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AS Media Studies Theories

Question 2 theory revision

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AS Media StudiesTheories

Overview

• This lesson we will explore the range of theories that have been covered for both question 1 and question 2.

• We will re-explore what will be be needed for the case studies.

• Re-explore what you will need for question 2.

Laura Mulvey

Male Gaze

Male Gaze

• A theory that explores how women are objectified in film and treated as objects for male pleasure.

• Laura Mulvey in her essay “visual pleasure and narrative cinema” in 1975 identified that women are often treated by the camera in cinema as objects of desire and shown for the visual pleasure of the viewer heterosexual males. The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and literature depict the world and women from a masculine point of view, Hollywood women characters of the 1950s and ’60s were, according to Mulvey, coded with “to-be-looked-at-ness” while the camera positioning and the male viewer constituted the “bearer of the look.”

Stuart Hall

Audience Positioning

Audience Positioning

• What we understand when watching / viewing a media product and how we decode the meaning of that product and what we take from it. The decoding of the product includes the verbal messages spoken but also the visual messages conveyed through e.g. body language or for TV / Film the cinematic visual language used. This theory also excepts that the individual based on there background and views can decode a message within a product differently than another person. The decoding can fall into three categories;

• Dominant reading – the viewer full accepts the preferred reading of the product, within the intentions of the creator / writer.

• Negotiated reading – The viewer broadly accepts the preferred reading of the text but may make small changes to this to reflect their own views and opinions.

• The Oppositional reading – The viewers own views will put them in direct opposition with the views being represented within the Media product and therefore will completely reject the views being represented.

Hypodermic Model

Hypodermic Model

• This theory is set up to identify how Media products effect the viewer and their opinions and views.

• This is the most straight forward of the theories this theory suggests that audiences are passive and whatever message they are given by the media they except and believe. This theory is also called the Magic Bullet Theory and that it suggest the mass media has a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences.

Two Step Flow

Two Step Flow

• This theory follows on from the previous theory and agrees that we can be impacted by the views expressed in the Media product however we are only affected by the opinions of people we trust Opinion Leaders.

• This theory considers how we are given the media. It suggests that opinion leaders select the media and the way to present that media and because we trust the view of the opinion leader we except what we are being told. The way the opinion leader gives their views has coined the term “personal influence”. The opinion leaders are very influential and are able to change are opinion and views to mirror theirs through these media products which the individual excepts because the opinion leader has similar views to those of the individual.

Uses and Gratification

Uses and Gratifications

• This assumes the audience are active in their consumption of the media. The audience will seek out the selected media to satisfy their desires and needs. The viewer is engaged in finding chosen media products to enhance ones knowledge or for social interactions, diversions or escapism. This theory unlike the others below does not consider the impact of the media product on society / individual rather what ‘people do with the media’.

Key Terms

• What do these mean?

• Hegemony

• Ideologies

• Socophilia

• Voyeurism

• Semiotics

Key Terms

• Hegemony - This word refers to a dominant set of ideologies represented by the Media that are presented as normal / status quo and are therefore accepted by society. These ideologies are often used as a form of control as a power structure so the structure could enforce status of the middle class over the working class.

• Ideologies - these are a system of ideas and ideals, these could be social or political and could be conscious beliefs or unconscious beliefs. These beliefs are established by the dominant class and are accepted by low classes often used as a form of control.

• Socophilia - A pleasure derived from looking / viewing will imply a sexual context.

• Voyeurism - The act of a viewer watching an event / individual for pleasure or obtaining gratification. This term can be used when referring to sexual connotation of viewing a subject / material or could be used by someone who is taking pleasure from violence.

• Semiotics - the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.

Question 2

Theories and Key Terms

Five phases of production

• Explain what happens through each of the identified phase of production.

• Production

• Marketing

• Distribution

• Exhibition

• Exchange

Media Ownership

• Explain the following terms:

• Synergy

• Conglomerates

• Technological convergence

• Horizontal Integration

• What are the three types of types of production companies making films?

Media Ownership

• Synergy – a strategy of linking products together either different medis products or can be linked to other products – product placement endorsement deals i.ehappy meals.

• Conglomerates – a company that has bought a variety of different media companies to help develop

• Technological convergence – when technology links to the same method of access throughout – digital technology filmed shot and distributed range of devices to access this.

• Horizontal Integration – complimentary businesses working alongside each other producing elements of a project

• What are the three types of types of production companies making films?• Hollywood Studio(conglomerate), Independent, UK Production company

(partnered).

Audience Segmentation

• How can you identify a target audience? Explain the following.

• Age

• Gender

• Socio-economic grouping

• Rubicams four C’s

• Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs