Year 12 Theorists

Question 1

Media Language

Roland Barthes - semiotics

Answer 1

1. Idea that texts communicate there meanings through a process of significations/codes
2. Denotative meaning - literal or common sense meaning Connotative meaning - meaning associated with/suggested by the sign
3. Constructed meanings can become self evident, achieving the status of myth through a process naturalisation

Question 2

Media language

Tzvetan Todorov - narrative theory

Answer 2

1. Idea that narratives follow a basic structure which moves from one equilibrium to another
2. Idea that these states of equilibrium are separated by a period of disequilibrium or imbalance
3. Idea that the way narratives are resolved can have particular ideological significance

In a nutshell - narratives follow a structure of equilibrium>disruption>New equilibrium

Question 3

Media language

Steve Neale - genre theory

Answer 3

1. Genres may be dominated by repetition but they are also marked by difference, variation and change
2. Idea that genres change, develop and vary as they borrow from and overlap each other
3. Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial contexts

In a nutshell - genre is recognisable but does change over time or borrow from other genres. Genre is important to institutions because it helps them to market texts

Question 4

Media language

Claude Lèvi-Strauss - binary oppositions

Answer 4

1. Texts can be understood through an examination of there underlying structure
2. Idea that meaning is dependant upon and produced through pairs of oppositions
3. The way in which these oppositions are resolved can have a particular ideological significance

In a nutshell - the conflict between binary opposites drives forward the narrative

Question 5

Media language

Jean Baudrillard - postmodernism

Answer 5

1. The idea that in post modern culture the boundaries between the ‘real’ world and the world of the media have collapsed and that it is no longer possible to distinguish between reality and stimulation
2. The idea that in a postmodern age of simulacra We are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything real.
3. The idea that media images have come to seem more real that the reality that they are supposed to represent (hyper reality)

In a nutshell - the lines between created texts and reality become blurred. For example, perfect Instagram images seem real.

Question 6

Media Industry

Curran and Seaton - Power and media industries

Answer 6

1. Idea that media is controlled by a small number of businesses driven by logic of profit and power
2. Idea that media concentration generally limits or inhibits variety, creativity and quality
3. Idea that more socially diverse patterns of ownership help create the conditions for a more varied and adventurous media production

In a nutshell: if we had more of a variety of media companies, we would have a larger variety of texts

Question 7

Media industry

Livingston and Lunt - regulation

Answer 7

1. There is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policy between the need of the future interests of the people and the further interests of the consumer
2. Increasing power of global media corporations, with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media

In a nutshell: who is regulation for?
Can regulation keep up with new technology?

Question 8

Media industry

David Hesmondhalgh - Cultural industries

Answer 8

1. Idea that media industries try to reduce risk and maximise audiences through horizontal and vertical integration and by formatting there cultural products
2. Largest companies and conglomerates no operate across a range of cultural industries
3. 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

In a nutshell: industry uses tried and tested strategies to appeal to us - but we should be concerned that only a few companies hold a lot of power

Question 9

Representation

Stuart Hall - representation

Answer 9

1. The idea that representation is the production of meaning through language, with language defined in its broadest sense as a system of signs
2. The idea that the relationship between concepts and signs is governed by codes
3. The idea that stereotyping, as a form of representation, reduces people to a few Simple characteristics or traits
4. 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).

Question 10

Representation

Liesbet Van Zoonen - feminist theory

Answer 10

1. The idea that gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context
2. The idea that the display of women’s bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture
3. 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.

Question 11

Representation

Judith Butler - gender performativity

Answer 11

1. 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)
2. The idea that there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender - idea that performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition and a ritual.

Question 12

Representation

Paul Gilroy - ethnicity and postcolonial theory

Answer 12

1. The idea that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era
2. The idea that civilisationism constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based on notions of otherness.

Question 13

Audiences

Albert Bandura - media effects

Answer 13

1. The idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly
2. The idea that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling
3. The idea that media representations of transgressive behaviour, such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.

Question 14

Audiences

George Gerbner - cultivation theory

Answer 14

1. The idea that exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. Cultivating particular views and opinions)
2. The idea that cultivation reinforces mainstream values (dominant ideologies).

Question 15

Audience

Stuart Hall - Reception theory

Answer 15

1. The idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences
2. The idea that there are three hypothetical positions from which messages and meanings may be decoded:
   - The dominant-hegemonic position: the encoder’s intended meaning (the preferred reading) is fully understood and accepted
   - The negotiated position: the legitimacy of the encoder’s message is acknowledged in general terms, although the message is adapted or negotiated to better fit the decoder’s own individual experiences or context
   - The oppositional position: the encoder’s message is understood, but the decoder disagrees with it, reading it in a contrary or oppositional way.

Question 16

Audience

Henry Jenkins - Fandoms

Answer 16

1. The idea that fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings
2. The idea that fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully authorised by the media producers (‘textual poaching’)
3. The idea that fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images, and are part of a participatory culture that has a vital social dimension.

Question 17

Audience

Clay Shirky - end of audience

Answer 17

1. The idea that the Internet and digital technologies have had a profound effect on the relations between media and individuals
   - The idea that the conceptualisation of audience members as passive consumers of mass media content is no longer tenable in the age of the Internet, as media consumers have now become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, as well as creating and sharing content with one another.

Question 18

Representation

Bell Hooks - feminist theory

Answer 18

1. The idea that feminism is a struggle to end sexist/patriarchal oppression and the ideology of domination
2. The idea that feminism is a political commitment rather than a lifestyle choice
3. The idea that race and class as well as sex determine the extent to which individuals are exploited, discriminated against or oppressed.

Question 19

Vladimir Propp

Character types

Answer 19

Theory suggests that characters are separated into 7 broad character types. 
The villain 
The donor 
The helper 
The princess 
The dispatcher 
The hero 
The false hero

Question 20

Media Language Theorist

Answer 20

Barthes - semiotics
Levi-Strauss - structuralism
Todorov - narrative
Baudrillard - postmodernism
Neale - genre

Question 21

Representation theorists

Answer 21

Hall
Gauntlett
Hooks
Van Zoonen
Gilroy - postcolonilaism
Butler - gender preformity