Audience Theory

Hegemony - The cultural term refers to process of making, maintaining and reproducing the governing sets of meanings of a given culture.

Gramsci's Theory of Hegemony 
- The media have always had a key role in teaching people to do things in ways that support power structures.
- Thus the media can be seen to support structures such as government, capitalism and patriarchy.

Reception Theory
- It emphasises the reader's/ viewer's reception of a text
- Stuart Hall developed this theory by applying it to media and communications studies.
- Focuses on the scope for 'negotiation' and 'opposition' on the part of the audience in the context of media hegemony.
- The meaning of a text is not inherit within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader. (Not everyone will understand or take it in)
- A 'text' itself is not simply passively accepted by the audience. The reader/ viewer interprets the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences. 

Encoding - Refers to the organisation of signs into codes.
Decoding - refers to the process by which readers generate meaning from them.

Hall's encoding - decoding model of communication suggests that whatever analysis of textual meaning a critic may undertake, it is far from certain which of the identified meanings, if any, will be activated by actual readers/ audiences/ consumers.

Hall addressed the issue of how people make sense of media texts, presenting three hypothetical methods of decoding:

• Preferred reading
• Negotiated reading
• Oppositional reading

Dominant Hegemonic Position - When an audience interprets the message as it was meant to be understood, they are operating in the dominant code. This results in a 'preferred reading'.

Preferred Reading - The dominant ideology is typically inscribed as the preferred reading. Dominant readings are produced by those whose social situations favours the preferred reading. 

Negotiated Reading - Not all audiences may understand what media producers take for granted. There may be some acknowledgment of differences in understanding.  Negotiation positions are the result of the audience struggling to understand the dominant position or experiencing dissonance (difference) with those views.

Oppositional Reading - The social position of some audiences puts them in direct conflict with the dominant position.  These media consumers understand a text's contextual inflections but decode its messages by oppositional means. 

In relation to our short film, these theories can help support an idea when involving the audience. For example, the reception theory explains a viewer's view/ perception; with the help of encoded meanings it could make people think and question why or how something happened. This could then relate to a negotiated reading because some may understand but others may not. 

Genre

How do we identify genre?

Mise en scene (props, costume, lighting,set, character, performance)
Language
Production techniques (editing, camera angles and movement, structure,filters, effects, sound)
Narrative structures (linear, no-linear, abstract, narrative)
Symbolic codes (e.g. cowboy hat)
Action codes (body language, hand gestures)

Why is genre important?

For Producers:

• Gives them a pattern of what they're constructing, a template
• It gives us an established audience which is easy to market
• Certain people can develop their skills working within a particular genre (e.g. horror make up specialists)
• Stars can be associated with particular genre e.g. Will Ferrell known for a certain type of comedy. 
• Fans of a genre know the codes 

For Distributors: 

• Clear channels for marketing and distribution- easily targetable audience
• Concentration of distribution resources 
• Fans of a genre as a whole can easily be persuaded to buy other texts in the same genre e.g. dance music compilation 
• Provides a structure for retail outlets 

Steve Neal said that 'genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations' and 'difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre'

-Counter Argument-

John Hartley argues that 'genres are agents of ideological closure' - they limit the meaning of potential of a given text.  'The same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times.'

John Fiske defines genres as 'attempts to structure some order into the wise range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture fir the convenience of both producers and audiences'

Laura Mulvey 'The male gaze' theory
The camera is masculine. The camera is used to observe women from the perspective of a male. This often results in fragmented shots, close ups, or tracking shots of the female form.

Claude Levi Strauss - Binary Opposition - The contrast between two mutually exclusive concepts of things that creates conflict and drives a narrative e.g. good/ evil

Narrative

Narrative - How is the story structured?

Theories:

Linear
- Beginning, middle and end (most hollywood movies are like this)
- Open structure = ambiguous, leaves at a cliff hanger (E.g. Inception the movie) This leaves you thinking.
- Closed structure = clear conclusion (certain audiences like knowing what happened in the end)
- Circle Structure = Narrative begins at the end/ repeatition (Doodlebug by Christopher Nolan)

Non linear
- Time line jumps back and forth (E.g. Memento)

Structuralism 
- A way of thinking about the narrative
- The belief that there is structure in all things
- It follows specific patterns
- Has meaning = creates effect
- First theorised by Ferdinand de Saussure

Roland Barthes 
5 codes:
- The action code = meaning of specific words/ actions/ looks
- The enigma code = puzzles set up to be solved by the audience. Helps motivate someone to keep watching.
- The semic code  = the connotations of a character/ object/ place
- The symbolic code = metaphor or figure of representation (E.g. Tombstone means death)
- The cultural code = connections to the world outside the text (E.g Westernised versions of certain cultures) Different cultures/ different understandings. It helps sell the movie abroad if they have certain cultures in it. (E.g. Transformer's climax scene) Different genres = different stereotypes

Binary Opposition 
Focusing on the different side of opposite values which reveal the structure of the media texts.
Claude Levi-Strauss

Equilibrium Theory
Equilibrium: It is the setting established, key characters are introduced and the story is set up.
Disruption: oppositional characters appear and the story takes a particular direction.
Conflict: the lives of the characters and the events are interwoven.
Climax: highest point in tension where things begin to get sorted.
New equilibrium: Matters are sorted out and problems are solved.



'For the birds' Pixar short film (Example)
--> Equilibrium: Smalls birds land on Power line
--> Disruption: Small birds have a go at each other. Big bird appears then laughs at him.
--> Conflict: Big bird lands in the middle of the line of small birds.
--> Climax: Big bird dangles from the power line whilst the small birds try to make him fall. Big bird is left with one toe holding onto the power line then finally lets go.
--> New Equilibrium: All small birds are flown into the air leaving their feathers behind. Small birds are naked and Big bird laughs at them.
                       

Vladimir Propp 
Hero = Traditionally a male protagonist whose role it is to restore normality or equilibrium. He does this by debating the villain(s) and winning the love of the heroine.
Villain = The villain is the cause of the disruption and the enemy of the hero. The villain may also be a threat to the safety and the well being of the heroine.
Dispatcher = They send the hero on their journey to restore the equilibrium. They may also be the father figure of the heroine,sending the hero on a quest to see if he is worthy.
Donor = The donor gives the hero something to help him along his journey. This gift may be a piece of advice a skill or an object such as a weapon.
Helper = Assists the hero in restoring the equilibrium. May be a sidekick, with the hero throughout, or someone he meets along the way.
Heroine = Usually a passive and vulnerable character. Threatened by the villain and needing reusing by the hero.
False Hero = Initially seems to be on the side of the hero but turns against/ deceives him.

Abstract narrative, performance and hybrid