Media Studies Theories Compendium 2013

Key Concept Theory / Theorist Explanation

This theory proposes

that every sign and
symbol used by
humans has a certain
Semiotics and meaning and the
context that it appears
helps assign that
meaning to the
audience who receive it
This theory focuses on
Media how a audiences are
Languag led to read an image or
e symbol by the distance
between the camera
and the subject. (e.g.
the closer someone or
Proxemics something is to the
camera, the more
important that person
or object is, the further
away it is the more
important the setting or
context is)

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Key Theory / Theorist
Concept
INDUSTRIAL CONSTRAINTS
USP - UNIQUE SELLING
PROPOSITION
BRAND IDENTITY
ution Instit
Vertical Integration
Horizontal Integration
Synergy
Jonathan O’ Donnell
Value Transference
Wernick’ s Vortex of Publicity
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Explanation
All institutions are constrained by their
need to attract an audience. They are
involved in a cycle of production that feeds
itself
- a USP is a hook, or something different
that the text offers compared to other texts.
- Institutions use the concept of brand
identity as a stamp of approval and quality
on their products to attract an audience
and promote loyalty and trust to their
product.
- this is where an Institution buys a set of
companies from a different area of the
production process in one medium (e.g. a
Production, Manufacture, Distribution,
Exhibition and Consumption in Film)
- this is where an Institution buys a set of
companies from a different area of
production across a range of mediums
(e.g. a Film Production company, a radio
manufacturer, a distribution company for
Newspapers, a cinema chain for Exhibition)
- this is the cross media promotion of a
product through a range of different
mediums.
The Media manipulates in order to
establish a preferred reading
Through the advertising and marketing of a product or
service a set of messages, values and ideologies must be
communicated to the customers which makes it seem
‘cool’ compared to other brands. This might be linked to
celebrity endorsement and how ‘cool’ celebrities can lend
their ‘values’ to a brand. This is used by Institutions to
help create a more successful brand.
This theory suggests that the whole of the
media is geared towards to promoting and
selling products. So all media texts are not
only promoting themselves but also other
products through what is called ‘Levels’ of
promotional activity. (e.g. Beyonce’s new
single promotes itself, but also Beyonce’s
other songs, her film roles and also her
endorsed products like Emporio Armani’s
perfume)
Key Theory / Theorist Explanation
Concept
a set genre with continuing use of the
Single Genre same conventions (western)
a text that focuses on a particular set of
Sub Genre conventions within a specific genre (e.g.
gangster is a sub-genre of crime films)
mixture of two or more genre conventions
Hybridity (‘Minority Report’ (Spielberg, 2002) mixes
sci-fi with murder mystery)
an inventive way of mixing genres.
Unrelated genres are mixed together.
(Moulin Rouge mixes tragedy with
Postmodernism
nre Ge
Bollywood and Hollywood musicals and is
set in 1900, but uses pop songs from 1970-
90s)
a text deliberately borrows a sequence
from an existing media text. (e.g. The
Intertextuality Simpsons consistently borrows sequences
from other media texts)
a text borrows heavily from a certain genre.
Pastiche (Kill Bill uses Martial Arts genre within a
Gangster revenge storyline)
a text makes fun of certain genre
Parody/Spoof conventions (e.g. Scary Movie makes fun
of horror films)
genres come and go in cycles depending
on their success or failure. Eventually
Genre Cycle of Production genres lose their appeal and are then
replaced by new genres until they lose their
appeal and so the cycle goes on.
the knowing exposure of generic codes
and conventions. This is where a film will
make reference to the codes and
Reflexivity conventions of its own genre within the
narrative. (e.g. ‘Scream’ makes reference
to the horror conventions in the opening
sequence)

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Key Theory / Theorist Explanation
Concept
Media texts need stereotypes for
Tessa Perkins economy, a quick and easy way of
recognition for Audiences
Stereotypes help audiences make sense
Richard Dyer of the world
Stereotypes form fixed pictures in our
Walter Lipmann heads
ation esent Repr

stereotypes have a complex relationship

George Melley with reality. There is a grain of truth in
every stereotype
‘a type is any simple vivid, memorable,
easily grasped and widely recognised
Dyer (1977) characterisation in which a few traits are
foregrounded and change or
development is kept to a minimum
This Theory suggests that reality is
created by institutions and given to
audiences. This also means that reality
Constructivist can be manipulated by Institutions to
(Jean Piaget) influence audiences. Therefore
stereotypes can be used in asserting
particular beliefs and attitudes of
institutions upon audiences.
This theory suggests that reality is
objective according to each individual and
Objectivist (Ayn all the media does is represent what is
Rand) already ‘out there’. Therefore, stereotypes
are just used as a means of mass
communication and identification.

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Tessa Perkins Nine Qualifications to what seems like common sense
about stereotypes:

Theory Condition Definition

The Irish tourist board propagates a positive stereotype
Positive of Ireland. A land of friendly drinking, music, greenery
Stereotypes and 'the crack'. This stereotype also helps to sell
Guinness on St Patrick's day.
are not always
negative
You can hold a stereotype of your own social group they
don't have to be about other people. Ie We could all
use t' ee by gum Yorkshire stereotype and we may even
Own recognise people we know in parts of it - we may even
identify with it and find identity/community in it.
Certainly when I'm in the company of Southerners I
flatten mi vowels like mi cap!
Stereotypes are not necessarily all about oppressed
social groups. We can have stereotypes of High Court
Judges. (Though they are in positions of power and
Oppressed could complain if they took offence.)

Audiences and Media producers can hold a stereotype

without necessarily believing it (or all of it) We all
recognise the 'Hallo Hallo' style Frenchman but we don't
believe it. Perhaps we are more likely to believe
Hold stereotypes when we can't readily 'reality check' them
i.e. if you've never been to France and never seen a
French film or met a Frenchman maybe you're more
likely to believe the stereotype.

Not all parts of all stereotypes are false. Cowboys do

False wear hats - although the idea that they ride horses may
now be out of date, they perhaps use quads to get
around? (Perhaps the true parts make you susceptible
to believing the false parts?)

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 Tessa Perkins Nine Common sense about Stereotypes

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Tessa Perkins Nine Qualifications to what seems like common sense
about stereotypes:

Theory Condition Definition

Stereotypes are not all simple. The
example Perkins gives is of the 'dumb
Complex and blonde' she is childlike and knowing,
Simple innocent and manipulative.

Holding a stereotype and even believing all

or part of it does not necessarily make you
act in ways that oppress other social
groups. In an extreme example, an
audience might hold racist Asian
Behaviour stereotypes to be true but they are not
necessarily going to vote NF or abuse
actual Asian people.

While it is true that stereotypes often lag

behind the times that produced them, it is
not true that they are unchanging. They do
Unchanging adapt and develop as society changes
and/or audiences get bored.

Minorities Just as not all stereotypes are at the

expense of oppressed social groups neither
are they all at the expense of minorities.
We have stereotypes of men for example.

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 Tessa Perkins Nine Common sense about Stereotypes

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Key Theory / Theorist Explanation
Concept
the importance of money and
status in society and that your
CAPITALIST reputation is governed by how
much money you earn or have
promotion of mixed sex
relationships (male + female)
ies og ol Ide

and that the attraction and

HETEROSEXUAL keeping of a member of the
opposite sex helps build your
reputation in society
the promotion of males as the
dominant gender in society and
PATRIARCHAL that males should assume more
positions of power
the constant search to improve
oneself in status in society. This
is normally the realm of the
BOURGEOIS professional middle class where
your job, marriage and family
are statements of your social
success
the promotion of the family unit
and the basis of a stable society.
FAMILIAL The family unit is the building
block of society

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Key Theory / Theorist Explanation
Concept
- This is where an Institution devises a
Construction product that should appeal to a set
audience.
- This is the actual watching, listening or
Consumption buying of the product.
The Audience is split into six social grades
Advertiser Social Grades from A-F so as to help marketers target
their audience more effectively
The audience is split into 5 groups based
upon their psychological needs:
Belongers
Psychographics Emulators
Emulator-Achievers
Socially Conscious Achievers
Need Directed
This is used by marketers to target the
areas where people live when they are
targeting their audience for their products.
Geo-Demographics (e.g. is it a youthful urban audience, or a
Audience more safety conscious middle aged
suburban audience?)
Marketing These set of 14 lifestyle types are again
Theories Lifestyle Types used by marketers to help them define and
target their audience for their products
This theory has been very much linked to
how advertisers target the wants and
Maslow’ s Hierachy of Needs needs of their target audience by appealing
to them on as many Levels as the pyramid
has.
This states that audiences consume texts
in three ways
primary = we actively consume the text e.g.
cinema
Audience Consumption secondary = we are aware of the text but
Theory not actively consuming (e.g. radio in the
car)
Tertiary = we are not fully aware of the text
or actively consume it (e.g. billboard
adverts)
This is a marketing theory that uses a
AIDA Principle process of four acts to promote products
from Action, Interest, Decision, Action

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Key Theory / Theorist Explanation
Concep
t
This theory suggests that audiences only take
the meanings from the media that the Institution
Passive Audiences wants them to and do not actively seek out what
they would like to consume. They are passive to
the messages inherent in the media.
- This a theory that suggests that the media
inject values and ideas into the audience via
Hypodermic Needle Theory their texts and that people will believe those
messages, values and ideas over a long period
of time.
This theory suggests that the glamourisation of
the world the media provides allows the
Consump Audience

audiences to live out fantasy and escape the

The Safety Valve Effect
The Effects Debate
ultra violent texts could lead to
tion
mundanity of their existence. So the media
provides a ‘social service’ by allowing people to
take out their frustrations and anxieties through
the media. (e.g. the hatred and vehemence
shown towards a member of the Big Brother
House could help an audience release their
pent up anger at the TV rather than another
person).
This theory raises issues of how much media
texts influences the audience. For example ultra

violent texts could lead to the audience being

the audience being
desensitized to violence and
therefore needing a higher rate
of violence to be stimulated or
Theories
desensitized to violence and therefore needing
a higher rate of violence to be stimulated or
satisfied.

satisfied.

This theory says that audiences are well aware

Active Audiences
Audience Reception Theory
(Stuart Hall)
Uses and Gratifications Theory
of the power of the media and are able to make
judgements about their media consumption in a
media savvy way. Audiences are active in what
the do or do not want to consume. This theory is
in direct opposition to Passive Theories
Hall said that audiences choose to receive texts
one of three ways:
Preferred Meaning = we accept the Institutions
meaning
Negotiated Meaning = we accept, but not all
meanings
Oppositional Meaning = we reject all meanings
The theory states that audiences get four uses
from the media. (Personal identity, social
interaction, information and entertainment)

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Key Theory / Theorist Explanation
Concept
The theory suggest that the media
fulfills the audiences wants and
desires and presents them with a
Dyer’ s Entertainment & generic world that is far superior and
Utopia Theory more exciting than their own. (e.g.
the glitz and glamour of X-Factor is
more exhilarating than the everyday
experience of working in a factory)
This theory suggest that audiences
seek media texts that present them
with a world that is worse and more
Dyer’ s Entertainment &
depressing than their own which will
Utopia Theory Inverted
give audiences a more positive
outlook on their own world and make
them feel better.
This is where films have less effect
Audience over spectators over time and
Consumpti repeated viewings. This is linked to
on the Effects Debates where
Theories spectators become desensitised to
violence and therefore their
The Desensitisation Theory threshold becomes higher and
therefore they need more shocking
images to get an emotional
response and there films get more
violent and that has been linked to
the increase of social problems in
the last two decades
This is a theory where Institutions
repeat similar films to try and
increase their revenue, but knowing
The Law of Diminishing that the repeating of similar films will
Returns mean cheapening the brand image
of the films, but the revenue will
diminish over time, but it will be
cheaper to make

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Key Theory / Theorist Explanation
Concept
narrative is not seen as a linear structure
but a circular one. The narrative is driven
by attempts to restore the equilibrium.
Tzetvan Todorov However, the equilibrium attained at the
end of the story is not identical to the initial
equilibrium.
Vladimir Propp studied fairy takes and
recognised a set of STOCK
CHARACTERS in every story.
Vladimir Propp He also concluded that all the characters
ve ti ra ar N
could be resolved into only 8 broad
character types in the 100 tales he
analysed
Levi-Strauss claimed that stories can only
Claude Levi-Strauss exist with BINARY OPPOSITES, which are
elements that are against each other,
Roland Barthes explored how an audience
DECODES a text and outlined a list of codes
that we all use to construct meaning from a
text.
1. Enigma Code - anything that sets up a
question of a mystery
2. Action Code - actions and behaviour
in the text that are universally
Roland Barthes understood (e.g. a fist fight)
3. Semic Code - the way characters,
events, settings are ascribed meaning
by the culture making the text
4. Symbolic Code - use of binary
oppositions or psychological symbols
5. Cultural Code -codes that are
understood throughout the world
This theory was art of a movement from
the 1950s onwards that said that
Structuralism everything has a structure within art,
linguistics and literature (e.g. narrative
theories by Propp and Todorov)
This theory was a rejection of Structuralism
and said that art, linguistics and literature
doesn’t have structure (e.g. Roland Barthes
narrative codes) and that signs and
Post-Structuralism symbols are interchangeable and can be
recombined with other signs and symbols
to create new meanings.Post-Structuralism
is quite similar to Post-Modernism.

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 Wider Contexts
Wider Theory / Theorist Explanation
Context
the application of one’s own cultural norms to that
of another. Some people have accused The
American media or presented a very Americanised
Ethnocentrism view of the world, with the Western world being the
‘good guys’ and the Middle East and other
‘foreigners’ being the bad guys!
Propaganda Model- the media aims to create fear
as a tool for consuming media texts. It could be
suggested that post 9/11, the western world lives
Chomsky in fear of attack and that encourages to watch
more political thrillers and programmes that deal
with the threat of terrorism, hence increasing
revenues for those types of texts
Contextual

The Media demonises events to portray an unfair

Political

reflection. Baker was saying that the media will

always aim to project a negative view of any group
Baker in society to use Levi-Strauss’ binary opposites
theory where drama and conflict are easy ways to
engage an audience.
Mass production of texts tend to a ‘dumbing down ’
of audiences into being placated by the profit
making Capitalist model.
Adorno Adorno was saying that the media Institutions will
Theories

always simplify their texts and products so as to

appeal to the largest audience to increase their
revenue.
The dominant ideology in media products, usually
supporting white, middle class and male
Hegemony viewpoints. This is the view that the world of media
is dominated by white middle class male
viewpoints in all its texts.
the belief that the audience can dictate the content
and construction of the media (Liberal
Pluralism is the political idea that all people within
Pluralism a society have the chance to have their viewpoints
reflected, e.g. through democratic voting and
freedom of expression)
Antonio Gramsci The Media manipulate the audience into believe
that they can dictate the content and subject of
media products (pluralism) when actually the
Concession hegemonic dominant ideology is still being
presented
Theory

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Wider Theory / Theorist Explanation
Context
a theory that covers a nations wish
to expand its influence militarily or
economically over weaker nations
and culture and seeks to bring the
weaker culture under the superior
ie or e h T u xt e nt o C c iti ol P

culture of the conqueror. (e.g. The

British Empire of the 1700 and
Colonialism 1800s controlled one third of the
al

world and the British culture was

the most dominant culture in terms
of language and identity. The USA
is perceived to be the most
dominant culture in the world
today.)
this theory highlights the change in
a colonized society after the end of
al

the controlling country’s Influence.

(e,g. how the British Empire’s
colonies have developed since the
Post fall of the British Empire at the
beginning of the 20th Century). The
Colonialism theory states that colonies try to
s

look for areas of hybridity and

transculturisation between the
Empire and Colony to bring about
a new cultural identity.

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Wider Theory / Theorist Explanation
Context
The Male Gaze Theory – media texts are
constructed from a ‘male point of view’ with
Laura Mulvey emphasis on males as the dominant sex
and females as the subservient and object
of desire
‘meaning is constantly being produced in
every social environment and place’.
Woodward This suggests that the media is constantly
adapting to the social changes going on ,
rather then dictating them.
Context Sociolog

This theory states that social changes lead

to constant self evaluation of society and
Theories ical

culture. This means that the media has to

take into account sociological changes and
Anthony Giddens - cultivates (pulls together) all these changes
Cultivation Theory and then aims to represent and reflect these
changes in their texts. (e.g. the
representation of ethnicity has changed
considerably as the UK has become more
multi-cultural)
A movement that sought to focus on making
art, literature and society being progressive
rather than traditionalist. This led to the
Modernism development of Impressionist Art and also
the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud
who looked at the Individual rather than
society.
This was reaction to Modernism and sought
to bring new meanings by combining signs
and symbols from contemporary culture and
Post Modernism mixing them with cultural references from
the past to make a more dynamic and
complex way of creating new cultural
references.

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Wider Theory / Theorist Explanation
Context
This is the sociological stance of
women from the early 20th Century that
looked to bring about equal rights for
women in society.
The movement really took off in the
1960s. Radical Feminism has by its
Feminism nature sought to put women into more
powerful roles than men and aimed to
eor Th nte Co ica log cio So

bring about women’s power in society

at the expense of men.
Liberal Feminism is a less aggressive
approach which seeks equality for
women with men.
This theory was very much at the fore
of society in the 1990s where women
l

abandoned their aggressive stance on

being sexualized in society and sought
to use the typical objectification and
sexualisation of women in society as a
xt

means of power and progress. This

meant women were at ease with being
Post objectified and used the glamour of
ies

objectification as a means of wealth

Feminism and status, which lead to rise of
glamour models like Jordan. There was
also a brand of Post Feminism brought
about by ‘Girl Power’ with the Spice
girls which features a more aggressive
approach by Post Feminists, but still
allowing their objectification and
sexualisation, but as a means of power.

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