Applying theories to LFTV dramas

Question 1

How is Barthes’ theory of Semiology useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 1

• It can be applied to any sign, including language and image, to tease out connotations and ideology.
• Useful for ‘micro’ analysis of media language.

Question 2

How is Neale’s theory of Genre useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 2

• It was developed primarily to explain film genre, but can be applied to LFTVD as this is the most filmic form of the television output, requiring an intertextual relay of pre-publicity and reviews to generate the large audiences required.
• Draws attention to processes of difference-within-repetition and hybridity in LFTVD.
• The theory of the shared code can be applied to the LFTVD itself as a form - early versions of the form such as Twin Peaks established audience narratives that have been developed through each addition to the generic corpus - despite the fact that these dramas range across various different genres.

Question 3

How is Levi-Strauss’ Structuralism theory useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 3

• Can be applied to any cultural product, including LFTVDs.
• Can be used to analyse LFTVD narratives by analysing, for example, how they set up an ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ opposition, asking the audience to identify with the inside, and then in some cases play around with this opposition to disorientate the audience.
• Can be used to analyse representations and their ideological effect, by seeing which side of an opposition is valued by the narrative.

Question 4

How is Todorov’s theory of Narratology useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 4

• Todorov’s theory is sufficiently simple to be widely applicable, meaning that it is possible to identify the key elements - equilibrium (often implied) and disruption - in long form television drama.
• For Teasing out the messages and values underlying a narrative, in pointing to the significance of the transformation between the initial equilibrium (displayed or implied) and the new equilibrium.

Question 5

How is Baudrillard’s useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 5

• Can be applied to any cultural product, including LFTVD.

- The theory may be celebrated in LFTVDs that refuse any simple identification of ‘the real’ in the fictional world.

Question 6

How is Hall’s theory of representation useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 6

• Can be applied to any media product, including LFTVDs.
• Draws attention to the role of power in representations - both general distribution of power in society and the power of the television industry - but also the power of the audience to decode representations in different ways.

Question 7

How is Gauntlett’s theory of identity useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 7

• Can be applied to any media product, including LFTVDs.
• LFTVDs may tend to offer diverse and contradictory representations that audiences can use to think through their identity as they have the time and resources to develop complex representations.
• LFTVDs often attempt to reach and engage an international audience by offering a local representation with international resonance, thus increasing the diversity of representations of place and cultures, especially the successful non-english language LFTVDs.
• LFTVDs may achieve cult status, adding to their value in helping create identities.

Question 8

How is Van Zoonen’s feminist theory useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 8

• Can be applied to any media product, including LFTVDs especially representations of gender.
• The concept of the patriarchy may be applied to the ownership and control of television, the recruitment and ethos of television professionals, and the representation of gender in LFTVDs, especially the representation of women’s bodies.

Question 9

How is hooks feminist theory useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 9

• Can be applied to any media product, including LFTVDs especially representations of gender.
• The concept of ‘intersectionality’ draws attention to misrepresentations and stereotypes based on one or more of gender, race, class and sexuality, and their inter-relationship in any LFTVD representations.

Question 10

How is Butler’s gender performativity theory useful for understanding LFTV dramas?

Answer 10

• Can be applied to any media product, including LFTVDs, especially representations of gender.
• Can be applied particularly to LFTVDs where the performance of gender is foregrounded. Eg. through representations of women preparing to present their bodies for display, representations of people training or reinforcing characters in masculinity, or representations that expose or sirupy heteronormativity.