Theory overview

Hartley also suggests that institutions produce:
“Invisible fictions of the audience which allow the
institutions to get a sense of who they must enter into
relations with”
In other words, they must know their audience to be
able to target them effectively.

The idea of audience is
changing…
• Julian McDougall (2009) suggests that in
the online age it is getting harder to
conceive a media audience as a stable,
identifiable group. Many argue that an
audience is just a hypothetical group of
people imagined for the sole purpose
having a target for a media product.

IenAng
• IenAng, a leading professor of
Cultural Studies believes “audiences
only exist as an imaginary entity, an
abstraction, constructed from the
vantage point of the institution, in
the interest of the institution”.
• She follows the belief that are not
truly reflective of people’s views
and serve only to aid producers

Julian McDougall (2009)
• He is often controversial, McDougall explores issues in
education, and calls on educators to abandon prejudices
and engage with what students are already actually doing
with new media forms. He advocates a shift away from
students viewing cultural products as texts to a view
where even video games need analysis, explanation and
research. In this way, he is very much an advocate of
exploring new and less traditional forms of literacy, as well
as analysing the relationship between new media and
postmodern theories
• He believes it is harder to perceive a media audience as a
stable, identifiable group in the online age.
• However, audiences still make sense of and give meaning
to products.

Julian McDougall
Often provocative and controversial, McDougall explores issues in education,
and calls on educators to abandon their prejudices and engage with what
students are already actually doing with new media forms. Building on work
from David Buckingham, Steven Johnson and David Gauntlett, he advocates
a shift away from students viewing cultural products as texts to a view where
even video games need analysis, explanation and research.
In this way, he is very much an advocate of exploring new and less traditional
forms of literacy, as well as analysing the relationship between new media
and postmodern theories,
Audiences ‡ Julian McDougall (2009) suggests that in the online age it is getting
harder to conceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group. ‡
However audiences still clearly make sense and give meaning to cultural
products. ‡
An audience can be described as a temporary collective (McQuail, 1972). ‡ Key
terms: Mass / Niche & Mainstream / Alternative

John Hartley
• “institutions are obliged to speak not only about an
audience, but crucially, for them, to talk to one as well;
they need not only to represent audiences but to enter
in to relation with them”
• Also suggests institutions should produce “invisible
fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to
get a sense of who they must enter into relations with”
• Therefore, the institutions must know their audience, in
order to target them effectively.

However
• Audiences still make sense and give
meaning to cultural products.
• Audiences are necessary for media products
to work as without a a demographic to aim
at (however niche or mainstream) it would
not be received by anyone.

Hypodermic Needle Theory
• The Hypodermic Needle Theory, also
known as the Magic Bullet Theory, was the
first major theory concerning the effect of
the mass media on society. Originating in
the 1920s, the theory was based on the
premise of an all-powerful media with
uniform and direct effects on the viewer or
audience. (i.e. information is injected into
audiences)

Blumler and Katz
Uses and Gratifications Theory
• The Gratifications Theory assumes we actively
seek out media to satisfy individual needs. The
uses and gratifications theory looks to answer
three questions:
• What to do people do with the media?
• What are their underlying motives for using
said media?
• What are the pros cons of this this individual
media use?

Uses and Gratifications
The Blumler and Katz theory is the understanding of what the audience does for the
media not what the media does for the audience. It is the integration that the
audience does for the media that helps sales, for example buying of the product.
The uses and gratifications theory follows a simple model, the audience takes an
active role on their media choice, which by seeking out the media, a person
fulfils the need to be informed:
(1) Diversion - Escape from routine and problems; emotional release. Escapism.
(2) Personal Relationships - Social utility of information in conversation;
substitution of media for companionship.
(3) Personal Identity or Individual Psychology - Value reinforcement or
reassurance; self-understanding, reality exploration.
(4) Surveillance - Information about factors which might affect one, or will help
one do or accomplish something.
•

Reception Theory — Presentation Transcript
1. David Phillips Reception theory
2. Reception Theory Understanding the early theory of reception
of text.
3. Some early thoughts Reception theory is a version of reader
response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a
literary text.
4. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text
itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the
reader.
5. What do we interpret from a message Stuart Hall stressed the
role of social positioning in the interpretation of mass media texts by
different social groups. In a model deriving from Frank Parkin's
'meaning systems', Hall suggested three hypothetical interpretative
codes or positions for the reader of a text.

6. Reception models Dominant (or 'hegemonic') reading: the reader fully
shares the text's code and accepts and reproduces the preferred reading
(a reading which may not have been the result of any conscious
intention on the part of the author(s)) - in such a stance the code seems
'natural' and 'transparent';
Negotiated reading: the reader partly shares the text's code and broadly
accepts the preferred reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in
a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests
(local and personal conditions may be seen as exceptions to the
general rule) - this position involves contradictions;
Oppositional ('counter-hegemonic') reading: the reader, whose social
situation places them in a directly oppositional relation to the
dominant code, understands the preferred reading but does not share
the text's code and rejects this reading, bringing to bear an alternative
frame of reference (radical, feminist etc.) (e.g. when watching a
television broadcast produced on behalf of a political party they
normally vote against).

7. Uses and Gratification The basic theme of Uses and Gratifications is
the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications. This is
in opposition to the Hypodermic Needle model that claims consumers
have no say in how the media influences them. 8. Uses and
Gratification - people play and active role.... Jay G. Blumler and Elihu
Katz devised their uses and gratifications model in 1974 to highlight
five areas of gratification in media texts for audiences. These include:
Escape — Some media texts allow the user to escape from reality.
Social interaction — People create personal relationships with the
characters in a media text. Identify — People often identify a part of
themselves in a media text, either through character or circumstance.
Inform and educate — the audience gain an understanding of the
world around them by consuming a media text, for example print and
broadcast news. Entertain - consumed purely for entertainment
purposes, meaning that text need not have any other gratifications.

9. Shared experience the basis for this hypothesis, that it is the sharing of
subjective experience that is the fundamental element that underlies
attachment drive and behavior, requires an examination of the very
basis and context of our living experience.
10. The role of role models Fashion Celebrity WoM Association
Sense of group and belonging Makes reception easy in social context
11. Evidence of the influence of mass media A single story has
little effect Need for context Need for repetition All publicity is good
publicity? Is this how propaganda works? David Fan says a free press
is a defense against – but not complete.
By Matthew Allard

Representation
• How the media shows us things about
society through careful mediation of
re-presenting a shared view of the world

Stuart Hall
In our modern world our life is saturated with
visual representations

What do these images signify?
Consider:
Colour
Symbolism

Consider:
Clothing
Props
Gesture

Consider:
Costume
Props
Differences in clothing and
positioning

How to apply theory in your
writing and use the theorists
• Assume your reader knows about the
theory/theorist
• Don’t explain the theory; use it
• A Todorovian analysis would argue...
• Steve Neale’s statements that Genre is ‘made up
of repetition and change’ could be useful here
because...
• Barthes’ notion of action codes provides a
useful way of understanding the film in that...

Richard Dyer
Stereotypes
• Stereotype (first used as a term by Walter
Lippmann in 1956)
• Has come to be defined as a negative
representation or over-simplification of a
category of people in a group
• Dyer explains that stereotypes reinforce
ideas of differences between people which
are natural – i.e. Criminals are represented
as low-lifes, untrustworthy...

Counter argument – Tessa
Perkins (1979)
• Stereotypes are not always negative
• Are not always about minority groups
• Stereotypes are not always false
• Apply this to your characters in your films
– E.g. What social group(s) do your characters
belong to? How is this made clear?
– What age group do your characters belong to
(e.g. Nervous, unsure teenagers...)

Counter Argument – David
Gauntlett and Martin Barker
• Identities are not given but are constructed
and negotiated (Gauntlett)
• Martin Barker condemned stereotypes for
mis-representing the real world by
reinforcing false stereotypes

Baudrillard
• Postmodern theorist
• Argues that representations no longer refer to reality or real things
• The representation has become more real to us than the reality – i.e.
The representation of mob bosses as Italian Mafia men instilled
through The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Sopranos
• This is re-presentation of reality is termed a simulacrum – a copy of
reality
• For Baudrillard, these images have become hyperreal – have no
relationship to the real. CSI and Silent Witness as examples of forensic
science investigations that through their popularity seem to typify our
perception of what that reality is like

Your characters
• Pick one of the characters from either your film or
another group’s.
• Create a profile about them
– Motivation
– Who they represent
– What they represent
• Where did you get your inspirations for your characters?
From reality or from media representations on film and
television?
• Are they, therefore, arguably a simulacrum of reality?

Theorists you need to know (and
love)
• Tzvetan Todorov (Structure of narrative)
• Vladimir Propp (Characters in narratives)
• Roland Barthes (Codes of narratives)
• Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary oppositions)

Plot vs. Narrative
• Plot = the chronological events of a story.
E.g. The story of Titanic begins when
people board a really big boat and it ends
with the peaceful death of the old lady
(Rose).
• Narrative = the organisation of this story.
E.g. The film of Titanic begins in the
present with the old lady relaying her story
before the film has prolonged flashbacks to
the past

Structure
Place these narrative events in
order:
• Detective investigates
• Crime conceived
• Crime discovered
• Detective identifies crime
• Crime committed
• Crime planned

Structure
The plot of this story:
• Crime conceived
• Crime planned
• Crime committed
• Crime discovered
• Detective identifies crime
• Detective investigates

Propp
Studied Russian folktales and created a list of
distinguishable character typologies (categories)
including:
• The hero (sent on a quest)
• The villain (struggles against hero)
• The princess/prize (what the hero
seeks in completing the quest)
• The donor (gives vital information
or object to hero)
• The helper (aids in the quest)

Propp’s eight character roles and
how they can be applied to the
shining.
The villain— struggles against the hero- In the shining
this character type could be considered to be either Jack as
he gets possessed and tries to kill his family or the hotel as
this is what possesses him.
The dispatcher—character who makes the lack known
and sends the hero off- This character type can not be
related to The Shining
The helper — helps the hero in the quest- In the shining
the helper could be the character Dick as he does help
Danny at some stages throughout the film and Danny
could be seen as one of the heroes.. However, this does
not directly relate.

The princess or prize — 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-
In the shining the princess or prize would be the main female protagonist Wendy
as she is the only female character; the former husband Jack deserves her but as
he comes possessed he no longer deserves her. The prize could be the character
Danny.

The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object- The
donor in The Shining could be the character Dick as he enabled Danny to use
his power by making him aware of it.
The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess- The
hero in The Shining could either be Danny or Wendy as they both survive until
the end.
False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess-
The false hero could either be Jack as he pretends to be someone he is not or it
could be Dick.

To some extent, Propp's eight character types do relate
to the film The Shining. However, not all of them can
be connected such as; the dispatcher and the father.

Bordwell and Thompson never did come up with a
complete narrative theory, they did however come up
with some interesting ideas.
They believed that chain of events within a media
form cause effects on a relationship occurring in time
and space and the narrative shapes this material in
terms of time space such as; where and when things
take place. This can be portrayed through using
effects to show the time and space by using flash
backs, forwarding time, slow motion and speeding
up.

This theory is evident within The shining. We see
the character Jack having flashbacks from past
events and we see Danny seeing things in the
future due to his power. Inter titles are used
frequently within the movie showing which day it
is connoting the high impact of the time in this
film.

Claude Levi- Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of "
Binary oppositions" focusing on the different sets of opposite
values which reveal the structure of the media texts. His
narrative theory is different compared to other theorists as he
focused more on the arrangement of themes rather than the order
of a media text.

Examples of these binary
oppositions could be :
Earth – space
Good – bad
Past- Present
Normal- abnormal
Humans- Aliens
Known- Unknown
Dead- Alive
Happy- sad
Weak- strong

These binary oppositions can be applied to the film
The Shining in several ways. They moved to an
Isolated place when they were used to living in a
civilised area. The character Jack’s sanctity changed as
he became insane. Another example of these binary
oppositions could be the character Wendy; she
appeared weak at the beginning of the film but then
became a much stronger character at the end. Lastly
Danny appeared to be a normal boy at the beginning
but he soon realised, with Dick’s guidance that he had
a power.

Todorov was a Bulgarian linguist who produced and
published influential narrative theory work from the
1960’s onwards. His theory suggested that stories
begin with an equilibrium where any opposing force
are in balance. This equilibrium is then disrupted by
an event which leads to a series of other events
leading to the stereotypical end of all major events
being restored.

Todorov’s narrative theory can be applied to The Shining as the
film begins normally – the family moving away. A change in
equilibrium then occurs- Jack slowly becoming mental and then
the enigma is then resolved at the end as Jack dies and Wendy
and Danny escape unharmed.

Barthes
Barthes describes narrative as a series of codes that are read and
interpreted by the audience
Barthes describes narrative as a series of codes that are read and
interpreted by the audience

Barthes’ 5 CodesAction Code:
something the audience knows and doesn't need explaining e.g. someone being
wheeled out on a stretcher tells us they are going to hospital
Enigma Code:
something hidden from the audience (creates intrigue)
Semic Code:
something that the audience recognize through connotations
Symbolic Code:
Something that symbolizes a more abstract concept e.g. a darker than usual room of
a murder scene could symbolize the depth of darkness and depravity
Cultural Code:
Something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness (e.g. youth
culture use certain words that are understood by that culture)

TODOROV
Todorov describes narrative as going from equilibrium to
disequilibrium back to an altered equilibrium
Todorov describes narrative as going from equilibrium to
disequilibrium back to an altered equilibrium
Standard 3-
point
narrative.
•Beginning
•Middle
•End
More
detailed 5-
point
narrative

TODOROV
Equilibrium: (sets the scene)
Everyday Life
Disruption: (complication)
Something happens to alter the equilibrium
Conflict: (climax)
Trying to solve the problem (seek resolution)
Resolution:
Problem is sorted
New Equilibrium: (satisfactory end)
Back to normal (but never the same)- a new normal

LEVI-STRAUSS
Levi-Strauss describes narrative as created by constant
conflict of binary opposites
Levi-Strauss describes narrative as created by constant
conflict of binary opposites
Love – Hate
Black – White
Man – Nature
Light – Darkness
Peace – War
Protagonist –Antagonist
Movement – Stillness
Civilized – Savage
Young – Old
Control – Panic
Strong – Weak
Man – Woman
Wealth – Poverty
Mankind – Aliens
Humans – Technology
Ignorance - Wisdom
“Star Wars”
“Mr. & Mrs. Smith”
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“Once Upon a Time in the West”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“Apocalypse Now”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“Vertigo”

Complex narrative structure
Today’s narratives have become increasingly complex as
producers know that audiences have a greater sense of media
literacy when it comes to making meaning of the text and reading
the signs. There are often numerous plot twists and surprises that
keep the audience intrigued with carefully spun storylines.
Films such as “Memento” (Nolan,2000) which weaves the story in
reverse gives the audience a similar experience to the protagonist
who has short term memory loss, as they try and fit the clues
together through the use of restricted narrative.
Unrestricted Narrative: What the are assumed to know e.g.
thriller there will be a crime so they will be expecting it
Restricted Narrative: The information that is withheld from thehttp://quizlet.com/4162490/narrative-theorists-flash-cards/
Now test your knowledge:

Genre Theory
Daniel Chandler: Conventional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion
that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings -
iconography) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the
texts which are regarded as belonging to them.
The Shining could be read according to this
theory as conventionally, thrillers will seek to
place protagonists in an isolated location – The
Overlook Hotel
This convention is emphasised in
the film’s climax when Jack
pursues his wife into a bathroom
where she cannot
escape. Pursuit of an innocent victim as
another
thematic convention (cf. North by
Northwest, Cape Fear)

Mori, The Tunnel, Blunt Trauma
• Think carefully about your own films and
the one you have studied for today’s lesson
Themes and Iconography
(plot info/props/characters...)
Structure and Style
(camerawork and editing)

Rick Altman argues that genres are usually defined in terms of media
language (SEMANTIC elements) and codes (in the Thriller, for example:
guns, urban landscape, victims, stalkers, menaced women or even stars,
like James Stewart or Jack Nicholson) or certain ideologies and narratives
(SYNTACTIC elements – Anxiety, tension, menacing situation)
Jonathan Culler (1978) – generic conventions exist to establish a contract
between creator and reader so as to make certain expectations operative,
allowing compliance and deviation from the accepted modes of
intelligibility. Acts of communication are rendered intelligible only within
the context of a shared conventional framework of expression.
Tom Ryall (1998) sees this framework provided by the generic system;
therefore, genre becomes a cognitive repository of images, sounds, stories,
characters, and expectations
Traditional Genre Theorists

Tom Ryall (1978) – Genre provides a framework of structuring rules, in the shape of
patterns/forms/styles/structures, which act as a form of ‘supervision’ over the work of production
of filmmakers and the work of reading by the audience.
John Fiske defines genres as ‘attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and
meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers and audiences.’
Steve Neale (1990) argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-related functions:
i) to guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences ii) to offset the considerable economic
risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and
difference.
Dial M For Murder
Cape Fear
Vertigo

It is easy to underplay the differences within a genre. Steve Neale declares that
'genres are instances of repetition and difference' (Neale 1980, 48). He adds that
'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre': mere repetition would
not attract an audience.
Memento is a conventional thriller in
terms of plot – Protagonist seeks revenge
against his wife’s murderer. Yet the
narrative style creates the generic
divergence in being told backwards
Texts often exhibit the conventions of more than one genre. John Hartley notes
that 'the same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times'
(O'Sullivan et al. 1994). E.g. Alien as bearing the iconography of a Science Fiction
film (setting, props, characters), but the stylistic approach of a Horror – Extreme
close-ups and heavy use of low-key lighting to unsettle audience

Your own films
• Can you apply Steve Neale’s theory to your
own films?
• Have you challenged the conventional
thriller genre at all by adding subtle
differences in character, plot, setting etc...
• Or are you conforming to genre by
following expected conventions in style and
iconography? (David Chandler’s theory)

Traditionally, genres (particularly literary genres) tended to be regarded
as fixed forms, but contemporary theory emphasizes that both their forms
and functions are dynamic. David Buckingham argues that 'genre is not...
simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of
negotiation and change' (Buckingham 1993).
Buckingham’s argument therefore would compare nicely to Steve Neale
to add a further theoretical approach to your response
Fatal Attraction
Casino Royale

Daniel Chandler: Every genre positions those who participate in a text of that
kind: as interviewer or interviewee, as listener or storyteller, as a reader or a
writer, as a person interested in political matters, as someone to be instructed or
as someone who instructs; each of these positionings implies different
possibilities for response and for action. Each written text provides a 'reading
position' for readers, a position constructed by the writer for the 'ideal reader' of
the text. (Kress 1988,)
Thus, embedded within texts are assumptions about the 'ideal reader', including
their attitudes towards the subject matter and often their class, age, gender and
ethnicity.
David Buckingham
Contemporary Genre Theorists

'Uses and gratifications‘ research has identified many potential pleasures of genre,
including the following:
•One pleasure may simply be the recognition of the features of a particular genre because
of our familiarity with it. Recognition of what is likely to be important (and what is not),
derived from our knowledge of the genre, is necessary in order to follow a plot.
•Genres may offer various emotional pleasures such as empathy and escapism - a feature
which some theoretical commentaries seem to lose sight of. Aristotle, of course,
acknowledged the special emotional responses which were linked to different genres.
Deborah Knight notes that 'satisfaction is guaranteed with genre; the deferral of the
inevitable provides the additional pleasure of prolonged anticipation' (Knight 1994).
Genre and Audience

•Steve Neale argues that pleasure is derived from 'repetition and difference' (Neale
1980); there would be no pleasure without difference. We may derive pleasure from
observing how the conventions of the genre are manipulated (Abercrombie 1996). We
may also enjoy the stretching of a genre in new directions and the consequent shifting
of our expectations.
•Other pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with others
within an 'interpretive community' which can be characterized by its familiarity with
certain genres (Daniel Chandler).

Neale (1980)- much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the process of “difference
in repetition” – i.e. recognition of familiar elements and in the way those elements
might be orchestrated in an unfamiliar fashion or in the way that unfamiliar elements
might be introduced
Nicholas Abercrombie (1996) – The boundaries between genres are shifting and
becoming more permeable.

Can Genre be defined by audience? Is it a question of film
comprehension?
Neale (1990) – Genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations and
hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and which interact
with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process.”

1. To the producers of films, genre is a template for what they make.
2. To the distributor/promoter, genre provides assumptions about who the audience is and how
to market the films for that specific audience.
3. To the audience, it is a label that identifies a liked or disliked formula and provides certain
rules of engagement for the spectator in terms of anticipation of pleasure e.g. the anticipation
of what will happen in the attic scene of The Exorcist.
4. When genres become classic, they can exert tremendous influence: production can be come
quicker and more confident because film-makers are following tested formulae and have a
ready shorthand to work with, and actors can be filtered into genres and can be seen to have
assumed ‘star quality’ when their mannerisms, physical attributes, way of speaking and acting
fit a certain style of genre.

5. In turn, viewers become ‘generic spectators’ and can be said to develop generic
memory which helps the in the anticipation of events, even though the films
themselves might play on certain styles rather than follow closely a clichéd
formula. E.g. the attic scene from The Exorcist – we expect something to jump
out on the woman because all the generic conventions are in place, but in the
end, the director deflates the tension. We do not consume films as individual
entities, but in an intertextual way. Film is a post-modern medium in this way,
because movies make sense in relation to other films, not to reality.
6. It is the way genre films deviate from the clichéd formulae that leads to a more
interesting experience for the viewer, but fore this to work properly, the audience
must be familiar with generic conventions and style.

David Bordwell notes, 'any theme may appear in any genre' (Bordwell 1989)
‘One could... argue that no set of necessary and sufficient conditions can mark
off genres from other sorts of groupings in ways that all experts or ordinary film-
goers would find acceptable'

PROBLEMS WITH GENRE CLASSIFICATION
Theorist and Critic Rick Altman (1999) came up with a list of points he found problematic
with genre classification .
a) Genre is a useful category, because it bridges multiple concerns.
b) Genres are defined by the film industry and recognised by the mass audience.
c) Genres have clear, stable identities and borders.
d) Individual films belong wholly and permanently to a single genre.
e) Genres are transhistorical.
f) Genres undergo predictable development.
g) Genres are located in particular topic, structure and corpus.
h) Genre films share certain fundamental characteristic.
i) Genres have either a ritual or ideological function.
j) Genre critics are distanced from the practice of genre.

Theory overview

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Theory overview