Media figures/ theories

Question 1

What is Maslows Hierarchy of needs?

Answer 1

-Physiological needs (food, water, warmth, rest)
-Safety needs (security)
-Belongingness and love needs (relationships)
-Esteem needs (prestige, feeling of accomplishment)
-Self-actualisation (achieving potential)

Question 2

What was Claudi Levi- Strausses idea about binary oppositions?

Answer 2

Suggest that all texts use contrasts/oppositions to ‘tell’ a story/ move forward the narrative/create meaning

Question 3

Who was the two step flow model created by?

Answer 3

Katz and Lazarsfield

Question 4

What are the two basic steps of the two step flow model?

Answer 4

1. Information taken in when reading or watching a piece of media
2. Opinion leaders pass on their opinions and views to other people

Question 5

What are opinion leaders?

Answer 5

Audiences that have viewed a certain piece of media and pass the information about it/their opinion, onto others

Question 6

What is an Echo chamber?

Answer 6

Where you only focus on what you’re interested in/ your values. This means you’re blocking out mainstream ideas

Question 7

What are the good things about an echo chamber?

Answer 7

Makes you feel like your opinion is right

You can focus on specialised information

Question 8

What are the bad things about an echo chamber?

Answer 8

Breeds intolerance and ignorance

Makes you not accept other opinions or ideas

Question 9

What was Tzvetan Todorovs idea about the structure of a story?

Answer 9

1. Equilibrium (state of order)
2. Disruption/ disequilibrium/ chaos
3. New equilibrium (order is restored)

Question 10

What is the Bandura/ Hyperdermic syringe theory?

Answer 10

The media injects messages into the minds of a passive audience.
The people take in the message and believe it

Question 11

What is the rule of thirds?

Answer 11

Splitting an image into 3, (vertically or horizontally) and seeing where the focus of an image lies.

Question 12

What is George Gerbners Cultivation theory?

Answer 12

The more you see something, the more you will believe it

Question 13

What is the opposite theory to George Gerbners and what does it mean?

Answer 13

Innoculation theory = the more you see something, the less effect it has

Question 14

Baudrillard

Answer 14

Postmodernism

• In a postmodern culture the boundaries between the ‘real’ world and the world of the media have collapsed = no longer possible to distinguish between reality and simulation
• Images in society no longer refer to anything ‘real’
• Media images have come to seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent (hyperreality)

Question 15

Steve Neale

Answer 15

Genre is recognisable but does change over time/ borrow from other genres
Genre is important to institutions because it helps them to market texts

Question 16

Blulmer and Katz

Answer 16

Uses and gratifications theory:

Audience entered approach that focuses on what people do with media opposed to what media does to people

Question 17

Liesbet Van Zoonen

Answer 17

-Male objectification differs from female objectification.

-Women are objectified as a result of western patriarchal culture

-Media reinforces patriarchal ideas which oppress women

Question 18

Laura Mulvey

Answer 18

Male gaze theory
Women in media are viewed from the eyes of a heterosexual man (doesn’t take into consideration the sexuality or gender of other audiences) and seen as passive objects/ male desire

Question 19

Stuart Hall reception theory

Answer 19

Producers want audiences to respond in a particular way to a text. Some audiences do (preferred), some don’t (oppositional) and some are in the middle (negotiated).

Question 20

Barthes Codes

Answer 20

-Enigma codes - any code that raises questions

-Action codes - any code that moves readings

-Semantic codes - any code that requires its connotations decoding (not a straight forward meaning)

-Symbolic codes - any code that represents the overaching themes/ideologies

-Referential codes - any code that refers to something outside of the text

Question 21

Judith Butler

Answer 21

-Gender is a social construct/performance

-Divide between masculinity and femininity is constructed

-Media can construct or deconstruct these ideas

Question 22

Current and Seaton

Answer 22

The media is controlled by a small number of firms driven by profit and power
Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality
Diverse patterns of ownership leads to more adventurous productions

Question 23

Gilroy

Answer 23

Post colonial melancholia
- white/ air brushed British history
- Split between white western civilisation and the black Atlantic
Society has constructed racial hierarchies resulting in the idea of ‘other’/‘otherness’

Question 24

Gauntlett

Answer 24

The media provides us with tools that we use to construct our identities
Pick & mix theory = the media offers us a range of people from whom we may ‘pick and mix’ different ideas and personalities from, in order to build our own identity

Question 25

Jenkins

Answer 25

Fans take elements from media texts to create their own culture and identity - participatory culture Fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of texts Textual poaching - fans reads texts in ways not authorised by the creators

Question 26

Shirky

Answer 26

In new media, every consumer is now a producer

Question 27

Vladmir Propp (theory and name 3 of his character types)

Answer 27

``` Idea that certain character are types are used in every narrative structure: The villain The hero The donor The helper The princess Her father The false hero ```

Question 28

Tessa Perkins

Answer 28

There is some truth in stereotyping You can hold stereotypes about your own group Stereotypes aren’t always negative Stereotypes are not fixed/ change over time They are not always targeted at a minority group

Question 29

Hesmondhalgh

Answer 29

Cultural industries minimise risk and maximise audience through vertical and horizontal integration and through how the products are made (minimise risk and maximise audiences through marketing for eg) Conglomerates operate across many industries

Question 30

Antonio Gramsci

Answer 30

Cultural hegemony is where the ruling class dominate and manipulate society, thus meaning that the ruling lass worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm.

Question 31

bell hooks

Answer 31

-Feminism is a political struggle to end patriarchal oppression. -Race and class also determine the extent to which individuals are oppressed (intersectionality - the sum of oppressed identities)

Question 32

Livingstone and Lunt

Answer 32

Struggle in U.K. regulation policy between need to protect citizens vs the need to further the choice of consumers