THEORIES AND THEORISTS

Media Language

Semiotics - Roland Barthes

  • The study of signs and meaning

  • Texts communicate ideas through signification

  • Signs function at a literal level (signifier, denotation) and a figurative level (signified, connotation)

  • Exposure to symbolic constructions can become self-evident, turning signs into myths through naturalization

Media Language - Narratology - Tzvetan Todorov

  • The study of narrative

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

  • Disruption or imbalance separates the two states of equilibrium

  • The resolution of narratives can have ideological significance

Genre Theory - Steve Neale

  • The classification of media products

  • Genres are dominated by repetition of codes and conventions

  • Genres must also incorporate difference, variation, and change

  • Genres change as they borrow from and overlap with each other

  • Genres exist within specific economic, institutional, and industrial contexts

Structuralism - Claude Lévi-Strauss

  • The underlying structures through which meanings are made

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

  • Meaning is often produced through oppositional pairs (e.g. good v. evil)

  • The resolution of these binary opposites can have ideological significance

Postmodernism - Jean Beaudrillard

  • The making of meanings in a post-structuralist world

  • The boundaries between the "real" and "mediated" worlds have collapsed

  • Signs are a process of signification with no underlying signifier

  • Mediated images seem more "real" than the reality they represent (hyperreality)

Representation

Theories of Representation - Stuart Hall

  • How representations are constructed

  • Representation is the production of meaning through language

  • Stereotyping reduces people and things to simple characteristics or traits

  • Stereotyping occurs where there is disparity of power, with subordinated/excluded groups being different or "other"

Theories of Identity - David Gauntlett

  • Media help construct identities

  • Media provides tools and resources to shape identities

  • Media toolboxes have become more complicated, offering a wide range of media models to choose from

Feminist Theory - Liesbet van Zoonen

  • Gender is constructed through discourse

  • Gender changes depending on cultural and historical context

  • Objectification of women's bodies is core to Western patriarchal culture

  • Mainstream media constructs male and female bodies differently

Feminist Theory - bell hooks

  • Feminism is a political commitment

  • Intersection of race, class, and sex determines exploitation and oppression

Theories of Gender Performativity - Judith Butler

  • Identity is a performance

  • Identity is constructed through acts or expressions

  • There is no inherent gender identity

  • Performativity is a repetition or ritual

Post-colonial 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 binary oppositions based on notions of "otherness"

Industry

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 focused on profit and power

  • Media concentration inhibits variety, creativity, and quality

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

Industry Regulation Theory - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt

  • Exploration of media policy

  • Struggle between furthering the interests of citizens and consumers

  • Media conglomerations and digital media challenge traditional approaches to regulation

Cultural Industries Theory - David Hesmondhalgh

  • Exploration of media industries

  • Media companies minimize risk and maximize audiences through integration and cultural products

  • Largest companies operate across multiple media industries

  • Internet's potential has been partially contained by profit-oriented cultural companies

Audiences

Media Effects Theory - Albert Bandura

  • Effects of media on audiences

  • Media can implant ideas directly into the minds of audiences

  • Audiences acquire new attitudes, conduct styles, and emotional responses through media modeling

  • Media representation of transgressive behavior can lead to audience imitation

Cultivation Theory - George Gerbner

  • Effects of media on audiences

  • Repeated exposure to patterns of representation shapes audience perception

  • Cultivation reinforces mainstream values and ideologies

Reception Theory - Stuart Hall

  • Exploring encoding and decoding meaning

  • Communication involves encoding by producers and decoding by the audience

  • Three hypothetical positions for decoding meanings: dominant-hegemonic, negotiated, oppositional

Fandom - Henry Jenkins

  • Exploring fan participation in culture

  • Fans are active participants in constructing and circulating textual meanings

  • Fans appropriate texts and read them in unauthorized ways ("textual poaching")

  • Fans construct social and cultural identities through mass culture images

'End of Audience' Theory - Clay Shirky

  • Relationship between digital media production and consumption

  • Internet and digital technologies change the relations between media and individuals

  • Audience members are no longer passive consumers but actively engage with media

  • Media consumers create and share content