Media Theory

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Audience Psychographics

• Acknowledges that different people seek out media texts according to their needs and desires, in this case based on their personalities

• The Explorer, The Succeeder, The Aspirer, The Reformer, The Mainstreamer, The Struggler, The Resigned.

Blumler and Katz - Uses and Gratifications

• Different pleasures active audience gain from media texts 

• Diversion (escapism) (guilty pleasure)

• Personal Relationships (talking about media with others e.g. on social networks)

• Personal Identity (with media performers)

• Surveillance (information or knowledge)

Richard Dyer - Stereotypes

• Stereotypes are exaggerated oversimplifications

• Stereotypes use immediately recognisable traits as shortcuts to quickly convey meaning

• “Those with power stereotype over those with less power”

Stuart Hall - "Re-presentation" Theory

• “Reality is constantly mediated”

• Media products are a "re-presentation" of reality 

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory & Mediation

• Dominant, negotiated and oppositional readings of media products.

• Re-presentation

• "reality is constantly mediated."

Todorov - Linear Narrative

• Equilibrium, Disruption, Resolution, New Equilibrium.

Roland Bathes - Enigma Codes

• Mysteries and questions, attractive to educated, ABC1 audience members.

Levi Strauss - Binary Opposites

• Concepts in texts are often understood in binary opposition to each other.

Intertextuality

• When a text references another text

• Can take the form of homage, parody or satire 

Laura Mulvey - Gaze Theory

• Suggests we subconsciously consume media texts/products from the perspective of a heterosexual male because the media present women as sexual objects that exist for the gratification of men. 

• Although Mulvey herself has rejected the male gaze theory in recent years there are still strong arguments suggesting the female form is still objectified in a range of media.

Richard Dyer - Star Power

• A star is not a real person, they are constructed by institutions for financial gain.

• Stars create a persona that makes them desirable to an audience as commodities.

Semiotics - Study of Signs

Ferdinand de Saussure - Semiotics

• Signs and Signifiers

The Media Effects Debate

• Most people accept the idea that the media can influence people. But the degree of that influence, as well as who is most-impacted, when, how and why, have been the subjects of great debate among media academics.

Stan Cohen - Moral Panic

• Aggressive negative representations to marginalize a person or group who become defined as a threat to society

• Often referred to as “folk devils” - usually problematic representation of minorities, such as the working class, the disabled, certain races/ethnicities, religions or LGBTQ+.

• "the process of arousing social concern over an issue," 

• "a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." 

• "exaggerate the seriousness, extent, and/or inevitability of harm." 

• According to Cohen, these groups were labelled as being outside the central core values society and as posing a threat to both the values of society and society itself, hence the term "folk devils."

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