This document discusses various theories of media representation and language. It covers representational theory, narrative theory, audience theory, genre theory, and media language. Key points include that representation is a construction of reality rather than a direct reflection; narratives follow common patterns and codes; audiences consume media actively for various needs and gratifications; genres have conventions that create expectations; and media use codes and conventions to construct meaning.

1. Media Theories
Alisha Muller A2

2. Representational theory
• Representational theory is a construction of aspects of reality such as
people, places, objects, cultural identities and other concepts.
• Representation is the portrayal of different genders, sexualities,
cultures, classes, religions and disabilities and how those are shown
thorough the media compared to how they are shown in reality.
• Representation is no complete reflection of reality.

3. Representational theory
Jessica Hyde
• However realistic or compelling some media image seem, they never
represent the world direct. They are always a construction. A re-
presentation, rather than a clear window on the real world. Some media
represent certain images, stories and situations which might make them
seem natural and familiar to us.
• Jessica Hyde also spoke about the re-creation of reality. When we study
media representation we are considering the ways in which the media
portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas and topics
and the attendant ideological standpoints and value perspectives. We
need to learn to examine the underlying value assumptions inherent in
representation and whether they accept or rejects those assumptions.
• This connects to newspapers as the writer mostly represents specific
religions or races as bad to the audience. As for example the assumption
in the Daily Mail that Muslim people are terrorists. By reading those
articles racism can become normal and natural to the audience.

4. Representational theory
Daniel Chandler
• C=Class A=Age G=Gender E=Ethnicity
• Those are factors that people are always limited by.
• All texts, however 'realistic' they may seem to be, are constructed representations
rather than simply transparent 'reflections', recordings, transcriptions or reproductions
of a pre-existing reality.
• Representations which become familiar through constant re-use come to feel 'natural'
and unmediated.
• Representation is unavoidably selective, foregrounding some things and backgrounding
others. For example newspaper writers select whatever they prefer in order to
represent the most dramatic and scary story. They might leave out some other
important news just because of their own beliefs.
• Every representation is motivated and historically contingent.
•
• Reality is always represented - what we treat as 'direct' experience is 'mediated' by
perceptual codes. Representation always involves 'the construction of reality'. Discuss
this statement referring to at least three contemporary British TV programmes.

6. Representational theory
Dyer
• Representations are unavoidably selective. Stereotypes are often
used to reinforce peoples differences and singling people out.
• Stereotypes are used to present peoples differences as natural.
• How we are seen determines how we are treated, how we treat
others is based on how we see them. How we see them comes from
representation.
• This example is often used for newspapers as the writer clearly
selects pictures and tries to publish the worst image possible in
order to shock the audience. However this is singling people out.

7. Representational theory
John Berger
• Men act and women appear. Men look at women, women watch
themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations
between men and women but also the relation of women to
themselves.
• Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator.
• Newspapers enhance that theory by representing women in a very
sexual and erotic way, however men are not shown in such a way.

8. Representational theory
Laura Mulvey
•
• Everything that we see on screen is from the perspective of the heterosexual
male. Most newspapers and magazines include sexualised female models in
order to advertise their product.
• This particularly affects the representation of women. They are sexualised.
• This theory is known as the male gaze
• The idea that builds from here is that women are objectified through the media.
This is reflected in the use of women's bodies to sell products. When adverts
use fragmentation which leads to objectification.
• Schroeder= To gaze implies more than to look at-it signifies a psychological
relationship of power, in which gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.
•

9. Representational theory
Stuart Hall
• Reception theory Encoding/Decoding= Certain messages are encoded into
films and the viewer decodes them.
• Preferred reading= A reader experiences recognition and interprets the
text the way the writer intended it.
• Negotiated reading= The meaning of the text lies somewhere between the
producer and the reader.
• Oppositional reading= The reader interprets the text an a way that is
totally oppositional.
• Aberrant reading= A reader misunderstands what is intended.
• A newspaper can be decoded as well. Certain images or stories might be a
preferred reading however others could be an oppositional reading.

10. Representational theory
Baudrillard
Simulacrum
• Hyper reality is a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are
blended together so there is no clear distinction between where one
ends and the other begins.
• There is no distinction between reality and representation, only the
simulacrum.
• Baudrillard researched hyper reality, nothing how humans accepted
simulation as reality.
• He realized that many people now could not identify the line between
reality and altered representation.
• Baudrillard questioned if anything is truly real in the age of mass media.

11. Narrative theory
• Narrative= How a story is told. How is meaning created?
• Reality is difficult to understand, and we struggle to construct
meaning out of our everyday experience. Media texts are better
organised: We need to be able to engage with them without too
much effort. We have expectations of form, a foreknowledge of
how that text will be constructed. Media texts can also be fictional
constructs, with elements of prediction and fulfilment which are not
presented in reality.

12. Narrative theory
Propp
• Propp argued that roles come up time after time
• Hero
• False hero
• Villain
• Princess
• Helper
• Donor
• Dispatcher
• Father figure
• Those examples apply to movies, however they can also appear in a newspaper.
As for example there could be a helper, father figure, princess, hero and villain
involved in a story about a car crash.

13. Narrative Theory
Barthes
• Barthes argued that there are five codes for reading a text
• Action= What is inside of a text/event?
• Symbolic= Connotation/ what it represents?
• Semic= Denotation/ What is literally there?
• Cultural= Cultural background
• Enigma=A mystery, something we don’t understand
• These are useful to us as they make us think how a story is shaped.
• Semiotics= How media is created.

14. Narrative theory
Todorov
• Todorov describes the role of the equilibrium, disequilibrium and the
new equilibrium. Those are the three stages which are always
represented in movies. However a newspaper only includes the
disequilibrium as otherwise it would be to boring to be read.
By definition
News have
To be a
disequilibrium

15. Narrative theory
Levi Strauss
• Levi Strauss was a social anthropologist.
• He examines how stories reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture.
• How a movie can change the mind of an audience.
• What we are interested in is often presented to us as the media tailors it to
reflect our interests.
• Our believes are represented to us through binary oppositions.
• Christian-Pagan
• Domestic-Savage
• Weak-strong
• Garden-wilderness
• Homesteaders-Native Americans
• Binary oppositions are very often used in newspapers in order to brainwash the
audience.

16. Audience theory
• Can I understand key audience theory?
• Can I analyse a media text using audience theory?
• Why do audiences choose to consume certain texts? They choose certain texts
according to their own beliefs, likes and interests. They might like the
storyline. Certain texts can appeal because everyone can be a part of it.
• How do they consume texts? Consumers are impatient and therefore prefer
their mobile devices rather than the old fashioned newspaper. Nowadays
people can download newspaper applications on their phone and therefore
don’t need to read newspapers or local newspapers anymore. There is also
the phenomena called the second screen. This means that the audience
watches something on television and use their phone or laptop while focusing
on another screen.

17. Audience theory
• We are interested in the relationship between institutions and
audiences.
• “Constrain and control individuals and individuality. The term more
precisely refers to the underlying principles and values according to
which many social and cultural practise are organised and
coordinated.”
• Meaning= The company who makes a product, a film, a television
program, a magazine is not neutral. They embody certain values and
since these companies are often very well known and very
powerful, these values might influence the way we feel and behave.
This also counts for newspapers and local newspapers.

18. Audience theory
Hypodermic needle theory
• The power is very one sided. Only the institution has power and
audiences are stupid and consume it. The institution holds the
needle and the audience is the victim who receives the needle as
the message. This theory has limitations. Institutions used to be
more relevant in the past.
• Writers of newspapers also have the power over their audience. They
brainwash and influence their beliefs. For example the way
newspapers represent women as sex symbols and the way
newspapers show Muslims as terrorists. The audience get injected
with this needle full of lies and has no chance to escape from it.

19. Audience theory
Uses and Gratifications theory
• Audiences use information in many different ways. They can use it as a
relaxation, inspiration, advice, emotionally or as an escape from the real
world.
• The power is all with the audience
• Argument against that theory: Children do not have the power to decide
what they want to watch. (Dangerous videogames, websites such as the
Slender man, horror movies)
• An audience has reasons to choose their text. An audience has needs and
power.
• A newspaper audience has the same needs and power. However
newspapers can include scary and horrifying news which are very
unhealthy to be consumed by children. Therefore the power is not
completely up to the consumer.

20. Audience theory
Reception theory Stuart Hall
• Reception theory Encoding/Decoding= Certain messages are encoded into
films and the viewer decodes them.
• Preferred reading= A reader experiences recognition and interprets the
text the way the writer intended it.
• Negotiated reading= The meaning of the text lies somewhere between the
producer and the reader.
• Oppositional reading= The reader interprets the text in a way that is totally
oppositional.
• Aberrant reading= A reader misunderstands what is intended.
• A newspaper can be decoded as well. Certain images or stories might be a
preferred reading however others could be an oppositional reading.

21. Genre theory
• Stock characters
• Stock plots, situations, issues and themes
• Stock locations and backdrops
• Stock props and signifiers
• Music and sounds
• Generic conventions

22. Genre theory
Daniel Chandler
• Literary and media theory genre is widely used to refer to a
distinctive type of text.
• According to Chandler, genres create order to simplify the mass of
available information.
• Creating categories applies to our need to organise the chaos around
us.
• Conventions of content themes and settings and form (structure and
style)

23. Genre theory
• Steve Neal: Genres are instances of repetition and difference.
Difference is essential.
• 5 functions of genre
• A reinforcement o cultures, ideas and values.
• Creation of a set of audience expectation.
• Creation of characteristics by producers which audiences recognize.
• A relationship between audiences and producers minimises the risk
of financial failure.
• Dynamism and flexibility.

24. Media language
Forms and conventions
• You can take apart any media text.
• Forms and conventions
• Media texts use certain technical codes and conventions which help
us (the audience) to understand and enjoy them.
• Media language means the way in which a text is constructed to
create meaning for a reader or viewer of the text.
• All media texts are constructed. Someone has made decisions about
how they should be constructed so that the from matches the
content and with a particular audience in mind.

25. Media language
Deconstructing the text
• The description of deconstructing a text is generally used in relation
to a particular way of reading a text, called semiotics.
• Deconstructing is key
• Semiotics= How meaning is constructed through language and codes.
• Ferdinand de Saussure= The signifier and signified. How there can be
two levels of meaning in an object within a media text.
• Denotation/Signifier= What there is in front of us, What we see.
• Connotation/Signified=Which is an idea we associate with the
signifier, the concept it represents.

26. Media language
Mise en Scene codes
• Settings
• Props
• Dress
• Non verbal communication (body language)

27. Media language
Stuart Hall
• Something is encoded it is what is written within a media text. An
image has been placed in the text by the producer and will
challenge or promote dominant ideologies.
• Decoding is when the audience is ready into this piece of media and
makes their own interpretation.
• Hall thinks that the media circulates dominant ideas in different
media.

28. Media language
John Fiske
• Denotation is what is filmed,
• Connotation is how it is filmed.
• Mise en scene creates the diegeting world. The fictional space and
time implied by the narrative.
• The male gaze (Laura Mulvey, Berger)