Media Theory

Representation Theory

Laura Mulvey’s – Male Gaze Theory

‘Male Gaze’ refers to how videos and films are made to appeal toa male audience. The theory was originally based onrepresentations in films, with camera shot types and movementused to objectify women, focusing the camera on their curvesand chest as it is meant to be seen through the eyes of aheterosexual male.

Mulvey looks a how men look at women from those images, howwomen look at themselves from those images and how womenlook at other women from those images.

Evidence/Relevance of the Theory

Looking at current popular video we can see how true Mulvey’s Theory is. In all five pop videos we watched there was:

• Emphasis on women’s curves

• Objectifying of women

• Targeted to a male audience

• Images for heterosexual men’s pleasure

• Women viewing video through eyes of men and their ‘gaze’

A downfall to Mulvey’s Theory would be that some people may want to be seen in this way by men.

The media portrays women in this way because of the ideology it creates to idolise beautiful women.

Richard Dyer – Star Theory

Star Theory refers to how Icons and Celebrities are made andconstructed by institutions in order to idolise them for financialreasons. They are made to target specific audience and arerepresented across a range of media and mediums.

‘Stars represent and embody certain ideologies’

The star is a built up persona that is and not a real person.Making them iconic and stand out from other stars. They are anExadurated personality made to promote certain ideologies forthe institution.

‘A star is an image not a real person, that is constructed (as anyother aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (e.g.advertising magazines etc. as well as films andmusic)’

Evidence of Star Theory

Tess Perkin’s - Stereotypes

A stereotype is a ‘typical’ person of a certain group, that is based fromthe actions and way the others dress. Based on which, we makepreconceived ideas and judgements about that person.Perkins:We usually stereotype groups that we have little to no contact with.But not always minority or less powerful, MPs or even wholenationalities are constantly stereotyped, forming racism. They can beheld about ones on group, the best example of this is celebrities ordancers which are known for being very competitive between eachother.However stereotypes can always change, for example the typicalstereotype of a Father has changed while a lot over the past half acentury becoming more inline with the mother figure, and finallystereotypes are not always negative. For example Germans arestereotyped to be good engineers and Koreans are stereotyped to begood at video games, which people would see as quite a positive thing.

Audience Theory

Use and Gratification Theory

Use and Gratification model represented a change in thinking, asresearchers began to describe the effects of the media from the pointof view of the audiences. The model looks at the motive of the viewersof media texts and why they choose to watch, read, or listen to themedia.

The theory makes the audience into an active group as they chosewhat they want to consume rather than passively absorbing it. Thetheory argued that audience needs to have social and psychologicalneeds which generate certain expectations about the mass media andwhat they are exposed to.

The underlying idea behind the model is that people are motivated bya desire to fulfil, or gratify certain needs. So rather than asking howthe media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.

Use and Grat. – Needs of the Audience

Surveillance – Based on the idea that people feel better havingthe feeling that they know what is going on in the world, thenews giving them security and awareness about what ishappening around them.

Personal Identity – Allows us to confirm the identity andpositioning of ourselves within society using people in the mediaas role models.

Personal Relationships - We build connections and relationshipswith the characters we see, and want to keep watching them inthe TV show.

Diversion - We use the media as a form of escapism to forgetabout or distract us from everyday issues.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

The media injects information into us to influence us. The theorywas developed in the 1920-30s. It is based of the idea of theaudience being passive and absorbing information given. Thisinformation can be direct or subliminal or misleading headlines.

Implied that mass media had a direct, immediate and powerfuleffect on its audiences.

Factors that contribute to this ‘strong effect’:

• Rise in Radio and TV popularity

• Strong flow of info from sender to receiver.

• The passive audience absorbs the message from the sender.

• We are ‘brain washed’ into believing media messages

Examples and Problems

The best example of this is the 1938 War of the WorldBroadcast. When a radio play of ‘The War of theWorlds’ had people in shock as it was presented in anews broadcast type, and the ‘passive audience’believed it to be read.

Problems with the theory are:• Out of Date• Not all consume media in same way• Media is presented in different ways• More recent theories overwrite this.

Stuart Hall - Reception Theory

The reception theory states that media texts are encoded by theirproducers. Meaning that whoever produces the text fills the productwith their ideological messages and values. The reader then ‘decodes’the text and accepts, understands or rejects the message/meaning.

Hall called this the Dominant, Negotiated and Oppositional

• Dominant is when the values and ideology of the text are agreedwith and the text is viewed as the producer intended

• Oppositional is when the viewer disagrees with the message thismaybe because they dislike the genre or cannot relate to theproduct. Or they believe it does no reflect society.

• Negotiated is a middle ground between Dominant andOppositional, when the audience might not fully understand themessage or understands the message and why it is there but doesnot necessarily agree with it.