Theorists and

Their theories

Karl Marx

Marxism says that people in the world are organized into different groups or classes based on their relationship to how things are made. Most people are called "workers" because they work in factories or offices or farms for money. They belong to the "working class" (or "proletariat"). Another group, who are not as big as the working class are "capitalists", because they own the factories, land and buildings that the workers have to work in and also own all of the tools the workers have to use. Marx calls Capitalists the "Ruling Class" because they live off of the work of all the workers. He also says that the Capitalists own the government, army and courts.

Karl Marx continued

In Marxist views, Capital is the "means of production" and money which the Capitalist can invest in different places of business so that they can "profit" or gain more Capital.

Most workers work for companies owned by Capitalists or "Petit-bourgeois" (small business owners). The capitalist pays a wage to the worker in exchange for the worker's time. The capitalist has bought a period of time from the worker which the worker must then use to labour for the Capitalist, which according to Marxist economic thinking is the only thing that can create value in a commodity, and then exploits the time of the worker as much as they can. The capitalist amasses capital by paying the worker less wealth than they make for the Capitalist.

Antonio Gramsci

Cultural hegemony is the philosophic and sociological concept, originated by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, that a culturally-diverse society can be ruled or dominated by one of its social classes. It is the dominance of one social group over another, e.g. the ruling class over all other classes. The theory claims that the ideas of the ruling class come to be seen as the norm; they are seen as universal ideologies, perceived to benefit everyone whilst only really benefiting the ruling class.

Laura Mulvey

The gaze is a Feminist theory developed to highlight the power imbalance between men and women analysing the way men see women, the way women view themselves and other women. The theory suggests that an audience are forced to view the text from the perspective a heterosexual male, films constantly focus on women’s curves and events that happen to them are portrayed at a male angle.

The male gaze denies women human agency, relegating them to the status of objects. Therefore the female viewers experience the text narrative secondarily, by identifying with a man’s perspective (male gaze). In addition she argues that sexism can also occur in the way the text is presented. Moreover, people are encouraged to gaze at women in advertising that sexualizes a woman's body even when the woman's body is unrelated to the advertised product.

Jean Kilbourne

Jean Kilbourne is internationally recognized for her pioneering work on the image of women in advertising and her critical studies of alcohol and tobacco advertising. Her films, lectures, and television appearances have been seen by millions of people throughout the world. She was named by The New York Times Magazine as one of the three most popular speakers on college campuses. She is the author of the award-winning book Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel and co-author of So Sexy So Soon: The New Sexualized Childhood and What Parents Can Do to Protect Their Kids. The prize-winning films based on her lectures include Killing Us Softly, Spin the Bottle, and Slim Hopes.

Walter Lippmann and Richard Dyer

Walter Lippmann defined stereotypes in the 1920s. He was an American public intellectual, writer, reporter, and political commentator famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War. Lippmann was twice awarded (1958 and 1962) a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated newspaper column, "Today and Tomorrow".

Walter Lippmann

Richard Dyer

Later, Dyer (1993) described four functions of Lippmann’s definition, which are:

• an ordering process - stereotypes serve to order our reality in an easy to understand form which although an incomplete picture of the world is certainly not false, after all, knowing a little about New York is better than knowing nothing at all!

• a ‘short cut’ - because they are simplifications, stereotypes act as a shortcut to meanings. One of the most powerful short cuts to meaning is stereotypes used in iconography. For example, yellow cabs are in New York; red buses in London; an intellectual wears spectacles and so on ..

• way of referring to the world - Since stereotypes have their origins in the real world they are social constructs and as such are a form of re-presentation

• an expression of our values and beliefs - Stereotypes are only effective if they are believed to be a view of a group of people which has a consensus. Of course, as many of the people who hold the stereotype actually derived their view from the stereotype, then the consensus is more imagined than real.

Richard Dyer

Star TheoryStars as ConstructionsStars are constructed, artificial images, even if they are represented as being "real people", experiencing real emotions etc. It helps if their image contains a USP (unique selling proposition) — they can be copied and/or parodied because of it. Their representation may be metonymic — Madonna's conical bra in the early 1990s, Bono's 'Fly' sunglasses, Britney's belly, Justin Bieber's bangs. Pop stars have the advantage over film stars in that their constructed image may be much more consistent over a period of time, and is not dependent on the creative input of others (e.g. screenwriters writing their lines).

Dyer proposes that: A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music]).

Tessa PerkinsRethinking Stereotypes described the assumptions many people hold about stereotypes

1. Stereotypes are always erroneous (false) in content2. They are pejorative (critical) concepts3. They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact; by implication, therefore, they are not held about one's own group4. They are about minority (or oppressed) groups5. They are simple6. They are rigid and do not change7. They are not structurally reinforced8. The existence of contradictory stereotypes is evidence that they are erroneous, but of nothing else9. People either 'hold' stereotypes (believe them to be true) or do not10. Because someone holds a stereotype of a group, his or her behaviour towards the group can be predicted.

Blumler and KatzUses and Gratification Theory

Uses and Gratifications Theory is a popular approach to understanding mass communication. The theory places more focus on the consumer, or audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people” (Katz, 1959) . It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds that audiences are responsible for choosing media to meet their needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfil specific gratifications.

5 reasons why people may engage with the media:

• Escape from reality (film)• Relate to others/characters (soap)

Elihu Katz

• Entertainment (drama/comedy)• Informed and educated (news/documentary)• Socialise with others (Facebook/popular series)

Jay G Blumler

Tzvetan Todorov

The theory suggests that stories begin with an equilibrium or status quo where any potentially opposing forces are in balance. This is disrupted by some event, setting in chain a series of events. Problems are solved so that order can be restored to the world of the fiction.

Vladimir Propp

Began by studying traditional Russian folk tales. From here a theory emerged for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types - the result of the author’s analysis of 100 tales.

The villain (struggles against the hero)The donor(prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)Her fatherThe dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Roland Barthes

Barthes often claimed to be fascinated by the meanings of the things that surround us in our everyday lives. Barthes said he wanted to challenge the `innocence' and `naturalness' of cultural texts and practices which were capable of producing all sorts of supplementary meanings, or connotations to use Barthes's preferred term.

Although objects, gestures and practices have a certain utilitarian function, they are not resistant to the imposition of meaning. There is no such thing, to take but one example, as a car which is a purely functional object devoid of connotations and resistant to the imposition of meaning ....

Roland Barthes continued

Example:A BMW and a Citroën 2CV share the same functional utility, they do essentially the same job but connote different things about their owners: thrusting, upwardly-mobile executive versus ecologically sound, right-on trendy. We can speak of cars then, as signs expressive of a number of connotations. It is these sorts of secondary meanings or connotations that Barthes is interested in uncovering in Mythologies. Barthes wants to stop taking things for granted, wants to bracket or suspend consideration of their function, and concentrate rather on what they mean and how they function as signs. In many respects what Barthes is doing is interrogating the obvious, taking a closer look at that which gets taken for granted, making explicit what remains implicit. Think about objects which accompany women. What can we connote about the woman from what she has about her?