2. Q. How do I include media theories in my
work?
A. Like this….
The aim is to integrate them as fluently as possible to make
clear that theory is something that naturally informs your
understanding of media texts and issues. Ideally, they will
never just come across as something bolted-on to your
answer, they should form an integral part of it.
What this might look like in practise, will be determined by
the question that you are answering and the texts you are
analysing, but what follows are a few examples of how
theory might be absorbed into your answers.
3. Uses & gratifications
This should inform your approach to audience, and will play
a particular role in questions that ask you to explore how
texts appeal to audiences. For example:
One of the key ways in which the GHD ‘Twisted Fairytales’
campaign appeals to the audience is by constructing the
audience as empowered young women with the strength to
reject the stereotypes that have traditionally imprisoned
women. In doing so they help shape the audience’s sense of
personal identity, by presenting role-models that the
audience are encouraged to aspire to.
4. Uses & gratifications
This should inform your approach to audience, and will play
a particular role in questions that ask you to explore how
texts appeal to audiences. For example:
The Carling ‘Know Who Your Mates Are’ campaign appeals
to its audience by using a comic mode of address and by
making intertextual use of cinematic genres that have
stereotypical appeal to a male audience. In doing so the text
not only endows the brand with a specific set of values (an
understanding of the loyalty and humour that underpins
male relationships) but does so in a way that also provides
entertainment.
5. Uses & gratifications
This should inform your approach to audience, and will play
a particular role in questions that ask you to explore how
texts appeal to audiences. For example:
Louis Vuitton’s ‘Journeys’ campaign appeals to its audience
by constructing a lifestyle of spiritual fulfilment and material
comfort. By featuring iconic, A-List celebrities such as Bono
and his wife, the adverts place the audience in the position
of privileged spectators, witnesses to moments of intimacy
in which the stars embody the values of the brand (caring,
successful, at ease anywhere on the planet). In doing so
they appeal to our sense of personal identity.
6. Reception Theory
In other words, the one about dominant, negotiated and
oppositional readings. This should inform audience
questions about how they audience are
targeted/positioned, and questions that invite you to
explore audience responses. Like this…
The GHD campaign positions the audience as savvy, sharp-
witted young women executing their revenge on men, as in
the case of Cinderella, or proving their independence rather
than their passive reliance on men, as in the Rapunzel
moving-image advert. These dominant reading are
constructed through the use of visual and technical codes
such as the close-up of ‘Rapunzel’ coming up with the idea
of how she can escape from the tower.
7. Reception Theory
In other words, the one about dominant, negotiated and
oppositional readings. This should inform audience
questions about how they audience are
targeted/positioned, and questions that invite you to
explore audience responses. Like this…
Although the Carling campaign explicitly targets an
audience of 18-34 year old males, it could also appeal to
other demographics. For example the comic mode of
address is likely to have cross-gender appeal, meaning that
the dominant reading of the text could be accepted by a
range of different audiences.
8. Reception Theory
In other words, the one about dominant, negotiated and
oppositional readings. This should inform audience
questions about how they audience are
targeted/positioned, and questions that invite you to
explore audience responses. Like this…
A more oppositional response to the Louis Vuitton
campaign could be that the references to ethical commerce,
for example in the Bono advert, and to environmental
issues represent little more than window-dressing to
present the company in a more positive light when
ultimately they are promoting products that, by virtue of
their extreme cost, promote exclusivity and division.
9. Narrative Theory
Quite obviously these will inform your analysis of the TV
texts. Again, the key is not to force them on the analysis,
and, most importantly, don’t see them as the be-all and
end-all of narrative analysis.
Luther (Series 3, episode 1), features a narrative with
multiple-strands, that, following the convention of crime-
dramas involve a number of enigma codes. The most
significant of these relate to the two strands of the narrative
that are concerned with solving and preventing crime. In
the case of the fetish killer – a dark, often gruesome
narrative that incorporates camera angles and sound-codes
from the horror genre – the enigma is, can Luther and his
team catch the killer before he strikes again?
10. Narrative Theory
Quite obviously these will inform your analysis of the TV
texts. Again, the key is not to force them on the analysis,
and, most importantly, don’t see them as the be-all and
end-all of narrative analysis.
Channel 4’s four-part gangster/social realist hybrid ‘Top Boy’
follows many of the narrative conventions of the gangster
genre, in particular, through the way in which the robberies
at the beginning and end of the first episode, introduce
disequilibriums that Dushane must repair if he is to rise to
the position of ‘Top Boy’.
11. Narrative Theory
Quite obviously these will inform your analysis of the TV texts. Again,
the key is not to force them on the analysis, and, most importantly, don’t
see them as the be-all and end-all of narrative analysis.
BBC1’s flagship current-affairs show Panorama, uses a range
of narrative devices in order to engage the audience
emotionally as well as intellectually with the issue under
investigation in May 2013’s ‘Jobs for the Boys’ episode. For
example, the show creates binary oppositions between
some of those featured. Abdi, for example, is constructed
through the use of visual codes and mode of address as the
antithesis of the unnamed protagonist, who, through sound
codes such as rap music and the technical codes such as
hand-held camera, as a negative stereotype of young black
males.
