Representation theory

Liesbet Van Zoonen

Bell Hooks

Judith Butler

Feminism:

- Started through Suffragette movement which fought for the vote for women. 

- First Wave - 19th and early 20th century UK & US - improved rights for women in marriage and property. 1918 = Women over 30 owning property could vote. 1928 = All women could vote. 

- Sex equality act was not passed until 1975.

- Second Wave - 1960s and 1970s - extended the fight beyond political rights to education, work and the home. In 'The Feminine Mystique' (1983), Betty Freiden argues women were restricted to role of housewife and mother, giving up on work and education. 

- Third Wave - 1990s to present - widened feminist movement to all women (Race, ethnicity, Class).

Laura Mulvey - 'The male gaze' 1975 - Majority of films are viewed from perspective of a heterosexual male. 

- Key words = Voyeurism (Practice of obtaining sexual gratification from observing others), Fetishism and Objectification (Degrading someone to object).

Todorov - Narratology

The idea that every story has the same pattern;

1) Equilibrium - Where everything is happy and good

2) Disruption - A problem occurs

3) Recognition - The main character realizes the problem

4) Repair - The character begins to fix the situation

5) New Equilibrium - The character has a new, better equilibrium - their life is better after the journey

Jean Baudrillard - Postmodernism

The idea that in a postmodern culture, the boundaries between the 'real' world and the world of the media have collapsed and that it is no longer possible to distinguish between reality and simulation.

The idea that in a postmodern age of simulacra we are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything 'real.'

The idea that media images have come to seem more 'real' than the reality they supposedly represent (hyper reality).

Postmodernism = After modernism

Modernity was serious

Post-modernity has a sense of humor and irony

In media:

- Intertextuality is post modern

- Self-referential = Breaks the 4th wall

- Style over substance - looks good rather than has depth

- Fragmentation of time and space and personal identity and temporality = Future is bad.

- Copying, pastiche or homage - recreation 

- Irony

Clay Shirky

Participatory media = Social media
Citizen Journalism - Different angles, inside POV, Helps news, witnesses
Online news have more revenue than print news - Can be erroneously reported (fake/exaggerated)

Shirky: How social media can make history.
- Largest increase in expressive capability - Everyone has a voice
- Printing press made mass media capable
- Telephones - More conversation
- Other recorded media (Photos)
- Radio and TV
- Internet - Individual and group conversations at the same time.
- Telephones = One to one whereas Tv= One to group
- Everyone can be a producer
- Prosumer = Producer and consumer

News Values

Gatekeeping - A term which is applied to the editing and filtering process where decisions are made to let some information 'pass through' to the receiver (audience) and other information remains barred.

News Values - Galtung and Ruge:

In 1965 some media researchers analysed international news stories to find out what kind of stories came top of the news 'agenda' worldwide. Their findings led them to creating a list of 'news values' - A kind of scoring system. A story that scores highly on each news value is very likely to make the front page, or the start of a TV news bulletin.


Curran and seaton

Curran and Seaton are industry theorists. They theorised the idea that the media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the logic of profit and power. Also the idea that media concentration generally limits or inhibits variety, creativity and quality. Finally the idea that more socially diverse patterns of ownership help to create the conditions for more varied and adventurous media productions.

Overall, if we had more of a variety of media companies, we'd have more of a variety of texts.

Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura is a media theorist on audience. He states the idea that the media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly. He also states the idea that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modeling. He also says that media representations of transgressive behavior, such as violence or physical aggression, can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour.
Bandura looks at the way that media texts have a direct influence on its audience. For instance, he argues that violence is prevalent in the media and therefore, exposure in this violence in various forms enables us to perceive violence as an acceptable way to deal with situation. Bandura calls this 'modeling' behavior.

Moral panics - "the process of arousing social concern over an issue – usually the work of moral entrepreneurs and the mass media"


Hypodermic Needle theory - The idea that the media is injecting ideas into the ideas just like a hypodermic needle injects a person with liquid.

Media effects:

Marilyn Manson - On the 20th of April, 1999 there was a massacre at the Columbine High School in America. The shooters were considered to have been influenced by 'violent entertainers' such as Marilyn Manson. This had a huge effect of his career, the entertainer saying that it almost ruined his career and that he had to seek legal action against those who claimed he had influenced the criminals.

Natural born killers - Natural born killers is a movie about two lovers who become serial killers. The storyline goes on to show how they become 'tabloid-TV darlings' because they are young and attractive despite murdering 52 people. The film inspired "copy-cat killers", people who took the ideas and completed them in real life. One of the most famous copy-cat killers were two teens from Oklahoma, Ben Darras and Sarah Edmonson. They murdered one shop owner then shot and paralyzed another. Consequently, there were lawsuits made against not only the teens but also the filmmakers as they had given the inspiration for the crime.

Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall is a media theorist on audience. He states the reception theory - the idea that communication is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences.
He states 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. (you agree and believe what its telling you)
- The negotiated position: The legitimacy of the encoder's message is acknowledged in general terms, although the message is adapted of negotiated to better fit the decoder's own individual experiences or context. (You wont do what the ad says but you agree with it)
- The oppositional position: The encoder's message is understood, but the decoder disagrees with it, reading it in a contrary or oppositional way. (You completely decline what the ad offers becasue it is useless or wont work)
*encoder = producer
*decoder = audience

George Gerbner

George Gerbner is a media theorist on audience George Gerbner stated the cultivation theory - 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.

He also states that media messages aren't directly injected into the passive media audience but are built up by a series of repetition and and enforcing of the message.

Steve Neale

Steve Neale (Genre Theorist)

Steve Neale's theory is that genres are examples of repetition and difference.
He states that in order for a film to be a certain genre it must comply with that genres stereotypes and rules in order to classified in that genre. That is repetition and when he says differences he means that a film must push the rules and stereotypes in order to be individual.

Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes is a media theorist about language. He is one of the leading theorists of semiotics, the study of signs.He states that every sign have also have connotations, further meanings, that is implied. 

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 the sign.

The idea that constructed meanings can come to seem self-evident achieving the status of myth through a process of naturalisation. 

Exam Breakdown

Exam 1 = 2 hours
Exam 2 = 2 hours 

Exam 1; section A (45 marks)	Exam 1; section B   (25 marks)	Exam 2; section A  (30 marks)	Exam 2; section B  (40 marks)
Newspapers; Guardian & Daily Mail Front covers	Magazine; 2 front covers of The Big Issue Advertising & marketing 2 music videos	Film; Jungle Book 1967 & 2016 Radio; R1BS Video games; Minecraft	Mainstream television series Vs Indie television series
LIAR & Theory	Language & Representations  No theory Only 2 topics out of 3	Industries & Audiences Only 2 topics out of 3	LIAR