Adapted from the excellent materials created by Mick Googan!

1. G235: Critical Perspectives in Media Theoretical Evaluation of Production - Question 1(b) Overview

2. Q1(b) is out of 25 marks and you have 30 minutes to write it. You have to theoretically evaluate ONE of your coursework pieces against one unseen media concept/area of theory: • Genre • Narrative • Representation • Audience • Media Language I recommend that you pick the product you want to analyse and stick to this for the exam. I recommend your film opening but am not being prescriptive. For you to succeed in this all notes must be prepared as if they are your revision notes for the exam – they must be detailed and precise enough to enable a reader to envision the scene/aspect you are referring to.

32. Ien Ang (1991) detailed that media producers have an imaginary entity in mind before the construction of a media product. “ Audiences only exist as an imaginary entity, an abstraction, constructed from the vantage point of the institution, in the interest of the institution”.

33. Ang (1991) states that 'audiencehood is becoming an ever more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences'. You must detail the social demographic of your target audience (gender, age, ethnicity, social class).

34. John Hartley (1987) “institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but –crucially, for them – to talk to one as well; they need not only to represent audiences but to enter into relation with them”

35. Hartley (1987) also suggests that institutions must produce “ invisible fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to get a sense of who they must enter into relations with” . e.g. they must know their audience so they can target them effectively.

37. Audience Reception Theories: Passive and Active Audiences There are basically two different schools of thought concerning how audiences consume media texts, those that believe that audiences are “passive” and those who believe that audiences are “active”. Passive Audience Theory The idea that the media ‘injects’ ideas and views directly into the brains of the audience like a hypodermic needle, therefore, controlling the way that people think and behave.

49. G235: Critical Perspectives in Media Theoretical Evaluation of Production - Question 1(b) Narrative

50. Aims/Objectives • To reinforce the key narrative theorists. • To have a basic understanding of how to evaluate your coursework against key narrative theory.

51. Narrative • Tim O’Sullivan (1998) argues that all media texts tell us some kind of story. • Media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves – not usually our own personal stories, but the story of us as a culture or set of cultures. • Narrative theory sets out to show that what we experience when we ‘read’ a story is to understand a particular set of constructions, or conventions, and that it is important to be aware of how these constructions are put together.

52. 3 important words… Narrative : The structure of a story. Diegesis : The fictional space and time implied by the narrative – the world in which the story takes place. Verisimilitude : Literally – the quality of appearing to be real or true. For a story to engage us it must appear to be real to us as we watch it (the diegetic effect). The story must therefore have verisimilitude – following the rules of continuity, temporal and spacial coherence.

55. Tzvetan Todorov (1977) Bulgarian structural linguist. He was interested in the way language is ordered to infer particular meanings and has been very influential in the field of narrative theory.

58. Roland Barthes (1977) Establishment of plot or theme. This is then followed by the development of the problem, an enigma , an increase in tension . Finally comes the resolution of the plot. Such narratives can be unambiguous and linear.

61. The Russian theorist Vladimir Propp (1928) studied the narrative structure of Russian Folk Tales. Propp concluded that regardless of the individual differences in terms of plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common structural features.

63. When brought together and broken down into their constitute parts these myths can be used to formulate a universal monomyth that is essentially the condensed, basic hero narrative that forms the basis for every myth and legend in the world and is, therefore, common to all cultures. Both George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg were heavily influenced by Campbell’s theories and Star Wars conforms to Campbell’s model of the Monomyth almost exactly.

65. These structures are not unique to film but also advertising and news stories. In fact the structures presented are an integral part of the majority of both western and eastern cultures - details how narrative works in society to inform the audience of events, people, places through mediated ideologies within them. Narratives have a common structure!

66. Jonathan Culler (2001) describes narratology as comprising many strands “ implicitly united in the recognition that narrative theory requires a distinction between story , a sequence of actions or events conceived as independent of their manifestation in discourse, and discourse , the discursive presentation or narration of events.” Structure is different to theme – narrative presents the form in which the theme is mediated/discussed.

67. Claude Lèvi-Strauss (1958) his ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he believed all stories operated to certain clear Binary Opposites e.g. good vs. evil, black vs. white, rich vs. poor etc. The importance of these ideas is that essentially a complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or structure. Things are either right or wrong, good or bad. There is no in between. This structure has ideological implications , if, for example, you want to show that the hero was not wholly correct in what they did, and the villains weren’t always bad. (Postmodernism?)

68. Levi-Strauss also looked deeper into the way that narrative were arranged in terms of themes within that were ultimately always systematic oppositions. The order of events can be called the syntagmatic structure of a narrative, but Levi-Strauss was more concerned with the deeper of paradigmatic arrangement of themes. There is a choice of elements ( paradigms ) and they are arranged/dealt with in a particular way ( syntagms ).

69. “ Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces. Think of this question as the first part of your revision...

70. Its useful to consider this for every topic The research outlined by Brigid Cherry in “Horror Zone” (2010) is useful here. She examined the FanFiction.net site, noting the 69 fan fictions for Scream . She doesn’t make the point, but what this UGC or fan-made content actually reflects is the trend of ‘reimagining’ frnachises, as seen with Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street … Impact of new media?

71. ‘… the concerns and interests of this group of horror fans centre around the desire for narrative continuation and more detailed narrative in some cases. As Will Brooker has stated of science-fiction cinema, cult texts generate fan material which suggests new narrative directions, develops characters or builds on the frameworks of the films. It is clear from the above survey that this fan culture is a “community of imagination” surrounding a heterogenous genre. Unlike fans of an ongoing television text, horror film fans have no continuous weekly fix of new stories. Accordingly, they are constantly seeking new films, and the various segments within horror fandom (be they oriented around identity or taste) are looking for information which will then inform them as to whether a production is likely to be of interest.’ [p.77] Impact of new media? – Brigid Cherry quote

73. G235: Critical Perspectives in Media Theoretical Evaluation of Production - Question 1(b) Genre

75. What Is Genre? • ‘ Genre’ is a critical tool that helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements. • Daniel Chandler (2001) - the word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘type'. The term is widely used in literary theory, media theory to refer to a distinctive type of ‘text’.

76. All Genres have Subgenres • This means that they are divided up into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their familiar and what become recognisable characteristics . • Steve Neale (1995) stresses that “ genres are not systems they are processes” – they are dynamic and evolve over time .

77. Generic Characteristics across all texts share similar elements... 1. Typical Mise-en-scène/Visual style (iconography, props, set design, lighting, temporal and geographic location, costume, shot types, camera angles, special effects). 2. Typical types of Narrative (plots, historical setting, set pieces). 3. Generic Types , i.e. typical characters (do typical male/female roles exist, archetypes?).

78. Typical studios/production companies… 4. Typical Personnel (directors, producers, actors, stars, auteurs etc.). 5. Typical Sound Design (sound design, dialogue, music, sound effects). 6. Typical Editing Style . • KEY: Important elements, less important elements, elements of minimal importance. How does this apply to your film trailer’s genre?

80. Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well. In short, industries use genre to sell products to audiences . Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that often make cultural references to their audience’s knowledge of society + other texts. Genre allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure.

81. Pleasure of genre for audiences • Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences ‘a set of pleasures’. Emotional Pleasures : The emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response. Visceral Pleasures : Visceral pleasures are ‘gut’ responses and are defined by how the film’s stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed, or a ‘roller coaster ride’. Intellectual Puzzles : Certain film genres such as the thriller or the ‘whodunit’ offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. Pleasure is derived from deciphering the plot and forecasting the end or the being surprised by the unexpected.

82. The Strengths Of Genre Theory The main strength of genre theory is that everybody uses it and understands it – media experts use it to study media texts, the media industry uses it to develop and market texts and audiences use it to decide what texts to consume. The potential for the same concept to be understood by producers, audiences and scholars makes genre a useful critical tool. Its accessibility as a concept also means that it can be applied across a wide range of texts.

84. Nicholas Abercrombie (1996) suggests that 'the boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable' Abercrombie is concerned with modern television, which he suggests seems to be engaged in 'a steady dismantling of genre’

85. Genres are not fixed. They constantly change and evolve over time. David Buckingham (1993) argues that 'genre is not... Simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’. As postmodern theorist Jacques Derrida reminds us – ‘the law of the law of genre is a principle of contamination, a law of impurity’.

86. In terms of your coursework... • How we define a genre depends on our purposes (Chandler, 2001). • What was your purpose and the medium? • Your audience and the industry sector you were working within will have defined what you understood as the genre and sub-genre of the texts you created.

87. “ Media texts rely on audience knowledge of generic codes and conventions in order for them to create meaning”. Explain how you used or subverted generic conventions in one of your production pieces. Think of this question as the first part of your revision...

95. Ideology – refers to a set of ideas which produces a partial and selective view of reality. Notion of ideology entails widely held ideas or beliefs which are seen as ‘common’ sense and become naturalised. What is important is that, in Marxist terms, the media’s role may be seen as : Circulating and reinforcing dominant ideologies (less frequently) undermining and challenging such ideologies.