media theories

Question 1

Genre Theory by Steve Neale

Answer 1

MEDIA LANGUAGE:
The idea all genres abide by a set of codes and conventions and are dominated by repetition, variation and difference, which are familiar to the audience and easily recognisable and are established over a long period of time

Question 1

Structuralism by Claude Levi Strauss

Answer 1

MEDIA LANGUAGE:
The idea that texts can best be understood through an examination of their underlying structure meaning that it is dependent upon pairs of oppositions. The way in which these binary oppositions are resolved can have ideological significance

Question 2

Narratology by Tzvetan Todorov

Answer 2

MEDIA LANGUAGE:
The idea that all narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another. These two states of equilibrium are separated by a period of imbalance. The way in which narratives are resolved can have a particular ideological significance

Question 3

Theory of Representation by Stuart Hall

Answer 3

REPRESENTATION:
The process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture through the use of language, signs and images which stand for or represent things

Question 4

Theory of Identity by David Gauntlett

Answer 4

REPRESENTATION:
This is the idea that audiences can identify with themselves and establish their role in society all through the power of media.

Question 5

Feminist Theory by Liesbet Van Zoonen

Answer 5

REPRESENTATION:
The idea that femininity is a construction that has evolved and transformed massively throughout the media over several decades and now offers more positive constructions in the media

Question 6

Feminist Theory by bell hooks

Answer 6

REPRESENTATION:
argues that feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal oppression and the ideology of domination, and that the position of the underrepresented is by class and race as well as gender

Question 7

Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Theory by Paul Gilroy

Answer 7

REPRESENTATION:
This is the idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era.
It is also the idea that society constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness.

Question 8

Power & Media Industries by Curran and Seaton

Answer 8

INDUSTRY:
The idea that the media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and power. They recognise that media concentration generally limits or inhibits variety, creativity and quality and that more socially diverse patterns of ownership help to create the conditions for more varied and adventurous media productions

Question 9

Regulation by Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt

Answer 9

INDUSTRY:
The idea that there is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need to further the interests of citizens (by offering protection from harmful or offensive material), and the need to further the interests of consumers (by ensuring choice, value for money, and market competition).

Question 10

Cultural Industries by David Hesmondhalgh

Answer 10

INDUSTRY:
The idea that cultural industry companies try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration

Question 11

Media Effects Theory by Albert Bandura

Answer 11

AUDIENCES:
This is the idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly and can influence audiences attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling. Media representations of transgressive behaviour, such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.

Question 12

Fandom Theory by Henry Jenkins

Answer 12

AUDIENCES:
This is where fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings. The impact media texts have on fans can construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images

Question 13

Reception Theory by Stuart Hall

Answer 13

AUDIENCES:
Stuart Hall explored the issue of how people make sense of media products. He accepted that audiences were active, not passive, and suggested that there were three main ways in which an audience may respond to a media product; preferred, negotiated and oppositional

Question 14

Cultivation Theory by George Gerbner

Answer 14

AUDIENCES:
The idea was that exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them by cultivating particular views and opinions