Theory

• Curran and Seaton


  patterns of ownership and control are the most significant factors in how the media operate. Media industries follow the normal capitalist pattern of increasing concentration in fewer and fewer hands- narrowing the range of opinions represented as the pursuit of profit limits quality and creativity.
• David Hesmondhalgh (cultural industries)

  most products are consumed, used and bought again, but media products don't wear out. Companies have to make a lot of initial profit. Minimizing risk=maximizing profit.
• Stuart Hall

  Communication is encoding from producers and decoding by viewers. 3 hypothetical positions which they can be decoded = (dominant-hegemonic (preferred)- fully understood)(negotiated reading- adapted and acknowledged)(opposition reading- understood and disagreed)
• Livingstone and Lunt

  Regulation refers to the rules and restrictions that every media industry has to follow. The needs of a citizen are in conflict with the needs of the consumer, because protection can limit freedom.
• Blumer and Katz (uses and gratification)

  Audiences consume media in 4 different reasons. entertainment, information, social interaction, and personal identity.
• Henry Jenkins (Fandom Theory)

  fans create their own new content through the interactive relationship between producer and audience. Fandoms are textual Poachers who take elements from media texts to create their own culture.
• David Gauntlett- Theory of Identity

  While everyone is an individual people tend to exist within larger groups who are similar to them. Media does not create identities but just reflects them instead.
• Genre Theory- Steve Neale


  Genre are instances of repetition and difference. Products use familiar conventions to appeal to audiences. Genre conventions are not fixed and evolve over time as producers subvert established conventions.
• Roland Barthe- Theory of semiotics.


  Signs consist of a signifier (the word) and the signified (the meaning). The denotation is what the thing literally is, the connotation is hidden meanings and what something represents. He also uses myths to describe connotations.
• Semantic code


  Signs that carry connotations beyond their basic definition to give the audience insight.
• Hermeneutic Code (enigma code)


  When information is deliberately withheld from the audience to allow people to make their own interpretations.
• Proairetic Code (action code)


  plot events that lead to/ suggests other actions.
• Symbolic codes 


  this is a juxtaposition between contrasting signs.
• Cultural codes


  Signs that are already part of our framework of knowledge.
• Baudrillard- theory of postmodernism 


  In the modern world, what something represents has become more important than what it actually is. Postmodernism is organised around simulation.
• Levi- Strauss- Structuralism


  Understanding occurs where opposites are placed next to each other.