Media Language Theories

Question 1

Semiotics by Roland Bartes

Answer 1

The idea that texts communicate their meanings through a process of signification. Signs can function at the level of denotation, which involves the ‘literal’ or common-sense meaning of the sign, and at the level of connotation, which involves the meanings associated with or suggested by the sign

Question 2

Structuralism by Claude Levi Strauss

Answer 2

The idea that texts can be best understood through an examination of their underlying structure meaning that it is dependent upon pairs of oppositions. The way in which these binary oppositions are resolved can have ideological significance.

Question 3

Narratology by Tzvetan Todorov

Answer 3

The idea that all narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another. These two states of equilibrium are separated by a period of imbalance. The way in which narratives are resolved can have a particular ideological significance.

Question 4

Genre Theory by Steve Neale

Answer 4

All genres abide by a set of codes and conventions and are dominated by repetition, variation, and difference, which are familiar to the audience and easily recognisable and are established over a long period of time.

Question 5

Post-Modernism by Jean Baudrillard

Answer 5

The idea that in postmodern 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 simulation.