Theories Flashcards
Genre Theory
A theory which suggests two things about genre.
1) Audiences enjoy specific texts because of “repetition and difference” of the repertoires of genre elements used. For example an audience might enjoy a film because it is a typical action film which uses all the normal action conventions. They might also enjoy a film specifically because it AVOIDS the usual conventions of the genre and does something a bit different.
2) Genre is not something static, as it is always
evolving.
Semiotic Theory
A Structuralist Theory
Barthes theorized that media products were embedded with codes by producers which audiences could decipher / decode to gain more meaning. His codes include:
Semantic Codes - these are elements of a product that connote particular meanings that most audiences understand. For example, the colour red connotes danger or love. A suit connotes wealth and class. These are mostly within the product itself.
Symbolic Codes - these are semantic elements, which have become so ingrained in us that they have taken on a very specific meaning. For example, a cross connotes religion, a hoodie connotes violence and rebellion, a heart connotes love. Sometimes people say they have taken on the status of a ‘myth’. These are the deeper meanings in the real world.
Enigma Codes (Hermeneutic) - these are mysterious enigmatic elements of a product, that leave the audience with unanswered questions. These are good at hooking an audience in because they often have to consume the whole product (eg see the film, read the magazine etc) in order to find out the answers to these questions.
Action Codes (Proairetic) - these are elements that tell an audience about something that is going to happen. For example a gun suggests there will be shooting and violence. An ellipses (…) suggests something dramatic is going to happen as a result of what has just been said.
Cultural Codes - these are elements that might only be understood by a very specific audience in a specific culture. For example, perhaps only some audiences would recognize a military logo on someone’s uniform, and so only they would understand the rank and importance of that soldier. Useful for Intertextual References.
Binary opposition
A Structuralist Theory
A theory which suggests that a good story revolves around conflict between binary opposites (two things represented as totally different to one another). Binary Opposites could be good vs evil, men vs women, young vs old, Britain vs Germany etc..
the idea that meaning is dependent upon (and produced through) these pairs of oppositions
the idea that the way in which these binary oppositions are resolved can have
particular ideological significance.
Narrative Structure Theory
A theory which suggests that all narratives follow a very similar structure.
• Equilibrium
• Disruption
• Realization
• Battle for Resolution
• New Equilibrium
Todorov suggests that all narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another. He suggests that these two states of equilibrium are separated by a period of imbalance or disequilibrium which needs to be resolved. The way in which narratives are resolved can have particular ideological significance.
Propp’s Character Theory
A theory which suggests that all stories feature very similar character types who all play specific roles in developing the narrative. He thinks the characters make it easy for an audience to understand the story. His character types include
• Hero
• Villain
• Dispatcher
• Donor
• Helper
• Princess / Prize
Reception theory
the idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and
decoding by audiences
Believes that although the media TRY and pass along particular messages, depending on the audiences’ background, they might interpret those messages in different ways.
He thinks audiences might take a:
• Preferred reading - where they accept the messages in the product
• Oppositional Reading - where they reject the messages in the product
• Negotiated Reading - where they partially accept and partially reject the messages in the text
Uses and gratifications theory
A theory which suggests that active audiences USE the media for different reasons.
They think audiences are active and that the media plays a “function” for audiences. They think the main functions of the media are:
• Personal Identity
• Entertainment
• Information
• Social Interaction/Interaction
Audience Classification System - The Four Cs
An advertising agency which suggests that audiences can all be classified by their different personalities and behaviours. They have several main categories that help them target audiences in different specific ways:
Explorer - needs new experiences and liked discovery
Aspirer - materialistic, worries about what other people think of their superficial qualities
Succeeder - enjoys control and prestige brands
Reformer - anti-materialistic and intellectual
Mainstream - enjoy family values, and value for money. Enjoy security
Struggler - enjoy junk food / alcohol / gambling and need escape from their own lives
Resigned - enjoy tradition, nostalgia and survival
Sometimes this theory is referred to as the FOUR Cs because their audience research was called the Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics.
Media Effects theory
carried out the Bobo Doll experiment and believed that:
- 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.
Fandom Theory
He believes that fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings
He believes that fans take media texts, and sometimes interpret them / use them in ways which were not intended by the producers and he calls this ‘textual poaching’.
He believes that fans construct their social and cultural identities by borrowing and adapting media texts / images and that this is a vital part of society.
End of audience theory
Shirky believes that the internet and technology has completely changed the relationship between producers and audiences.
He believes that the idea of a passive audience consuming the media no longer exists because technology has turned them into an active ‘prosumer’ who likes to ‘speak back’ to the media, and create and share their own content now.
Theory of Representation
Hall believes that we can understand representations by looking at the meaning of media language.
He thinks that media products contain a ‘shared conceptual roadmap’ which audiences are familiar with and it helps us understand the representations that are being portrayed.
He believes that the media often contains stereotypes, which reduce groups of people to a few, often negative characteristics
He believes that stereotyping occurs where there is an inequality of power. Where dominant groups in society often make the media products, and so represent non-dominant groups in stereotypical ways.
Therefore non dominant groups often don’t get the opportunity to challenge these stereotypes as they are often blocked from the media production process. Stereotyping tends to occur where there are inequalities of power, as subordinate or excluded groups are constructed as different or ‘other
Theory of Postmodernism
Baudrillard believes that in a post-modern world, media products create ‘representations’ of reality and calls these ‘simulacra’.
He thinks ‘simulacra’ (these representations of the real world) are so realistic that he calls them ‘hyperreal’ and suggests that audiences can’t really the difference between these and reality.
He thinks audiences often prefer the hyper-real representation of reality, to the actual reality.
For example in games like Call Of Duty, gamers are so immersed in the world of war created by the company, that many presume this is a realistic representation of the country and of war itself. They actually enjoy spending time in the fake gaming world more than spending time in reality.
Two step flow
This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages:
First, the media will influence opinion leaders who in turn will influence the masses (through their existing ‘fanbase’.)
Opinion Leaders are those who may affect the way in which an audience interprets the media. They have the power to influence the audience to think a certain way about a certain story or event.
Theories of representation
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).
Identity theory
Gauntlett suggests that the media provide us with ‘tools’ or resources that we use to construct our own identities.
He suggests that in the past the media tended to convey singular, straightforward messages about ideal types of male and female identities, however, the media today offer us a more diverse range of stars, icons and characters from whom we may pick and mix different ideas.
Feminist theory
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.
Male gaze theory
critical of the way the representation of women as sex objects feeds the demand of male audiences.
Mulvey analysed and identified the ways media products in the 1970’s were constructed to objectify the female form.
The Male Gaze theory suggests that women are objectified, in film particularly, because heterosexual men are in control of the camera.
According to this theory, women are considered the passive gender (to be looked at) and men are considered the active gender (to do the looking)
Beauty myth/standards
As well the objectification of women, the imagery being used is considered to be unattainable…
Wolf argues in that media images present society with a ‘beauty myth’ which communicates an ideological message that women should treat their bodies as a ‘project in constant need of improvement.’
She suggests that media present women with an ‘Iron Maiden’, a standard that is unobtainable but aspiration
Racial representations theory
Alvarado noted that there are 4 themes in racial representations in the media. These are as:
Exotic - Ethnic groups are seen as exotic or being ‘the other’ and are represented as being strange or unusual.
Dangerous - Minorities are sometimes represented as a threat to society. The news and other media may present these groups as taking advantage of a society.
Humorous - In the 70s, race was a major vehicle for comedy. Programmes removed the ‘threat’ of different races by making them the butt of the jokes.
Pitied - Representation of ethnic groups may also be as deprived groups or victims of natural disasters like famine, floods and sometimes conflicts. Images of children are often used to gain sympathy.
Gender perfomativity
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.
Ethnicity and postcolonial theory
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.
Power and media industries
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.
Feminist theory
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
Regulation theory
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
Cultural industries
the idea that cultural industry companies try to minimise 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
