This document provides summaries of several key media and cultural theories, including semiotics, representation theory, visual pleasure and the male gaze, stereotypes, and simulacra and the hyperreal. It outlines some of the main ideas of each theory such as how meaning is constructed through signs, how stereotypes reinforce differences, and how representations may become more real than reality in Baudrillard's concept of the hyperreal.

1. JAMES BUXTON
REPRESENTATION
THEORY

2. SEMIOTICS
 This theory was written by Ferdinand de Saussure.
 It suggests that meaning is constructed by the creation and
interpretation of signs.
 These signs are made up of signifiers (the object, word, etc.), and
the signified (the meaning it creates).
 Some signs can have multiple meanings, these are called polysemic
signs.
 Representations are constructed through signs which signify a
meaning.

3. VISUAL PLEASURE AND THE MALE
GAZE
 Laura Mulvey says that narratives provide audiences with
pleasure.
 She argued that female characters are passive objects for male
desires.
 Female characters tend to be displayed for the visual pleasure of
male characters and male spectators.
 For Mulvey, men look, women are looked at.
 For Mulvey, men look, women are looked at. Women are the
object of the gaze (looked at), whilst male characters/spectators
are the subject of the gaze.

4. STEREOTYPES
 This particular theory was constructed by Richard Dyer.
 He said that stereotypes reinforce differences.
 Also, he believes that stereotypes are seen as natural in society.
 For example, the differences between male and female
stereotypes are because they reinforce strong, natural differences.
 He argues that stereotypes reinforce the idea that there are big
differences between different types of people.
 Stereotypes perform a number of functions in media
representations.

5. SIMULACRA AND THE HYPERREAL
 This theory was explored by Jean Baudrillard.
 He believes that representations no longer refer to real things.
 The issue of representation is problematic.
 He has suggested that the representation has become more real to
the audience than reality.
 Simulacrum is when a copy (the representation in this context),
replaces the original.
 Hyperreality is when the media image constructs a reality which
does not refer to an actual reality.
 Some celebrities completely change their persona, or even their
name, in order to change their image. That is an example of
where this theory can be proven true.

6. THE END