Theories 1

SEATON AND CURRUN: Power and media industries

- Currun and Seatons theory was media conglomerates would buy smaller subsidiary's so they could have more control over what information is produced and which information isn't. -Newspapers should reflect the interests of their readers or they will go out of business

-News is controlled by powerful organisations creating a narrowing of represented opinions for the pursuit of profit

-the internet doesn't change this because most of the reputable sources of news online are still controlled by these media conglomerates such as The Sun Online and Mail Online

-Most Newspapers should at least be at least partly liberal because they want less government intervention is news however this isn't always the case

Steve Neal: Genre theory

-Genre theory is about what certain genres are and about how and why they are created

-This means that Genres are not just one thing forever they can change and evolve with the times with each new addition added to the generic corpus (the body of products in a genre)

-These codes and conventions of a genre aren't just made in products but how other products refer to them e.g. critical writings or articles

Roland Barthes: semiotics and myths

-semiotics is the study of signs

- Signs consist of a signifies ( a word, an image, a sound ect) and its meaning

- a denotation of a sign is it's literal meaning. For e.g. A red rose is a red flower

- a connotation is the denotation being turned into something that is literally not but we use as a symbol for e.g. a red rose is a symbol of love

- denotations and connotations are organised into myths which are an ideological meaning this makes ideology seem natural (people believe a red rose means love when it really isn't that's just something we've come up with)

-The dangerous things about myths is that they can make people think that things have always been one thing and natural and remove history from an object. It can distort reality to what they want you to believe

Stuart Hall: Theory of representation

- representation is not about whether the media reflects or distorts reality but about the image shown of a certain type of thing. E.g. a picture of a black person clad in a mask and doing crimes makes all black people seem like that in some readers minds.

-representation can show stereotypes of groups in certain ways. Dangerous young people, vulnerable women, smart Asian people ect