Theorists Flashcards
Semiotics - Roland Barthes
-Denotation (literal meaning) and connotation (meaning associated with the sign)
-Constructed meanings can come to seem self evident though a process of naturalisation
Narratology - Tzvetan Todorov
-All narrative involve a movement from one equilibrium to another
-Two states of equilibrium are separated by a period of imbalance
-The way narratives are resolved can have a particular ideological significance
Genre theory - Steve Neale
-Genres are dominated by repetition but marked by difference, variation and change
-Genres change and develop as they borrow from and overlap with one another
-Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial contexts
Structuralism - Claude Levi Strauss
-Texts can be understood through an examination of their underlying structure
-Meaning is dependent upon pairs of oppositions
-The ways in which these binary oppositions are resolved can have a particular ideological significance
Postmodernism - Jean Baudrillard
-It is impossible to distinguish between reality and simulation
-Simulacra (a copy of a copy) means we are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything real
-Media has come to seem more real than the reality it represents (hyperreality)
Representation - Stuart Hall
-Representation is a production of meanings through signs
-Stereotyping as a form of representation reduces people to a few simple characteristics or traits
-Stereotyping tends to occur when there are inequalities of power as excluded groups are constructed as different or ‘other’ e.g. ethnocentrism
Indentity - David Gauntlett
-Media provides us with tools or resources that we use to construct our identities
-the media offers us a huge range of different stars and characters from whom we may pick and mix different ideas
Feminist theory - Liesbet Van Zoonen
-Gender is constructed through discourse
-The idea the display of women’s bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture
-The mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes used to construct the male body differ from those used to objectify the female body
Feminist theory - bell hooks
-Feminism is a struggle to end oppression and the ideology of domination
-Feminism is a political commitment rather than a lifestyle choice
-Race and class as well as sex determine the extent to which individuals are exploited / oppressed
Gender performativity - Judith Butler
-Identity is perfomatively constructed by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results
-There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender
-Performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition and a ritual
Postcolonialism - Paul Gilroy
-Colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era
-Civilisationism constructs racial hierarchy’s and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness
Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton
-Media is constructed by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and power
-Media concentrations generally limits or inhibits variety, creativity and quality
-More socially diverse patterns of ownership help to create the conditions for more varied and adventurous media products
Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt
-There is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy to further the interests of citizens and the need to further the interests of consumers
-The increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of traditional media have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk
Cultural industries - David Hesmondhalgh
-Minimise risk and maximise audience through vertical and horizontal integration and my formatting their cultural products
-The largest companies or conglomerates now operate across a number of different cultural industries
-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
Media effects - Albert Bandura
-Media can implant ideas in the minds of the audience directly
-Audiences acquire attitudes, emotions, responses and new styles of conduct through modelling
-Media representations of transgressive behaviour, such as violence or physical, aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour
