CSP’s	Theoretical Perspective	Theorists and academics that could be useful
1. Music Video: Ghost Town 2. Music Video: Letter to the Free 3. On-line Marketing: Maybeline campaign 4. Film: Chicken 5. Radio: War of the Worlds 6. Radio: Life Hacks 7. Newspaper: Daily Mail 8. Newspaper: The i 9, Advertising (print): Score + there will be 1 x unseen product (= 10 CSP’s)	> Semiotics > Genre > Narrative > Postcolonialism > Representation > Feminist Critical thinking > Liberal Free Press > Transformation of Public Sphere > PSB > Ideology > Audience theories > passive / active > reception theory / theory of preferred reading > Cultivation theory > Culture, politics, history > (Fandom / Moral Panic)	~ Barthes ~ Pierce ~ Saussure ~ Neale ~ Todorov ~ Propp ~ Levi-Strauss ~ Chatman ~ Freytag ~ Gilroy ~ Said ~ Fanon ~ Butler ~ Mulvey ~ Van Zoonen ~ Hooks ~ Habermas ~ Curran ~ Seaton ~ Livingston & Lunt ~ Hesmondhalgh ~ Gerbner ~ Hall ~ Lasswell ~ Lasarzfeld ~ Shirky ~ Jenkins ~ Giddens ~ Gauntlett ~ McDougall / Fenton

MUSIC VIDEOS

Ghost Town

Historical, political and cultural context

In 1981 Britain was in a ‘state of crisis’, the government was unpopular, unemployment was on a rise and riots were breaking out across the country. the song is described as ‘the soundtrack to an explosion of civil unrest’. the specials announced a gig promoting racial unity on the day of ‘Ghost Town’s’ release due to the riots that were caused by indiscriminate use of police stop and search powers on the black community and the murder of of a local teenager in a racist attack.

Facts

• released in June 1981
• the specials are a British band
• ghost town spent 3 weeks at number 1 in the uk top 40
• the last song recorded by the original 7 members of the specials
• label – 2 tone
• genre – reggae/two-tone
• music video filmed in London
• directed by Barney Bubbles
• won awards for song of the year and best single

Letter to the free

Facts

• released in 2016
• nominated for NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song – Contemporary
• the song/video is centered around the mass incarceration of African-Americans as a form of modern-day slavery, and is named after the 13th Amendment, which made slavery illegal except as “punishment of crime.”
• the video is in black and white which indicates it is about race and equality
• letter to the free was directed by Bradford Young
• the song was written for and used in the netflix documentary ‘The 13th’

Historical, political and cultural context

links to post colonialism and the history of the black community being oppressed and unfairly treated and prosecuted for crimes due to their race. focus on the idea of systematic racism and the US justice system – in 2018 Black males accounted for 34% of the total male prison population. it shows an ongoing problem in the USA with racial injustice and has highlighted different aspects of systematic racism and the outdated views that many people in the US still carry. Racial injustice is still a big problem in the USA and has been for many decades e.g. recent black lives matter protests have been help around the world in solidarity with members of the black community after a black many was killed by a police officer.

How they relate

both are from different time periods but focus on the same matter of racial injustice against black people, letter to the free in the US and Ghost town in the UK.

CSP’s to cover

1. Music Video: Ghost Town
2. Music Video: Letter to the Free
3. On-line Marketing: Maybeline campaign
4. Film: Chicken
5. Radio: War of the Worlds
6. Radio: Life Hacks
7. Newspaper: Daily Mail
8. Newspaper: The i
9, Advertising (print): Score
+ there will be 1 x unseen product (= 10 CSP’s)

Theoretic approaches

> Semiotics
> Genre
> Narrative
> Post-colonialism
> Representation
> Feminist Critical thinking
> Liberal Free Press
> Transformation of Public Sphere
> PSB
> Ideology
> Audience theories
> passive / active
> reception theory / theory of preferred reading
> Cultivation theory
> Culture, politics, history

Theorists

~ Barthes ~ Pierce ~ Saussure
~ Neale
~ Todorov ~ Propp ~ Levi-Strauss ~ Chatman ~ Freytag

~ Gilroy ~ Said ~ Fanon

~ Butler ~ Mulvey ~ Van Zoonen ~ Hooks

~ Habermas ~ Curran ~ Seaton ~ Livingston & Lunt ~ Hesmondhalgh

~ Gerbner ~ Hall ~ Lasswell ~ Lasarzfeld ~ Shirky ~ Jenkins

~ Giddens ~ Gauntlett

Barthes– Semiotic is a science which learns the sign, object, and its meaning, in Semiotics, there are the signifier and the signified, the signifier refers to the sign and the signified refers to the something that is signified.

Saussure– there are the signifier and the signified, the signifier refers to the sign and the signified refers to the something that is signified.

 Gilroy– argues that culture is the mode through which Black persons should aspire to liberation. (incarceration)

Barthes– He suggested texts may be ‘open’ or ‘closed’. Closed texts are those that are produced with a single, definitive meaning in mind making any interpretation from the audience inaccurate. He explored social theory, anthropology and semiotics, the science of symbols, and studied their impact on society. His work left an impression on the intellectual movements of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism.

C S Pierce– 3 Types of Signs:

Symbolic- has a random link to its object e.g. color, shapes, textures. 

Indexical- a sign that has a link to its object e.g. sounds, props.

Iconic- a sign that looks like an object e.g. sets, camera work.

Saussure- There are the signifier and the signified. The signifier is the object, the word, the image or action. The signified is the concept behind the object that is being represented

Steve Neale- States that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference. Neale states that the film and its genre is defined by two things: How much is conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes. 

Repertoire of elements – repeated features that are identical and recognisable as a specific

Hybridisation – The merging of different genres to create a sub-genre, more than one genre in a text

Todorov-  In a film or story, the power is in a state of equilibrium (balance). He believes that as the story progresses the state of equilibrium can change, giving one person more power or authority over another throughout the plot, keeping the audience entertained.

Propp- Argued that stories are character driven and that plots develop from the decisions and actions of characters and how they function in a story.

He concluded that all the characters in tales could be resolved into 7 abstract character functions:

1. The villain
2. The dispatcher
3. The helper
4. The princess or prize, and often her father
5. The donor
6. The hero 
7. The false hero

Gilroy- Believes we can still see the affects of colonialism in the media now. He also believes that ethnic minorities are often shown as powerless and weak and he believes white western people are shown as successful, powerful and important.

Butler- Gender is a social construct, it’s about how you feel and behave. Butler says gender is constructed through performance, so certain activities make you feel more masculine/feminine.

Habermas- The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.

Curran and Seaton-

1. How the media landscape has fallen under the control of a handful of global media conglomerates. 
2. costs and risks associated with the production of media products has resulted in the organisation of media companies into vertically and horizontally aligned conglomerates. 
3. Mass market news: news designed to appeal to huge readership 
4. Horizontal integration: Ownership os subsidiaries that produce similar types of products.
5. Vertical integration: Ownership os subsidiaries that enable a media producer to produce, promote and distribute products.
6. Present the view that a free press relies on a free market where individual newspapers can compete through their political stances and points of view. Analyze the ways that The i and the Daily Mail attempt to establish a distinctive identity within this free market

Hesmondhalgh- The idea of a ‘risky business’ and being hard to meet everyone’s needs. Not being able to predict if an audience will enjoy what is being created.

Gerbner- Cultivation Theory – the more you look at TV, the more you are likely to believe in the reality of the representations

Stuart Hall- Media texts are encoded by the producer meaning that whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages. The text is then decoded by the audience. Also, cultural identity is not only a matter a ‘being’ but of ‘becoming’, ‘belonging as much to the future as it does to the past’. From Hall’s perspective, identities undergo constant transformation, transcending time and space.

Lasswell- Hypodermic model- is a model of communication suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.

Giddens and Gauntlet-  Representation Theory = “it remains the case that most women and men remain somewhat constricted within particular gender roles.”

Gauntlet- Pick and Mix Theory – Audiences pick and mix what they engage with as they are active not passive.

Giddens argues that just as an individual’s autonomy is influenced by structure, structures are maintained and adapted through the exercise of agency so structuration theory attempts to understand human social behaviour by resolving the competing views of structure-agency and macro-micro perspectives.

Daily Mail vs The I:

Question:	The Daily Mail	‘The i’ Newspaper
When they were first introduced?	1896	2010
Are they part of a bigger organisational structure?	Owned by ‘Daily Mail and General Trust’, a media company chaired by Viscount Rothermere	Owner – Daily Mail (as of late November 2019)
Are they known for a particular political perspective?	Right wing – Conservative	Liberal – non biased and don’t take a specific political stance
What kind of journalism do they produce?	Gossip, inaccurate scare stories of medical and scientific research, right wing politics, entertainment	Factual stories, Broadsheet
What kind of people run the paper?	Viscount Rothermere Family Editor – Geordie Grieg (2018)	Free Press
Do they have a similar readership reach?	Circulation – 1,134,184 (February 2020)  Readership – 2.2 Million (daily)	Circulation – 221, 083 (October 2019)
Do they have a similar readership profile / target audience?	Women make up 52-55% of readers, Middle Class women, Right wing, average age of 58	General public, any age, all political views
How are they currently doing? Increasing or decreasing sales and revenue?	-During lockdown the circulation went down to 945,000 from 1.13 Million in March.  -DMGT recorded a revenue of £1.41 Billion – Pretax profit £145 million	15% decrease of sales from June 2019 – June 2020
How are they looking to embrace new media technologies?	Daily Mail Online = 2003. (11.34 million visitors daily)	Online paper free to the reader
Do they have a similar layout and design?	Tabloid format (compact page size)	Broadsheet Layout

War of the Worlds:

Episode of the American radio drama anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, directed and narrated by Orson Welles

Media Industries– War of the Worlds was broadcast byColumbia Broadcasting Company, It was broadcasted live as a halloween special at 8pm on Sunday 30 October 1938,Regulation – radio broadcasting was regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and it investigated the broadcast to see if it had broken any laws. Illustrates a passive audience and doesn’t therefore fit into the uses and gratifications theory.

• The aliens in War of the Worlds could be a metaphor for the enemies because the War of the Worlds podcast was produced in 1930s, which was when the Great Depression, the American Dust bowl and WW2 began.
• It is a radio podcast of a science fiction novel that was written by H.G Wells
• War of the Worlds radio drama had left listeners into suspended disbelief and became famous because it tricked people into believing aliens were invading Earth due to the “breaking news” style of the broadcast.
• was the 17th episode of the CBS Radio series The Mercury Theatre on Air, which was broadcast at 8 pm ET on Sunday, October 30, 1938.
• The science fiction drama was broadcasted from CBS, which is the Columbia Broadcasting System
• The radio science fiction drama was directed by Orson Welles and was adapted by Howard Koch
• It is a hybridization of the science fiction genre and the mystery genre.
• In 1938, radios were just being introduced, so it can be interpreted that War of the World was fake news to try and get more people to listen to CBS and buy radios.
• On it’s opening evening, it was estimated that around 30 million people were tuning into the broadcast and around 80% of Americans owned a radio then.

FEMINIST THEORIES…

male gaze: the act of depicting women, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer

female gaze: feminist film theoretical term representing the gaze of the female viewer,  is a response to feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey’s term “the male gaze”

patriarchy: a social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property

sexualisation: to make something sexual in character or quality or to become aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women

post-feminism: used to describe reactions against contradictions and absences in feminism, especially second-wave feminism and third-wave feminism

THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION…

dominant ideology: denotes the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society

selective representation: only showing some events/conflicts, not all, sometimes chosen based on importance, proximity to home, and viewer preference

hegemony:  the political, economic, or military predominance or control of one state over others

BAUDRILLARD…

simulacra: something that replaces reality with its representation, it is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody

simulation: the imitation of the operation of a real-world process/system over time, simulations require the use of models to represent the key characteristics/behaviours of the selected system/process

hyperreality: in semiotics and postmodernism, an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, particularly in technologically advanced postmodern societies

STUART HALL…

reception theory: the producer encodes messages and values into their media which are then decoded by the audience, split into three readings: dominant, negotiated and oppositional

GEORGE GERBNER:

cultivation theory: suggests that people who are regularly exposed to media for long periods of time are more likely to perceive the world’s social realities as they are presented by the media they consume

CLAY SHIRKY…

end of audience theory: audience behaviour has changed due to the internet and the ability for audiences to create their own content at home

LIVINGSTONE AND LUNT…

public sphere: an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, through that discussions influence political action

regulation: a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority

public interest: he welfare or well-being of the general public and society

transnational culture:  learned, transmitted socialization generated from a setting characterized by multiple participants, languages, and ethnic backgrounds

globalisation: the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide

DAVID HESMONDHALGH…

cultural industry: an economic field concerned with producing, reproducing, storing, and distributing cultural goods and services on industrial and commercial terms

conglomerate: a corporation that is made up of a number of different businesses

vertical integration: a strategy whereby a company owns or controls its suppliers, distributors or retail locations to control its value or supply chain

cultural imperialism: refers to the creation and maintenance of unequal relationships between civilisations, favouring a more powerful civilisation

ROLAND BARTHES…

signification: the act or process of signifying by signs or other symbolic means

denotation: a translation of a sign to its meaning, precisely to its literal meaning

connotation: refers to a meaning suggested or implied

myth: folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society

STEVE NEALE…

genre theory:  revolves around the ideas surrounding how we define and distinguish genres, and how we categorise films into genres based on usually conventional factors

subgenre: a subdivision of a genre of literature, music, film, etc

TZVETAN TODOROV…

narrative theory: how the narration in a story is created, 5 stages a character goes through: equilibrium, disruption, recognition repair the damage and equilibrium again

DAVID GAUNTLETT…

identity theory: while everyone is an individual, people tend to exist within larger groups who are similar to them, the media does not create identities, but instead reflects them

NOAM CHOMSKY…

5 filters: ownership, advertising, media elite, flak and common enemy

manufacturing consent: framework to analyse the functioning of the media

MEDIA EFFECTS…

uses and gratifications theory: an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs, split into 4 categories: inform, identify, entertain, escape

maslow’s hierarchy of needs: a theory of motivation which states that there are five categories of human needs: psychological needs, safety needs, love/belonging needs, esteem needs and self-actualisation needs

hypodermic model: an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver

media literacy: the practice that allows people to access, critically evaluate and create/manipulate media

moral panic: a feeling of fear spread among many people that evil threatens the well-being of society

Theories around ethnicity and postcolonial theory:

• Cultural imperialism

• Multiculturalism

• Imagined communities

• Marginalisation

• Orientalism

• Otherness (alterity).

Gilroy’s ideas and theories on ethnicity and post-colonial theory:

• Diaspora

• Double Consciousness

Postmodernism:

• Pastiche

• Bricolage

• Intertextuality

• Implosion.

Baudrillard’s ideas and theories on postmodernism:

• Simulacra

• Simulation

• Hyperreality

Feminist theories:

• Male gaze

• Voyeurism

• Patriarchy

• Sexualisation/Raunch Culture

• Post-feminism

• Female gaze.

Van Zoonen’s ideas and theories on feminist theory:

• Gender and power

• Gender as discourse.

Hooks’ ideas and theories on feminist theory:

• Intersectionality.

Theories of gender performativity:

• Sex and gender.

Butler’s ideas and theories on gender performativity:

• Gender as performativity (‘a stylised repetition of acts’)

• Gender as historical situation rather than natural fact

• Subversion.

Fandom:

• Prosumer

• Interactivity.

Jenkins’ ideas and theories on fandom:

• Participatory culture

• Textual poaching.

‘End of audience’ theories:

• Digital natives

• ‘We the media’

• Web 2.0

• Convergence

• Prosumer.

Shirky’s ideas and theories on ‘End of audience’:

• Mass amateurisation

• Cognitive surplus

Regulation as summarised by Livingstone and Lunt

• Public sphere

• Governance

• Regulation

• Public interest/PSB

• Media literacy

• Power

• Value

• Transnational culture

• Globalisation.

Cultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh

• Cultural industries

• Commodification

• Convergence

• Diversity

• Innovation

• Conglomeration

• Vertical integration

• Cultural imperialism.

Topics already covered in AS syllabus

Semiotics:

• Sign

• Signifier

• Signified

• Dominant signifier

• Icon

• Index

• Code

• Symbol

• Anchorage

• Ideology

• Paradigm

• Syntagm.

Barthes’ ideas and theories on semiotics:

• Signification

• Denotation

• Connotation

• Myth.

Genre theory as summarised by Neale

• Conventions and rules

• Sub-genre

• Hybridity

• Genres of order and integration

• ‘Genre as cultural category’.

Narratology:

• Narrative Codes

• Narration

• Diegesis

• Quest narrative

• ‘Character types’

• Causality

• Plot

• Masterplot.

Todorov’s ideas and theories on narratology:

• Narrative structure

• Equilibrium

• Disruption

• New equilibrium.

Lévi-Strauss’ ideas and theories on structuralism:

• Binary oppositions

• Mytheme

• Cultural codes

• Ideological reading

• Deconstruction

Theories of representation:

• Positive and negative stereotypes

• Countertypes

• Misrepresentation

• Selective representation

• Dominant ideology

• Constructed reality

• Hegemony

• Audience positioning.

Hall’s ideas and theories on representation:

• Encoding/decoding.

Theories of identity as summarised by Gauntlett

• Fluidity of identity

• Constructed identity

• Negotiated identity

• Collective identity

Media effects

• Uses and gratifications

• Hypodermic needle theory

• Moral panic

• Cumulation

• Media literacy.

Bandura’s ideas and theories on media effects:

• Social learning/Imitation (B. F. Skinner)

 Cultivation theory:

• Socialisation

• Standardisation

• Enculturation

• Bardic function.

Gerbner’s ideas and theories on cultivation theory:

• Cultivation differential

• Mainstreaming

• Resonance

• Mean World Index.

Reception theory:

• Agenda setting (Chomsky)

• Framing (Chomsky)

• Myth making (Barthes / Chomsky / Althusser)

• Conditions of consumption.

Hall’s ideas and theories on reception theory:

• Encoding/decoding

• Hegemonic/negotiated/oppositional.

music videos

Ghost town: The Ghost Town by The Specials, its surface is of reggae as well as ska beyond it once again there is a deeper message as it conveys a message about the lack of employment in London which lead to an economic depression.

written by Jerry Dammers by the Artists British two-tone band “The specials” which was released in 1981.

letter to the free: Letter to the free is a hip-hop song that relates to the political issue of how criminals are just modern slaves and was released in 2016. It has been nominated for an NAACP image award for the outstanding song. Letter of the free is in the album Black America Again.

The artists involved were Common and Bilal Sayeed Oliver. Bilal is an American singer-songwriter and is an independent artist who lives in New York City. He grew up in a religiously mixed household, his mother being a devout Christian and his father, a Muslim.

The significant and historical events that “Common” references is slavery and segregation for black people as he talks about the 13th amendment where slavery was abolished in 1865 but talks about how “slavery” is still here in modern-day but instead of slaves we now call them “criminals” as there is a section in the 13th amendment where you cannot have slaves unless they are criminals so Common elaborates on this in his song.

jail is modern slavery as it is a form of business where they have people to do cheap labor for them to which they sell and that why there must always be people in jail

we can apply double consciousness as it sends the message of the historical and current oppression of African Americans in modern-day as he talks bout how jail is modern slavery as it is a form of business where they have people to do cheap labor for them to which they sell and that why there must always be people in jail and that’s why they prominently pick lower class people like a-lot of African-American are. postmodernism theory we could look at is hybridization what is when two genres/forms/ideas combine together to create a new form of combined media. We should relate back to Ghost town by the specials because they use hybridization to combine ska and reggae into one medium.

Marketing and Advertising

Maybeline:

Score: 1967

white mans world

falsification of reality: of how if you use their product you will become irresistible to women as they lock around you-sexism

-Dominant ideology Are the communal and more dominant beliefs, values, morals, and ideas of a group: When considering the time sexism was common at the main ideology was men are dominant and woman are sub servant.

Film

Chicken: Chicken is an example of micro budget film making and raises issues around the role and future of national cinema as well as the viability of media products produced outside of the
mainstream for niche audiences.

100,000 pounds

consumption: special needs lead, “trailer trash”, niche, 100% “Certified Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 critic reviews.

Chicken had its world premiere on 27 June 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film had its international premiere in competition at the 2015 Busan International Film Festival, followed by screenings at the New Hampshire International Film Festival,^[2]Giffoni International Film Festival, Cine A La Vista International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Schlingel International Film Festival and Dublin International Film Festival. It eventually received a limited theatrical release in the UK on 20 May 2016.

It was then acquired by MUBI UK and had its British TV premiere on FilmFour April 2017. It received its DVD and Blu-ray release by Network on 18 September 2017.

Distribution : mubi, world premiere 27 June 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival= art over money British TV premiere on FilmFour April 2017. It received its DVD and Blu-ray release by Network on 18 September 2017.

Silver Griffoni Award for Best Film – Generation 18+ (2nd Prize) — Joe Stephenson & B Good Picture Company (Giffoni Film Festival 2016)^[9]

Scott Chamber’s performance as Richard got a Special Critic’s Circle mention (Dublin International Film Festival 2016)^[9]

Radio

War of the worlds

life hacks

Newspaper

The i

Daily Mail: the Daily Mail is a right-wing paper and is owned by  Jonathan Harmsworth, who is the 4th Viscount Rothermere the current chairman and controlling shareholder of the Daily Mail and the General Trust. The Daily Mail is a conglomerate what are powerful influential groups that own various businesses what in this case the Daily Mail owns the “I” also has operations in forty and more countries through its subsidiaries, what are smaller companies controlled by larger ones ie the Daily mail controls these, RMS, DMG Information, DMG Events, Euromoney Institutional Investor, DMG Ventures and DMG Media. the average age of the Daily Mail reader is 58 years old and is of the lower middle class. Jonathan is the great-grandson of one of the original co-founders of the Daily Mail,” Harold Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere” who was very right-wing as he supported Hitler and Nazi’s. When considering the statistics 53% of Daily Mail readers voted for the Conservative Party, compared to 21% for Labour and 17% for the Liberal Democrats so what we understand from this is is more than the majority are right-wingers, conservatives read the Dailymail. When looking at the Daily mail Let’s look at firstly Scale as the first filter of manufacturing consent in Chomsky theory in manufacturing consent, the ideology of scale is how powerful, how influential it is, For example, The “i” and the Daily Mail, The daily mail owns The “i” and when we look at the daily mail scale we can see patterns of power. The Daily Mail in 2016 made revenue of 1.6 billion pounds with 9,600 employees (in 2014) so they are quite a powerful company as they have a large number of people working for them with a high amount of revenue made. The daily mail has vertical integration what is when a production company owns the means of production, distribution and exhibition of their product, in this example newspaper, and are of the same company, because of this they will receive all of the profit. The daily mail newspaper circulates 1,158,192 copies of its newspaper.

Theories

Gilroy: Double consciousness: his ideology of Double Consciousness was inspired by W. E. B. Dubois who explores the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society for example African slaves who were brought over to America to work, his theory involves ‘Black Atlantic’ who are people who want to be both European and Black through their birthplace as well as their ethnic political constituency.

Edward Said: Orientalism: the acceptance of the West, as well as the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, mind, destiny, etc and this, relates back to Post-colonialism as it operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘ and another useful quote when consider orientalism is “the power to narrate or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”

Tztevan Todorov: 3-part structure theory: where he says there’s a beginning, middle, end to a story and has three parts to which also applies, the equilibrium where everything is balanced and good nothing, in particular, affects the story yet which then shifts into disequilibrium/Disruption as there is conflict, change, an issue that is introduced and finally finishes into resolution/new equilibrium where the story gets balanced again after the issue or change is fixed or accepted.

Claude Levi-Strauss: binary oppositions: states that we do not know what truth or meaning is but we know what it isn’t for example we know Black isn’t White, Good isn’t Bad, etc.

Chatman: Satellites and kernels where main elements of the stories that if changed, affected the story greatly are referred to as kernels, for example, the film is a sci-fi planet, whereas satellites are changeable elements of the stories that won’t affect the story too much Eg. he has a blue hat in part 1 but in part 2 changes to a black hat.

Pierce:

Saussure: then developed an approach to understanding the way in which meaning is created by detaching the signifier (the thing, the object) and the signified (the meaning).

Anthony Gidden: Giddens argues that just as an individual’s autonomy is influenced by structure, structures are maintained and adapted through the exercise of agency so structuration theory attempts to understand human social behaviour by resolving the competing views of structure-agency and macro-micro perspectives.

The structure is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available. Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices.

A macro perspective is basically looking at the bigger picture of things as a whole. A micro-perspective is taking a “deeper dive” and looking at the specifics of things.

David Gauntlets: theory of identity: Gauntlett said that rather than being zapped straight into peoples brains, media messages and idea about lifestyle and identity that appear in the media help individuals think through their sense of self and modes of expression, This can create our own identity and even influence other peoples.