Theorists & their Theories Flashcards
Bandura - Media ‘modelling’
1 - violent behaviours are learnt through modelling
2 - audiences copy media representations of negative behaviour
Gerbner - Cultivation theory
1 - fear cultivation / warps perception of the world
2 - media consumption leads audiences to accept mainstream ideologies and established power structures
Hall - Reception theory
1 - encoding and decoding
2 - dominant, negotiated and oppositional decoding
Jenkins - Fandom
1 - fan appropriate media texts, producing readings that are not fully authorised by media producers
2 - audience / producer convergence in the digital age
3 - fans use participatory culture to effect wider social change
Shirky - End of Audience theory
1 - everybody makes the media
2 - everyday communities of practice
Barthes - Semiotics
1 - constructs meaning through denotation / connotation
2 - codes: hermenuetic, proairetic, semantic, semiotic, symbolic + cultural
3 - mythemes / ideological effect on audiences
Levi-Strauss - Structuralism
1 - binary oppositions
+ 2 - ideological significance
Todorov - Narrative
1 - equillibrium -> disruption -> new equillibrium
+ 2 - ideological significance
Neale - Genre
1 - repitition + difference
2 - audience pleasure
3 - genre-driven content
Baudrillard - Postmodernism
1 - real v hyperreal
Curran + Seaton - Ownership
1 - media concentration
2 - effects of concentration on the media
3 - diverse ownership = diverse products
Livingstone + Lunt - Regulation
1 - citizen / consumer models of media regulation
2 - regulation in globalised media
Hesmondhalgh - Culture Industry
1 - minismising risk / maximising profit
2 - effects of the internet are difficult to diagnose
Hall - Representation
1 - media representation
2 - stereotypes + power
Gilroy - Postcolonialism
1 - racial binaries, hegemony, otherness + civilisationism
2 - legacy of Empire + British identities
van Zoonen - Feminist Theories
1 - female bodies as spectacles
2 - masculinity in the media
bell hooks - Intersectionality
1 - interconnected oppression
2 - call to action!
Butler - Gender Performativity
1 - gender identity is made through repitition
2 - gender subversion / hierarchies
Gauntlett - Media + Identity
1 - traditional / post-traditional media consumption
2 - reflexive identity construction
What is Mise-en scene? (Barthes)
symbolic props
What is the Hermeneutic code (enigmas)?
(Barthes)
mystery / intrigue that hooks audience, compelling further viewing to find answers
What is the Proairetic code?
(Barthes)
meaning is conveyed through action or demonstration
What is the Semantic code?
(Barthes)
elements within media texts that produce connotative effects
What is the Symbolic code?
(Barthes)
repeated symbols convey a deeper meaning
What is the Cultural code?
(Barthes)
references to outside the text
What is Naturalisation?
(Barthes)
media’s ability to look and feel realistic, social norms
What are reductive?
(Barthes)
Media myths
What can reinforce existing soical power structures?
(Barthes)
Media myths
What is Anchorage?
(Barthes)
fixing meaning through the use of another component (with a header or caption)
What is Denotation / Connotation?
(Barthes)
literal meaning / symbolic meaning
What is Message Reduction?
(Barthes)
media’s reductive impulse discourages audiences from questioning the presented ideas
What is Signification?
(Barthes)
process of creating meaning
What are Character Oppositions?
(Levi-Strauss)
audiences expect meaning through oppostional characters (hero vs villain)
What are Narrative Oppositions?
(Levi-Strauss)
media is constructed to have moments of opposition
What are Stylistic Oppositions?
(Levi-Strauss)
media producers encode products using juxtaposed stylistic presentations
What are Genre-driven Binary Oppositions?
(Levi-Strauss)
some binary oppositions are repeated so often that they become a convention
What are the function of Binary Oppositions?
(Levi-Strauss)
- clearly explain ideas
- create compelling narratives
- create identifiable character types
- create audience identification
Who are Propps’ 7 Character Types?
(Todorov)
1 - hero
2 - villain
3 - princess + her father
4 - donor
5 - helper
6 - dispatcher
7 - false hero
What is the Equilibrium?
(Todorov)
stable beginning world
What is the Disruption?
(Todorov)
oppositional forces that destroy stability
What is the New Equilibrium?
(Todorov)
repair and restoration = transformed world
What are Anachronic devices?
(Todorov)
flashforwards / flashbacks
What is Subplot?
(Todorov)
own stories which accompany master plot
What is Media Res?
(Todorov)
stories which begin mid-action
What are Multi-perspective narratives?
(Todorov)
told from different characters
What are Metanarratives?
(Todorov)
audiences are aware they are watching a story (fourth wall breaks)
What is Unreliable narration?
(Todorov)
designed to deliberately decieve audiences
What are Frame Strories?
(Todorov)
stories told inside stories
How are storys structured to have an ideological effect?
(Todorov)
- Narratives are significations (world that holds ethical + moral viewpoints)
- Stories articulate desire (audiences want ideals of the equillibrium)
- Stories invoke desire (prompts readers to change too!)
- Transgression (characters who stray from social norms are punished) -> reiterates values
- Ideological villainy
What are ideological effects?
(Todorov)
channel audiences to believe ideas
What is verismiltude?
(Neale)
media product reflects real world
What is Iconography?
(Neale)
visual encodings presented to audiences (like mise-en-scene)
What is Audience Targeting?
(Neale)
specific genres are crafted for specific audience segments
Why does Genre Subversion take place?
(Neale)
based on
- audience needs (gain enjoyment from repitition + difference)
- contextual influences (historal, political or social influences)
- economic influences (falling sales or poor engagement create imperatives to change)
How is Genre-Hybridity created?
(Neale)
- quick tonal shifts
- piggybacking
- individual product character
- high/low culture remixing
- expands audience appeal
- nostaligia
- knowing audiences
- mirrors contemporary audience consumption
What are Auteur Effects?
(Neale)
the effects that individual producers have on genre-driven products
What is High/Low Culture Remixing?
(Neale)
producers mix pop culture and series themes
What is Hybridisation?
(Neale)
using styles, narratives or motifs from mutliple genres in one product
What is Institutional mediation?
(Neale)
effects of the institution in shaping genre-driven products
What is Early Modernity?
(Baudrillard)
(renaissance -> industrial revolution)
- religion dominated
- singular ideology
What is Modernity?
(Baudrillard)
(industrial revolution -> WW2)
- religious certanties begin to crumble
- mass media forms
- competing versions of reality
What is Postmodernity?
(Baudrillard)
(present)
- mass media dominates
- multi perspective, fragmented culture
- whirlwind
What are the effects of Postmodernity?
(Baudrillard)
- media is everywhere
- privacy is invaded
- authenticity is impossible to find
What is Hyperreality?
(Baudrillard)
unable to seperate real world from world of media - we live in the hyperreal
What is Inertia?
(Baudrillard)
constant stream of media paralyses us, unable to act in a way that creates deep meaning
What is Implosion?
(Baudrillard)
sheer volume of voices, opinions is hard to detangle
Why are Stereotypes important?
(Hall)
- reflect social attitudes
- media contributes to construction
- can be reshaped or repurposed
- increase visibility of some key groups
- infer negative traits are natural
What is Internalisation?
(Hall)
marginalised groups assimilate the behaviours of mnegative media representations
What are ‘others’?
(Gilroy)
those are excluded from society because they are deemed as different
What is Albionic Nostalgia?
(Gilroy)
whitewashed / idealised representation of Englishness
What is Civilisationism?
(Gilroy)
representation where Western democracy is is pitted against extremist others
What is Cosmopolitan convivality?
(Gilroy)
describes real world + high levels of racial harmony that mark most people’s day-to-day experience. media portays media disharmony as a norm
What is Post-colonial melancholia?
(Gilroy)
deep-rooted shame felt as a result of the loss of the British Empire
What is Female identification?
(van Zoonen)
female spectators internalise traditional gender stereotypes
What is the Active Gaze?
(van Zoonen)
Males are active, strong …
What are Active / Passive representations?
(van Zoonen)
Males are active / women are passive - leads to social dominance
What is the Male Gaze?
(van Zoonen)
viewers take erotic pleasure from women posed in the media
What is Objectification?
(van Zoonen)
degrades the subject
What is Patriarchy?
(van Zoonen)
societal construct - male dominance
What is a Subversive representation?
(van Zoonen)
challenges an idea
What is the Black Female experience?
(hooks)
sexualised stereotypes, oppressed because of race and sex
What is white feminism?
(hooks)
overtly racist
What are recurring representations / stereotypes of Black women in media?
(hooks)
- absent representations!
- Jezebels (over-sexualised representations of black femininity)
- Aunt Jemimas (domestic service)
- Sapphires (comedic depiction)
What is Intersectionality?
(hooks)
oppression has interconnected causes
What does Butler believe about gender?
- gender does not exist inside the body
- genders are culturally rather than naturally formed
- genders are constructed through repeated action
What are absent representations?
(Butler)
lack of alternative representations in the media helps reinforce heteronormitivity
What are abjected representations?
(Butler)
representations that any identities other than hetero are unnatural, disgusting or repellent
What are parodic representations?
(Butler)
exaggerated representation in a comedic way
What is compulsory heterosexulaity?
(Butler)
we assume male / female identities and hetero relationships
What is the difference between gender / sex?
(Butler)
gender - socially constructed
sex - body born in to
What is gender trouble?
(Butler)
an identity or representation that falls out of heteronormativity
What is gender performativity?
(Butler)
repeating acts or rituals to define gender
What is gender subversion?
(Butler)
representational process that undermines heteronormativity
What is heteronormativity?
(Butler)
dominance of heterosexulaity as a normal or preferred identity
What is active audience engagement?
(Gauntlett)
audiences who are in control of the way they watch or interact with the media
What is an aspirational narrative?
(Gauntlett)
a product that offers means to self-improvement or offers audiences an ideal lifestyle choice
What is a fixed identity?
(Gauntlett)
do not give individuals a great deal of choice about who they want to be
