I hope these notes help you ACE the exam:
Mass Culture Theory
Mass culture is a standardised, formulaic, repetitive and superficial culture
High Culture - 'Good Taste' - smaller audience e.g Opera, Ballet
Low Culture - 'Poor Taste' - mass audience, popular e.g Cinema, Reality TV
Taste is socially constructed, and used by different groups to gain status
Cultural Capital - linked to social status, and can be acquired through education. Its value can shift over time it is not fixed.
Semiology
Ferdinand de Saussure says that language is not just a way of classifying objects in an external world, he does not believe that meanings are fixed. He asks why does a word mean what it means?
e.g why is it that when we hear the word cat, we automatically think of a small cute furry animal?
He also believes that signs are arbitrary
Signifier - Sound/image/mark on paper
Signified - The concept
Referent - Real Item
e.g heart shape is the signifier, romance is signified, but the referent is a heart organ
Langue - Language
Parole - actual utterances of words
C.S Pierce distinguishes three types of signs:
Symbolic - no relevant connection e.g Red means danger/stop
Iconic - resemble meaning in some way e.g Queens head on money - wealth
Indexical - signs which indicate what they stand for e.g smoke indicates fire
Structuralism
Propp - looks at Russian folk tales, breaks them down into basic narrative units called 'Narratemes', he states that there are 31 narrative units and narratives are made up of 8 characters: hero, villian, helper, donar, princess, father, dispatcher, false hero
Barthes - suggests narratives have up to 5 distinct codes: Symbolic codes, Cultural codes, the Hermeneutic or Enigma code, which acts as a mystery/puzzle which engages the viewer to guess what will happen at the end.
Wright - Western
Eco - James Bond
Todorov - argues there is a common underlying structure in narratives: Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - Equilibrium this suggests that narratives begin balanced and stable, they then become disrupted, and then the status quo is restored, and a balanced and stable world is restored.
Fabula - another word for 'story', forms in our minds through influences
Syuzhet - another word for 'plot', arrangement of events by author
Genre Theory
Contract between producer and audience
Genre Hybridity - two genres mixed together e.g Romantic Comedy
Intertextuality - draws in other texts
Political Economy
Material conditions in which a text was produced/Relationship between hard and soft power
Hard Power - capital, military, legal systems
Soft Power - symbols, discourses, semiotics
Stuart Hall
Encoder - Message - Decoder
3 interpretive codes:
1. The dominant - fully decodes it
2. The negotiated - partly decodes it
3. The oppositional - understands it but chooses not to share it
New Media
WorldWideWeb
HTML - HyperText Markup Language
Internet
- ability to produce content e.g on YouTube
- ability to communicate with others e.g on Social Networking Sites- Facebook
The Chicago School
Offers a model for Regulation (I remember it as SLAM)
Social Norms - how we should behave
Law - sanctions and threats given if we disobey the law
Architecture - forms of constraints e.g Tinted windows don't let you see in
Market - availability and prices constraint our actions of what we can afford to buy
Narrative
Relationship between 'teller' and 'listener'
Narratives are all constructed, they are organised as a sequence of events
Framing - tells us what to think, selects what is salient (important)
Priming - tells us what to think about, allows us to have our own opinion, it stimulates thought and emotional reactions
Agenda Setting - media can influence the audience by amount of attention given to a particular news story
CMC - Computer Mediated Communication
Seperation between reality and online reality
Hegenomy Theory - where popular ideas of 'common sense' reflects the interests of the powerful elites
Uses and Gratifications
- Audiences are active not passive, they exercise choice in media consumption
- They use media for what they want, they seek media use for specific needs
e.g to find information, create a personal identity, communicate and socialise with others on SNS such as Facebook, for business, for entertainment
- Media use is goal directed
Chomsky and Herman believe that there is a ruling class which controls the media and its effects
Barthes suggests that codes are 'naturalised' to form myths which convey a particular message.
e.g Bleach is like liquid fire and Soap gently 'lifts' dirt
Two levels of meaning
Denotation - first level, what it actually is
Connotation - second level, what it makes you think of
So that's all, hopefully its enough for us to pass!
I wish you all the best of luck x
Material conditions in which a text was produced/Relationship between hard and soft power
Hard Power - capital, military, legal systems
Soft Power - symbols, discourses, semiotics
Stuart Hall
Encoder - Message - Decoder
3 interpretive codes:
1. The dominant - fully decodes it
2. The negotiated - partly decodes it
3. The oppositional - understands it but chooses not to share it
New Media
WorldWideWeb
HTML - HyperText Markup Language
Internet
- ability to produce content e.g on YouTube
- ability to communicate with others e.g on Social Networking Sites- Facebook
The Chicago School
Offers a model for Regulation (I remember it as SLAM)
Social Norms - how we should behave
Law - sanctions and threats given if we disobey the law
Architecture - forms of constraints e.g Tinted windows don't let you see in
Market - availability and prices constraint our actions of what we can afford to buy
Narrative
Relationship between 'teller' and 'listener'
Narratives are all constructed, they are organised as a sequence of events
Framing - tells us what to think, selects what is salient (important)
Priming - tells us what to think about, allows us to have our own opinion, it stimulates thought and emotional reactions
Agenda Setting - media can influence the audience by amount of attention given to a particular news story
CMC - Computer Mediated Communication
Seperation between reality and online reality
Hegenomy Theory - where popular ideas of 'common sense' reflects the interests of the powerful elites
Uses and Gratifications
- Audiences are active not passive, they exercise choice in media consumption
- They use media for what they want, they seek media use for specific needs
e.g to find information, create a personal identity, communicate and socialise with others on SNS such as Facebook, for business, for entertainment
- Media use is goal directed
Chomsky and Herman believe that there is a ruling class which controls the media and its effects
Barthes suggests that codes are 'naturalised' to form myths which convey a particular message.
e.g Bleach is like liquid fire and Soap gently 'lifts' dirt
Two levels of meaning
Denotation - first level, what it actually is
Connotation - second level, what it makes you think of
So that's all, hopefully its enough for us to pass!
I wish you all the best of luck x
No comments:
Post a Comment