LFTVD - The Theorists

Barthes: Semiotics

We automatically associate certain images, shapes, colours, and objects with wider meanings. Media producers use these to help us understand media products better.

• Symbolic codes – specific objects are associated with wider meanings. For example, hoodies are associated with youth culture, rebellion and crime. 
• Semantic codes – audiences tend to understand hidden meanings behind colours such as red and black in horror movies to represent blood, danger and evil.
• Proairetic/action codes – events and actions signify that something is about to happen (like foreshadowing). E.g. a gun being pulled from a holster means that conflict tension is rising. 
• Hermeneutic/enigma codes - an event or hook which encourages the audience to actively engage with a media product and want to continue consuming it. 
• Cultural/referential codes – specific codes which are understood only by audience members who belong to a shared age group, gender, sub-culture etc. 

Neale & Metz: Genre Theory

Neale:

Repetition and Difference

• The idea that genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation and change.
• The idea that genres change, develop and overlap with one another.
• The idea that difference is essential to the economy of genre. For example, he discusses the growing sub-genres of music which appeal to wider audiences.

Hybridity

• This is where hybridity can be achieved as producers strive to make products that blend, familiarity with innovation. Hybrids are media products which have conventions of combined genres.

Metz:

Metz was a French film theorist who known for his genre characteristics theory. Metz claims there are 4 development stages that can be applied to a genre:

• Experimental - establishing conventions for future generations
• Classical - texts become seen as iconic and conventions are set
• Parody - mock codes and conventions of the genre
• Deconstruction - picking key features/ generic elements of more than one genre to form hybrid genres

Levi-Strauss: Structuralism

• They offer powerful levels of meaning within a text and can summarise a theme of a film.
• He highlights that several oppositions can be present in a media text.
• Man Vs Machine is just one of the binary oppositions that Levi-Strauss identified 

Other Binary Oppositions:

• Good vs Evil
• Male vs Female
• Humanity vs Technology
• Nature vs Industialisation
• East vs West
• Dark vs Light
• Dirt vs Clean

Jacques Derrida took Barthes’ and Levi-Strauss’ ideas a stage further by recognising that these ‘binary pairs’ were never equal in a text, i.e., masculinity/femininity.  One was always more valued than the other dependent on genre – often enforcing stereotypes and dominant cultural ideas.

Propp: Character Archetypes

Archetype – the typical example of a certain type of person

Vladimir Propp believes that the same essential TYPES of characters exists in ALL stories:

• The Hero - This is the main character whom the audience will recognise as the key person in the story. This character is usually a good, who we want to succeed.
• The Villain - This character is the opposite to the Hero and is often there to create the disruption (Todorov) in the story. This character is usually bad.  This can sometimes be a situation rather than a character.
• The False Hero - This character pretends to support the main character in the story, and generally the audience will know this. However, the main character does not (dramatic irony). Sometimes this character also turns out to be the main villain.
• The Helper - The main character usually has a companion who helps the main character, gives advice and supports them throughout their journey.
• The Donor - This character is similar to the role of the Helper. The character will give the main character something which helps him repair (Todorov) the problem in the story.
• The Princess - This character can be the reward for the Hero or the person whom the Hero and False Hero are in competition for.  Just as with The Villain, this could also be a situation rather than an actual person.

Todorov: Narratology

Tzvetan Todorov believes that every narrative has the same five stages to it, based around the main character.

• Equilibrium – The main character’s life is balanced and normal. There have been no disruptions to the main character’s life… yet.
• Disruption – The main character’s life has suddenly been disrupted, shattering their previous equilibrium.
• Recognition – The main character now begins to realise that their situation has changed – and not for the better.
• Repair – The main character now sets out to ‘right the wrongs’ and repair their situation, so that life can be as good as it was originally (equilibrium).
• New Equilibrium – The main character has worked through the problems and as a result, have gained back their equilibrium. However- they have grown from their experience. Life is now better than it was at the beginning of the narrative.

Todorov states that: 

• In the best stories, we can identify with the main character’s situation.  
• We’re pleased for them when they reach their ‘New Equilibrium’ because we have all had to do this in some point in our lives, too.  We’ve all had to overcome challenges and have ‘grown’ as a result.
• If your story can make your reader identify with the main character and want them to improve their life, you have a good story.  

Baudrillard: Postmodernism

• The image is the reflection of a basic reality 
• The image masks a basic reality 
• The image masks the absence of a basic reality (plays at being an appearance) 
• Image bears no relation to any reality; it is purely a simulation and becomes a HYPERREALITY. 

Baudrillard argued that postmodern society is organised around ‘simulation’ – the play of images and signs. Differences of gender, class, politics and culture are dissolving in a world of simulation in which individuals construct their identities. The new world of hyperreality consists of simulations that no longer have to refer to anything real, but to one another. Any media product adds to hyperreality, so to this extent it is not really significant what the product contains.

The drawbacks, however, is that this is a high-level theory so it doesn’t relate specifically to long-form TV dramas. Also, the world has changed since the 1980s, which is when Stranger Things and Deutschland ’83 were portrayed. 

Features of Postmodernism: 

• Irony
• Homage 
• Bricolage
• Intertextual References
• Fragmented Narrative
• Loss of reality 

Hall: Theories of Representation

Stuart Hall was a cultural theorist. He discusses culture’s central role in representation, and he looks at the issue within the most commonly used definition of representation, meaning to re- present something which already holds meaning. 

The interpretation of meaning changes from person to person, and is completely dependent on the historical and cultural context from when/where it is being presented or seen. Therefore, there is no one fixed meaning from which to re- present. 

• Absence and Meaning – Hall draws attention to the way absence in imagery is equally as important as what is marked or what is there within the image.
• Ideologies and Power – Hall states that it is essential that meaning can be changed. Meaning can only change because it cannot be finally fixed. Power’s purpose in language or image is to attempt to FINALLY FIX meaning, and naturalise the idea that the assigned meaning to image is the only meaning that it could possibly carry. It intends to close language, close meaning and stop the flow.
• Stereotypes & Challenging Stereotypes – Stereotyping fixes the meanings that are given to groups limiting the range of perceptions that people can have about a group; what they can do, what the nature of the constraints on them are, etc. A common strategy in challenging negative stereotypes is to represent negative stereotypes in a more positive way-reversing the stereotype. However, the problem with reversal or positive stereotypes is, just as we cannot finally fix the negative representations, we cannot finally fix positive ones either.
• Exposing Power Structures – Hall argues that what we need to do is go inside the image or go inside the stereotype and use it against itself, opening up the practice of representation. This exposes the politics and power structures within the image.

It is important that we get inside the image and occupy the very terrain in ways that make it uninhabitable for very long. Making the stereotype uninhabitable destroys normality, keeping representation open to new kinds of knowledge in the world, new kinds of subjectivities and possibilities for new identities to be made.

Gauntlett: Theories of Identity

David Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist, who graduated from the University of York in 1992. He specialises in the study of contemporary media audiences, and the making and sharing the digital media and the effect it has on people’s identity.

He focuses on studying the change in experience of media because of new digital media.

Gauntlett states that because of new media, many people who were the audience can now be their own producers thanks to websites like YouTube. This can create our own identity and even influence other peoples.

He says that gender identity has become less constricted to previous representations. We can create our own unique identity that might not follow the stereotypical understandings of gender. 

For examples, soaps can help create a sense of collective identity. Audiences respond to soaps in a way that is rich and varied. If the current identity theories are correct, then it would prove that audience do use some media to form a sense of identity, along with other aspects of their life too.

By thinking about their own identity, attitudes, behaviour and lifestyle in relation to those of media role models or figures, however some individuals make decisions and judgements about their own way of living. Role models are not just for people to copy, it is to help direct them in a certain path or inspire them to steer their own personal journeys through life.

In 2002, Gauntlett said that rather than being zapped straight into people’s brains, media messages and idea about lifestyle and identity that appear in the media which help individuals think through their sense of self and modes of expression.

Collective identity is an individual sense of belonging to a group that reflects their personal identity. If they participate in social activities like watching film and television, they can gain a sense of belonging and identity.

Gauntlett’s theory was conceived in 2002 and – while written in relation to TV soaps and the rise of digital, consumer generated media – it does not necessarily apply directly to long form television dramas.

• Now = diverse complex representations
• Past = simple, stereotypical, binary gender representations

Van Zoonen: Feminist Theory

Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality in our society. In media studies, theorists such as Liesbet Van Zoonen and bell hooks, look closely at how media products form, uphold or intensify these gender inequalities. 

Things to consider:

• What does it mean to be ‘masculine’?
• What does it mean to be ‘feminine’?
• How might your ideas about gender roles be different from your parents’ generation or grandparents’ generation? 
• How might your ideas about gender roles be different from someone from a different culture? Is ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ different around the world?

Her ideas:

• Discourse – Believes we get our ideas about gender from the media. 
• Contexts – Believes our ideas about gender change depending on the historical and cultural context.
• Women – Believes women are objectified in the media.
• Patriarchy – believes this is because we live in a patriarchal culture
• Gender Representation – Believes that women are often represented as emotional, nurturing and domestic whereas men are often represented as individual, suited to business and politics.
• Body Representation – Believes that men’s bodies are represented as “spectacle”.

hooks: Feminist Theory

bell hooks does not use capital letters for her name as a personal choice. This is because she does not want to be defined by her name.

Her theory is centered around Women and Feminism. 

Her ideas:

• In accordance to her, Feminism – the struggle to end patriarchal oppression
• Feminism is a political commitment – she believes that to be a ‘true feminist’ you must politically commit to it.
• Women are not all discriminated against in the same way or to the same extent
• Discrimination and oppression against women vary depending on ethnicity and class
• Patriarchy - a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line (male dominated society)

Butler: Theories of Gender Performativity

Judith Butler is an American Philosopher and Gender Theorist who played an influential role in shaping modern feminism. She is most well known for her book ‘Gender Trouble’ which develops her theory of gender performativity.

She states:
“Gender is the repeated stylisation of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance”

Her ideas:

• Gender roles are constructed by society and through performance of behaviours – like ‘rituals’
• Masculinity and femininity are not inherent
• Expectations of gender are set from birth
• Gender is the cultural meaning we attach to our biological sex. Which isn’t always true.
• Culture coerces you to conduct that gender performance
• Gender is Performative – we are not just acting it like a performance, but rather actively constructing it as we act it out.

Biological Sex - the anatomy of an individual's reproductive system, and secondary sex characteristics
Gender – a social construct (it is about how you feel and behave)

Gilroy: Postcolonialism

Colonialism – Taking over another country to run and exploit it

His ideas:

Gilroy believes we can still see the effects of this in the media now.

• Believes ethnic minorities are often shown as powerless, weak, dehumanised, marginalised, and “other”

“other” – abnormal and different

• Believes that white western people are often shown as more powerful, successful and important.

Post-colonialism - the political or cultural condition of a former colony. A theoretical approach in various disciplines that is concerned with the lasting impact of colonization in former colonies.

So, when we apply this theory to the media products which we are studying we need to look for the status and power inherent in representations of different races.

• We can definitely apply this theory to the representation of ethnic minorities in ‘The Jungle Book’ (1967) and ‘The Jungle Book 2016’ (2016). 
• In both films, Mowgli is represented as a jungle-dwelling ‘man-cub’ who, in the end, finds the ‘salvation’ of civilisation.
• We have discussed how the representation of King Louie in 1967 is problematic and could be perceived as being racist. 
• Rudyard Kiplings’ original collection of stories – written during the time of British colonialism - is an example of colonial literature.