Theorist Evaluations for Question 4, Paper 1

Question 1

Strength for Roland Barthes - Semiology

Answer 1

Can be applied to any sign, including language and image, to tease out connotations and ideology.
Draws attention to the effect of ideology in any text - headlines assume shared view of the world with the readers in order to be easily understood.

Question 2

Limitation for Roland Barthes - Semiology

Answer 2

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a general theory of signification.
Doesn’t tell us anything about the ownership, control or mediation process that leads to the messages in newspapers.
Doesn’t tell us about how audiences interpret newspapers and give meaning.

Question 3

Strength for Neale’s Genre Theory

Answer 3

Can be applied to any media product that has genres and links together media language, audiences, and industries.
Explains how genres can change and hybridise.

Question 4

Limitation for Neale’s Genre Theory

Answer 4

The theory was developed primarily in relation to film products where genre is an important marketing tool, unlike newspapers which appeal to audience loyalty or sell themselves by front page splashes that emphasise individual difference rather than generic similarities.

Question 5

Strength for Levi Strauss - Structuralism

Answer 5

Can be applied to any cultural product, including newspapers.
Particularly applies to newspaper stories that set up an ‘us’ and ‘them’ opposition, a common mode of address in newspapers.

Question 6

Limitation of Levi Strauss - Structuralism

Answer 6

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it is an extremely high level theory of culture.
Doesn’t tell us anything about the ownership, control or mediation process that leads to the messages in newspapers.
Doesn’t tell us about how audiences interpret newspapers and give meaning.

Question 7

Strength of Todorov - Narratology

Answer 7

Enables us to think of news stories as a series of ‘disruptions’, each implying an initial equilibrium and a possible resolution.

Question 8

Limitation of Todorov - Narratology

Answer 8

Was not designed to explain news stories but narratives with resolutions, so doesn’t fit most news stories that die out without resolution.

Question 9

Strength of Baudrillard - Postmodernism

Answer 9

Can be applied to any cultural product, including newspapers.
Particularly applies to news about news or celebrities who are famous for being famous, where there is no clear sense of a ‘real’ lying behind the hyperreality.

Question 10

Limitation of Baudrillard - Postmodernism

Answer 10

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it is an extremely high level theory of the postmodern world.

Question 11

Strength for Hall - Representation Theory

Answer 11

Can be applied to any media product, including newspapers.
Applies to the way in which newspaper headlines try to fix the meaning of a representation.
Draws attention to the role of power in representations. Power in society, newspapers and audiences when decoding representations.

Question 12

Limitation for Hall - Representation Theory

Answer 12

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a general theory of representation.

Question 13

Strength for Gauntlett - Identity

Answer 13

Can be applied to any media product, including newspapers.
Applies to the sense of identity that a newspaper can offer its readers.
Applies to the way different sections of newspapers offer diverse and contradictory messages to audiences, offering a range of points of identification.

Question 14

Limitation for Gauntlett - Identity

Answer 14

Many audiences will not gain a sense of identity through newspapers but through self-expression and consuming popular entertainment.
Assumes that audiences are powerful, active agents which underestimates the power of media conglomerates.

Question 15

Strength Van Zoonen - Feminist Theory

Answer 15

Can be applied to any media product, especially representations of gender.
The concept of patriarchy may be applied to many factors, e.g representations of gender and ownership and control of newspapers.

Question 16

Limitation of Van Zoonen - Feminist Theory

Answer 16

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it’s a general theory of patriarchy.
Prioritises gender inequalities so doesn’t analyse any other representations of inequality in newspapers.
Stressing the influence of social conflict on representations underestimates the influence of social consensus on representations.

Question 17

Strength of hooks - Feminist Theory

Answer 17

Can be applied to any media product, especially representations of gender.
The concept of ‘intersectionality’ draws attention to misrepresentations and stereotypes and their inter-relationship in any newspaper representations.

Question 18

Limitation of hooks - Feminist Theory

Answer 18

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a general theory of patriarchy.
Stressing the influence of social conflict on representations underestimates the influence of social consensus on representations.

Question 19

Strength of Butler - gender performativity

Answer 19

Can be applied to any media product, especially representations of gender.
Can be applied to particularly lifestyle sections of newspapers and in articles about forms of ‘gender trouble’.

Question 20

Limitation of Butler - Gender Performativity

Answer 20

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a very high level theory of gender.

Question 21

Strength of Gilroy - post-colonial theory

Answer 21

Can be applied to any media product, especially representations of race, ethnicity and the post-colonial world.
The concept of the ‘Post-colonial melancholia’ draws attention to the continuing role of colonial ideology.

Question 22

Limitation of Gilroy - post-colonial theory

Answer 22

Doesn’t explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a general theory.
May not aid analysis of other forms of inequality (focuses on race).
May underestimate the influence of social consensus on representations.

Question 23

Strength of Curran and Seaton - Power and media industries

Answer 23

Studying newspapers as an industry draws attention to issues such as forms and effects of ownership and control etc.
Applies to narrow range of political opinions expressed by British national newspapers, with a bias to pro-capitalism.
Applies to the long history of ‘press barons’ owning newspapers in order to achieve status and wield political power.

Question 24

Limitation of Curran and Seaton - power and media industries

Answer 24

May not aid understanding of how ideologies, audience choice, or media language conventions may determine media content.

Question 25

Livingstone and Lunt - Strength (Regulation Theory)

Answer 25

Unknown - make up that applies to question with example!

Question 26

Limitation of Livingstone and Lunt - Regulation theory.

Answer 26

Doesn't apple to newspapers due to 'press freedom'

Question 27

Strength of Hesmondhalgh - Cultural Industries

Answer 27

Idea of the cultural industries draws attention to newspapers as an industry (forms and effects of ownership and control, the working practices of journalist and other creators, and issues of risk and profitability). Applies to the response of newspapers to competition for readers and advertising from the 'new' media.

Question 28

Limitation of Hesmondhalgh - Cultural Industries

Answer 28

May not aid understanding of how ideologies, audience choice, or media language conventions may determine media content.

Question 29

Strength of Bandura - Media effects

Answer 29

May apply to a wide range of media products, including newspapers. Applies to strongly delivered newspaper messages that are consistent across newspapers. Draws attention to the direct effects on those who consume newspapers. Supports the idea that newspapers should be regulated to avoid public harm.

Question 30

Limitation of Bandura - Media effects

Answer 30

Originally developed to explain the effects of media from TV, newspaper representations of aggression or violence may be less likely to produce imitative behaviour. Newspaper messages are likely to be contradicted by messages from politically and socially opposing newspapers. Effects of the audience on the media are underestimated.

Question 31

Strength of Gerbner - Cultivation Theory

Answer 31

Applies to a wide range of media products where content analysis is widely used to study consistency in messages. Applies to strongly delivered newspaper messages that are consistent across newspapers. Draws attention to the need to investigate long-term effects on individuals who consume newspapers. Supports that newspapers should be regulated to avoid public harm.

Question 32

Limitation of Gerbner - Cultivation Theory

Answer 32

Developed to explain the power of television so may be less applicable to newspapers. Newspaper messages are likely to be contradicted by messages from politically and socially opposing newspapers. Prioritising the effects of the media on the audience may mean that the effects of the audience on the media are underestimated.

Question 33

Strength of Hall - representation theory

Answer 33

May apply to a wide range of media products. Draws attention to the possible audience readings of a newspaper's messages and values.

Question 34

Limitation of Hall - representation theory

Answer 34

Assumes that there is one dominant meaning to which the audience responds - doesn't fit messages with a multitude of different possible readings (like ironic messages).

Question 35

Strength of Fandom - Jenkins

Answer 35

Unknown - make up that applies to question with example!

Question 36

Limitation of Fandom - Jenkins

Answer 36

Doesn't apply to print newspapers due to their centralised production.

Question 37

Strength of End of Audience - Shirky

Answer 37

Unknown - make up that applies to question with example!

Question 38

Limitation of End of Audience - Shirky

Answer 38

Doesn't apply to print newspapers due to their centralised production.