The Theories

Original Note Bulletins About Certain Theorists. 

Levi Strauss (1958)

Levi Strauss's theory is based upon binary opposites. This theory describes how we expect before we know, for example the stereotypical tale of a protagonist and an antagonist. The binary opposite theory helps create a narrative in a story. Some examples of binary opposites are;

This theory can be applied to my work if I over exaggerated my narrative and included some humour. This is because my popular vs geek stereotypical story is a binary opposite. This is common shown in films such as Minutemen the disney film and The Cinderella Story featuring Hilary Duff. The shy or 'geeky' girl or boy is seen to be incapable of grasping the attention of the more popular binary opposite in the couple but kindle together at the end in either a clash or a couple. This is visible in my narrative as my shy actress is seen to be the one wanting the attention from the male actor who is going to be playing the prince charming character. The opposite would be more visible in my music video if I chose more stereotypical costume and shown them in their environments before doing the main section of the music video. 

Laura Mulvey (1975)


The Hypodermic Needle Theory 

 The Hypodermic Needle Theory can be applied to my work in a sense but not by the media such as news reports. This is because for my structure and narrative behind my video there is a source that is seen to be injected through stereotypes. My video is stereotypically the fairytale ending, what children are known to through television stories and through children's books. The tale is made clear, there is possibly a conflict but the prince and princess meet in the end. I produced my narrative like this so that it is relatable to all ages, adults know of the structure through their childhoods and children are experiencing it now. The theory shows that information is given to people through mass media and is injected into their heads, the peoples choice theory by Lazarsfeld in 1940 is more applicable to my narrative due to the fact that people can pick and choose what they believe and this has been a people's choice debate for some time on the subject. As children grow older some choose to not believe that love or attraction can work like that never the less some still do and say it has happened by experience. Can love be portrayed like that in real life or is it just in storybooks and television which is set up?

Tessa Perkins (1979) - Stereotyping

Tessa Perkins 1979 by laurenmabs on GoAnimate



Stuart Hall (1980) - Reception Theory

This theory is an active audience theory unlike hypodermic which is a passive audience this is an active. It sees the audience being actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts rather than as passive consumers. Individuals receive and interpret texts in different ways.

This theory demonstrates that even though one message is sent out that not one understanding is made from the text. This theory allows for the media text to be consumed individually and takes in to consideration the meaning of a text and the relationship an individual may understand from this in relation to sociological factors.

-       People can have different opinions but neither is right or wrong. Active, everybody can judge.

  Here is a video which included Stuart Hall presenting his representation theory further;

Semiotics (Encoding - denotation and Decoding - connotation)

Decoding is our interpretation
Encoding is the source that the media is within i.e. newspapers etc.

Media texts are encoded by the producer. These texts are full of ideologies values and messages. The text is decoded by an audience and they respond to the text in the same way. In some cases not how the producer intended.
Lady Gaga dress – management encoded a message to the audience by a statement (the dress) this is called a preferred reading. The audience decode it differently therefore when it is not understood this is when conflict can begin, the message is ineffective.

Hall identified 3 different types of audience readings or decoding of the text

·       Dominant or preferred – agreed, products is doing what it’s doing.

·       Negotiated – agree with some of it but not all of it. It is a compromise between dominant and oppositional.

·       Oppositional – don’t agree with it at all.

How can our understanding be determined? These are the factors whether we take the dominant, oppositional or negotiated reading.

·       Life experience – older and wiser?

·       Mood at the time of viewing – If upset, mad or angry there won’t be as good of a connection between the audience and the viewer like usual.

·       Age – Relatable subject due to age i.e. television programmes

·       Culture – Cultures have different opinions on things

·       Beliefs - certain beliefs, i.e. religion etc. More open or closed mind upon a subject.

·       Gender – Perceives things differently

   

    John Berger / Ways of Seeing (1972) 

John Berger has grown up in a modernist society. He analyses the manner in which men and woman are culturally represented. ‘Men act, women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.’ His theory goes hand in hand with Laura Mulvey's the male gaze. 

Women are usually posed in a way to please the viewer, her gaze is meant to entice the viewer. This is the same in modern day adverts. Berger studies that women unconsciously act in a way knowing they are being watched. This theory is an in depth look on art, the way people view it and influences that traditional paintings have had on society and modern day publicity.

Berger states that “women were depicted in a different way to men – because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the images of the woman is designed to flatter him.”

Jib Fowles states, "In advertising, males gaze and females are gazed at." (Fowles, 1996)

This theory relates to my work in that the female is dressed in a way that could attract the male. She tries to get attention from the male throughout the video. She is never shown looking bad, with no make up on, messy hair, bad clothes etc. She is only shown looking smart.

John Berger by laurenmabs on GoAnimate



Blumler and Katz 

Uses and gratifications model 1974 
Theory taught lesson notes.

•The 'Uses and Gratifications' model represented a change in thinking, as researchers began to describe the effects of the media from the point of view of audiences.

•The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch the television programmes that we do, why we bother to read newspapers, why we find ourselves so compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap.

•Blumler & Katz (1974) argued that audience needs have social and psychological origins which generate certain expectations about the mass media, leading to differential patterns of media exposure which result in both the gratification of needs and in other (often unintended) consequences. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices.

The Model Explained

The underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated by a desire to fulfil, or gratify certain needs. So rather than asking how the media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.

•The model is broken down into four different needs.

-Surveillance

-Personal Identity

-Personal Relationships

-Diversion

Surveillance 

The surveillance need is based around the idea that people feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world around them.

The surveillance model is all about awareness. We use the mass media to be more aware of the world, gratifying a desire for knowledge and security.

We can associate to the dominant messages of conforming via the dominant ideologies given in media texts such as music videos.

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0CazRHB0so (like lilly Allen ‘taking the mick’ out of Miley Cyrus) its current and discussing topics around us in the music industry and media world.

Personal Identity

•The personal identity need explains how being a subject of the media allows us to reaffirm the identity and positioning of ourselves within society.

•The use of the media for forming personal identity can be seen in music videos/films. Pop stars can often become big role models, inspiring young children everywhere (which is why there's such an outcry when one of them does something wrong).

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahha3Cqe_fk personal identity the one that got away Katie Perry

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2FRPA3Gf8 out cry Miley Cyrus 

Personal Relationships

We can form a relationship with the media, and also use the media to form a relationship with others.

Many people use the television as a form of companionship. This may seem sad, but think about how many times you've watched the TV on your own, or with other people but sitting in silence. The television is often quite an intimate experience, and by watching the same people on a regular basis we can often feel very close to them, as if we even know them. When presenters or characters in a soap die, those who have watched that person a lot often grieve for the character, as if they have lost a friend.

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSjIz8oQuko (family portrait) pink and how her albums tell the story of her life via music/videos

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJfFZqTlWrQ (so what)

The more we watch the same personalities, the more we feel we get to know them. Reality TV shows such as Big Brother give us such a feeling of intimacy with the participants that they can become part of our lives. Even though the relationship is completely one-sided, it's easy to see how we can fall in love with TV personalities.

Using the Media Within Relationships

Another aspect to the personal relationships model is how we can sometimes use the media as a

springboard to form and build upon relationships with real people.

Having a favourite TV programme in common can often be the start of a conversation, and can even

make talking to strangers that much easier.

Some studies suggest that some families use sitting around watching the television as a stimulus for

conversation, talking to each other about the programme or related anecdotes while it is on.

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzS0fLhL2Wc lady gagas x factor performance (I think we even discussed it at some point) 

Diversion

The diversion need describes what's commonly termed as escapism - watching the television so we can forget about our own lives and problems for a while and think about something else.

We watch music videos to take our mind of our every day lives, we want to distract our self from the problems we are experiencing. We want to see that people experience the same feelings as we do and want to forget about our own problems and focus on some one else's.

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPj6CMjUrDU Leona Lewis happy

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHp2KgyQUFk best thing you never had Beyonce.

Criticisms

The researcher Ien Ang also criticised uses and gratifications approach in such three aspects:

It is highly individualistic, taking into account only the individual psychological gratification derived from individual media use. The social context of the media use tends to be ignored. This overlooks the fact that some media use may have nothing to do with the pursuit of gratification - it may be forced upon us for example.

There is relatively little attention paid to media content, researchers attending to why people use the media, but less to what meanings they actually get out of their media use.

The approach starts from the view that the media are always functional to people and may thus implicitly offer a justification for the way the media are currently organized.

Richard Dyer 
Richard Dyer Studied the representation in media and looked at how media texts represent themselves to society and an audience. He closely studied the ideological and historical significance of film stars however generalised in the media. 

'How we are seen determines how we are treated, how we are treated, how we treat others is based on how we see them. How we see them comes from representation.' (Dyer 1983)

He created a set of questions that are considered when studying representations:

- What sense of the world is it making?

-What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or deviant (unusual/different)?

- Who is it speaking to? For whom? To Whom?

- What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to the representation?

Without media we wouldn't have ideology or personalities we do today because of the lack of influence there would be today because of the lack of influence there would be, for example parents and your understanding and point of view as their child. Without representational texts we have no message. Texts would not be able to translate a narrative to an audience.

Moral panic theory (Folk Devils) - Stanley Cohen (1972)

The term 'moral panic' is understood as: A moral panic can be recognised in the intensity of feeling expressed by a large number of people about a specific group of people who appear to threaten the social order at a given time. These people become ‘folk-devils', about whom 'something needs to be done'. This 'something' usually takes the form of increased social control, which might mean stricter laws, longer sentences, heavier fines and increased policing of specific areas. After the imposition of these new controls, the panic subsides until a new one emerges. It's nature is influenced by stereotypes with the mass media. 

Moral panic begins when there is a projection of fears that surround a particular story or type of people. The media heavily influences and fuels these panics via film, TV, the news, radio and any other media means. Here the media  stereotype and assumes the worst in relation to the panic ad makes the consumer anxious with a recent real life example being the London riots in 2011, with the press over emphasising events or focusing solely on the negative.

Stanley Cohen based his initial research on the 'mods' and the 'rockers' and the conflict between these groups of teenagers in the 60's. Here teenagers where causing mass panic due to the differences between the mods and rockers as numerous fights were recorded were a final big fight broke out of control on Brighton beach. However the theory developed and can be applied to a number of any subculture labelled as deviant or dangerous by the media. In terms of his findings, Cohen looked at how these 'mods' and 'rockers' were perceived in the public eye.The main criticism was that these people were seen to be as a threat to law and order largely through the way the mass media represented them and this is known as 'control culture'.

Moral panics start with a story published or made aware of by the media when there are a projection of fears that surround a particular story or type of people. The stereotype we know the media as being is the stir of the situation. The media over emphasise everything to do with the news story therefore it is built up. The media did this for example with the London Riots, the media over played footage people had digitally recorded and sent in repeatedly to scare the audience and the public. As the media heavily influence, they are able to do so through a range of mediums such as; film, television, radio and other forms. 

Cohen based his initial research on the 'mods and rockers'. The conflicting groups of teenagers in the 1960's.

Mods and rockers are two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early to mid 1960s. Media coverage of mods and rockers fighting in 1964 sparked a moral panic about British youths and the two groups became labeled as folk devils. Rival gangs – 1960. Parker coats vs. leather jackets etc.
Moral Panic – The media blew it out of proportion. Mods images were destroyed, as they were clean cut and shouldn’t have been fighting. It became commercialized.

Quadrophenia

Quadrophenia is a film based upon this conflict at Brighton pier. The fights, the conflict, and the film reflects the controversy. The main character of the film however is a mod; it could be bias, would it look better on the mods than the rockers? 

- Youth in the film and film notes from lesson - 

Youth is represented as uncontrollable, dangerous and violent. (Go to extremes to show their ideology and reputation) Tessa Perkins theory – a stereotype within a stereotype.
Recent activity in Britain such as the London riots. Adults are afraid of youth, fish tank, she was forced to grow up and now in Quadrophenia they are role reversed, they are shown as young children.
The representation of youth in the 60s has stuck slightly; there is influence on gangs, groups of people and standing by beliefs, which can cause a lot of bother. Teens are perceived now in this way due to stereotypes that have been made.
Moral Panics relate to this theory because of the media. The media relate to this, which triggers other groups such as these in places other than Brighton to act out. They over exaggerate the violence therefore it gets other people worried and scared across the country.
- Clockwork Orange murders related when it has nothing to do with it. Linking it to it and its making it out to be the reasoning behind it; moral panic starts. It is the same in terms of Quadrophenia. Man on DVD said it wasn’t that bad in reality compared to media. The media pick and chose because adults actions could influence the youth to do it therefore they are never focused on. Power – Marxism.

Youth in this film has created a stereotype for people today/encouraged them to conform to this stereotype because people have always felt wanted, needed. Youth in general is a battlefield for jealousy, competition and to be accepted. Feeling part of a group has gotten people in a lot of trouble but also has gotten 

Findings of his theory

He looked at how these ‘mods’ and ‘rockers’ were perceived in the public eye.

The main criticism was that these people were seen to be as a threat to law and order largely through the what the mass media represented them this is known as ‘control culture’. This type of media representation is known as sensationalisation.

The press started to sensationalise the film A Clockwork Orange and started to report a series of copy cat crimes taken from the film. The media reported stories and focused on how the film was having huge negative impact on society. The film represented youth in a negative way and the term 'a clockwork orange' became a euphemism for a negative outlook on crime. The impact of this film and the sensationalism surrounding it can be highlighted by the fact that the media still refers to it in present news.

Moral panics were originally created from the effects films had on groups of teenagers and encouraging social deviance. Cohen reported on the sensationalist headlines that were reporting incidents of violence that teenagers were involved in; deviancy amplification. The youth at the time did not seem to feel like they were being encouraged by the violence however they did identify with some of the representations in which the life they lived.

Deviancy amplification Definition

- The process by which the amount or seriousness of deviancy is increased through the reporting of it and the subsequent actions which are taken by the police or other agencies and response by ‘deviants'. What is amplified is the reported deviance, the social reaction and the actual deviance that results from this.

Marxism - Karl Marx (1867)

Marxism derived from the political and social ideologies written by Karl Marx in the 1867 book Das Kapital. Since Marx's death in 1883 his ideas and work have been expanded by others so the modern Marxism is more than the work of Karl Marx. 

One of Marx's core ideas about society was that all societies have an economic base. This is seen to be the central core and focus of any society. 

In western cultures this economic base is essentially capitalise. The whole system is based on the pursuit of wealth. The problem is that this does not benefit all, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer in this type of system. It leads to a high scale of social inequality. 

Marx sees a capitalist society as a split society. Those who control or have power are called the bourgeoisie. Those who do not and who have to sell their labour for minimal pay and often no sure of the profit are called the proletariat. 

He saw that the exotic base supported a super structure. The institutions that exist in a society such as those linked to the law, education, politics and the media. These are shaped by the economic base and exist to support, serve and legitimise the base to society. They partly exist to convince people that the way the country works is the right way.

The bourgeoise in any society are outnumbered by the proletariat, therefore things such as the Russian Revolution happened where people rose up and overthrew their masters.

Marx's theory about this was that elements of the superstructure, like the media, were used to brainwash the proletariat into seeing the current set-up as natural and right.

The media amongst other elements, created a sense of false consciousness, a fake view that the world is exactly as it should be. This view reassures the proletariat and stops them feeling that anything should be done about their lot. They are rendered unaware of the true nature of their exploitation and the unfairness of the system they live in. 

It becomes the objective of the most powerful ruling group to stay in power, to preserve their privileged position. It is for this reason that they use the media and other elements of the superstructure to try and get others to agree to keep society the way it is.

Many think that Karl Marx theory is still relevant to todays society although it was created in 1883. Although it is true that many capitalist societies have seen changes that may affect some of Marx's original ideas:

- Poverty today in the UK is much less than it was when Marx write his treatise. He gained many of his idea to write the treatise during a sojourn in Manchester, therefore maybe divisions are less stark although people consider how much some bankers and footballers earn.

- Big companies are less likely to be owned by a few private individuals but often belong to shareholders who may well be workers from a variety of backgrounds.

- The internet is allowing gore people to work for themselves.

How does marxism apply to media texts?

- You can look at who owns a media production and who benefits the most financially

- Texts can be examined to see if they promote ideologies that support the ruling classes/ the status quo. Is it being used to exert hegemonic control. What ideologies are being pushed? Who do they benefit?

- Do texts naturalise inequality between groups based on power?

Are men privileged over women? White groups over other cultures? Capitalism over any other economic system and values?

Are media texts produced just like any other product in the capitalist system, for maximum profit? They need for efficient mass production may lead to a formula approach to media creation, weakening elements of creativity and imagination. Some Marxist critics, like Theodore Adorno, saw capitalist media systems as antithetical to the production of 'good' and valuable culture. Some products will never get made as they are unlikely to yield a profit.

Klapper 

Tim O'Sullivan (1998)

"Ideology refers to a set of ideas which produces a partial and selective view of reality. Ideology involves widely held ideas or beliefs which are seen as ‘common’ sense and become accepted by society. It helps us to make judgements about the world and the different views people have within it." - wikepedia

Tim O'Sullivan created the term ideology. Ideology involves a widely held ideas or beliefs which are seen as 'common' sense and becomes accepted by society. Ideology helps us to make judgments about the world and the different views people have within it. It can also be argued, and is one mechanism by which a ruling group tries to deceive and control the ruled.

Ideology, it can be argued, is one mechanism by which a ruling group tries to deceive and control the ruled.

It implies that a powerful group can choose how and what messages are leaked to the media and that society view these people in certain ways because if expectations.

Because of Ideology we have ideas about the world that we live in. Because the media is so powerful it can control what and how ideas are portrayed to an audience/consumer. This also relates to the hypodermic needle theory. The more powerful you are in society the more control you have over how messages are given to an audience.

What is important is that, in marxism terms, the medias role may be seen as:

- Circulating and reinforcing dominant ideologies

- Less frequently undermining and challenging these ideologies