Media Studies Theories Recap

The 19 theories we study on the course are entirely there to help us answer questions, they are not fact. But ways of interpreting media, and the world around us. Therefore, all of theories we look into have inherent flaws that can and should be criticised.

Important to remember, the names of the theorists don't need to be referenced within exam questions, the name of the theory alone works just fine. 

Media language theories - How do we make sense of the world?

Key theory 1 - Roland Barthes - Semiotics

'We make sense of the world through a series of signs that hold meanings.'

1) Hermeneutic codes - Anything that poses a question, or holds a meaning. Also known as enigma codes.  EG: 'who shot Mr Burns?' we as the audience expect this to be solved.

2) Proairetic codes - The suggestion of something happening. For example, the cracking of knuckles connotates violence or a punch, the puckering of the lips to a kiss. So forth. 

3) Symbolic codes - Anything with a deeper meaning. EG: The red rose. Could stand as symbolic of love, romance. Different symbols have different meanings, contexts, etc. Red could also be used to refer to danger, violence.

4) Referential codes - Otherwise known as intertextuality, referential codes are when a text makes reference to another. 

Myths -> Stories we tell ourselves to make sense of the world around us. EG: Science, religion, marriage.

Key theory 2 - Narratology - Tzvetan Todorov

'All narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another.'

Equilibrium -> Disequilibrium -> New Equilibrium. 

Apply any film from Harry Potter to the Lord of the Rings, to The Hunger Games. It's always relevant.

Key theory 3 - Steve Neale - Theories around Genre

'Genre is based around a system of repetition and difference.'

Key theory 4 - Claude Levi-Strauss - Structuralism

'We make sense of the world around  us through a system of binary oppositions.'

It's not day. Why? Because its night.

Key theory 5 - Jean Baudrillard - Postmodernism

'Hyperreality is a representation that is more real than the 'thing' that it is representing. We live in a world that is bombarded with images, and therefore it is impossible to differentiate between what is real and what is not real.'

Theories of Representation - How are different groups represented in media products?

Key theory 6 - Stuart Hall - Theories of representation

Representation is a re-presentation. They are reconstructions through media language of reality, that can help to inform it.  

You are not seeing a man, a woman, a vampire, etc in a media text. These are reconstructions.

Negative stereotypical representations have been known to reinforce and cultivate the ways in which people behave. 

Key theory 7 - David Gauntlet - Theories of identity

'Audiences can construct their own identities through media products.'

Key theory 8 - Lisbet Van Zoonen - Feminist theory

Men's bodies and women's bodies are encoded in completely differents in media products. Constructed via media language.  Women's bodies are used as a spectacle to sell media products. 

Key theory 9 - bell hooks - Feminist theory

 Feminism is for everyone, not just for those that identify as women. The concept is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women.

Race, class, ethnicity and gender all affect how an individual is represented.

Key theory 10 - Judith Butler - Theories of gender performativity

'Gender is a performance, and we act it out every day.' This performance is shaped through hegemonic expectations. Sex and gender are two separate concepts.

Gender performativity refers to how our gender performance influences and shapes the world around us.

Key theory 11 - Paul Gilroy- Theories around ethnicity and post-colonial theory

After the death of colonialism, the UK is still in a state of anxiety. 

We (The United Kingdom) still have many subtle and not so subtle racial prejudices in our society, which are deeply rooted in our colonial past.

In media products, white and non-white people are often depicted as binary, the same and the other.

Key theory 12 - Curran and Seaton - Power and media industries

 The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by profit and power. This leads to an inferior and repetitive product. (Think Rupert Murdoch.)

Key theory 13 - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt - Regulation 

Due to digitally convergent technologies made possible by the internet, it is now impossible to effectively regulate any media industry.

Large media conglomerates in particular will actively avoid forms of regulation where they can.