Theorists Flashcards
Steve Neale Genre Theory
- genres are made up of repetition (conventions) and difference
-audiences enjoy familiarity of repeated conventions
-audiences enjoy the originality of difference
Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze / Feminist theory
-she believes women are often represented to us through a “male gaze”
-this means the media products assume the audience is straight and male, and presents women to them for their pleasure.
-she found that men in film were often at the centre of the action and narrative. Often represented as powerful and dominant, playing an active role in the plot.
-she found that women in film were often passive, playing minor roles in the narrative. They had things done TO them rather than doing anything themselves.
-so in conclusion she believed that narratives are heavily gendered in a binary way, with men being the active heroes, and women being the passive decorations / damsels
Claude Levi Strauss’ Binary Opposite Theory
-binary opposites create conflict, drama and are entertaining
Postmodernism
-1) irony
-2)parody or homage
-Homage=paying respects to a genre, style, person or product.
-Parody= making fun of a genre or style, product or person
-3) bricolage
-Bricolage= sampling and using older media products in your own.
-4) intertextual references
-5) fragmented narrative
-6) self reflexivity
-7) common themes- what if, the future, technology, human existence
-8) loss of reality- more artifice, less realism
-lacking verisimilitude
-verisimilitude= amount of realism
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Postmodernism and Baudrillard
-reality vs artificial
-loss of reality
-artificial copies= simulacra
-simulacra become hard to tell apart from reality = hyperreality
-a simulacrum is a copy of something with very little link to reality
- audiences often prefer simulacra to real life
Blumler and Katz’s Uses and Gratifications Theory
- Blumler and Katz’s theory tried to explain why audiences might choose a media product
-1) entertainment/ escape
-2)education/ information
-3) social interaction/ personal relationships
-4) identification/ relatability - a media product can offer more than one of these “pleasures” to an audience
-the more of these that a product can offer, the more popular a product it might be.
Psychographics
-defines an audience by how they think and by considering their values, attitudes and lifestyle
-1) the aspirer- want status brands that show their place in society. They are happy to invest in luxury goods, often using credit. They consider themselves stylish and on trend and may be persuaded by celebrity endorsements. They seek status.
-2)the explorer- like to discover new things and are attracted to new or innovative brands, products and experiences. They seek discovery.
-3) the mainstreamer- make up
-4) the reformer- they seek enlightenment
-5) the resigned- they seek to survive
Propp’s Character theory
Typical character types.
Hero, villain, damsel in distress, the helper, the dispatcher, doners, false hero,
Hesmondhalgh’s Cultural Industries theory
Believes that companies need to minimise risk and maximise audiences to be successful.
1) be vertically or horizontally integrated.
2) work across a variety of media platforms and technologies.
3) focus on popular genres/ formats/ stars.
4) controlled release schedule.
5) detailed marketing campaign.
Henry Jenkins Fandom theory
Believes that fans play a key role in the media.
His theory involves a key phrase which is “textual poaching”.
Textual poaching= audiences taking a media product and remaking or reworking it to create their own meaning.
Curran and Seaton’s Theory
Media industries are dominated by a small number of giant conglomerates.
Concentrated ownership result in lack of choice, lots of the same product.
Independent diverse ownership results in more choice, creativity and diversity of products.
Clay Shirky’s End of Audience Theory
Believes that audiences are no longer passive.
Believes audiences are now more active, wanting to interact with the media.
Believes this is because technology has changed our expectations and behaviour.
Believes that audiences like to ‘speak back’ to producers of the media.
Bandura’s Media Effects Theory
Bandura believed that children would copy behaviour they saw, in particular violent behaviour.
Flaw: perhaps children were just trying to please the researchers.
Flaw: does being violent towards a toy really mean you would be violent to a real person?
Gilroy’s Post colonialist Theory
Colonialism= taking over another country to run and exploit it.
Gilroy believes we can still see the effects of this in the media now.
Believes ethnic minorities are often shown as powerless, weak, dehumanised, marginalised, and “other”.
believes white western people are often shown as more powerful, successful, and important.
Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory
The effects of the media build up over time.
The cultivation of effects of the media can change the dominant ideologies of society.
Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory
Producers encode messages for the audience to decode.
Preferred reading: the product is decoded in the way the producers intended and the audience agree with the messages.
Oppositional reading: when audiences don’t decode the intended messages of a product.
Negotiated reading: when an audience accepts certain messages but rejects others.
Audiences might read texts in different ways for different reasons.
Two Step Flow Theory (Katz & Lazarsfeld)
They believed audiences don’t necessarily think for themselves. Instead we follow others.
Their theory states that the first step is that the media e.g. adverts, films, etc., are seen by Opinion Leaders.
Opinion Leaders are people that are liked, admired or respected in society. They tend to have power over us e.g. our friends, families, celebrities, etc.
Step 2 is opinion leaders communicating with the mass audience e.g. us, and so their reaction shapes our reaction.
So a mass audience may see the website for a brand advertising a new product, but they may not form an opinion on it yet e.g. the media itself isn’t what influences them.
But a mass audience may see an opinion leader e.g. a celebrity, promoting the same product, and be much more influenced and affected.
So the Two Step Flow Theory suggests that audiences don’t receive messages directly from the media, but instead prefer it to come from opinion leaders.
