Media Language
Semiotics – Roland Barthes
· The idea that texts communicate their meanings through a process of signification · The idea that 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 · The idea that constructed meanings can come to seem self-evident, achieving the status of myth through a process of naturalisation. Genre theory – Steve Neale · The idea that genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation, and change · The idea that genres change, develop, and vary, as they borrow from and overlap with one another · The idea that genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial contexts. Narratology – Tzvetan Todorov · The idea that all narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another · The idea that these two states of equilibrium are separated by a period of imbalance or disequilibrium · The idea that the way in which narratives are resolved can have particular ideological significance. |
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Advertising and marketing Magazines Music Videos Online Newspapers Tv |
Representation
Theories of Representation – Stuart Hall
Theories of Identity – David Gauntlett
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Advertising and marketing Television Music videos Magazines Newspapers |
Media Industries
Power and Media Industries – Curran and Seaton
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Film Newspapers Radio |
Audiences
Media effects – Albert Bandura
Reception theory – Stuart Hall
Cultivation theory – George Gerbner
- The idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly.
- The idea that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling.
- The idea that media representations of transgressive behaviour, such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.
Reception theory – Stuart Hall
- The idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences.
- The idea that there are three hypothetical positions from which messages and meanings may be decoded:
- The dominant-hegemonic position: the encoder’s intended meaning (the preferred reading) is fully understood and accepted.
- The negotiated position: the legitimacy of the encoder’s message is acknowledged in general terms, although the message is adapted or negotiated to better fit the decoder’s own individual experiences or context.
- The oppositional position: the encoder’s message is understood, but the decoder disagrees with it, reading it in a contrary or oppositional way.
Cultivation theory – George Gerbner
- The idea that exposure to repeated patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them (i.e. cultivating particular views and opinions).
- The idea that cultivation reinforces mainstream values (dominant ideologies).