Media Theory Level Up!

Question 1

What is the first concept of Gerbner’s Cultivation theory?

Answer 1

Fear Cultivation.

Question 2

What does Gerbner argue about communication through media?

Answer 2

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?

Question 3

Why does Gerbner suggest society use religious and cultural products?

Answer 3

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?

Question 4

How did society consume religious and cultural products before the Television?

Answer 4

The church and the education system.

Question 5

What does Gerbner argue about the switch from the church to television?

Answer 5

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?

Question 6

Why does Gerbner argue that mass media has such a big influence on society?

Answer 6

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.

Question 7

What factors allow television to effect widescale social change according to Gerbner?

Answer 7

-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)

Question 8

What is the second concept of Cultivation theory?

Answer 8

Media consumption leads audiences to accept mainstream ideologies.

Question 9

What does violence on television represent?

Answer 9

Symbolic power.

Question 10

How does television organise social groups?

Answer 10

Hierarchally. Television tells us who is more likely to be the victim rather than the aggressor.

Question 11

What does Gerbner suggest is created as a result of on-screen violence/media violence?

Answer 11

-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

Question 12

What are the elements of postmodernism?

Answer 12

Reflectivity, Briccolard, Parody, Homage, Pastiche etc

Question 13

What political ideology is associated with Curran’s 2010 book Media And Power?

Answer 13

Marxism

Question 14

In what way does postmodernism reflect a “crisis of originality”?

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Which set texts use parody and pastiche (elements of post modernism) most heavily?

Answer 15

Black Mirror: San Junipero, Formation Beyoncé

Question 16

What does reflexivity mean in theories of Postmodernism?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

What does Braudrillard suggest about the connection between the “real” world and media.

Answer 17

Absolute truth has collapsed and it is no longer possible to distinguish between reality and simulation

Question 18

What is hyperreality in theories of postmodernism?

Answer 18

The idea that media images have come to seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent. Eg. the news.

Question 19

What does ‘implosion’ refer to in theories of postmodernism?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What is generic verisimilitude? (Postmodernism)

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What is cultural verisimilitude? (Postmodernism)

Answer 21

When a media text conforms to the audience view of reality.

Question 22

What does Judith Butler suggest about gender identity in their theory of gender performativity?

Answer 22

It doesn’t exist ! 👻👻

Question 23

What is the passive audience. (End of Audience)

Answer 23

The audience is unable to speak back to the producers and will just consume the media given to them.

Question 24

What is gender performativity in every day life? What does it mean to perform a gender?

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

What is the active audience? (End of Audience)

Answer 25

When the audience speaks back to the media producer and they can create and share their own media products.

Question 26

What 15th century event does Shirky liken the economic and social impacts of digital revolution to?

Answer 26

the invention of the printing press (Glutenberg)

Question 27

What 20th century development does Shirky argue nutured our audience passivity?

Answer 27

The introduction of broadcasting technology such as cinema, radio and TV into our leisure times.

Question 28

Which 3 factors of 20th century technology does Shirky argue left media power in the hands of the few over the hands of the many?

Answer 28

• The private nature of 1 - 1 communication
• The expense of media creation at the time
• Large scale public consumption

Question 29

Shirky’s first concept is called…

Answer 29

“Everybody makes the media”

Question 30

Finish the quote ‘at work we are office drones , at home we’re _____ _______

Answer 30

Couch potatoes

Question 31

What does Shirky conclude regarding the merging of public and private technology and communication?

Answer 31

Contemporary digital media exists as a spectrum of private and broadcast media effects.

Question 32

Why does Shirky claim that audiences are more able to publish more risky content?
Stretch: What does Shirky label this mentality?

Answer 32

Because amateur producers do not operate with any costs, therefore the impact of financial failure is far lesser.
Stretch answer: “Publish first, think later”

Question 33

Define Mass Amateurisation under Shirky’s theory?

Answer 33

The process of media production becoming more centred and saturated with the previously non-experienced & non professional media producers operating from home settings.

Question 33

Why doe Shirky claim it is nearly impossible to filter online media?

Answer 33

The sheer volume of media uploaded online each day