Media Theories

Adorno – Passive Consumption, Hypodermic Model (Frankfurt School): “A strong argument suggests that audiences may be passively affected by the sexist, violent representations in GTAV as it is a more realist text than other shoot em’ up action adventure games. Young audiences ultimately may begin to view women differently and think that the aspirational violence is acceptable as a means to an end”.

Challenging Moral Panics: “Barker suggests once you have entered into a debate about violent video games for example you must have already decided about negative media effects”.

Moral Panics: “Recent stories about young audiences’ behaviour after playing violent video games reflects a common moral panic that some media like the Daily Mail constantly seek to remind its readers of”.

Producer as Consumer (Prosumer): “Media Studies students regularly make their own short film productions but are also regular consumers of the media – in doing so they are both producer and consumer blurring the boundaries of traditional media consumption”.

Cultivation Theory: “The cultivation theory suggests that the more you look at television, the more you are likely to believe in the reality of the representation e.g. believing everything you see and hear on BBC News 24 and not challenging the nature of a constructed text”.

Audience Positioning and Dominant, Negotiated, Oppositional Readings: “Some texts, like The Mighty Boosh may have a number of readings, dependent on audience – a dominant reading could be that it is a postmodern representation of celebrity culture while a negotiated reading could be that it is simply surreal and funny while an oppositional reading could be that it is childish, subversive and offensive”.

Uses and Gratifications Theory: “Different audiences gain different pleasures from a media text e.g. Gravity can be enjoyed via diversion or escapism, it can use surveillance to give information to audiences and can also be discussed on forums and blogs as a form of developing personal relationships (common also in video games). Personal identity can be developed with audiences who relate to certain characters more than others”.

Two Step Flow Theory: “Jonathan Ross discussed with his guest Steve Coogan the recent phone hacking scandal and made it clear he had an opinion on the subject – this reflects the Two Step Flow theory where an existing idea or belief is taken on by an opinion leader (as in newspapers as the ‘Fourth Estate’)”.

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Audience Engagement: “Watching films in a cinema involve a primary mode of audience engagement as the spectator is immersed with the narrative while watching a programme at home on television may involve eating a meal at the same time, texting, using social media or other additional activities. Tertiary audience engagement is using the text as background media like music radio”.  

David Buckingham – Genre in Constant Process of Negotiation and Change: “Genre must respond to socio-economic and cultural change e.g. Brokeback Mountain has elements of the western (setting, objects and props, dress code) to develop an emotive romance about two men and their love for each other”.

Genre is Too Restricting: “Films like Gravity have a limited appeal due to notions of predictability (notions of self sacrifice) even through Cuaron attempted more verisimilitude than other ‘space films’ like Mission to Mars and Apollo 13. A type of genre straightjacket is evident.

Genre as ‘Convenience’ for Producers and Audiences: “With X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a familiar action adventure formula is developed (hybridized with Science Fiction and the Superhero genre) which serves to ensure 20th Century Fox target a market who have expectations in terms of conventions”.

Genre is Interpreted Culturally: “Bollywood films are predominantly watched and interpreted culturally by a Hindi target audience and students of the genre who understand the encoded metaphor and meaning through the elaborate dance routines e.g. in films like Dilwane Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (The Brave Hearted will take away The Bride)”.

Genre constantly ‘Breaks Rules’ e.g. evolving hybridization: “Hybridization is now commonplace to maximize audience appeal but also to offer a unique selling point by appearing to break the rules e.g. Submarine is both social realist in format but using comedy conventions typical for a rites of passage film”.

Industry Uses Genre Commercially: “Genre is a way of exploiting an audience who enjoy certain types of representations e.g. tabloid newspapers and the obsession with celebrity gossip which is also used as a form of synergy with programmes like “I’m a Celebrity – Get me out of Here!”

Genre as Repetition and Difference: “Genre is familiar to audiences through the repetition of conventions like a physically strong, dynamic, violent, male hero in Action Adventure Video Games like Assassin’s Creed and GTAV but is challenged by a female lead character in Tomb Raider and Beyond: Two Souls. Other conventions are the same however, despite this key difference and serve to maintain interest in an apparently evolving genre”.  

Roland Barthes – Cultural, Semantic, Symbolic, Hermeneutic, Proairetic Codes (5 Narrative Codes): “The cultural, or referential code in Star Trek (2009) draws on audience pre-existing understanding of science ‘fact’ while symbolism is created from the tension and character development of Spock and Kirk, placed in opposition to each other. Applying the semantic code there are additional connotations to both characters’ dress code; Spock is clean shaven, immaculately dressed with correct posture and gate while Kirk slumps in his chair, is scruffy on Earth (the bouncer calls him ‘farm boy’) and is not so well turned out. When battle commences the proairetic or action code adds suspense and excitement to the narrative while the hermeneutic code in opposition, limits the audience understanding to create enigma making audiences want to know more”.

Useful for Analysing Music Videos if relevant for MS2 or MS3 internal assessment – 5 key features: “Using Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos (from ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’), in Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ music video (with Beyoncé) the hybridized genre conventions of glam rock and pop are immediately established. As in Mylie Cyrus’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ video, Gaga is fetishized for voyeuristic pleasure and notions of ‘the look’. There is a direct relationship between the music and narrative development while Gaga is frequently seen in close up wearing quirky clothes (audience identification and the myth she is ‘singing to us’). Finally intertextuality is crucial with references to films Kill Bill and Thelma and Louise”.

Postmodern Theory Against Meta-Narratives, Pro Micro Narratives and Fragmentation: “Mapped onto film Lyotard is suggesting that meta-narratives would include science, religion, history, war/conflict, national identity, love/romance, other worlds – the stuff of mainstream Hollywood films and that these narratives have been replaced by more non linear, localised mini narratives that explore individual experience and are more self referential e.g. The Double (January 2014, Richard Ayoade’s second film)”.

8 Character Roles: “Propp’s character roles mainly only apply to mainstream texts/films e.g. Disney films and Blockbusters but can on occasion, also be useful for understanding running stories e.g. the NOTW Phone Hacking scandal. Propp’s 8 character roles are the hero (can also be the initial victim), the villain, false hero (perceived as good but turns out evil), the Princess (a reward for the hero and much sought after), Her Father (gives, sometimes metaphorically the princess to the hero), the donor (gives the hero a magical gift to help him with his quest e.g. Mrs. Brown in Titanic), the dispatcher (sends the hero on his way) and the helper (helps the hero in his quest) e.g. Samwise in Lord of the Rings.

Binary Oppositions: “In terms of dress code, the hero and the villain in Skyfall are in binary opposition to each other to anchor audience identification”.

Four-Act Structure: “In American Beauty, the opening sequence creates an equilibrium or normality for the audience. Lester Burnham’s dramatic decision to leave his job ensures disruption (this disruption is continued throughout the narrative) while resolution is established when Burnham feels ‘at one’ with the world (he works out, smokes cannabis and seems care free) but is ultimately shot and killed by Colonel Frank Fitts. A new equilibrium suggests nothing will ever be the same again (a new beginning) although this is only implied in narrative closure”.  

Baudrillard – Hyper Reality: “Some texts are difficult to distinguish in terms of the representation of reality from a simulation of reality e.g. Big Brother. The boundaries are blurred as codes and conventions create a set of signifiers which we understand but in fact the representation is a copy of a copy”.

Queer Theory: “Gender is what you do, not who you are with the theory contesting the categorization of gender and sexuality – identities are not fixed and they cannot be labelled e.g. potentially androgynous representations like Gok Wan.

Last Girl Theory (Horror): “In many horror films, like Halloween typically the last girl that survives is pure, chaste and virginal while all of her friends with looser morals have been killed. Even the name of the last girl is often unisex e.g. Sidney, Teddy or Billie and has elements of androgyny and sometimes also a shared history with the killer”.

Stereotypes Legitimize Inequality: “A way to ensure unequal power relations are maintained is to continually stereotype – GTAV is a misogynist video game where players have the opportunity to kill prostitutes in their own violent way – the game is entirely male point of view and arguably serves to maintain dominant male culture”.

Dominant, Oppositional and Negotiated Readings of Representation: “Stuart Hall’s theory (see audiences) is also useful in understanding how some representations reflect the dominant culture e.g. patriarchy, women in The Sun and in Men’s Magazines like FHM. However, some representations can be negotiated or even misunderstood (oppositional) as in Four Lions which was accused of being a racist text due to its representation of British Pakistani Muslims”.

Post Feminist Icon Theory: “Lara Croft, Lady Gaga and Madonna for example could be identified as post feminist icons as they exhibit the stereotypical characteristics of both the male and female – strength, courage, control and logic but also are willing to be sexualized for the male gaze. This control element of their own representation is crucial in understanding the theory”.

Stereotyping is Shorthand for Identification: “One way that texts like Waterloo Road and Skins for example allow for audience identification is through stereotyping and giving characters an extreme representation”.

Male Gaze/Female Gaze: “Women on the front cover of FHM are sexualized and objectified for the male audience while the same can be said for male models in perfume adverts, sexualized for a female demographic”.

Stereotyping has Elements of Truth: “Although stereotyping can have negative effects often it is based of some degree of reality but distorted and manipulated for the purpose of entertainment values”.

Binary Oppositions and Subordinate Groups: “Levi-Strauss’ theory (see narrative theorists), like Dyer is a way of understanding how representation are deliberately placed in binary opposition to ensure the dominant culture is maintained and the minority representations is seen as subordinate and marginalized. In Game of Thrones southern regional identity is often seen as the preferred culture through representation within the mise-en-scene – there is more money in the south, the southern King speaks with an elaborated language code, the buildings have cleaner lines, dress code is smarter and there is significant daytime shooting. In the North the scenes are often shot at night, characters are rougher, have long hair and beards and are often seen heavy drinking and shouting, talking in an aggressive way about battles and conflict”.