Media Studies - theories

Semiotics - Barthes

The idea that texts communicate their meanings through a process of signifcation.

The Idea that signs can function at the level of denotation, which involves the “literal” or common-sense meaning of the sign and at the level which involves the meanings assocaited with or suggested by the sign.

The idea that constructed meanings can come to seem self evident achieving the status of myth through a process of naturalisation

Narratology - Todorov

The idea that all narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another.

The idea that these two states are separated by a period of imbalance or disequilibrium.

The idea that the way in which narratives are resolved can have particular ideological significance.

Genre theory - Neale

The idea that genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation and change.

The idea that genres change, develop and vary, as they borrow from and overlap with one another.

The idea that genres exist within specific, economic, institutional and industrial contexts.

Strucuralism - Levi-Strauss

The idea that texts can be understood through an examination of their underlying structure.

The idea that meaning is dependant upon pairs of oppositions .

The Idea that the way in which these binary oppositions are resolved can have particular ideological signifance.

Postmodernism - Baudrillard

• The idea that in postmodern culture, the boundaries between the real world and the world of media have collapsed and that it is no longer possible to distinguish between reality and simulation.

• The idea that in a postmodern age of simulacra, we are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything real.

• The idea that media images have come to seem more real than the reality they supposedly represent (hyper reality)

Theories of representation - Hill

Representation is the production of meaning through language.

The relationship between concepts and signs is governed by codes.

Stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits

Stereotyping tends to occur where thereare inequalities of power, as excluded groups are constructed as differenct or “other”.

Theories of identity - Gauntlett

The idea that media provide us with “tools” or resources that we use to construct our identities.

While in the past the media tended to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of gender identities, the media today offer us a more diverse range.

Feminist theory - Van Zoonan

Gender is constructed through discourse, and its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context.

The idea that the display of women’s bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of Western Patriarchal Society.

In mainstream culture, male and female bodies are portrayed differently.

Feminist theory - Hooks

The idea feminism is a struggle to end sexist oppression and domination.

Feminism is a a polticial commitment rather than a lifestyle choice.

Race and class also determine the extent to which people are oppressed.

Ethnicity + Postcolonial theory - Gilroy

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

Civilizationism constructs racial hierarchies + sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness.

Gender performativity - Butler

The idea that identity is performatively constructed by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results (it’s manufactured by a set of acts)

The idea that there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender

The idea that performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition and ritual.

Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton

The media is controlled by a small number of companies driven by profit.

Media concentration generally limits variety, creativity and quality.

More socially diverse patterns of ownership help to create the conditions for more varied and adventurous media productions.

Regulation - Livingstone and Lunt

There is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens and that of consumers.

The increasing power of global media corporations and technologies have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk.

Cultural Industries- Hesmondhalgh

Cultural industry companies try to minimize risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration.

The radical potential of the internet has been contained to some extent by its partial incorporation into a large, profit-orientated set of cultural industries.

Media effects- Albert Bandura

Media can implant ideas into people’s minds.

Media representations of transgressive behaviour can lead to audience members imitating - like violence.

Cultivation theory - Gerbner

The exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can influence the way in which people percieve the world around them.

Cultivation reinforces mainstream values.

Reception Theory - Hill

The idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences.

the idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences

the idea that there are three hypothetical positions from which messages and meanings may be decoded - Preferred, negotiated and oppositional.

Fandom - Jenkins

Fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings.

Fans appropiate texts and read them in ways that aren’t fully authorised by the producers (textual poaching)

Fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture references.

“End of Audience” theories - Shirky

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

Audience consumers now have become producers who “speak back to” the media