Key Theories: Representation, Narrative, Audience and Genre

Theories


Representation:

• They way in which the media constructs real life. Media Texts can dominate  societies representations or challenge them.
• Representations change over time with social, political and ideological changes. It refers to people, places, events, ethnicity, class, age and gender etc.
• Representations contain a ‘grain of truth’ that stems from historical and/or ideological roots.  This is ‘common sense’ or the way things have always been.
• The ‘re-representation’ of the world: not raw reality but a mediated version of it. A manipulated view of what the media want to show you. This is called mediation.
• Representations are representative i.e. a kind of shorthand, images which speak on behalf of a wider group. ‘All people in this group are like this’ – They are typical.  These repeated images become stereotypes.
• The circulation of stereotypes makes for easier audience recognition and understanding.  This in turn reinforces common sense views which can be dangerpus.
• The concept of representation describes a selective process through which the media circulate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY

 

Narrative:

Narrative

The narrative of a story refers to the way in which the story is pieced together not the actual storyline.

·         Linear Narrative- the story is edited together chronologically. They have an established beginning, middle and end and it usually makes sense.

·         Non-Linear- the story does not follow a particular order, it is fragmented and can start with the ending or in the middle or any combination throughout, work backwards, include flashbacks and flash forwards and generally harder to follow. Basically the more you watch the more the plot is gradually unveiled.

·         Multi-Strand Narrative-follows more than one story at the same time within the film.

Todorov

Classic narrative structure

Equilibrium → Disequilibrium → Equilibrium

Or simply put:

Order →Disorder →Order

Propp

Most narratives follow a function as do the characters. He analysed fairytales to look at basic structures.

1. Villain — struggles against the hero.
2. Mentor —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. Helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4. Princess or Heroine — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. Father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished.
6. Donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7. Hero or victim — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

Levi Strauss

Strauss said all texts work in Binary opposition. The idea is that all narratives are driven by conflict such as good vs evil. Each force in a narrative has an equal opposing force which can restore the balance within the text.

Eg. Characters could be shown as: Rich and Poor, Strong and Weak, Old and young.

Action Codes: What will happen next. Gun pointed at a character then followed by the victim. Drives the narrative forward.

Enigma Codes: Leave the audience questioning what is happening (Who is this character? Who is the killer? What will happen next? Who does this belong to?

“Men act. Women appear.”

John Berger in Ways of Seeing (1972)

‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

 Laura Mulvey in Screen, (1975)

Mulvey’s famous article about the way the gaze in mainstream Hollywood films has been constructed, was first published in a film journal called Screen in 1975 and has been hugely influential. Her ideas are quite complicated and they have been criticised because they only describe the way the male spectator views a film.

Mulvey argues that visual pleasure is constructed in two ways:

1. Scopophilia or the pleasure of looking/voyeurism à the pleasure of using another person as an object of sexual stimulation through sight.

In films women take on an exhibitionist role, their appearance is constructed for strong visual and erotic impact      

2. Narcissism or identification of the ego with the image on the screen.

Men may feel they can identify with the protagonist and his values as he makes a play for the women he feels he rightly deserves.

Mulvey’s point is that mainstream Hollywood films are constructed to appeal to a male gaze and as a result women in such films are constructed as the object of that gaze. Therefore, according to Mulvey, female view. Some argue that this may be down to the fact that the creators of the media are predominantly male where others argue that this is simply down to the conventions of society.

This idea has been challenged by other feminist film critics and indeed Mulvey revised her own ideas in a later article published in 1981. In ‘Afterthoughts on “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”’ argued that women oscillate between masculine and feminine positions.

When studying representations in relation to the ‘gaze’ it is important to ask yourselves the following questions:

1.     How do men look at women

2.     How women look at themselves

3.     How women look at other women

Audience:



The question relating to audience will appear in section 2(c) or 3. This is usually worth 15-30 marks.

Audiences can be categorised in a number of ways:

General Profile

• Age
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Nationality
• Ideologies
• Culture
• Background

Demographics

·         A: Upper Middle Class

(Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors & other professionals)

·         B: Middle Class

(Middle Management, teachers, many ‘creatives’, eg. Graphic designers.)

·         C1: Lower Middle Class

(Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc)

·         C2: Skilled Working Class

(Skilled workers, tradespersons)

·         D: Working Class

(Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers)

·         E: People at the lowest end of income

(Pensioners, Unemployed, students, casual workers)

In your audience question you should state how audiences can be categorised as these are who you will be referring to. You will also need to include a range of theories.

Uses and Gratifications

Information 

•   finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world
• seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices
• satisfying curiosity and general interest 
• learning; self-education
•  gaining a sense of security through knowledge

Personal Identity

• finding reinforcement for personal values 
• finding models of behaviour 
• identifying with valued other (in the media)
• gaining insight into one's self

Integration and Social Interaction 

• gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy
• identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging
•  finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
• having a substitute for real-life companionship  
• helping to carry out social roles
•  enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

Entertainment

• escaping, or being diverted, from problems 
• relaxing
• getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment 
• filling time
• emotional release 
• sexual arousal
  
  
  Stuart Hall's Reception Theory: Preferred, Negotiated and Oppositional Readings.
  
  PREFERRED
  What meanings do the producers intend you to take from this product? You will respond appropriately to the text. You will engage and understand the characters, laugh at comedy and cry at emotional dramas etc.
  NEGOTIATED:
  How might the audience take on board the preferred reading but contextualise it with other factors to gain a balanced or sceptical view of the product. You may engage with parts but equally reject other parts of the text that you disagree with.
  
  
  OPPOSITIONAL
  How might the audience reject the preferred reading? What factors could contribute to the audience’s opposition to the preferred meaning? You did not engage with the text, you may have been offended by issues represented or it may offer completely different values to your own.
  
  Your Response
  
  
  

  Your response to the products is valid if you concider: 

  
  

  - Are you the target or secondary audience?

  
  

  - Your ideologies and general make-up (not cosmetics!! Your Gender, Nationality etc)

    

  - The context within which you experienced the product (where, when you experienced it and what other knowledge might you have gained that influences your reading?)