Stuart Hall: Audience Positioning and Dominant/Preferred, Negotiated and Oppositional Readings

 

-Hall= Active audience theorist

- Meaning is encoded into text by producers and decoded by the audience

- Decoding relies on social demographics and the audience’s own experiences, which are different for everyone

- According to Hall, all texts are polysemic (which means they have multiple meanings and can be read in different ways depending on: Identity, cultural knowledge and opinions

- Texts read in three different ways: Preferred (where the audience respond to the product the way the producers expect them to), Negotiated (where the audience partly agrees with the message or product but may disagree with some elements) and Oppositional (In which the audience is completely disagreeing with the product/message)

 

Case study: Miley Cyrus-Wrecking Ball

 

Preferred reading- Miley is no longer young and innocent like her previous Disney role. She would be seen as sexy and become known as an extreme artist, producing shocking music videos.

 

Negotiated reading- Feminists are disgusted by Miley’s behaviour and the video itself and are confused by the dissonance between the lyrics and the video, thinking the video is to exploit her. However, It’s Miley’s choice to remove her clothing and therefore she is empowering herself by acting like that.

 

Oppositional reading- Miley is ruining her own image and her behaviour is disgusting and/or unattractive.

 

 

Richard Dyer: Stereotypes legitimise inequality

 

-Stereotypes are negative

- The complexity and variety of a group is reduced to a few characteristics

- An exaggerated version of these characteristics is applied to everyone in the group as if they are an essential element of all the members of the social group

- These characteristics are represented in media through Media Language

- Dyer says stereotypes are always about power- those wth power stereotype those with less power.

- Minor case studies: Gay men, non-white racial groups, the working class and women in society

- Harder to point out media stereotypes of white, middle class, heterosexual men

 

 

David Buckingham; Representation and fragmented identity

 

• Modern society is diverse and mobile, the contemporary world is saturated by various kinds of Media

• Media has become significantly more diverse, more complex and more ‘interactive’

• Identity no longer a birthright, they are much more diverse and fluid.

 

Case study: Fingersmith

 

The main character identifies as an Englishwoman, A woman, gay, white and an upper-class lady. These are her identities.

 

 

Stanley Cohen- Moral panics

 

• Media and often those in a position of political power define a condition or group as a threat to societal values and interests..

• Screaming media headlines

• Leads to groups being marginalised and vilified

• Moral panics identify the very fault lines of power in society

 

Case Study:

From the 70s until 1984, the release of video nasties, like Driller Killer or Cannibal Holocaust caused moral panics as they often contained taboo material, leading to several acts to regulate them, even raids on video stores by the police in order to get rid of them. The media demonized these films greatly. In recent years, quite a few movies received attention for very controversial scenes or outright controversy, like the entire premise of 50 Shades of Grey or the rape scene in Irreversible (which has become quite infamous)

 

 

Tajfel and Turner: In groups, Out groups and Intergroup Discrimination

• Groups that people belonged to (Social classes, sports teams etc.) were an important source of pride and self esteem, they give us a sense of Social identity and belonging in the social world.

• Our group is the in group compared to all the other groups known as the out groups

• Members off the in group will seek to find negative aspects of the out group to further boost their self image

• Three stages: Categorisation (the dividing), Identification (aligning ourselves with a group) and comparison (maintaining group self esteem by comparing yourself favourably against the out groups.

 

Case study: All About that Bass by Meghan Trainor

Fat vs. Skinny

Trainor aligned with Fat in-group

Fat people represented as useful, sexy, happy, free, dancing, singing with lyrics proclaiming superiority.

Skinny people represented as useless, compared to Barbie dolls, called ‘skinny bitches’ and accused of using lots of silicone.

 

 

Dick Hebdige: Youth subcultures

• Youth subcultures challenge the dominant ideologies within society

• Similarities between disparate groups

• Subcultures formed due to resistance of the ‘norm’, which is fearful or anxious about the subcultures existence

• Subcultures often have power but only until the subculture is commodified

 

Example: Skinheads within This Is England are a subculture. They challenge the life of the middle class under Margaret Thatcher. They form due to a desire to be accepted into society. People fear them because they are known for being violent and racist. Skinhead culture is less common but has been partially accepted into society.

 

David Gauntlett: Complicated Identity

 

By thinking about their own identity, attitudes, behaviour and lifestyle in relation to those of media figures (maybe role models, maybe not), individuals make decisions and judgements abut the way they live personally. It’s the reason why role model remains an important concept. Role models serve as navigation points as individuals steer their own personal routes through life (through the general direction they go, however, will often be heavily shaped by family, friends, teachers, colleagues and others encountered in daily life)

 

Web 2.0 allows us to create our own unique identity that does not necessarily follow traditional understandings of some representations.