Theories

Question 1

Semiotics- Roland Barthes
(Media Language)

Answer 1

-The idea that texts communicate their meanings through a process of signification (recognising things)
-The idea that signs can function at the level of denotation, and at the level of connotation

Question 2

Narratology- Tzvetan Todorov
(Media Language)

Answer 2

-The idea that all narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another, through a period of inbalance/disequilibrium
-The idea that the way in which narratives are resolved can have particular ideological significance.

Question 3

Genre theory- Steve Neale
(Media Language)

Answer 3

-The idea that genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation, and change
-The idea that genres change and evolve as they borrow and overlap.
-The idea that genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial contexts.

Question 4

Structualism- Claude Levi-Strauss
(Media Language)

Answer 4

-The idea that texts can best be understood through an examination of their underlying structure
-The idea that meaning is dependent upon (and produced through) pairs of oppositions
-The idea that the way in which these binary oppositions are resolved can have particular ideological significance.

Question 5

Postmoderinsm- Jean Baudrillad
(Media Language)

Answer 5

-The idea that in postmodern culture the boundaries between the ‘real’ world and the world of the media have collapsed and that it is no longer possible to distinguish between them.
-The idea that in a postmodern age of simulacra we are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything ‘real’
-The idea that media images have come to seem more ‘real’ than the reality they supposedly represent (hyperreality).

Question 6

Theory of representation- Stuart Hall
(Representation)

Answer 6

-The idea that representation is the production of meaning through language, with language defined in its broadest sense as a system of signs
-The idea that the relationship between concepts and signs is governed by codes
-The idea that stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits
-The idea that stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power, as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or ‘other’ (e.g. through ethnocentrism).

Question 7

Theories of identity- David Gauntlett
(Representation)

Answer 7

-The idea that the media provide us with ‘tools’ or resources that we use to construct our identities
-The idea that whilst in the past the media tended to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities, the media today offer us a more diverse range of stars, icons and characters from whom we may pick and mix different ideas.

Question 8

Feminist theory- Lisbet Van Zoonen
(Representation)

Answer 8

-The idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context
-The idea that the display of women’s bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture
-The idea that in mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes that are used to construct the male body as spectacle differ from those used to objectify the female body.

Question 9

Feminist theory- bell hooks
(Representation)

Answer 9

-The idea that feminism is a struggle to end sexist/patriarchal oppression and the ideology of domination
-The idea that feminism is a political commitment rather than a lifestyle choice
-The idea that race and class as well as sex determine the extent to which individuals are exploited, discriminated against or oppressed.

Question 10

Theory of gender performativity- Judith Butler
(Representation)

Answer 10

-The idea that identity is performatively constructed by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results (it is manufactured through a set of acts)
-The idea that there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender
-The idea that performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition and a ritual.

Question 11

Theories around ethnicity and postcolonial theory - Paul Gilroy
(Representation)

Answer 11

-The idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era
-The idea that civilisationism constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness.

Question 12

Power and media industries- Curran and Seaton
(Media industries)

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt
(Media industries)

Answer 13

-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)
-The idea that the increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk

Question 14

Cultural industries - David Hesmondhalgh
(Media Industries)

Answer 14

-The idea that cultural industry companies try to reduce risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration, and by formatting their cultural products (e.g. through the use of stars, genres, and serials)
-The idea that the largest companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries
-The idea that the radical potential of the internet has been contained to some extent by its partial incorporation into a large, profit-orientated set of cultural industries

Question 15

Media Effects- Albert Bandura
(Audience)

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Cultivational theory- George Gerbner
(Audience)

Answer 16

-The idea 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 (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions)
-The idea that cultivation reinforces mainstream values (dominant ideologies).

Question 17

Reception theory- Stuart Hall
(Audience)

Answer 17

-The idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences
-The idea that there are three hypothetical positions from which messages and meanings may be decoded:
• The dominant-hegemonic position: the encoder’s intended meaning (the preferred reading) is fully understood and accepted
•The negotiated position: the legitimacy of the encoder’s message is acknowledged in general terms, although the message is adapted or negotiated to better fit the decoder’s own individual experiences or context
•The oppositional position: the encoder’s message is understood, but the decoder disagrees with it, reading it in a contrary or oppositional way.

Question 18

Fandom- Henry Jenkins
(Audience)

Answer 18

-The idea that fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings
-The idea that fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully authorised by the media producers (‘textual poaching’)
-The idea that fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images, and are part of a participatory culture that has a vital social dimension.

Question 19

‘End of audience’ theory- Clay Shirky
(Audience)

Answer 19

-The idea that the Internet and digital technologies have had a profound effect on the relations between media and individuals
-The idea that the conceptualisation of audience members as passive consumers of mass media content is no longer tenable in the age of the Internet, as media consumers have now become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, as well as creating and sharing content with one another.

Question 20

Classification of news values- Galtung and Ruge

Answer 20

-Frequency
-Threshold (size)
-Unambiguity
-Cultural proximity (meaningfulness to audience)
-Consonance (does event match audience expectations)
-unexpectedness
-continuity
-composition (balance of news)
-refers to elite nations
-refers to elite people
-personalisation (“goodie” and “baddie”)
-negativity

Question 21

Star theory- Richard Dyer

Answer 21

A star (celebrity) can be understood in three ways:
-A constrcuted image
-A commodity
-An ideology

Question 22

‘Metanarrative’- Jean-Francois Lyotard

Answer 22

An overarching interpretation of events and circumstances that provides a pattern or structure for people’s beliefs and gives meaning to their experiences.