Theories

Question 1

Steve Neale’s Genre Theory

Answer 1

1) Audiences enjoy certain media texts because of ‘repetition and difference’ of the conventions of the genre used.
For Example - an audience might enjoy a typical action film because it follows all the conventions of the action drama. However, they might enjoy a media text because it actively AVOIDS all the stereotypical conventions and does something different.

2) Genre is not static; it is always changing

Question 2

Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory

Answer 2

producers embed products with codes for consumers to decode to gain more meaning. these include:

• semantic codes - elements of a product that connote particular meanings that most audiences understand EG red= danger or love
• Symbolic codes - semantic elements that have become so ingrained in society that they take on a very specific meaning EG hoodie = rebellion or violence, cross = religion and heart = love
• Enigma codes - mysterious enigmatic elements of a product that leave the audience with unanswered questions. Good at hooking in an audience as often the entire product must be consumed to uncover the answers.

Action codes - elements of a media product that tell us that something is going to happen EG a gun = going to be shooting or violence

• Cultural codes - elements of a media products that can only be understood by particular cultures or groups of individuals in society. EG a military logo on someones dress codes may only be recognised by those who are in / know someone in the military. - useful for intertextual references.

Question 3

Levi-Strauss’ structuralist theory

Answer 3

Binary opposition

• media products revolve around a pair of binary opposites (two things that are represented as fundamentally different)
• meaning is dependent upon binary opposites
• the way in which binary opposites are resolved or represented can have particular ideological significance.

Question 4

Todorov’s narrative structure theory