Media Language

Question 1

Steve Neales genre theory

Answer 1

Genres are formed through repetition
Believes genres can change over time
Generic verisimilitude and stock characters allows audiences to identify genres
Contemporary products are more likely to create genre hybridity due to the fact that audiences are more media literate

Question 2

Roland Barthes theory

Answer 2

Media producers combine elements to create a fixed meaning
The signifier is a combination of codes that signify a meaning to an audience
Believed all media texts are worth studying, whether low or high culture

Question 3

Todorov’s narrative theory

Answer 3

All narratives share the basic structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium to new equilibrium
The way in which narratives are resolved can have ideological significance

Question 4

Levi Strauss’ Structuralism

Answer 4

Meaning is dependant upon pairs of oppositions
The way they are resolved has ideological significance

Question 5

Postmodernism

Answer 5

In the age of simulacra (a copy of a copy of a copy), media images seem more real than the reality they are simulating