Media theories evaluation

• What is "evaluation"?
• Semiotics – Roland Barthes


  • Can be used to unearth the meaning of a media text
  • Meaning is created by the producer (may have assumed knowledge – fourth estate of press)
  • Myths are easily recognizable and create meaning between groups
  • Meaning is easily denoted and can be extensive
• Structuralism – Claude Levi-Strauss


  • Narrative resolutions can help audiences diagnose which oppositions a product favours
  • Oppositions can help audience recognize genre
  • Oppositions can help audiences choose preferred uses and gratifications of media products
  • Oppositions can help audiences recognize the dominant hegemony in society and the message of the product
• Genre Theory – Steve Neale


  • Understanding genre can help audiences determine specific pleasures/uses and gratifications of a media product
  • Genre can help an audience understand the Binary Oppositions and position themselves
  • Genre can help audiences decode meaning
• Post-Modernism – Jean Baudrillard


  • Postmodernism recognises the fluidity of current society and how the influx of media content is moving reality further away
  • Helps audiences consider the "larger than life" constructions of reality on the media and if these are reflections of reality
  • Hall would say that all reality is "re-presented" and mediated in a way to promote the ideals of the dominant hegemony, which does not reflect the true state of being
• Tzetan Todorov – Narratology


  • Helps audiences recognise the social and cultural context and ideologies of the media product, through how the problems and presented and then resolved
  • Allows audiences to understand the story and position themselves behind what is the "expected norm"
  • Helps confirm the genre of the narrative and provide audience pleasure as the expected "resolution" is achieved by the characters
• Representation Theory – Stuart Hall


  • Audiences are able to recognise social groups and better understand the narrative (stereotypes help audiences understand meaning and position themselves)
  • Representations reflect the dominant hegemony and intention of the media producer
  • Stereot
• Neale: 'Story structures are continuously adapting and changing, rather than based on an "ideal" story structure'
• Levi-Strauss: 'Stories focus more on the way narrative present oppositions rather than the way those oppositions are transformed'
• Stereotypes help audiences understand meaning and position themselves

  Representations reflect the dominant hegemony and intention of the media producer
• Stereotypes help audiences understand characters, build character relatability and reinforce genre expectations

  Ignores the fact that audiences may decode representations and codes in different ways (Hall)
• Racial stereotypes are framed by cultural/social/historical aspects so it is harder to contest black stereotypes as they are deeply entrenched into British cultural psyche


  The internet is allowing audiences to create their own representations which may subvert stereotypes/dominant hegemonies (Clay Shirky)
• The media reflects simplified representations and stereotypes of black communities which nurture fear and reinforce the dominant hegemony


  Media organisations are predominantly white and western and will reflect this dominant hegemony, which will then influence the world (cultivation theory)
• Audiences can use a variety of media (especially with the internet) to create their own identities

  The internet allows audiences to create a wider array of representations than only those in the dominant hegemony (Clay Shirky)
• New technology allows audiences to engage in participatory fan culture and form online communities


  Contemporary media products give audiences a much wider diversity of gender-based identities to shape their identities and resist the ideological pull of the patriarchy (Gauntlett)
• The use of labels like "male" and "female" mask the complex nature of sexuality


  Audiences may read texts in a different way than the original encoding (Hall)
• Marginalized women will always be represented as less powerful than their white counterparts


  Helps audiences to consider unrepresented groups with less of a voice
• Helps audiences consider social groups who may be excluded from movements (such as feminism and LGBT activism)

  Intersectional media celebrated diversity and gives voice to social groups, influencing how they then see themselves (Gauntlett, Gerbner)
• Contemporary media products allow unheard voices to have platforms and develop their own representations


  These can still sometimes be controlled by dominant powers – shadow bans (Curran and Seaton)
• Audiences are able to recognise gender stereotypes and use them to recognise genre/audience pleasures from a specific text


  Meaning about a text is immediately implied
• Meaning reflects the patriarchal dominant hegemony of Western culture


  Meanings of gender subversion are clear
• Contemporary media means that heteronormativity does not completely dominate and audiences can create their own version of identity


  Modern media means that audiences can create new understandings of gender (Clay Shirky, Jenkins)
• Ignores the impact that gendered positioning can have – women internalise male power and their own on-screen passivity


  Highlights audiences' ability to be active in their own ability to create their identities and emphasises the changing nature of media representations (how the media does not exist in isolation – it both constructs but also reflects modern social norms)
• Helps understand what audience may engage with a product, but also who might be explicitly targeted through specific representations and identity conventions


  Contemporary media landscape is not diverse but saturated with stereotypical portrayals that reflect wider social inequalities
• Contemporary media landscape


  Not diverse but saturated with stereotypical portrayals reflecting wider social inequalities
• hooks: 'Portrayals of black women are largely absent from the media and, when they are present, they are prone to produce overly sexualised portrayals'
• Gilroy: 'British media narratives don’t offer diversity but are stuck within a colonial mindset that positions non-whites as threatening, primitive, or uncivilised'
• Gerbner: 'The repetition of problematic stereotypes may influence audiences beyond what they choose'
• Media Ownership


  Highlights the shift towards commodification of content and the repetition seen in much media content (Netflix, Marvel, Disney etc.)
• Media Ownership


  Emphasises the changing nature of media production in a globalised and digitalised world where conglomerates can exist across multiple platforms
• Clay Shirky


  The media industry is increasingly driven by audience feedback systems rather than top-down, gatekeeping control
• Clay Shirky


  Modern media enables big businesses to exploit the web for commercial reasons, but the internet retains the capacity to work as a social good and online communities can create their own spaces and through 'participatory culture' have the power to change the world for the better
• Neale


  Media products are always (and always have been) adapting and refining recognizable tropes based on a genre-driven model
• Regulation


  Acknowledges how media regulatory bodies must focus on improving the lives of citizens but highlights the shift towards commodified content and the more American/Hollywood system of free-choice, free-market consumerism
• Jenkins


  The digital media landscape has benefits including allowing audiences to freely construct their own products and to make connections with like-minded individuals across the world
• Jenkins


  This process has also enabled some groups to affect deep-seated social change
• Clay Shirky


  Globalisation has brought audiences into contact with a wide range of identities that they did not previously have access to. This has helped audiences to perceive their identities as fluid and not fixed
• David Hesmondhalgh


  Highlights the shift towards commodification of content and the repetition seen in much media content (Netflix, Marvel, Disney etc.) and explains the similarities of much modern media content and marketing
• David Hesmondhalgh


  Emphasises the changing nature of media production in a globalised and digitalised world where conglomerates can exist across multiple platforms
• Albert Bandura


  Highlights the influence media can have on audiences, through their ability to take in messages and learn specific social and cultural views from images