A2 G325: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Section A: Theoretical
Theoretical Evaluation of Production
GENRE
Daniel Chandler (2001) – genre is a French work meaning ‘type’, ‘kind’ or ‘class’.

Barry Keith Grant (1995) – all genres have sub-genres that have familiar and recognisable
characteristics.

David Buckingham (1993), Steve Neale (1995) – genres evolve and change over time; they are
dynamic. They are a process of ‘systemisation’ and therefore naturally change over time.

Christian Metz (1974) – genres go through a life cycle over time – experimental, classic, parody,
deconstruction.

Jason Mittell (2001) genres surpass cultural boundaries; they are used by institutions to sell products
as they as they include familiar codes and conventions and cultural references.

Rick Altman (1999) – genre offers audiences a set of pleasures; visceral, emotional, intellectual.

David Bordwell (1989) – any theme may appear in any genre.

NARRATIVE
Tim O’Sullivan et al. (1998) – all media texts tell us some kind of story. All narratives have a
common structure.

David Bordwell and David Thompson (1997) – there are two distinctions in narrative in terms of
how the audience are positioned to accept a preferred story and series of events; the fabula (story-
everything that we infer) and the syuzhet (plot- how things have been ordered before us).

Pam Cook (1985) – classical narrative structure follows linearity of ‘cause and effect’ with an overall
trajectory of enigma resolution.

Tzvetan Todorov (1977) - every narrative has equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium.

Roland Barthes (1977) – there are seven narrative codes – two most important are the code of
enigma and the action code. Adrian Tilley (1991) describes action code as a trigger to signify an
imminent action.

Roland Barthes (1973) – all media texts have myths (ideologies that form stories of society) encoded
within /behind them. John Fiske and John Hartley (1983) called this the third order of signification
after denotation and connotion.

Kate Domaille (2001) – all narratives fit into one of eight story types.

Vladimir Propp (1928) – all narratives have similar aspects such as character types that define
distinct roles in narrative. There are seven broad character types.

Claude Levi-Strauss (1958) – binary opposition; that narrative is ordered and understood through
oppositions presented.

Roman Jakobson (1956) and Claude Levi-Strauss (1958) – discussed structure as a whole
(syntagm) that can be constructed through the specific choice/arrangement of elements (paradigms).
This links to discourse, and how the audience is positioned to accept a discourse behind the
narrative.
 A2 G325: Advanced Portfolio in Media
Section A: Theoretical
Theoretical Evaluation of Production
REPRESENTATION
Levi-Strauss (1958), Andre Jakobson – there are ideologies behind every media representation.
Certain paradigms are encoded in texts, others are left out to give a preferred representation or
preferred, dominant meaning (Stuart Hall, 1980).

Richard Dyer (1973) – detailed that questions such as ‘what sense of the world is the text making?’
‘Is it typical of the world or deviant?’ should be asked as part of analysis of media texts.

Richard Dyer (1973) – discussed the idea of films creating ‘star personas’ – this can be applied to
texts that create such personas.

Carl Rogers (1980) – representations in media texts can create an ideal self/ideal partner to sell
products.

Roland Barthes (1973) – all media texts have myths (ideologies that form stories of society) encoded
within /behind them.

Laura Mulvey (1975) – discussed representations of women; that women are objectified and
therefore represented through the ‘male gaze’ or masculine point of view. This links to the idea of
voyeurism.

Julian McDougall (2009) – in a media saturated world, the distinctions between reality and media
representations are blurred.

Jean Baudrillard (1980) and Jean Francious Lyotard (1984) – truth needs to be deconstructed;
truth needs to be deconstructed so that dominant ideas about society – or ‘grand narratives’ – can be
challenged.

Jean Baudrillard (1980) – detailed that we live in a world of hyperreality and simulacra – everything
is based on another simulation or someone else’s representation.

Tim O’Sullivan (1998) – stereotype is a label, a categorisation of a group of people. Stereotypes are
a shorthand to narrative.

Walter Lippman (1956) – stereotype is an ordering process

AUDIENCE
Dennis McQuail (1972) – An audience is a ‘temporary collective’.

Julian McDougall (2009) – Audiences can be hard to define in an increasingly online media world
where audiences are fragmented and niche.

Ien Ang (1991) – Every product has an imaginary entity.

John Hartley (1987) – Producers need to enter into a dialogue/relationship with their audience
(through MODE OF ADDRESS).

Dennis McQuail (1972) – In a pluralist media world, audiences have choice and use media products
for their own means. This is described as the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory – needs are
surveillance; personal identity; personal relationships; escapism.
 A2 G325: Advanced Portfolio in Media
Section A: Theoretical
Theoretical Evaluation of Production
Stuart Hall (1980) – texts are encoded by producers so that audiences can easily accept the
dominant/preferred meaning, but audiences can also adopt a negotiated or oppositional reading of a
text.

MEDIA LANGUAGE
This is concerned with a semiotic analysis of your own work where it is vital you know the
micro elements of mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing and sound. The below is simply some
theory to add in.

Charles Sanders Pierce (1931) – details that ‘we only think in signs’. Signs only represent anything
when society attributes meaning to them.

Charles Sanders Pierce (1931) – there are three types of sign that we use everyday to create
meaning; iconic, indexical and symbolic signs.

Roland Barthes (1967) – built on Ferdiand de Saussure – signifier/signified – to discuss connotations

that can be attributed to denotations (signs).

Roman Jakobson (1956) and Claude Levi-Strauss (1958) – paradigms can be encoded in order to
give a preferred meaning and structure.

Stuart Hall (1980) – texts can be encoded by producers and meaning is decoded by audiences.