Laura Mulvey proposed the male gaze theory, which argues that in visual media the camera lens represents a heterosexual male perspective, focusing on the female body and establishing male power. Stuart Hall identified three ways audiences can interpret media texts: the preferred reading intended by producers; a negotiated reading that accepts some intentions but adapts others; and an oppositional reading that rejects the preferred reading. Carol Vernalis' theory of music video codes and conventions centers around four key concepts - narrative, editing, camerawork, and diegesis - that shape how music videos are constructed.

2. MALE GAZE THEORY
Laura Mulvey, a second wave feminist came up with the idea of the male
gaze theory.
It is a feature of gender asymmetry and shows from the view of a
heterosexual man, this gives the power to the male. It may focus on the
curves of the female body.

3. AUDIENCE
Social class
• Advertisers are not persuaded by the ‘classless society’ in the UK. They still
categorise people by social class. The classes are categorised by:
• ABC1 – The middle class market
• C2DE – The working class market
• These categories are based on the occupational groupings developed for the
Government census every 10 years.
• A – higher managerial and professional
• B – Middle management
• C1 – Office workers
• C2 – Skilled manual workers
• D – Unskilled workers
• E - Unemployed

4. AUDIENCE
Preferred, negotiated and oppositional reading
•
Stuart Hall found that there were 3 ways to read a text:
•
A preferred reading is the reading which the media producers ant the
audience to receive
•
A negotiated reading is one where the audience accepts the media
producers intend for the text but it changes some of the intentions of
the text to suit it’s own position.
•
An oppositional reading is one where the audience reject the preferred
reading of the text and interpret the text in a different way.

5. AUDIENCE
Hypodermic Needle Model
•
Mass audience theory – Influenced by media

6. AUDIENCE
Uses and Gratifications
•
Audience decides what to do with the media rather than the audience
directly.
•
Personal identity: We may watch television in order to look for models
for our behaviour. So, for example, we may identify with characters that
we see in a soap.
•
Information: Gathering information that we want to find out about
society and the world.
•
Integration and social integration: We use the media in order to find out
more about the circumstances of other people, replace real people.
•
Entertainment: Sometimes we simply use the media for enjoyment.

7. KEY CONCEPTS/THEORIES
Media language
•
Words that mean something within media e.g. genre. Technical terms
for things used to describe words in media.
•
Representation: How certain groups/people are represented within the
media e.g. black boys could be represented as taking part in gang
culture.
•
Genre: A certain form of media e.g. music, film, that shows similar
conventions to others therefore making it part of a genre.

8. CAROL VERNALIS
‘Codes and conventions in music videos
•
Vernalis’ theory centres around four key concepts that all relate to the
way the music video is constructed.
•
1 – narrative
•
2 – Editing
•
3 – Camera
•
4 – Diegesis

9. ANDREW GOODWIN
•
Thought beats
•
Narrative and performance (repeatability)
•
Star image (also Dyer)
•
Relation of Visuals to a song (illustration, amplification, disjuncture)
•
Technical aspects (camera, editing, effects etc)