Media Language Theories

Ronald Barthes - Semiotics

The study of signs and meaning.

Texts communicate their ideas through signification

Literal signs = signifier, denotation.

Figurative signs = signified, connotation.

The sign becomes myth through naturalisation.

Todorov - Narratology

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

Equilibrium → Disruption → Recognition → Resolution → New Equilibrium

The way that narratives resolve can have ideological significance.

Steve Neale - Genre

Repetition - Genres follow familiar conventions which help audiences recognise and enjoy them.

To stay interesting, genres also incorporate difference, variation and change - otherwise, they'd be boring.

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

Levi-Strauss - Binary Opposition

Meaning is produced through oppositional pairs (e.g. good vs evil)

The resolution of these binary opposites can have ideological significance.

Jean Baudrillard - Postmodernism

The making of meaning in a post-structuralist world.

The lines between the reality and simulation have blurred.

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