Theories and a glossary to help with your exam

 You'll all be getting a copy of this in the lesson on Monday but I'm also putting it on the blog as a reference point for those of you who 'misplace' things. We have looked at these theories and key words over the last two years but it seems that some of you still need a hand remembering them and being able to apply them to your representation case studies.  

It is important to be following the news and current issues and debates at the same time as learning these theories. The nature of media is that it is always changing - a new issue about your case study could come up at any time! The examiners love to see you mention contemporary issues which shows that you truly do study the media and have given your case study some real thought.

Your section B answer should be a 'sophisticated and comprehensive discussion and evaluation' of your case study. It is impossible to do that if you have only looked at two or three media products!

Theories you need to know!

FUNCTIONALISTS

Believe that the media has a useful and important purpose in people’s lives and that we NEED it. For example:

They believe that it is important to feel as though you belong to a community and to have a national identity. Durkheim believes it is very important to feel a sense of national identity to keep a community going.

Blumler & Katz were functionalists that came up with the “Uses & Gratifications Theory” which states that the media has different functions and uses for audiences.  They think that audiences need different types of media for information, entertainment, escape, identification and social interaction

Richard Dyer’s Utopian solutions theory

He believes that an audience will enjoy a text if it offers them a glimpse of a “utopian” perfect life and if it offers them solutions to particular problems they have.  For example audiences suffering from boredom will need products offering entertainment.  Audiences suffering from isolation will seek out a text that offers them a sense of community

MARXISTS Believe that the media is used to deliberately manipulate an audience into believing specific things.  They think it is a BAD thing because they think we are being duped.  Believe that audiences are passive, and that we are manipulated and the media affects our behaviour and our beliefs about what it is to be British. Karl Marx believed that the ruling class dominates the working class.  And they believe that as the majority of film production companies are large, commercial and run by ruling classes, they tend to perpetuate the dominant ideology to exert hegemonic control over the working classes to create a “false consciousness” where working class people are convinced that society is good and their lives are fine the way they are.  The Marxist group the FRANKFURT SCHOOL came up with the idea of the “HYPODERMIC SYRINGE MODEL” often also known as the “MEDIA EFFECTS THEORY”.  This is a theory which states that the media is like a needle injecting its message into the audience and that all audiences get the same message.  The audience is powerless to resist this message and they are directly influenced by it.

NEO MARXISTS Stuart Hall is a “neo Marxist” who believes that although the media TRIES to manipulate and control audiences, audiences might NOT automatically believe or accept what they see.  He believes that audiences take either a preferred, oppositional or negotiated reading of a text.  He says the way people interpret the media depends on their cultural background and personality He believes that the more a specific representation is repeated in the media, the more it becomes “naturalised” and it can lead to politically constructed representations seeming like “a common sense”. He also believes that the media tends to construct society rather than reflect it.

DANIEL CHANDLER’S CAGE THEORY He believes that our sense of identity is made up of 4 main aspects which he nicknames the “CAGE THEORY”.  This consists of Class, Age, Gender and Ethnicity.  He believes the media’s portrayal of these 4 aspects affects how we feel about our own identity. Also agrees with Stuart Hall and thinks that representations which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel 'natural' and unmediated

PLURALISTS Believe that media only reflects what audiences want and that if it didn’t do this, film companies would go out of business. They admit that some representations  are more common, but that this is just because those beliefs already exist in society so films have to reflect them

POSTMODERNISTS Believe that culture is so diverse now that class, gender, ethnicity and age don’t really define who we are.  They don’t think there is a big class divide (or any other divide for that matter) and they believe that audiences are diverse and varied. They don’t believe that having a “National Identity” is possible anymore because Britain is such a diverse place and we are now all so different.  Some postmodernists think that globalisation has led to us being “Americanised” and not having any real sense of national identity.  They think that all around the world people are losing their sense of national identity because of this and that we live in a state of “cultural homogeneity” where all the cultures are virtually the same. Baudrillard also thinks that in this day and age where we are bombarded with media, we often start to accept media as reality without looking at the real world.  He thinks that we prefer the “created” version of reality as it is often more glamourous and entertaining.  He calls this a “hyper-reality”.

SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORISTS (Tajfel and Turner) They believe that there is “intergroup discrimination” where audiences enjoy seeing representations of others, that make them feel that they as an audience are better and of a higher status.  They think that audience strive to see themselves as successful and positive and actively seek out products that make them feel assured of their own status.

STANLEY COHEN – MORAL PANICS He believed that occasionally in society there would be panics where the majority of people would be utterly convinced that certain groups in society were going to disrupt society and cause problems.  For example he believes that after 9/11 there was a moral panic involving muslims where ALL muslims were seen as terrorists.  He believes that the media often starts these moral panics and makes them worse.

DAVID GAUNTLETT Thinks the idea that the media affects the way we behave is rubbish.  He studies the Frankfurt schools Media Effects theory and contradicts all of its ideas.  He thinks we: Shouldn’t blame the media for issues that already exist in society Shouldn’t assume the audience is passive and naive Shouldn’t believe the Frankfurt School’s research as it was conducted in an artificial way and there’s no real way we  could ever find out the real effect media has on society Shouldn’t assume that there will only be negative results from consuming a media text.  Sometimes a media text that contains negative issues has a positive repercussion on the audience Believes that we use the “media as navigation points for developing our own identities”. Believes that the media “disseminates a huge number of messages about identity and acceptable forms of self-expression, gender, sexuality and lifestyle.”

JACQUES LACAN – MIRROR STAGE THEORY Lacan carried out research with children and animals using mirrors and discovered that humans reach an age where they are able to recognise their own reflection and that people were able to develop a sense of their own self by examining their reflections

Samantha Lay She thinks that “Film is by and large a commercial medium rather than an educational tool”

Marshall McLuhan “All media exists to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.”

Walt Disney “Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.”

Kathryn Woodward ‘Identities are produced, consumed and regulated within culture – creating meanings through symbolic systems of representation about the identity positions which we might adopt’

www.newinfluencer.com Mass media plays a significant role in the transmission and maintenance of cultural identity, through a repetitive display of cultural norms and values which eventually become seen as simple ‘truths’

Gary Giddens Believes that “mediated experiences make us reflect upon and rethink our own self-narrative in relation to others.”

GLOSSARY OF KEY WORDS

TERMINOLOGY

Higher levels (all of the below, PLUS these ones) Hegemony – The dominance of the ruling class over the working classes Marginalisation – when a group of people are made to seem less important than another Cultural Homogenisation – the process by which culture becomes less unique and becomes more like other cultures Verisimilitude – the “realness” of something, how truthful it is Iconography – images that “mean” something or represent something.  Eg films show British cultural iconography such as black taxis, red buses etc

B/C words (all of the below, PLUS these ones) Dominant Ideology – The commonly held belief within a society about something.  Mediation – an exchange of ideas between the film makers and the audiences Selective Construction – a representation that has been chosen specifically to communicate something, deliberately choosing some aspects and leaving out others. Propaganda – a representation that has been designed to specifically influence an audience, normally to communicate a political message to an audience False Consciousness – A state of mind that audiences sometimes are in where they are not in touch with reality. Demographic – specific section of audience eg young, british male working class audiences Polarised nation – a country that has two extreme opposites of society that do not mix, and often clash Binary Opposites – two very opposite things eg black / white or upper class / working class Social Gulf – A large gap between groups in society Americanisation – the increasing influence of American culture on other cultures Globalisation – the increased global connections between cultures around the world leading to less individual cultures and instead having one large culture across the globe Aspirational – Something that makes people “aspire” or “want” to be better or different than they are.  For example, escapist films are seen as aspirational as audiences want to live like the main characters

Words you should all be able to use Identity – the elements that make up who we are Culture – shared identities, values and beliefs between members of the same community National Identity – shared feelings of identity between people from the same country Representation – the way something is shown Social Realism – a style of film marking which is designed to be “realistic” and gritty, often centred around the working classes Mainstream – something that is considered to be popular Mass-market – something that is considered to be popular Niche – something that is considered to be popular only to a small number of people or a certain type of person Commercial – something that is popular, and makes profit Target Audience – the type of people who the programme or film is made for Working class – people who work for a living, who earn a limited amount of money, often in manual labour jobs Middle Class – people who may or may not work for a living, who earn what is generally considered to be enough money to be comfortable, often in more senior jobs such as doctors or teachers Upper class – people who may not need to work for a living, who earn a high amount of money, who have senior positions in society eg MP’s, lords, ladies, kings etc Underclass – people who are considered lower than working class, may be unemployed, students, pensioners, on benefits Escape – to leave reality and be in a fantasy world Entertainment – something designed to entertain, amuse and interest people Identification – the ability for people to recognise their own lives in a text Film Industry – everything that is part of the businesses that make films eg film companies, audiences, directors, cinemas etc..  The film industry revolves around making money Film Institutions – Companies that make films Realistic – something that is truthful or “real” Unrealistic – something that is not truthful or “real” Fictional – something that is made up, not based on reality