(in workbook) *insert photo*
Stuart Hall- Hall’s work covers issues of hegemony and cultural studies taking a post-Gramscian stance. He regards language-use as operating within a framework of power, institutions and politics/economics. This view presents people as producers and consumers of culture at the same time. (Hegemony, in Gramscian theory, refers to the socio-cultural production of “consent” and “coercion”.)
For Hall, culture was not something to simply appreciate or study, but a “critical site of social action and intervention, where power relations are both established and potentially unsettled”.
hegemony- leadership and dominance
In Gramsci’s view, a class cannot dominate in modern conditions by merely advancing its own narrow economic interests
active audience
3 different ways of reading
He created the reception theory which was ‘what we see is simply a ‘re-presentation’ of what producers want us to see.’
George Gerbner
Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory: A key theoretical debate is the extent to which the media influence our ideas and opinions. In the first instance, RECEPTION THEORY (developed by George Gerbner based around research on TV viewing) suggests that exposure to reinforced messages will influence our ideas, attitudes and beliefs.
The George Gerbner Model of Communication is an extension of Lasswel’s communication model. Gerbner’s model consists of a verbal aspect, where someone observes an event and gives feedback about the situation, and a schematic model where someone perceives an event and sends messages to the sender.
“You know, who tells the stories of a culture really governs human behaviour. It used to be the parent, the school, the church, the community. Now it’s a handful of global conglomerates that have nothing to tell, but a great deal to sell.”- Gerbner
Passive audience
Mainstream: Mainstreaming is the view that people’s life experiences may moderate the cultivation effect
mean world syndrome: the belief that the world is more violent and brutal than it really is. the effect that depictions of violence can have on the perceptions of those who view them
David Gauntlet
Gauntlett believes that while everyone is an individual, people tend to exist within larger groups who are similar to them. He thinks the media do not create identities, but just reflect them instead. “Identity is complicated; everyone’s got one.”
Pick and Mix theory: it allows audiences to pick which aspects of a text they want to construct their identity, whole leaving other bits well alone
Fluidity of identity, constructed identity, negotiated identity, collective identity.
He assumed there was a generational divide in attitudes towards gender roles, but older people were less likely to be exposed to the new liberal representations of masculinity and femininity. He also wondered if this younger demographic would “grow up to be the narrow-minded traditionalists of the future”.