media theorists

aqa a level media theorists

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
(A)

media texts are ENCODED and DECODED

what are the 3 readings according to Hall?

DOMINANT / PREFERRED/ HEGEMONIC- how the producer intended it to be read.
OPPOSITIONAL READING- audience rejects preferred reading, creates own meaning
NEGOTIATED READING- compromise: audience accepts parts of producer views but has own views too.

Todorov- narrative stuructures

narrative's chronological quality:
1. STATE OF EQUILIBRIUM
2. DISRUPTION to equilibrium
3. RECOGNITION OF DISRUPTION
4. ATTEMPT TO REPAIR
5. NEW EQUILIBRIUM reached

Propp's 8 character archetypes

- the hero
- the helper
- the villain
- the false hero
- the donor
- the dispatcher (sends hero on mission)
- the princess
the princes' father

Levi Strauss 'Binary Opposites'

Theorist for binary opposites.
- groups in a text are the OPPOSITES of each other, and this conflict is what DRIVES THE NARRATIVE of the story

What are Barthes 5 codes?

HERMENEUTIC / ENIGMA
PROAIRETIC
SEMANTIC
SYMBOLIC
CULTURAL

BARTHES - hermeneutic/ ENIGMA code

withholds information to leave plot point unexplained

eg: 'Scream' - who is the murderer?

BARTHES - Proairetic code

events that indicate something else is going to happen - building tension

Barthes semantic code

Denotation: What you can see.
Connotation: What it means, the interpretation

eg: platform 9 3/4

BARTHES - symbolic code

thematic or structural device

eg: lightsabers blue\=good red\=bad

BARTHES - cultural code

historical, social, psychological, literary references

Gauntlett

people get ideas of their IDENTITY from the media

Neale genre theory (REPETITION AND VARIATION)

all genres must include REPETITION and VARIATION
repetition- allows FAMILIARITY, conventional elements, TROPES
variation- engaging, surprising, intriguing

Gilroy - POSTCOLONIALISM and CIVILISATION

**POST COLONIALISM-** the idea that Britain still act the same way it did in the empire and it affects society and beliefs today
Gilroy explained the black British experience as "partial belonging and __AMBIGUOUS ASSIMILATION__"
**CIVILISISATION** - seeing other cultures as uncivilized and savage-like

**Gilroy - cosmopolitan conviviality**

different ethnicities living together in harmony.

Beaudrillard- post modernism

**Hyper Reality**: Some texts are difficult to distinguish in terms of the representation of reality from a simulation of reality e.g. Big Brother.
The boundaries are blurred as codes and conventions create a set of signifiers which we understand but in fact the representation is a copy of a copy
**SIMULACRA CREATED**

what is verisimilitude?

the simulation of mundane life and how alike it is.

Van Zoonen

Alvarado - LIMITED REPRESENTATION

ethnic minorities only represented as:

* pitied
* humorous
* dangerous
* exotic

bell hooks feminist theory

Feminism is a political struggle to end patriarchal domination and other factors affect this domination, including race and class
lighter skin women more desirable with WESTERN IDEOLOGY
black women OBJECTIFIED and SEXUALIZED In hip-hop
REFLECTS COLONIALIST VIEW OF BLACK WOMEN

bell hooks - exoticism

"diversity is a spice, a seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is western culture" - bell hooks
exoticism is the fetishization of people of color in media and explains how black women are at the bottom of the PATRIARCHAL HIERARCHY .

bell hooks representation theory

**INTERSECTIONALITY** - categories of personality overlap to affect how you experience discrimination

Butler - Gender Performativity

Gender is a social construct - 'masculine' and 'feminine' are created through repetition.
**Queer Theory:** Gender is what you do, not who you are

* identities are not fixed and they cannot be labeled

Laura Mulvey (Gender Theory)

Male Gaze/Female Gaze:
Women sexualized and objectified for the male audience while the same can be said for male models in perfume adverts, sexualized for a female demographic
"pleasure in looking has been split by active/MALE and passive/FEMALE

Jenkins convergence

one media supports and connects with another media technology or genre; technological, social, economic, cultural, global convergence
"migratory behaviour of media audiences"

Gerbner and Gross- cultivation theory

if youre exposed to certain media, your ideas align with that of what you are consuming

Shirky - end of audience theory

audience behavior has changed due to internet and ability to create own content. NEW AUDIENCE DON'T JUST CONSUME MEDIA, THEY BECOME PROSUMERS.

Shirky- prosumers and mass amateurisation

COGNITIVE SURPLUS

Shirky - symmetrical participation

synonymous to ‘**prosumer**’ (**JENKINS**)

* ability to produce and sell information on the internet as well as revive it.

Cohen- moral panic

He suggests that the medias portrayal of events produced a deviance amplification spiral by making it seem as if the problem was spreading and getting out of hand.

Galtung and Ruge - News values

(next 13 cards)

frequency

short term events that occur lots and are newsworthy eg. robberies, education, politics

threshold

events with impact- large numbers involved: casualties in accident, gruesome murder

unambiguity

reports with immediate meaning so easily understood

proximity

news must be about people and targeted to them

predictability

news that is hinted at, and then becomes reas as expected by media

unexpectedness

events thatare unexpected eg, "man eats tiger!"

continuity

news stories once reported, are followed up eg. covid

composition

news are balanced: relevant news, urgency, importance, domsticity. length of reports adjusted accordingly

personalisation

news feel personal; someone accountable for actions- NOT orgainsation

negativity

'bad news is good news' and therefore worth reporting eg. death, tragedy, extreme weather

visual imperative

pictures or video of event make story more newsworthy

reference to elite persons

Stories concerned with the rich, powerful, famous and infamous get more coverage.

reference to elite nations

Stories concerned with global powers receive more attention than those concerned with less influential nations.

INDUSTRY THEORISTS

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Curran and Seaton

mass media is controlled by CONGLOMERATES AND CAPITALISM
- majority of mainstream media is owned by few number of conglomerates.
- impact on freedom of the press

Livingstone and Lunt - Regulation

civc model- there to INSTRUCT us as citizens
consumer model - there to PLEASE us as consumers

Hesmondhalgh

maximise profit , minimising risk
- take advantage of what's popular
maintains audience engagement