An overview of relevant media theorists for AS Media Studies.

1. Media Theory
Media theorists can help support
your analysis of representation

2. Laura Mulvey
 The Male Gaze
 Film represents women as passive objects of
male desire.
 Audiences are forced to view women from the
point of view of a heterosexual male even if
they are indeed; heterosexual women or
homosexual men.

3. John Berger
 “Men look, women appear”
 Women are there solely for the objectification
of women within all platforms of the media.
(Think of examples of different magazines,
films, TV shows or websites where this is
evident, how are women represented in your
production?)

4. Alvarado’s Theory 1987-
Representation of Ethnicity
• The Exotic: Ethnic Groups are seen as exotic or represented as
being the “other person” and unusual or strange.
• The Dangerous: Minority groups can be represented as a
threat to society. They can be called criminals, rapists, drug
dealers, or people who take advantage of society’s benefits.
• The Pitied: The representation of ethnic groups may be seen
as deprived victims or groups that experience natural
disasters or sometimes even conflicts.
• The Humorous: In the 1970’s race was a major vehicle for
comedy. Programs removed the threat of different races by
making them the butt of the jokes.

5. Bell Hooks
 The colour codes: Lighter skinned women are
considered more desirable and fit better into
the western ideology of beauty.
 Black women are objectified and sexualised in
hip-hop reflecting the colonialist view of black
women (sexually disposable).
 Commodified blackness, a mediated view of
black culture that is considered the norm.

6. Stuart Hall
 The media and therefore audiences often blur
race and class. Often associating particular races
with a particular class.
 Audience reception theory; audiences
read/understand a particular text according to
their cultural upbringing.
 Western (white dominated) cultures. Continue to
misinterpret ethnic minorities in the media due
to underlying racist tendencies. Ethnic minorities
are often represented as ‘the other’.

7. Stuart Hall: Slave Figure
Black Characterisations in the Media
Hall outlines three base images of the
'grammar of race' employed in 'old movies'.
The first is the slave figure which could take
the form of either the 'dependable, loving…
devoted "Mammy" with the rolling eyes, or
the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted
to "his" master' (Hall, 1995:21).
http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-rol6.htm

8. Stuart Hall: The Native
The second of Hall's base images - the native
(ibid:21). Their primitive nature means they
are cheating, cunning, savage and barbarian.
In movies, we expect them 'to appear at any
moment out of the darkness to decapitate the
beautiful heroine, kidnap the children …
http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-rol6.htm

9. Stuart Hall: The Clown/Entertainer
The last of Hall's variants is that of the clown
or entertainer, implying an 'innate' humour in
the black man (ibid:22). Interestingly, the
distinction is never made as to whether we
are laughing with or at the clown; overt
racism is rare in the media rather, says Hall, it
is 'inferential' (ibid:20).
http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-rol6.htm

10. Tricia Rose
 Hip Hop gives black female rappers a voice
introducing female empowerment.
 Hip hop gave audiences an insight into the
lives of young black urban Americans and gave
them a voice.

11. Paul Gilroy
 Black music articulated diasporic experiences
of resistance to white capitalist culture.
 Employs the notion of ‘diaspora’ and how
ethnic minorities (particularly black people)
experience dislocation from their homeland.
E.g. feeling as if you do not totally belong in
Britain but you also are considered ‘English’ in
the Caribbean, Africa or Asia etc

12. Michael Eric Dyson
 Political rap didn’t get the support that it
deserved when it was prominent in the 80s
and early 90s.
 Therefore it reverted to the flashy, sexualised,
criminal rap which we know today, as through
displaying this it became more prominent and
more mainstream.

13. Kobena Mercer
 Black gay film opens up audiences to the
understanding of the dual exclusion (being gay
and black).
 But through directors such as Isaac Julian they
introduce a varied representation not just pigeon
holing into the ‘black’ or ‘gay’ stereotype.
 Audiences are exposed to diverse representation
displaying verisimilitude rather than ‘stereotype’.

14. Kobena Mercer
Link: http://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=1g2yO_Za3TUC&pg=PA325&lpg=PA325&d
q=kobena+mercer+on+the+black+gay+experie
nce&source=bl&ots=BpevtesnkJ&sig=FTi8ovl-
LowMJMNOrH_eP2Yui8I&hl=en&ei=DwfnS8Lb
NISROJTrnfgG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=resul
t&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepag
e&q&f=false

15. Jacques Lacan
 The Mirror Stage: Where infants see their
reflections in the mirror and see it as a superior
reflection of themselves that they must aspire to.
 The ideal-I
 Seeing iconic rappers who are successful ‘young
black males’ may see them as a superior
reflection of themselves they could aspire to.
Particularly those iconic figures whom have
struggled through a deprived childhood e.g. 50
Cent and Biggie Smalls (Notorious BIG).

16. Michel Foucault
 'Archaeology' is the term Foucault used during the
1960s to describe his approach to writing history.
 Archaeology is about examining the discursive traces
and orders left by the past in order to write a 'history
of the present'.
 Archaeology is about looking at history as a way of
understanding the processes that have led to what
we are today.
 Therefore when analyzing your contemporary case
studies you need to take into account those past
representations and how they have contributed to
what we have today e.g. Birth of a Nation 1913,
Blaxploitation films (70s), The slave trade
(colonialism) etc.

17. Audience Reception Theory
 A preferred reading (or dominant system of response) is a way of understanding
the text that is consistent with the ideas and intentions of the producer or creator
of the product. This may lead to an acceptance of the dominant values within the
text.
 With a negotiated reading (or subordinate response) the individual has a choice
as to whether or not they accept the preferred reading as their own. Audience
members may read the text though the filter of their own personal agenda.
Although there may be an acceptance of the dominant values and existing social
structure, the individual may be prepared to argue that a particular social group
may be unfairly represented.
 In an oppositional reading (or radical response) individual members of an
audience may completely reject the preferred reading of the dominant code and
the social values that produced it.
 An aberrant reading is where an entirely different meaning from that intended by
the maker will be taken form the text. This could be when individual members of
the audience do not share, in any way, the values of the maker of the text.

18. Hypodermic Theory
 The theory suggests that the mass media
could influence a very large group of people
directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or
‘injecting’ them with messages designed to
trigger a response.

19. Moral Panic
 A moral panic is the intensity of feeling
expressed in a population about an issue that
appears to threaten the social order.

20. Narrative Theory
 Todorov: Equilibrium, disequilibrium, new
equilibrium
 Levi Strauss: Binary Oppositions
 Roland Barthes: Enigma Codes
 Propp: Characters/roles often found in
narrative

21. Todorov’s Narrative Theory
1. Equilibrium
2. Disruption of equilibrium
3. Recognition of this disruption
4. An attempt to repair the equilibrium is made
5. Equilibrium is restored OR a new
equilibrium is established

22. Propp’s Narrative Theory
 Hero: Individual(s) who's quest is to restore the equilibrium.
 Villain: Individual(s) who's task is to disrupt the equilibrium.
 Donor: Individual(s) who gives the hero(s) something, advice,
information or an object.
 Helper: Individual(s) who aids the hero(s) with their set task.
 Princess (Prince): Individual(s) which need help, protecting and
saving.
 The King: Who rewards the hero.
 Dispatcher: Individual(s) who send the hero(s) on their quest.
 False Hero: Individual(s) who set out to undermine the hero's
quest by pretending to aid them. Often unmasked at the end of
the film.

23. Levi-Strauss: Binary Oppositions
Argued that meaning in narrative is based upon
binary oppositions. He observed that all
narratives are organised around the conflict
between such binary opposites.
 Good Vs Evil
 Human Vs Nature
 Black Vs White
 Protagonist Vs Antagonist
 Humanity Vs Technology
 Man Vs Woman
 Human Vs Alien

24. Roland Barthes: Enigma Code
Refers to any element of the story that is not
fully explained and hence becomes a mystery
to the reader. The purpose of the author in
this is typically to keep the audience guessing,
arresting the enigma, until the final scenes
when all is revealed and all loose ends are tied
off and closure is achieved.

25. Books
 David Gauntlett. Media Gender and Identity:
An Introduction. 2002.
 Dan Laughey. Key Themes in Media Theory.
2008
 Stuart Hall. Representation: Cultural
Representation and Signifying Practices. 1997
 Bell Hooks. Black Looks: Race and
Representation. 1992
 Tricia Rose. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black
Culture in Contemporary America. 1994

26. Books
 Hall, Stuart (1995), 'The Whites of Their Eyes - Racist
Ideologies and the Media' in Dines, Gail and Humez,
Jean M., Gender, Race and Class in Media - A Text
Reader, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, London
and New Dehli.
 Hooks, bell (1991), Yearning - race, gender and
cultural politics, Turnaround, London.
 Gilroy, Paul (1983), 'Channel 4: Bridge or
Bantustan?', Screen, 24, 130-136. Cited in Ross
(1996), p.130.
 Ferguson, Robert (1998), Representing Race -
Ideology, Identity and the Media, Arnold, London,
New York, Sydney and Auckland.

27. Notes
 Some of the theorists have videos on Youtube
which are very useful in understanding their
theories and concepts in relation to
representation and audience reception.

28. YouTube Clips
• Stuart Hall Representation
• Bell hooks Rap
• Bell hooks Commodified Blackness
• Michael Eric Dyson Hip Hop’s commodity
fetish
• Paul Gilroy Contemporary Racism