Theorists
Roland Barthes - Semiotics
He believed that different things had certain meanings. There are signs, signifiers and the signified. A sign is anything that can have a meaning, and are made of signifiers (what is used to create the meaning) and the signified (the meaning that it creates). For example, a lion would be a signifier which creates a meaning of being, brave, strong or vicious. He also referred to intertextuality as being Referential codes.
Claude Levi-Strauss - Structuralism
Strauss believed that, through binary oppositions, that if there was no such thing as things like night, we would not know about day. Essentially, we don't know the world through what it is, but what it is not. Binary Oppositions is where if there is one thing, there will always be an opposite.
Stuart Hall - Representation
Believed that things are used in order to show something that we want to present in a specific way, through thought, concept, idea or feeling. It is not what they are or what they do, it is what they stand for.
Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
This is an audience theory. He categorised the audience response into three groups. The first is the dominant reading, which agrees with the values and ideology the media product shows. The oppositional reading is the reading which rejects the dominant reading. The last is the negotiated reading, the audience generally agrees with what they see but disagree in some aspects.
Richard Dyer - The Role of Stereotypes
There are stereotypes in order for us to make sense of the world, and makes an ordering process for people to be able to know what things are like. It can also be a shortcut for producers as well as a reference point for the audiences. He also said that these were an expression of dominant societal values.
David Gauntlet - Identity
He believes that despite many negative perceptions of the media, audiences are able to construct their own identities through what they see on television etc (that they are not passive). He now feels there are many more representations of gender than the traditional "gender binary". He came up with the "pick and mix" theory, which is the theory that audiences choose what they want to take away from the media product rather than be influenced by the whole thing, and the audience will take certain ideologies which suit them but ignore the ideologies they disagree with.
Steve Neale - Theories about Genre
You can use this theorist in order to talk about what people use to distinguish why genre exists, for example benefits of genre classification and disadvantages of genre. His specific theory is that genre is essentially "repetition and difference", and suggested that texts need to conform to some generic paradigms to be identified with a certain genre - but must also subvert these conventions in order to not appear identical.
Tzvetan Todorov - Narratology
Todorov had the theory that a narrative begins at equilibrium, and that as the show progressed there would be a disequilibrium. This would then be returned back to the equilibrium that was at the beginning, much like a story has a beginning/problem/resolution.
Albert Bandura - Media Effects
Watching too much television can make you have a more biased perception on certain stories, for example the news. Watching violent films or playing violent video games can make people more desensitised, and more likely to become more violent. He came up with the hypodermic syringe theory, whereby people see something and therefore they will do it. Another way to think of it is like brainwashing.
George Gerbner - Cultivation Theory
Cultivating something means that you are allowing it to grow. This means that prolonged or heavy exposure to TV will lead to an ideology growing and developing, an ideology which is the dominant or majority view that is put on the television. He theorised that TV presents a mainstream view of culture, ignoring everything else. Because of this, television distorts reality. This means that heavy television users will have a distorted view of reality. It is not the same for everybody, for example children will be more easily manipulated than adults. However, this is quite simplistic, and doesn't take into account the complexity of the human mind.
David Hesmondhalgh - The Cultural Industries
He said that horizontal integration is where a company buys out other film companies in order to get rid of the rest of the competition. Vertical integration is where companies buy out other companies involved in different stages of production and circulation. Conglomeration is a corporation that consists of a group of businesses dealing with in different products or services.
Curran and Seaton
They stated that media is controlled by small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power. More socially diverse patterns of ownership to create more varied and adventurous media productions. Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality.
Lisbet van Zoonen - Femenist Theory
She theorised that gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context. There is also the idea that the display of women's bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture, as well as the idea that in the mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes that are used to construct the male body as a spectacle differ from those used to objectify the female body. The "Male Gaze" theory is the theory that women are used to get the attention of men.
Clay Shirky - 'End of Audience' Theory
Audiences are no longer passive. They interact with media products in an variety of ways, and they pick and choose what they want to take from a media text.
bell hooks - Feminist Theory
"Feminism is for everyone" - she felt that the way women are treated in society directly affect the way that men are treated in society. She feels tat feminism is the struggle to end patriarchal hegemony, and the domination of women. She also believes that feminism us not a lifestyle choice, it is a political commitment.
Sonia Livingstone and Peter Hunt - Regulation
The increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transforms in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulations at risk.
Jean Baudrillard - Postmodernism
He said "it is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, not even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real". This shows how the representations of life are now what we believe to be real life.
Paul Gilroy - Theories around ethnicity and post-colonial theory
Colonisation/colonialism is where one country takes over another country and forces their culture on them. He states that not only is racial hierarchy a method of establishing hegemonic control, but also that this binary opposition helps us make sense of the world.
Judith Butler - Theories of Gender Performativity
This theory indicates that there was a difference between sex and gender. She believes that identity is a performance, and that gender is constricted through the way that we express ourselves each day. While biological differences are dictated by sex, our gender is more about the way that we act. gender performativity is not about the way that we act once or twice, it is out habits and rituals which are outlined and reinforced by patriarchal ideologies. The repetition of these actions (i.e walk, talk, dress) is what reinforces our identities and gender stereotypes.
John Berger - "Men Act, Women Appear"
Here, Berger is implying that within a narrative, male characters are the ones who are the focus of the production however women are there purely for entertainment and for things such as the male gaze. However, this applies more to pat productions over more present ones.
Jean Baudrillard - Postmodernism
This is the theory that the lines between media and reality are blurred, and that what we see as being real is more likely to not be. Audiences are constantly exposed to 'simulacra', and more and more of the things we are seeing aren't real. This has led people to want to imitate what they see as real life and therefore it is much harder for people to be real to themselves and even harder to be real with the rest of society.
Henry Jenkins - Textual Poaching
This is where fans of the media product read it in a way that it wasn't really intended. An example of this is shipping - where fans will take two characters and they will want them to be together. This is a type of negotiated reading, as it is not what the producer intended for the audience to see. It is an active audience theory as the audience is choosing what they want to take from the text.
He believed that different things had certain meanings. There are signs, signifiers and the signified. A sign is anything that can have a meaning, and are made of signifiers (what is used to create the meaning) and the signified (the meaning that it creates). For example, a lion would be a signifier which creates a meaning of being, brave, strong or vicious. He also referred to intertextuality as being Referential codes.
Claude Levi-Strauss - Structuralism
Strauss believed that, through binary oppositions, that if there was no such thing as things like night, we would not know about day. Essentially, we don't know the world through what it is, but what it is not. Binary Oppositions is where if there is one thing, there will always be an opposite.
Stuart Hall - Representation
Believed that things are used in order to show something that we want to present in a specific way, through thought, concept, idea or feeling. It is not what they are or what they do, it is what they stand for.
Stuart Hall - Reception Theory
This is an audience theory. He categorised the audience response into three groups. The first is the dominant reading, which agrees with the values and ideology the media product shows. The oppositional reading is the reading which rejects the dominant reading. The last is the negotiated reading, the audience generally agrees with what they see but disagree in some aspects.
Richard Dyer - The Role of Stereotypes
There are stereotypes in order for us to make sense of the world, and makes an ordering process for people to be able to know what things are like. It can also be a shortcut for producers as well as a reference point for the audiences. He also said that these were an expression of dominant societal values.
David Gauntlet - Identity
He believes that despite many negative perceptions of the media, audiences are able to construct their own identities through what they see on television etc (that they are not passive). He now feels there are many more representations of gender than the traditional "gender binary". He came up with the "pick and mix" theory, which is the theory that audiences choose what they want to take away from the media product rather than be influenced by the whole thing, and the audience will take certain ideologies which suit them but ignore the ideologies they disagree with.
Steve Neale - Theories about Genre
You can use this theorist in order to talk about what people use to distinguish why genre exists, for example benefits of genre classification and disadvantages of genre. His specific theory is that genre is essentially "repetition and difference", and suggested that texts need to conform to some generic paradigms to be identified with a certain genre - but must also subvert these conventions in order to not appear identical.
Tzvetan Todorov - Narratology
Todorov had the theory that a narrative begins at equilibrium, and that as the show progressed there would be a disequilibrium. This would then be returned back to the equilibrium that was at the beginning, much like a story has a beginning/problem/resolution.
Albert Bandura - Media Effects
Watching too much television can make you have a more biased perception on certain stories, for example the news. Watching violent films or playing violent video games can make people more desensitised, and more likely to become more violent. He came up with the hypodermic syringe theory, whereby people see something and therefore they will do it. Another way to think of it is like brainwashing.
George Gerbner - Cultivation Theory
Cultivating something means that you are allowing it to grow. This means that prolonged or heavy exposure to TV will lead to an ideology growing and developing, an ideology which is the dominant or majority view that is put on the television. He theorised that TV presents a mainstream view of culture, ignoring everything else. Because of this, television distorts reality. This means that heavy television users will have a distorted view of reality. It is not the same for everybody, for example children will be more easily manipulated than adults. However, this is quite simplistic, and doesn't take into account the complexity of the human mind.
David Hesmondhalgh - The Cultural Industries
He said that horizontal integration is where a company buys out other film companies in order to get rid of the rest of the competition. Vertical integration is where companies buy out other companies involved in different stages of production and circulation. Conglomeration is a corporation that consists of a group of businesses dealing with in different products or services.
Curran and Seaton
They stated that media is controlled by small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power. More socially diverse patterns of ownership to create more varied and adventurous media productions. Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality.
Lisbet van Zoonen - Femenist Theory
She theorised that gender is constructed through discourse, and that its meaning varies according to cultural and historical context. There is also the idea that the display of women's bodies as objects to be looked at is a core element of western patriarchal culture, as well as the idea that in the mainstream culture the visual and narrative codes that are used to construct the male body as a spectacle differ from those used to objectify the female body. The "Male Gaze" theory is the theory that women are used to get the attention of men.
Clay Shirky - 'End of Audience' Theory
Audiences are no longer passive. They interact with media products in an variety of ways, and they pick and choose what they want to take from a media text.
bell hooks - Feminist Theory
"Feminism is for everyone" - she felt that the way women are treated in society directly affect the way that men are treated in society. She feels tat feminism is the struggle to end patriarchal hegemony, and the domination of women. She also believes that feminism us not a lifestyle choice, it is a political commitment.
Sonia Livingstone and Peter Hunt - Regulation
The increasing power of global media corporations, together with the rise of convergent media technologies and transforms in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media, have placed traditional approaches to media regulations at risk.
Jean Baudrillard - Postmodernism
He said "it is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, not even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real". This shows how the representations of life are now what we believe to be real life.
Paul Gilroy - Theories around ethnicity and post-colonial theory
Colonisation/colonialism is where one country takes over another country and forces their culture on them. He states that not only is racial hierarchy a method of establishing hegemonic control, but also that this binary opposition helps us make sense of the world.
Judith Butler - Theories of Gender Performativity
This theory indicates that there was a difference between sex and gender. She believes that identity is a performance, and that gender is constricted through the way that we express ourselves each day. While biological differences are dictated by sex, our gender is more about the way that we act. gender performativity is not about the way that we act once or twice, it is out habits and rituals which are outlined and reinforced by patriarchal ideologies. The repetition of these actions (i.e walk, talk, dress) is what reinforces our identities and gender stereotypes.
John Berger - "Men Act, Women Appear"
Here, Berger is implying that within a narrative, male characters are the ones who are the focus of the production however women are there purely for entertainment and for things such as the male gaze. However, this applies more to pat productions over more present ones.
Jean Baudrillard - Postmodernism
This is the theory that the lines between media and reality are blurred, and that what we see as being real is more likely to not be. Audiences are constantly exposed to 'simulacra', and more and more of the things we are seeing aren't real. This has led people to want to imitate what they see as real life and therefore it is much harder for people to be real to themselves and even harder to be real with the rest of society.
Henry Jenkins - Textual Poaching
This is where fans of the media product read it in a way that it wasn't really intended. An example of this is shipping - where fans will take two characters and they will want them to be together. This is a type of negotiated reading, as it is not what the producer intended for the audience to see. It is an active audience theory as the audience is choosing what they want to take from the text.
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