Media Language Theorists

Question 1

Roland Barthes

Answer 1

• Texts can be broken into signs, which can be broken down into ‘denotations’ and ‘connotations’
• Some groups of signs take on the role of a ‘myth’- naturalized ‘stories’ about the real world communicated by the text.
• Enigma codes:questions or mysteries
• Action codes: move narrative forward

Question 2

Claude Levi-Strauss

Answer 2

• Texts can be understood by analysing their underlying structure.
• Meaning is dependant upon pairs of oppositions
• The way these binary oppositions are resolved can have ideological significance.

Question 3

Jean Baudrillard

Answer 3

• It is no longer possible to distinguish between reality and simulation
• We are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything real (hyperreality)
• Images have come to seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent.

Question 4

Steven Neal

Answer 4

• Genres contain texts that are similar to each other (conventions), but are also different.
• Genres change over time by overlapping and borrowing from each other (intertextuality)
• Genres change over time because they are affected by social, economic and industrial contexts.

Question 5

Tzvetan Todorov

Answer 5

-Narratives tend to follow a similar structure.
Equilibrium
Disruption
Recognition
Resolution
New Equilibrium
-The way narratives are resolved may have an ideological function.