Theories and theorists 1b

Uses and Gratifications Diversion: an escape from our routine and problems, emotional release Personal relationship: companionship, part of a social group Personal identity: reinforcing own values through comparison with other’s values e.g. celebrities Surveillance: constant supply of information about the world	Audience
Preferred Readings Dominant: fully accept preferred reading; social and cultural values Negotiated: agreeing with some but not all of preferred reading Oppositional: understand preferred reading but use alternate values to construct interpretations Aberrant: does not understand the preferred reading
Hypodermic Syringe Messages injected into passive audience Audience have no control over what they consume
Two Step Flow Linear Information from the media moves in two stages Opinion leaders gain information from mass media Opinion leaders are in social contact with individuals and hand out information
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs Human behaviour reflects range of needs ranked in order When one need has been fulfilled the next emerges Unsatisfied needs motivate our behaviour Can be influenced by a whole range of motivations
Stuart hall Modern culture is saturated with images Representation is the way in which something is given meaning Gap of representation: space between what is the real meaning and what meaning has been taken and used from the media Media represents something that has already been there Represent culture or ‘us’ the consumer (society/sections of society) Re-present through media	Representation
Hart (1991) Representation is in the reading not the text
Areas to be considered Mise-en-scene Narrative Sound Conventions Theories; open and closed, verisimilitude, male gaze
Rick Altman (1999) Genres are defined by producers and easily identified to the consumer All texts belong to a genre Genre develops in predictable ways Texts in a particular genre share characteristics Genres are ideological Genre not specifically located in history (rooted) Genre critics distance themselves from the practise of genre ‘is genre a noun or adjective?’	GENRE
Mark Reid How something is categorised is determined by who does it, whom, where and when ‘if tomato puree was put on a different shelf in the supermarket would it change the ‘thing itself’
Areas to be considered Genre is currently circulating between: producer, audience and media