Media Theory Level Up! Flashcards
This deck is for levelling up your knowledge and understanding of Media Theories and effectively evaluating it alongside our Comp2 Media texts
What is the first concept of Gerbner’s Cultivation theory?
Fear Cultivation.
What does Gerbner argue about communication through media?
It has replaced a pre-existing system that had dominated society and culture until the early 20th century.
How can this replacement be seen within Vogue?
Why does Gerbner suggest society use religious and cultural products?
These products guide the attitudes and behaviours of people in society.
Can you give and explain an example of this in the Vogue set text?
How did society consume religious and cultural products before the Television?
The church and the education system.
What does Gerbner argue about the switch from the church to television?
Mass media has replaced the church and has become the dominant socialising form of our age.
To what extent can we apply a similar idea to the way that Vogue constructs its products?
Why does Gerbner argue that mass media has such a big influence on society?
Media products are able to target people of all ages and walks of life, meaning that ideas and attitudes are being transmitted on a huge scale.
Name two Vogue extracts that target different audiences.
What factors allow television to effect widescale social change according to Gerbner?
-Television is easily decodable
-Television is largely cost free
-Television consumption is intensified
-Television products are encoded using realism
-Television is a centralised and homogenous producer of cultural symbols (small number of producers have majority of control)
What is the second concept of Cultivation theory?
Media consumption leads audiences to accept mainstream ideologies.
What does violence on television represent?
Symbolic power.
How does television organise social groups?
Hierarchally. Television tells us who is more likely to be the victim rather than the aggressor.
What does Gerbner suggest is created as a result of on-screen violence/media violence?
-It defines powerless characters
-Defines powerful characters
-Narrative conventions reinforce authority
-News reporting stigmatises key groups
-Audience protest is subjugated. Due to viewers interpreting the world as mean, they come to overly rely on established authority for protection
What are the elements of postmodernism?
Reflectivity, Briccolard, Parody, Homage, Pastiche etc
What political ideology is associated with Curran’s 2010 book Media And Power?
Marxism
In what way does postmodernism reflect a “crisis of originality”?
By taking from an “Imaginary Museum” of past references through parody, some argue that producers have run out of ideas and everything has been said or done before.
Which set texts use parody and pastiche (elements of post modernism) most heavily?
Black Mirror: San Junipero, Formation Beyoncé
What does reflexivity mean in theories of Postmodernism?
Instead of trying to maintain the illusion that what they are trying to show is “real” (consider genre and verisimilitude) , postmodern television often draws attention to its construction, reminding us of its postmodern elements.
What does Braudrillard suggest about the connection between the “real” world and media.
Absolute truth has collapsed and it is no longer possible to distinguish between reality and simulation
What is hyperreality in theories of postmodernism?
The idea that media images have come to seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent. Eg. the news.
What does ‘implosion’ refer to in theories of postmodernism?
It is a term commonly used to describe the way in which boundaries separating the ‘real’ world from the world of media have collapsed into each other
What is generic verisimilitude? (Postmodernism)
When a media product conforms to its established genre, fitting with the audiences expectation to the product. An example being a stock character that is linked to a specific genre being used - like Victor in The Returned fitting the stock character The Creepy Child which is typically linked to Horror
What is cultural verisimilitude? (Postmodernism)
When a media text conforms to the audience view of reality.
What does Judith Butler suggest about gender identity in their theory of gender performativity?
It doesn’t exist ! 👻👻
What is the passive audience. (End of Audience)
The audience is unable to speak back to the producers and will just consume the media given to them.
What is gender performativity in every day life? What does it mean to perform a gender?
Ritual and repetition of societal standards to construct and convey an expression of a gender. Eg. the way a “woman” looks or dresses or the way a “man” talks. We are not born wearing certain costumes or having a certain favourite colour, society teaches us what that means based on gender.
