Understanding the theories for the exam

8/7/2019 Understanding the theories for the exam

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Theories and Practice


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As part of the exam in June you will be askedto evaluate any part of your coursework overthe two years in terms of any one of these

topics: Genre

Narrative

Representation Audience

Media language


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What these topics mean

How the topic can be applied to your ownexperiences with your coursework, butreferring to one piece i.e. the DVD cover, acopy of a music magazine, or music video.

Theorists that have written on any of these

topics. E.g. Narrative (Todorov)


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Genre is important as it has a system ofexpectation set up around it.

This involves both repetition and differenceand depends on classification.

An important part of genre is when it isestablished, play can be made with its

conventions. Many genres are never really pure but are a

hybrid of different genres which links toIntertextuality.


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Write down exactly what tells you the genre ofthe magazine by examining the language, i.e.the codes and conventions.

Layout

Colour

Images

Text Titles

Cropping/framing


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Mass-produced movies, pop music, magazinestelevision etc are seen as escapist. They havebeen historically classified as a lower kind of

cultural production that true art. This is dueto them not being targeted at an elite audience.

Richard Dyer 1977 has argued that genre formsare pleasurable and even utopian, preciselybecause they offer an escape from reality into afictional world.


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All media forms from television news to heavymetal music are constructed, working withcodes and conventions: there is no neat

division to be made between the real andimagined. Yet some genres are perceived ashaving more verisimilitude or connection tothe real and this generally gives them highercultural status than others.

Could this be applied to different genres ofmusic?

How?


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Generic verisimilitude sets of expectations whichare internal to the genre, such as how a real orproper vampire film should proceed with garlic asmagical not a cooking ingredient. This can

produce in some cases a highly pleasurable degreeof fantasy and opportunity to play with identitiesand situations.

Cultural verisimilitude the genres relationshipto expectations about the world outside the genre.

For example the gangster film or courtroom dramahave always enjoyed a higher status than themusical because they make more explicit referenceto public or political events from the worldoutside.


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We often dismiss genres by saying theyre all thesame or if youve seen one, youve seen them all.

For the industries standardised practices are aprofitable part of making genre products you onlyhave to look at the idea of the sequel.

However sameness does not work when it comes toaudiences enjoyment of genres. There are differentgenres but also hybrids to prevent things from alwaysbeing the same and to appeal to different audiences.

Even the apparently most repetitious form the coverversion in pop music sells precisely on its blend ofthe familiar and the new.


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Genres are no longer seen as sets of fixedelements, constantly repeated, but as workingwith repertoires of elements or fluid systems

of conventions and expectations. These includeareas of:

Narrative

A

udio-visual codes of signification settings,codes, lighting etc.

Broadly ideological themes.


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Steve Neale describes genre films as being'instances of repetition and difference' - a film hasto both conform to its genre and have a unique

twist to become successful with an audiencenot wanting to become bored with the samerepetitive elements.


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In your groups put together a generic analysisof your music video looking at the previousareas or narrative etc.

Try to bring in some theory or theorists.


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As A2media students you should be veryfamiliar with how the media talks to us. Inexamining media language we need to look at:

Semiotics

Denotation and connotations

Codes and conventions


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This is the study of signs.

Drawing largely on the work of linguists suchas Barthes, semiotics argues that verbal

language is just one of many systems ofmeaning. These include

Gesture

Clothing Architecture etc

These can be studies like verbal languages.


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Signifier the physical form of a sign a haircut ortraffic light

Signified a sign refers to something other thanitself this is called the signified. It is important tonote that this will be a concept not a real thing inthe world.

This divides the world into categories and thesignifiers create the meaning. The signifier canchange the meaning of a concept a famousexample is the change from the signifier terroristto the signifier freedom fighter.


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Levi Strauss emphasised the importance ofstructuring oppositions in myth systems and inlanguage sometimes called binary oppositionsbecause the qualities can be grouped into pairs of

opposites. These produce key boundaries or difference

between cultures, usually with unequal weight orvalue attached to one side of the pairing.

Saussure applied this to the ways that language

produces meaning often through defining terms asbeing the opposite of other terms: Black/whitehot/cold etc. So woman is almost alwaysdefined in relation to man or femininity inrelation to its differences from masculinity.


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Signs then signify or name or denote differentaspects of our experience.

Red denotes a certain colour in the spectrum as

separate from the others

It connotes many things and is often used todescribe such things as blood, fires, sunsets,

blushing complexions.


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Reception Theory

The person negotiates the meaning of the text.The meaning depends on the cultural

background of the person. The background canexplain how some readers accept a givenreading of a text while others reject it. Thistheory is also one of the main proponents usedto describe audience reception.

Generally a meaning of a text is acceptedthrough the beliefs of the dominant culture.


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He is important when exploring how audiences decode texts. Thisis obviously relevant to analysing language as that is how theaudience understand the references. According to the theory,audiences can have three different reactions to a media text,whether it be a film, documentary or newspaper:

Dominant, or Preferred, Reading - how the director/creator wantsthe audience to view the media text; Opposition Reading - when the audience rejects the preferred

reading, and creates their own meaning of the text; Negotiated Reading - a compromise between the dominant and

opposition readings, where the audience accepts parts of thedirector's views, but has their own views on parts as well.

How might different audiences react to The Mighty Boosh? Try to apply this theory to your own work.


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It is important to realise that all of these signs areagreed. The choice of green for go on a traffic lightcould just as easily be pink if we all agreed to it.

Roland Barthes began exploration of this idea

using such terms as rhetoric and myths. Stuart Hall used the term codes both for the

professional assumptions of production and thewider sets of values with which they connect. Forexample a cosmetics ad may depend on the

accepted ways to light glamorously the face ofwomen widely considered beautiful, and could besaid to express the dominant code that all womenshould be glamorous and beautiful for men.


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The meanings of signs, however, because theyare used by so many people are not fixed butpolysemic. This means they are capable of

having several meanings.

How many ways can you think that the UnionJack can be interpreted?


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Due to the ambiguity of signs or codes manymedia use captions or commentary in order toanchor a visual image.


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It is impossible to discuss genre withoutreferring to language and indeed codes andconventions are intrinsic to genre as this is the

way in which we recognise what a genre is oreven if it is a hybrid or subgenre.

Take one of the texts that you have created as

part of your coursework over the whole of thecourse and analyse it in terms of languageusing all the correct terminology and referringto theorists.


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Narratives are a key way in which meaningsare constructed.

Both print and the moving image construct

meaning through using narrative.

Narrative also links closely to genre as we havecertain expectations of a story due to the genreit belongs to think about this regarding yourmusic videos certain expectations are alreadyset up by knowing the genre of the music of thevideo you are about to watch.


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Argued that certain myths and symbolsrepresent archetypal patterns which havebeen central to human existence.

He also believed that many myths and ancientstories are shred across cultures. He is said byfilm makers such as George Lucas to be a keyinfluence on films such as StarWars


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A good definition of narrative is given byBranigan (1992:3) who argues it is a way oforganising spatial and temporal data into a

cause effect chain of events with a beginning,a middle and end that embodies a judgementabout the nature of events


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Dont forget when writing about narrative toinclude theory to get a good mark in the exam.However dont just tag them on, it is important

to use them to give your argument ordiscussion meaning.

Remember:

Propp

Barthes Todorov

Levi-Strauss


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Believed there were limited types of character rolesor spheres of action

Villain Hero Donor Helper Princess Father Dispatcher False hero See if you can figure out what each of these

characters roles are.


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Todorov argued that all stories begin with anequilibrium where any potentially opposingforces are in balance, this is disrupted by some

event setting in train a sequence of otherevents.

What needs to be taken into consideration withthis theory is exactly where and when the storyhas begun.


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Barthes suggested that narrative works with 5different codes. This is a very complex theory butit is interesting with regard to his suggestion of anenigma code, which works to keep setting uplittle puzzles to be solved, and not only at thebeginning but also near the end to suspend itpleasurably for a while.

Action code will be read by various details, looks

or significant words that relate to our culturalknowledge of what are highly stereotypicalmodels of action such as falling in love or beingtempted into robbery


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It is important to realise that still images alsohave a narrative, dealing with a moment frozenin time if you like.

However the impact lies in the imagining ofwhat has happened just before or after theimage. The narrative here is often signalled bythe angle of the shot or whether it is in black

and white.


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It is important to note that what this word signifiesis that images in the media are a construction, nota transparent window on the real!

Often it benefits media industries to representpeople or groups in a certain way. This isespecially true when dealing with celebrity and solinks very powerfully to the music industry where

the music genre itself creates certain groups oreven stereotypes which then can becomemarginalised look at the girl in the news whowas beaten to death for the way she looked.


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These are not people but widely circulatedideas or assumption about particular groups.They are usually seen as derogatory and to be

got rid of. However they can be useful tools to categorise

a group being stereotyped.

It helps us to make sense of the world as we arebeing deluged with information every day.

We all belong to groups that can be typifies insome way.


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If you can , look at how you use genderstereotyping in your music press and video. Youcan use Laura Mulveys The Male Gaze theory toexplore the representation of women.

However, the term Post feminism suggests weare now beyond the need to struggle for genderequality. Young women are said to now take forgranted the respect, equal pay etc. Yet somewomen feel the balance is tilting back towards

sexist images and language merely updated by thealibi of humour/irony. How satisfying is the girl power remake of the

female image such as Lara Croft???


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Musically, race is often stereotyped.

Black males are often associated with negativeimagery such as with gangster rap and

depicted with girls, guns and cars. This has to some extent been deliberately

confused such contemporary figures as Ali Gand Eminem.

Often ethnic groups either have their ownmusic magazines or are not fully represented inother music genres.

What is your opinion of these points?


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Hermes (1999) suggests that the pleasures ofcelebrity news operates within a context where 2approaches seem to working on audienceunderstanding:

the extended family repertoire where gossipbrings the powerful down to the level of humanbeings, imagined as part of the family, a placewhere readers or viewers can test scenarios in case

they occur in their own lives. the repertoire of melodrama a form involving

highly polarised struggles between Vice andVirtue.


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The appeal of the male star was that youwould never marry him; the romance wouldnever end in the tedium of marriage .The star

could be loved non-instrumentally, for his ownsake, and with complete abandon. Hermes(1999)

Understanding the theories for the exam

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