semiotics –
sign = something that can stand for something else
signifier = the item of code we read
dominant signifier = the main sign in a picture, audiences eye is drawn towards
signified = A concept that is portrayed then interpreted by the audience
dominant signifier = the main sign in a picture, audiences eye is drawn towards
icon = the thing that is being represented
index = shows evidence of what is being represented
code = the system of signs that create meanings
symbol = something that can stand for something else
ideology = a body of ideas or set of beliefs that people have regarding different technologies
anchorage = words that accompany a sign and help to provide context and meaning associated with the sign
syntagym = a sequence of signs that work together to create meaning
paradigm = a set of signs that work together to create meaning
ROLAND BARTHES :
signification: the representation or conveying of media
denotation: the literal meaning of the sign
connotation: the inferred or representational meaning of the sign
myths: Something that is made up in cultural or political context
propps character types:
Stock characters
The villain
The donor
The helper
The princess
The dispatcher
The hero
The false hero
Narratology
Narrative Codes =
Narration =
Diegesis =
Quest narrative =
‘Character types’ =
Causality =
Plot =
Master plot =
Neale–
Genre
Repetition and difference
sub genres / genre hybridisation
Strauss–
Binary oppositions
encoding / decoding
Todorov–
Narrative theory
3 Part structure: Equilibrium, Disruption, New Equilibrium
plot / sub plot
ideological meanings – power of stories lie in deeper meaning
flexi narratives
CSP –
Video games
Tomb raider anniversary
Metroid
Sims free play
Advertisements
Maybelline: that boss life – social, cultural
score – historical
film
Blinded by the light
music videos
Ghost town – historical, social, political, economic, cultural
letter the free – social, political, economic, cultural
Television
No offence
The killing
Radio
Newsbeat – social, cultural
War of the worlds – historical, social, cultural
Newspaper
The daily mail – social, political, economic, cultural
The I – social, political, economic, cultural
Magazine
Men’s health
oh comely
Websites
Teen vogue
The voice
media representation
Gauntlett:
identify: constructed, fluidity, negotiated, collective
Heternormativity
Butler:
Gender as performance
Distinction: sex / gender
repeated acts
post modernism :
pastiche
bricolage
intertextuality
implosion
uses of gratification
most uses and gratifications theorists argue that audiences are active consumers of media texts – selecting products that help fulfil a range of predefined needs.
uses and gratifications theorists suggest audiences are highly aware that they are selecting products that provide those experiences
social needs: using the media to strengthen family bonds or to cultivate friendships in the real world. Media texts might be used, for example, as discussion talking points
David hesmondhalgh
Hesmondhalgh has written extensively about the constant tension between shareholders and creatives in the cultural industries
H
Laura Mulvey
Influential 1975 essay, visual pleasure and narrative cinema, further scrutinised the contrast between ‘passive / female ‘ and ‘active/male’ reflected on screen and wrote of a world ‘ordered by sexual imbalance’ it is important to continue to scrutinise films through a feminist lens, in order to identify the sometimes more subtly negative and disappointing portrayals of women in film
ghost town
‘The political / social context of the song didn’t really materialise until the brixton / toxteth / handsworth riots in July 1981 by which time the song was No.1 in the singles chart’
Media representation and media language, The mise – en – scene and cinematography are crucial to the mood evoked in the video.
the use of twilight and dawn to help to create an uneasy hinterland between night and day and when the dark has really fallen later in the video.
Judith butler feminist theorists
Judith Butler, author of gender trouble, argues that to assume a none heteronormative identify is incredibly difficult because heteronormative ideals are so deeply embedded in our culture
Butler argues that dominant narratives about what being a women is like come to appear ‘natural’ or ‘common sense’ through their repetition in the media
Livingstone and Lunt
livingstone and lunt outlines as the UKs consumer-oriented regulatory approach – an approach that places decisions regarding the consumption of difficult content in the hands of the audiences
The reluctance by successive goverments to introduce a harder regulatory approach , Livingstone and Lunt tells us, has been given
