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,Media Texts
Introduction
Definition
• Include various forms of media content
• Newspaper articles
• TV programmes
• Websites
• Films
• That can be
• Reproduced
• Analysed
Textual Analysis
• Used to understand media texts
• Focuses on various elements of the text
• Form
• Content
• Style
• Structure
,Has many possible meanings
Polysemy
Media texts are polysemic
o Can have many possible meanings
o Open to multiple interpretations
The Encoding/decoding model of communication
Background
Developed by Stewart Hall
Idea
Media texts are decoded and interpreted differently depending on the
reader’s
o Cultural background
o Economic standing
o Personal experiences
Results in 3 ways an audience member could read a text
Dominant Reading
o Reader fully accepts intended meaning
o Views the text as natural and transparent
Negotiated Reading
o Reader parially accepts the intended meaning
Broadly accepts the ideas
But modifies them to relfect their own
Position
Experiences
Interests
Oppositional Reading
o Reject the reading
o Because it opposes their social position
,Contexts
Production Context
The people involved in creating the text
Their beliefs
Previous work
Comments on the text
Conditions of production
Aim of the text
Financial & political Constraints
Where it was produced
Factors influencing the text
o Social
o Political
o Historical
Distribution Context
General Idea that texts
Exist in a social situation
Are distributed in a specific context
Space
Specific media space
o Spaces have different
Implied readerships
Watched by a certain culture
Social agendas/aims
Example
Teen glamour magazine VS. adult porn magazine
o Influence of other surrounding texts
Influences the way people look at the text
Example
Watching South Park at home VS. Watching it in a
film review lecture
Wider social space
o Geographically, where it is being viewed
o The dominant culture in that area
o Example
Zapiro cartoon criticizing Zuma in Soweto VS. Sandton
Time
Time of day it is intended to be viewed
o Cartoons when adults are at work
o Internet not influenced by this because its global
Time in history it was produced
o The ideas and discussions of that time are often reflected
o Something could be bland today
But pushed the boundaries back then
,Audience Context
Texts can produce many different meanings
o Because they are different people
Therefore look for the text’s dominant reading
Reception studies
Study how audiences view texts by analysing how they
o Actively receive texts
o Consume texts
o Interact with texts
The Inscribed Reader
A receptive member of the target market the text aims to address
o Gender
o Level of education
o Age
o nationality
The actual reader
The real people who end up interpreting the text
o Not necessarily the people who the creator intended to address
How they are studied
o Look at how these people interpret the texts
o Engage with them before and after they read the texts by
Observing
Interviewing
Interacting
,Researching Audiences
Ways of studying audiences
Effect studies
Look at how audiences are directly affected by the media
o With experiments that
Media viewed as thins that make the audience vulnerable
Reception studies
Look at how use and interpret media
Areas of audience research
Quantitative audience research
Looks at the numbers
o How many people view a program
Qualitative audience research
Looks at how people respond
o Why they like/dislike a program
Used in reception studies
,Effect of Media on Audiences
Direct Effects Model
Also called
Hypodermic Model
Magic Bullet theory of communication
Idea
Media produced inject/shoot their intended meaning into audiences
Audience absorbs messages like a sponge
Consequence
Media radically affect consumers
Can be effectively used in propaganda
Assumptions
Audiences accept the intended meaning
Media producers & consumers have a predictable & asymmetric
relationship
Reinforcement Model
What it does
Refines the direct effects model
Idea
Media and social forces work together
To influence people
When the media’s message is also being produced elsewhere in society
o Education
o Family
o Religion
Consequences
Media most effective when reinforcing existing beliefs
People ignore and resist info
o If it doesn’t fit into their existing belief system
Cultivation
Idea
Media has a long-term cumulative effect
Long-term exposure and persistent exposure needed for media to have an
effect
Consequences
Media cultivates attitudes and beliefs
Plays a part in socializing people
Desensitisation
Idea
Long-term exposure to troubling media images can build a tolerance
Consequence
Viewers become less sensitive & the images become less troubling
More likely to view these once troubling things as acceptable
, Ways audiences decode/read texts
Proves polysemy
Shows there are many ways a text can be interpreted
Therefore proves polysemy
o The idea that a sign can have many meanings
Preferred reading
Audiences blindly accept the intended meaning
Don’t question it
Negotiated reading
Audiences negotiate with the text’s intended meaning
o Only accept some of what is being presented
Alternative/Oppositional reading
Audiences completely reject the intended meaning
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