Media Theory

Media Theory

Genre

o   Barry Keith Grant (1995) – genres allow audiences to identify texts specifically by their familiar and recognizable characteristics.

o   Jason Mittel (2001) industries use genre to sell products to audiences

o   Dennis Mquail – uses and gratification theory

·      Information, learning, satisfying

·      Personal Identity – gaining insight into ones self, reinforcements of personal values

·      Integration and social interaction – identifying with others, sense of belonging

·      Entertainment escapism, relaxing, filling time

David Buckingham (1993)  “Genre not… simply” given” by the culture rather: it is in a constant process of negotiation and change” (genres are not fixed, they evolve over time)

Media Language

o   Carol Vernallis (2001)  

·      Narrative  -

·      Disjointed, fragmented narrative

·      Might not be clear resolution

·      Video may portray un answered questions

·      Editing

·       Jump cuts

·      Juxtaposed shots

·      Breaking 180 rule

·      Camera movement and framing

·      Camera moves in with the movement

·      Close ups and master shots often used

·      Diegesis

·      Diegesis slowly revealed

·      Character or object move in time with the music

·      Certain frames more important than others

·      Gaps in audiences understanding of Diegesis in the same space, music performance and narrative.

o   Andrew Goodwin

·      Thought beats

·      Narrative and performance is repetitive

·      Idea of ‘star image’

·      Relation of visuals to a song

·      Technical aspects

·      Record companies demand close ups on main artist and vocalist

·      Voyeurism present in many music videos

·      Intertextual references to other music videos, film, TV texts

Representation

o   Stuart Hall (1980) The media is an insight into society but through careful mediation.

·      Representation can only be meaningful if shared recognition of people, situation, ideas,, etc.

o   David Guantlett (2007) “Identity is complicated. Everybody thinks they’ve got one. Artists play with the idea of identity in modern society”.

o   James baker (2007)

·      Selection - much more will have been left out than what appears on screen

·      Organization – various elements always end up with us. Audience encouraged to concentrate on one element of the text and ignore others

·      Stereotypes – race, age, gender, sexuality

Narrative

o   Tim O’Sullivan (1998) All media texts tell some kind of story

·      Through mediation, media texts offer a way of telling us stories about ourselves through ideologies

·      Al narratives have a common structure:

·      Establishing of plot or theme

·      Development of an problem/enigma, an increase in tension

·      Resolution of plot

·      Such narratives can be unambiguous and linear

o   Pam Cook (1985)

·      “Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution”

·      High degree of narrative closure

·      Fictional world contains verisimilitude governed by spatial and temporal coherences

o   Tzventan Todorov (1997) five different codes

·      Stage 1 -  stable equilibrium

·      Stage 2 – stability disrupted, disequilibrium

·      Step 3 – recognition that the disruption has taken place

·      Stage 4 – action against disruption

·      Stage 5 – restoration of a new state of equilibrium

o   Claude Levi-Strauss (1958) stories operate to certain clear binary opposites

o   Barthes (1977) five different codes

·      Enigma code – works to keep setting up problems or puzzles for the audience.

·      Action code – based on cultural and stereotypical understanding of actions acting as shorthand to advancing the narrative.

o   Adrian Tilley (1991) use buckling of gun belt in Western genre as a means of signifying the preferred reading of an imminent shoot. Works in the same way as starting a car engine

o   Vladimir Propp (1928) all narratives contain shock characters as audiences understand stories because of such features.

o   Andrew Goodwin (1922)

·      “Narrative relations highly complex” – meaning can be created from individual audio-viewer’s personal musical taste to sophisticated intertextuality that uses multidiscursice phenomena of Western culture.

·      Many narratives dominated by advertising references, film pastiche and reinforce postmodern ‘reuse’ tradition

o   Carol Vernalls

·      Narrative: disjointed narrative, may not be clear resolution, the video may pose un answered questions

o   Sven Carlsson (1999) music videos general fall into two rough groups

·      Performance – shows mostly artist of band singing and dancing

Ø  Instrumental

Ø  Song

Ø  Dance

·      Conceptual – shows something else, often with artists ambitions

o   Narrative clip – visual story that is easy to follow and can stand alone as a short silent movie. True narrative clips contain no lip-synchronized singing.

o   Art clip – contains no perceptible visual narrative and no lip-synchronized singing. Tends to be more experimental music.