Theories and Definitions

Theories: 

Key Theory 15- ALBERT BANDURA                                                            SHORT TERM

The Hypodermic Needle Model:

• The "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences.
• The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly be 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.
• Theory implies that we can't think for ourselves, and we are passive audiences/consumers.

Key Theory 9 - BELL HOOKS

Feminist Theory:

• Feminism is a struggle to end patriarchal hegemony and the domination of women.
• Feminism is not a lifestyle choice: it is a political commitment.
• Race, class and gender all determine the extent to which individuals are exploited and oppressed.

Key Theory - CURRAN AND SEATON

Power and Media Industries:

The media is controlled by a small number of companies primarily driven by the profit and power. Media concentration limits variety, creativity and quality. More socially diverse patterns of ownership can create varied and adventurous media productions.

Transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media. 

'Diversity is in the public interest - but modern societies suffer from collective attention deficit disorders. The public have to work harder to be noticed and we need agile but resourceful media to do that' 

Key Theory - CLAY SHIRK
End of Audience:
Audiences are no longer passive: they interact with media products in an increasingly complex variety of ways.

Key Theory - DAVID HESMONDHALGH:

Cultural Industries:
Companies try to minimise risks and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration.
Media Convergence
Conglomeration

Key Theory 7 - DAVID GAUNTLET
Theories of identity:

Despite many negative perceptions of the media, audiences are capable of constructing their own identities through what they see on television. (He writes there are now many more representations of gender.) People Pix and Mix what they beleive in and what they don't to form their identities.

Key Theory 16- GEORGE GERBNER                                                            LONG TERM

Cultivation Theory:

• "The idea that prolonged and heavy exposure to [TV]...cultivates" as in grows and develops in audiences "a view of the world consistent with the dominant or majority view expounded by television."
• Television presents a mainstream view of culture, ignoring everything else.
• In doing so television distorts reality.

Key Theory 10 - JUDITH BUTLER

Theories of Gender Performativity:

• Identity is a performance, constructed through a series of acts we perform every day.
• while there are biological differences dictated by sex, our gender is defined through these acts, the way we walk/talk
• Gender permormativity is not a singular act, but a repetition and ritual. It is outlined and reinforced through dominant patriarchal ideologies

Key Theory - LIVINGSTONE AND LUNT

Regulation: 

Media is controlled by a small number of companies, driven by the logic of profit and domination. 

Todays regulations in the film industry are at risk due to global media corporations and new technologies. 

Key Theory 8 - LISBET VAN ZOONEN

Feminist Theory:

Gender is constructed through codes and conventions of media products, and the idea of what is male and female changes over time.

Women's bodies are used in media products as a spectacle for heterosexual male audiences, which reinforces patriarchal hegemony.

Key Theory - LEVI STRAUSS
Binary Opposition:
When meaning is created through conflict in the narrative. 

Key Theory - RICHARD DYER

The role of stereotypes:

• an ordering process
• a shortcut for producers
• a reference point for audiences
• an expression of dominant societal values

Key Theory - ROLAND BARTHES

Semeotics:

Hermeneutic - mysterious

Proairetic - action

Symbolic - what does it make the reader feel?

Key Theory - SIGMUND FREUD

Madonna/Whore Complex: 

• developed a theory to explain men's anxiety towards women's sexuality, suggesting  that men define women into one of two categories: the madonna (women he admires and respects) and the whore(women he is attracted to and therefore disrespects)
• The Madonna is typically virtuous, nurturing, saintly and sexually repressed
• The Whore is sensual, sexualised, and desirable without purity

Key Theory 6 - STUART HALL 
Representations:
Thinks representations exist through the repetition and remix of media trends.
Representations: the ways in which media products constructs the world and aspects in it. Including social groups, individuals, issues and events. 

Key Theory 17 - STUART HALL

Reception Theory:

• The 'right' reading of a text which can be enforced by positioning.
• This concept has to be approached carefully: often texts intentionally have multiple meaning/readings, and audiences can potentially get whatever they want out of any media text.
• Hall categorised audience response into 3 separate group.
• These can help us to understand wether or not an audience sticks to the preferred reading, or if they decide to make their own decisions on how to decode the text.
• DOMINANT READING: The audience agrees with the dominant values in the text, and agrees with the values and ideology it shows.
• NEGOTIATED READING: The audience generally agrees with what they see but they disagree to some amount.
• OPPOSITIONAL READING: The audience completely disagrees with what they see, and rejects the dominant reading.

Key Theory 3: STEVE NEALE 

Theories around Genre:

• Neale believes that genre is essentially instances of 'repetition and difference'.
• He suggested that texts need to conform to some generic paradigms to be identified within a certain genre- but must also subverts these conventions in order to not appear identical.

Key Theory 2 - TODOROV

Narratology:

Within a story, the equilibrium creates the initial beginning of a film, representing the period of the film where there are no problems. This changes after a disruption occurs, where the equilibrium is broken. (Disequalibrium) The film then results in a partiaal restoration of the disequilibrium where there is resolution. However the equilibrium can also be partially restored where sequels are intended, so the film does not end on a complete equilibrium.

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Definitions:

Agenda - a list of items to be discussed at a formal meeting. 

Bias - inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.

Conglomeration:

Conglomeration is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. Conglomeration is the 'process' of a conglomerate being formed.

Cultural Capital(Power) - The cultural resources of an individual, for example knowledge, qualifications, art, customs and tastes.

Examples: Versace, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Burberry, Horse Riding, Caviar.

Culture Jamming: The practice of criticising and subverting advertising and consumerism in the mass media, by methods such as producing advertisements parodying those of global brands. 

Commodity Fetishism: "is the process of ascribing magic "phantom-like" qualities to an object, whereby the human labour required to make that product is lost once the object is associated with a monetary value for exchange." - Patricia Louie

Cybernetic Organisms - a combination of the organic and mechanic. 

Distribution:

The digital distribution is the delivery or distribution of media.

HEGEMONY: Where one group wields power over another, not through domination, but through coercion and consent.

INTERTEXTUALITY: is the shaping of texts meaning through referencing or alluding to other text. Texts provide context within which other texts can be created or interpreted- reflecting the fluid boundaries or genre convention. (The way the Simpsons use lots of scenes from other media, almost exactly)

Linear narrative- when a narrative is chronological, and follows a story through time from beginning to end.

Non-linear narrative- the narrative is not chronological, and goes back and forth between beginning and end.

Polysemy - not everything has a single meaning. In newspapers however producers typically try to avoid polysemic readings. 

Anchoring - the fixing of a particular meaning to a media text, often through the use of captions. The process of forcing an audience in to a particular reading.

Conglomerate: a larger corporation consisting of multiple smaller companies.

Subsidiary: a smaller company owned by a larger corporation.

Production:

The production process refers to the stages (phases) required to complete a media product, from the idea to the final master copy. The process can apply to any type of media production including film, video, television and audio recording.

Vertical/Horizontal Integration:

Vertical - where a company buys "up other companies involved in different stages of media production

Horizontal - where a company buys "other companies in the same sector to reduce competition.

The Studio System:

The classical (Big 5 - Warner Brothers/Disney/CBS/21st Century Fox/Comcast)

Institution - the values and ideology of a media product.

Scopophilia - sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity(they do know this happening)

Voyeurism - the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity (similar to scopophilia but they don't know you are watching them)

Patriarchy - a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.