A Level Theorists Flashcards
(18 cards)
Barthes
Semiology - Media products communicate a complex series of meanings to their audiences through a range of visual codes and technical codes - signs or imagery to show connotations/denotations.
Neale
Genre Theory - genres all contain instances of repetition and difference, difference is essential to the to the economy of the genre.
Neale states that the film and it’s genre is defined by two things:
How much is conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes.
Levi-Strauss
Structuralism - Binary opposites (two diametrically opposed concepts that end up defining each other)
Todorov
Narratology - based around a three act structure.
1. A state of balance or equilibrium is established.
2. This balance is disrupted or broken in some way, which leads to a liminal period or period of disruption, typically taking up the majority of a narrative.
3. A typical narrative will conclude with a partial restoration of the equilibrium or new equilibrium, which will see the world of the narrative return to some sense of normality.
Baudrillard
Postmodernism - It is no longer possible to distinguish between what is reality and what is simulation. Because of this, we are now in a situation that media images have come to seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent. This concept is referred to as ‘hyperreality’
Gauntlett
Theories of identity - Media products allow the audience to construct their own identities. They can pick and mix which ideologies suit them, and completely ignore the elements of the product which they do not agree with.
Van Zoonen
Feminist Theory - Gender is constructed through codes and conventions of media products, and the idea of what is male and what is female changes over time. And women’s bodies are used in media products as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony
hooks
Feminist Theory - Feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women. Feminism is not a lifestyle choice: it is a political commitment.
Butler
Gender Performativity - Identity is a performance, and it is constructed through a series of acts and ‘expressions’ that we perform every day.
Gilroy
Theories around ethnicity and post-colonial theory - Postcolonialism is the study of the impact that being under direct rule has had on former colonies. These ideas and attitudes continue to shape contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era. Media producers are also guilty of using binary oppositions to reinforce BME people and characters as ‘others’
Curran and Seaton
Power and media industries - The media’ is controlled by an increasingly small number of companies who are driven by profit and power. By concentrating media production in to the hands of so few companies, there is an increasing lack of variety, creativity and quality
Livingstone and Lunt
Regulation - Refers to the rules and restrictions that every media industry has to follow. For example the UK film industry must use the BBFC’s age certifications, and television must adhere to OFCOM’s regulations
Hesmondhalgh
Cultural industries - ‘Culture’ and ‘industry’ are two terms that are often at odds with one another.
Producers try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration.
Bandura
Media effects - Suggests that media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly. It is also known as the hypodermic needle model. Audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and behaviours through media products modelling ideologies. If a media product represents behaviour such as violence or physical aggression, this can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour
Gerbner
Cultivation theory - Being exposed to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions).
Hall
Reception theory - To watch/ read/ play/ listen to/ consume a media product is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences. There are millions of possible responses that can be affected through factors such as upbringing, cultural capital, ethnicity, age, social class, and so on.
The preferred reading - the audience understands and accepts the ideology of the producer
The negotiated reading - where the ideological implications of producer’s message is agreed with in general, although the message is negotiated or picked apart by the audience.
The oppositional reading - where the producer’s message is understood, but the audience disagrees with the ideological perspective in every respect.
Jenkins
Fandom - Fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer franchise. Unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings.
Shirky
‘End of audience’ theory - New media, as in the Internet and digital technologies, have had a significant effect on the relations between media and audiences. Just thinking of audience members as passive consumers of mass media content is no longer possible in the age of the Internet. Now, media consumers have become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, creating and sharing content with one another.
