GCSE MEDIA THEORISTS
Roland Barthes - Semiotics
Denotation refers to what we what we actually see.
Connotation is what we usually associate the sign with.
Denotation and connotation create the signifer.
Roland Barthes - Enigma & Action Codes
Enigma Codes: Questions that are raised in a media
Text. Mysteries that audience wishes to resolve.
Action Codes: Situations that need to be overcome in order to drive a narrative forward.
Ferdinand de Saussure - Semiotics
Signs are made up of two parts:
The signifier: the physical form (what we see/hear).
The signified: the meaning of the form (what we think).
Charles Sanders Peirce - Semiotics
Peirce identified three types of signifiers: Iconic signifiers: always resemble what they signify eg. a photo, a careful sketch.
Indexical signifiers: evidence of something eg. smoke for fire, sweat for effort or footprints.
Symbolic signifiers: visual signs, linked to what they refer to, e.g. numbers, traffic lights or Morse code – a cultural understanding usually required
Stuart Hall - Representation
Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory suggests that a media product can be decoded or read in three different ways:
The Dominant Negotiated and Oppositional reading.
Vladimir Propp - Narrative
Propp proposed that narratives are driven by characters: Hero/Villain/Donor/Dispatcher/False Hero/Helper/Princess
Tzvetan Todorov - Narrative
Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages:
1. a state of equilibrium at the outset
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption
4. an attempt to repair the disruption
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium
Laura Mulvey - Representation
The Male Gaze Theory suggests that Hollywood films are merely presented to provide pleasure for men. Females are shot in a way that objectifies their bodies, which in turn makes it acceptable for women to be viewed this way by society.
Judith Butler - Representation
Female Performativity Theory suggests that Gender is “performed” or “performative”. We are not just acting it out like a performance, but actively constructing our gender as we act it out.
Nick Lacey - Genre
Lacey does not see genres as fixed but as a “repertoire of elements”; dynamic and changing over time. He breaks a text down into these five areas:
Narrative
Iconography
Character
Setting/Style
Claude Levi Strauss - Narrative
Levi Strauss - believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as he called it 'binary opposite'. He looks at opposites as a key way of structuring and driving narrative.
Steve Neale - Genre
Philosopher Steve Neale suggested that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference.
In particular, difference is essential to the economy of the genre (audiences want to see something different) but repetition is essential as part of the creation of the genre.
Neale’s ideas are based on film genre, but are applicable to any product.
Blumler and Katz – (Active) Audience
The Uses & Gratifications Theory suggests that media audiences make active choices about what media to consume in order to meet certain needs. They are:
• Personal identity – Seeing ourselves in texts. Identifying with characters and situations in order to learn more about yourself.
• Information – To learn and educate ourselves about the world that we live in.
• Entertainment – To occupy and divert our minds.
• Social interaction – To enable us to discuss media texts with others, or even as a substitute for real social interaction!
George Gerbner – (Passive) Cultivation Theory
Gerbner’s research suggests that people who are exposed regularly to media over long periods of time, change their view of the world.
For example, moderate to heavy viewers of violence-related media content are more likely to fear becoming victims of violent crime.
This can lead to Mean World Syndrome: increased depression, fear, anger, anxiety, pessimism and substance abuse,
