Theories & Context Flashcards
typography
- SAN SERIF - small, stroke, usually flicked
They may use it for formality, sophistication, rich & good quality - SERIF -composed with simple lines (easier to read, universal)
semiotic theory - Barthes
- The media constructs meaning through a process of denotation and connotation.
- The media has an ideological effect on audiences.
- The media naturalises ideas through repetition (these ideas become myths which reinforce existing power structures).
weakness: - comp2
- ignores possibility for audience to have different reading (Hall)
- ignores the intention of the producers in creating semiotics for power (Curran and Seaton)
Steve Neale: genre
- States that genre all contains instance of repetition and difference - difference is essential.
- Films type should to the include features that are similar, so the audience know it is a what type of film i t is e.g. romance, horror
Weakness:
- Repeated mainstream genres tropes reflect dominant ideologies and these can exclude marginalised people (hooks)
shirky
End of Audience
No longer any such thing as a ‘passive audience’ because we are more active. This is a result of development technologies.
It means our expectations and behaviours have changed.
fandom - jenkins
Textual Poaching
Fans are taking the ‘semiotic raw materials’ from popular media products and reworking the signs into something new.
Textual poaching - fans create their own versions and interpretations.
-Paricpotaory culture - fans interpret their own cultural identites
media lang.
Jean Baudrillard – Postmodernism theory
- Baudrillad’s postmodernism theory is that in the modern world, what something represents has become more important than what it actually is.
- Postmodernism is the idea that society has moved beyond modernism
- Baudrillard argued that, as modern societies were organised around production of goods, postmodern society is organised around ‘simulation’ – the play of images and signs.
theorist - media language
Lévi-Strauss- structuralism theory (binary oppositions):
- What opposites can you see in costume, props, mise-en-scene and what is the effect of having one shown against the other? Is one seen as positive and one negative? Or is this view challenged and to what effect?
- Quote “in every binary pair, one term is favoured and the other disfavoured.”
Evaluation:
- Ignores possibility for audience to have different readings (Hall).
* Western media predominantly and consistently favours white over non-white causing damaging stereotypes (Gilroy).
representaton theorists
Judith Butler
Gender
Performativity theory
- believes gender is constructed through performance, so performing certain activities regularly makes you feel more feminine/masculine.
- asserts that gender is viewed as binary in which humans are divided into two clear-cut groups: women and men.
- believes masculine and feminine roles arenot biologically fixed, but socially constructed.
Alvarado - otherness
- Theory related to ethnicity based on the idea that people from different cultures tend to be defined by how different they are, by their ‘otherness’.
- These representations can focus on racial characteristics and on preconceived audience perceptions.
- Certain ethnic groups represented as:
- exotic: links closely to Stuart Hall’s.
- The ‘exotic’ stereotype presents the individual in terms of how they look, what they wear,
- dangerous: some texts represent ethnic minorities as a threat to society and are often blamed for social problem.
How useful is binary opposition approach to IN MEDIA text
The usefulness of binary opposition:
- It helps reveal the underlying structures of a media text. By identifying pairs of opposing elements, we can uncover the fundamental principles that shape the narrative, characters and themes.
- narrative tensions: opposing forces create narrative tension and conflict, which are essential elements of storytelling.
Criticism of a binary opposition approach to analysis
- today we have fluidity and hybridity (especially in terms of gender). .
- Power dynamics: it perpetuate power imbalnces by reinforcing dominant ideologies, which contributes to the marginalisation of certain groups
Key words for representation
- ideology - set of ideas/beliefs
- dominant ideology
- stereotype
- subversive representation
- realism
- hegeomny
- fluid identity
- gender as perfomance
- beauty ideal
- heteronormative reprsentation
Audience theory
Guantlett - theory
- audience mirrors idenitity through media text
- could be a gender/sexual identity
- in the past = they were simple representation e.g. men are supposed to be strong, go to work.
- now with Newer media products = have a more diverse reperenstation
represnetation - feminist theory
Van zoonen
- concept of Discoure: we get our ideas about gender from the media
- women are objectified and sexualised in the media = due to a paitrachal society.
- ideas of masculinity/feminity changes overtime, depends on its cultural context
- women and men are protrayed differently. women are associated with domesticity, men are seen as the breadwinner
- protrayed as ‘spectacles’ = men with their abs
- women bodies are shown as something that peopleshould lust over - male gaze theory
feminist - representation
bell hooks - intersectionality
- takes a intersectional appraoch: factors such as race, class, age contribues to the oppression of women. not just gender
- this creates white supermacist
- Feminism is a struggle to end patriarchalhegemony
gilroy
- African slavery and colonialism were justified through race science.
- Black people were seen as less intelligent than white people.
- Primitive and less civilised.
- Therefore, they needed to be controlled and given western civilisation.
- The setting up of binary oppositions based on notions of ‘otherness’
