EDUQAS A LEVEL Media Studies- All Theories Practice Questions and Answers

Steve Neale's Genre Theory A theory which suggests two things about genre. 1) Audiences enjoy specific texts because of "repetition and difference" of the repertoires of genre elements used. For example an audience might enjoy a film because it is a typical action film which uses all the normal action conventions. They might also enjoy a film specifically because it AVOIDS the usual conventions of the genre and does something a bit different. 2) Genre is not something static, as it is always evolving. Roland Barthes Semiotic Theory A Structuralist Theory Barthes theorized that media products were embedded with codes by producers which audiences could decipher / decode to gain more meaning. His codes include: Semantic Codes - these are elements of a product that connote particular meanings that most audiences understand. For example, the colour red connotes danger or love. A suit connotes wealth and class. These are mostly within the product itself. Symbolic Codes - these are semantic elements, which have become so ingrained in us that they have taken on a very specific meaning. For example, a cross connotes religion, a hoodie connotes violence and rebellion, a heart connotes love. Sometimes people say they have taken on the status of a 'myth'. These are the deeper meanings in the real world. Enigma Codes (Hermeneutic) - these are mysterious enigmatic elements of a product, that leave the audience with unanswered questions. These are good at hooking an audience in because they often have to consume the whole product (eg see the film, read the magazine etc) in order to find out the answers to these questions. Action Codes (Proairetic) - these are elements that tell an audience about something that is going to happen. For example a gun suggests there will be shooting and violence. An ellipses (...) suggests something dramatic is going to happen as a result of what has just been said. Cultural Codes - these are elements that might only be understood by a very specific audience in a specific culture. For example, perhaps only some audiences would recognize a military logo on someone's uniform, and so only they would understand the rank and importance of that soldier. Useful for Intertextual References. Claude Levi Strauss's theory of Binary Opposites A Structuralist Theory A theory which suggests that a good story revolves around conflict between binary opposites (two things represented as totally different to one another). Binary Opposites could be good vs evil, men vs women, young vs old, Britain vs Germany etc.. the idea that meaning is dependent upon (and produced through) these pairs of oppositions the idea that the way in which these binary oppositions are resolved can have particular ideological significance.