Make sure you can briefly summarise their theories and apply them to the exam.
e.g...............’s theory is relevant here in suggesting...
The contradictory messages were indicated by...who stated....
This text confirms ...........’s theory when........
Marxist theorists such as...................... might argue that.....
Another type of audience response is suggested by.......
e.g...............’s theory is relevant here in suggesting...
The contradictory messages were indicated by...who stated....
This text confirms ...........’s theory when........
Marxist theorists such as...................... might argue that.....
Another type of audience response is suggested by.......
Theory Summary
Adorno : a Marxist theorist who criticised the ‘culture industry’ for the narrow range of choice it offered the consumer and its contribution to passive audiences who were happy to accept existing repressive ideologies
Gramsci : discussed ‘cultural hegemony’, this being the creation of a ‘norm’ through promoting representations that would maintain the status quo and discourage dissent (e.g representing women as domesticated allows men to maintain control)
Noam Chomsky: in ‘Manufacturing Consent’ he states that ‘hegemony is.... the use of representations to control people’ (i.e reductive stereotypes maintain the patriarchal status quo)
Foucault : takes a more positive approach to institutional attempts to ideologically enslave the masses considering power as productive, meaning that it only exists in interaction and that the interaction creates resistance which can in turn lead to change (Magazines such as Spare Rib can be seen as indicators or this resistance)
Fiske : another more positive approach, this one consider the polysemic meanings of texts and various ‘overspill’ of meanings which creates the opportunity for active readers to negotiate meaning and have different interpretations rather than simply accept those offered from texts they decide to ‘use or reject.’
Uses and Gratification Theory : suggests that readers actively choose texts based on whether they succeed in supplying diversion, information, personal identity
Friedan : criticised American magazines of the 50s for their evocation of the ‘happy housewife’ and ideological messages that aimed to control female aspirations
Mulvey :attacked the male gaze in the cinema which makes us assume the role of voyeur objectifying women and denying them a viewpoint as they identify with the male protagonist (as in Eden Lake, Bridget Jones or The School for Scoundrels)
McRobbie :initially attacked women’s magazines for negative social conditioning then recognised that there were some positive and liberating messages in magazines such as Cosmopolitan
Hall : discussed the way that audiences can actively negotiate their own readings from texts and may not necessarily accept the dominant ideology or preferred reading
Gauntlett :has discussed negotiation of values received from texts and the pick and mix reader (e.g the ironic reader of ‘Nuts’)
Winship :notes the contradictory nature of magazines which may seem to on the one hand empower through messages about women in the workplace but on the other hand create anxiety about appearance as women become complicit with the male gaze and representations of women fundamentally designed to please
Carol Clover : discussed the Final Girl of horror films
Marion Hanson :considered the possibility of objectification of men in cinema (Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones)
Janet Bergston : has commented that women can identify with men and that female protagonists can also find that men identify with them creating a cross gender identification model at odds with Mulvey’s theory
Adorno : a Marxist theorist who criticised the ‘culture industry’ for the narrow range of choice it offered the consumer and its contribution to passive audiences who were happy to accept existing repressive ideologies
Gramsci : discussed ‘cultural hegemony’, this being the creation of a ‘norm’ through promoting representations that would maintain the status quo and discourage dissent (e.g representing women as domesticated allows men to maintain control)
Noam Chomsky: in ‘Manufacturing Consent’ he states that ‘hegemony is.... the use of representations to control people’ (i.e reductive stereotypes maintain the patriarchal status quo)
Foucault : takes a more positive approach to institutional attempts to ideologically enslave the masses considering power as productive, meaning that it only exists in interaction and that the interaction creates resistance which can in turn lead to change (Magazines such as Spare Rib can be seen as indicators or this resistance)
Fiske : another more positive approach, this one consider the polysemic meanings of texts and various ‘overspill’ of meanings which creates the opportunity for active readers to negotiate meaning and have different interpretations rather than simply accept those offered from texts they decide to ‘use or reject.’
Uses and Gratification Theory : suggests that readers actively choose texts based on whether they succeed in supplying diversion, information, personal identity
Friedan : criticised American magazines of the 50s for their evocation of the ‘happy housewife’ and ideological messages that aimed to control female aspirations
Mulvey :attacked the male gaze in the cinema which makes us assume the role of voyeur objectifying women and denying them a viewpoint as they identify with the male protagonist (as in Eden Lake, Bridget Jones or The School for Scoundrels)
McRobbie :initially attacked women’s magazines for negative social conditioning then recognised that there were some positive and liberating messages in magazines such as Cosmopolitan
Hall : discussed the way that audiences can actively negotiate their own readings from texts and may not necessarily accept the dominant ideology or preferred reading
Gauntlett :has discussed negotiation of values received from texts and the pick and mix reader (e.g the ironic reader of ‘Nuts’)
Winship :notes the contradictory nature of magazines which may seem to on the one hand empower through messages about women in the workplace but on the other hand create anxiety about appearance as women become complicit with the male gaze and representations of women fundamentally designed to please
Carol Clover : discussed the Final Girl of horror films
Marion Hanson :considered the possibility of objectification of men in cinema (Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones)
Janet Bergston : has commented that women can identify with men and that female protagonists can also find that men identify with them creating a cross gender identification model at odds with Mulvey’s theory