Theories Flashcards
Steve Neal: Theory of Repetition and Difference
Genre is recognisable but does change over time to borrow from other genres. Genre is important to institutions because it helps market the text.
- Genres may be dominated by repetition but are also marked by difference, variation and change.
- Genres develop and change and vary as they borrow and overlap with one another.
- Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial contexts.
Liesbet van Zoonen: Feminist theory
Men and women are represented in the media differently women are objectified as a result of patriarchal culture.
- Feminist Media Theory: Explores how gender is constructed and represented in media focusing on role of media in perpetuating or challenging gender norms
- Gender as a Discourse: Van Zoonen argues that gender is constructed through discourse and that media plays a crucial role in this construction.
- The idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that it’s meaning varies according to cultural and historical context.
- The idea that display of women’s bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of patriarchal culture
- The idea that in mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes that are used to construct the male body as a spectacle differ from those used to objectify the female.
Andre Goodwin: Music Video Theory
Andre Goodwin’s music video theory states that every music video consists of these principals
- Links between Lyrics and visuals
- Links between Music and visuals
- Genre characteristics
- Demands of the record label will include the need for a lot of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs that reoccur across their work
- Frequent reference to notions of looking (particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body)
Intertextual references
Roland Barthes: Enigma Codes
An enigma code is a concept in media and communication theory, particularly in narrative analysis, that refers to elements within a story that create mystery or raise questions, leaving the audience curious and prompting them to seek answers as the narrative unfolds. The term was introduced by Roland Barthes, a French literary theorist as part of his theory of the five narrative codes
Roland Barthes: Semiotics
All elements of the media text are codes that need to be read. These can be understood as the thing that they are (denotative level and the responses created (connotative level)
- Communicate their meaning through a process of signification.
- Signs can function at the level of denotation (the literal meaning of a sign) and the level of connotation (the meanings associated with or suggested by the sign)
- Constructed meanings can cine it self-evident achieving the sraruys if myth through the process of naturalisation
Tzvetan Todorov: Narratology
Narratives follow a pattern if; equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair, new equilibrium
- The idea that all narratives share a basic structure that involves movement from one state of equilibrium to another
- Two shares’ equilibriums are separated by a period of imbalance (disequilibrium)
- The way in which narratives are resolved can have a particular ideological significance.
Steve Neal: Genre Theory
The genre is recognizable but does change over time or borrow from other genres. Genre is important for texts as it helps market the texts.
- Genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation and change.
- Genres develop, change and vary as they borrow and overlap with one another.
- Genres exist within specific economic, institutional, and industrial contexts.
Claude Lévi-Strauss: Binary Oppositions
The conflict between binary opposites drives narratives forward.
- Texts can be understood through the examination of the underlying structure.
- 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
Jean Baudrillard: Hyperreality
The lines between created texts and reality are becoming blurred. For example, the perfect Instagram images seem “real”
- In postmodernism culture, the boundaries between the real world and the world of the media have collapsed and it is no longer possible to distinguish between reality and simulation
- In postmodern age of simulacra, we are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything “real”
- Media images have come to seem more real than reality they are mean to represent (hyperreality)
bell hooks
Feminism is a political commitment to end patriarchal domination and other factors affect this discrimination (including race/gender/class)
- hooks (not real name it’s her feminist persona) argues it’s not just about the imbalance of men to women in key roles but also whether men are engaged with the issues that affect women when they create representations.
- Intersectional feminist: when women face discrimination due to gender AND race (and anything else eg. Class)
- 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/oppressed
Judith Butler
Gender is a social construct - “masculine” and “feminine” are created through repetition.
- She challenges the notion that gender is a biological fact that places masculinity and femininity in binary categories. Gender is learned through society. (gender is a social construct)
- Identity is performatively
- The idea that performativity is not a singular act but a repetition and a ritual
Naomi Wolf: Beauty Myth
The basic premise of The Beauty Myth is that as the social power and prominence of women have increased, the pressure they feel to adhere to unrealistic social standards of physical beauty has also grown stronger because of commercial influences on the mass media. This pressure leads to unhealthy behaviours by women and a preoccupation with appearance in both sexes and it compromises the ability of women to be effective in and accepted by society.
Paul Gilroy: Post-colonial theory
Even though we no longer have colonies, the representations of these groups is still affected by that time.
- Race is presented as ‘otherness’ with a ‘them’ and ‘us’ binary opposition
- There is racial hierarchy where New Orleans continues to be devastated.
- Formation does subvert expectations by placing a black woman in a position of power
- The idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the post-colonial era.
- The idea that civilisation constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on the notion of “otherness”
Livingston and Lunt: Regulation Theory
The needs of a citizen conflicts the needs of the consumer, because protection can limit freedom. Regulating media to protect citizens from harmful content can limit freedom of expression.
- 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
George Garbner and Larry Gross: Cultivation Theory
Explores how prolonged exposure to television and media shapes viewers’ perceptions of reality. It posits that media, especially television, serves as a central storyteller, influencing societal beliefs and norms over time. Heavy viewers often develop a skewed worldview, such as overstimulating violence and danger.
Stuart Hall: Reception Theory
Stuart hall states that as the audience of a given piece of media text, there are 3 different ways to interpret said text. Producers generally encode a specific message or meaning within their product and then the audience decodes it in 1 of 3 ways:
- Oppositional reader – we do not accept and we rejct the message of a piece of media
- Negotiated reader – you neither accept nor reject a message, perhaps due to the lack of information or lack of trust.
- Preferred reader – you accept the message, it aligns with your beliefs.
Hypodermic Needle Model
The idea that media messages are injected straight into people’s minds, making them believe or act a certain way without thinking for themselves
