communicate their ideas through signification

• Signs that function at a literal level (signifier, denotation) as well as a figurative level (signified, connotation)

• Exposure to certain symbolic constructions can become self-evident, as the sign becomes myth through naturalization.

Narratology

• Tzvetan Todorov

• All narratives share a basic structure, moving from one equilibrium to another

• These 2 states of equilibrium are separated by disruption or imbalance. The way that narratives resolve can have ideological significance

Genre Theory

• Steve Neale

• Genre are dominated by repetition of codes and conventions but also incorporate differences variation and change.

• Genres change as they borrow from overlap with each other (hybridity and subgenres)

• Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrials contexts

Structuralism

• Claude LeviStrauss

• Texts can be understood through an analysis of their underlying structure

• Meaning is often produced through oppositional pairs (e.g. good vs. evil) The resolution of these binary opposites can have ideological significance.

Postmodernism

• Jean Beaudrillard

• The boundaries between the “real” and the “mediated” worlds have collapsed

• Signs are a process of signification with no signifier underlying them; they no longer refer to anything “real” or “literal”

• Mediated images now seem more “real” than the reality they supposedly represent (hyperreality)

• Views media as a site of power and ideology, and questions traditional narratives and interpretation. Postmodernist media often emphasizes style over substance, and challenges the idea of objective reality.

Key aspects of postmodernist media

• Intertextuality: Blending different media forms

• self-referentiality: Acknowledging the artificiality of media

• Pastiche: Blending high and low culture

• Irony and paradox: Using irony to challenge aspected narrative

• Breaking the fourth wall: Drawing attention to filmmaking process

• Parody: Using parody to subvert expectations

Theories of Representation

The Theory of Representation

• Stuart Hall

• Representation is the production of meaning through language ( a system of signs)

• Stereotyping reduces people and things to a few simple characteristic or traits

• Stereotyping tends to occur where there is a disparity of power, with subordinated/excluded groups being different or “other”

• Preferred/ dominant reading: The way media producers want to interpret the text. The type of reading will be culturally dependent

Theories of Identity

• David Gauntlett

• Media helps us to construct our identities

• Media provides us with ‘tools’ and resources that we use to shape our identities.

• In the past, these media toolboxes were simple; as the mediated world has become more complicated, we now have a wide range of media models - a pick - and-mix of different ideas that we can choose from

Postcolonial Theory

• Paul Gilroy

• Exploring the legacy of colonialism and imperialism

• Colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity

• “Civilisationism” constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of “other”ness

• Like you are at an party (formal) you think of things like tuxedo, gowns (influence from European countries)

Feminist Theory

• Liesbet van Zoonen

• Gender is constructed through discourse

• Gender, as a product of discourse, changes depending on cultural and historical context.

• The objectification of women’s bodies is core to Western patriarchal culture. The codes used in mainstream media to construct the male body are different from the mediated/objectified female body.

• Ex: Now high heels make us think women. However, in old times in France for instance, it would think men.

Industry Theories

Power and Media Industries Theory

• James Curran and Jean Seaton

• Media is driven by the logic of power and profit

• Media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily concerned with gaining profit and power

• Media concentration typically inhibits or limits variety, creativity and quality.

• Socially diverse patterns of ownership help to create conditions for more varied and adventurous media products

Regulation Theory

• Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt

• There is an underlying struggle between the end to further the interests of citizens (protection from harmful material) and the interests of consumers (choice, value, competition)

• The rise of media conglomerations and the emerging production, distribution and marketing of digital media have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.

Cultural Industries Theory

• David Hesmondhalgh

• Media companies try to minimize risks and maximize audiences through vertical and horizontal integration and the form of their media/cultural products (through genre, serial format and by including stars)

• The largest companies and conglomerates now operate across a number of media industries. The internet, and its radical potential, has been partially contained by its incorporation into large, profit-oriented cultural companies

Media Effects Theory

• Albert Bandura

• Media is capable of implanting ideas directly into the minds of its audience

• Audience respond to the modeling in media, an thereby, acquire new attitude, styles of conduct and emotional responses

• Media representation of transgressive or antisocial behavior can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behavior

Cultivation Theory

• George Gerbner

• Repeated exposure to patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way the audience perceives the world around them (i.e. by cultivating particular points of view and opinion

• Cultivation reinforces mainstream, or dominant, values, and ideologies

Reception Theory

• Stuart Hall

• Communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by the audience

• There are 3 hypothetical positions from which meanings can be decoded

• 1. The Dominant-hegemonic position: The encoder’s intended meaning is fully understood and accepted

• 2. The negotiated position: The legitimacy of the encoder’s message is acknowledged but the message is adapted to better fit the decoder’s individual experiences or context

• 3. The oppositional position: The encoder’s message is understood, but the decoder disagrees with it, reading it in a contrary or oppositional way.

Fandom Theory

• Henry Jenkins

• Fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings. Fans also appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully authorized by the media producers (“textual poaching”)

• Fans construct their social and cultural identities by borrowing and inflecting mass culture images and participate in a culture that offers a vital social dimension.

End of Audience Theory

• Clay Shirky

• The internet and digital technologies have a profound effect on the relations between media and individuals

• In the age of the internet, audience members or no longer passive consumers or mass media content: consumers now have the ability to “speak back to media in various ways.

• Media Consumers engage in the creating and sharing of content with one another