Theories- Media language

Roland Barthes//Semiotics//

• Barthes believes in the idea that texts communicate their messages through a process of signification and that the idea that signs can function at the level of denotation, which involves the literal or common sense meaning of the sign, and at the level of connotation which involves meanings associated with or suggested by the sign. 

• His theory could link to the Adele and Kendrick Lamar music covers that we studied, with the way they had a main title for their music cover, for Adele it was 25, just a simple title which communicates her hidden message through a process of signification, that signification is the true meaning behind her music album cover. Its the same with the Kendrick Lamar music cover, he has a hidden message within it and his text communicates that message. The two music overs also contain denotations and connotations, the obvious things that you can see that was on the cover and the connotations which was the hidden messages and what all the things that were specifically put there actually mean, which is exactly what we studied about within the task about Adele and Kendrick Lamar.

Tzvetan Todoror//Narratology//

• Todoror believes in the idea that all narratives share a basic structure that involves a movement from one state of equilibrium to another. He also believes that in the way narratives are resolved can have a particular ideological significance.

• This theory could link to the water aid advert seeing as he follows the idea that structure involves movement from one state of equilibrium to another, which in my opinion  basically means movement within something means that there must be structure to it for it to carry on, with the water aid advert there is a lot of structure to the advert so they can get their message across which in this case is for them to help the children and get them a better future, without the structure, like the three aims they repeat which they're hoping to achieve, they wouldn't have a target goal.

Steve Neal //Genre theory//

•  Neal believes in the theory that genres may be dominated by repetition, but are also marked by difference, variation and change. The idea that genres change, develop and vary as they borrow from and overlap with one another. He also believes that the genre of a film is defined by two things, firstly its how much it conforms to a genres stereotypes and conventions and how much the film subverts the genres stereotypes and conventions.  

• The kiss of the vampire could be linked to this theory in the way he defines the genre of a film on the stereotypes of it, within the movie poster there is s a blonde girl who has been took by the vampire so there is that stereotype of the girl always being the one who needs rescuing, the vampire who is in red suggesting blood and he's about to bite her which conveys the genre horror. But there is s a man who is on the floor looking like he's in need of help and the women is trying to rescue him which basically goes against his theory as society wouldn't associate a man being the one who needs rescuing.

Claude Levi Strauss  //Structuralism//

• Strauss believes in the idea that texts can best be understood through an examination of their underlying structure and that the idea that meaning is dependent upon (and produced through) pairs of opportunities, he also believes in the idea that the way in which these binary opposites are resolved can have particular ideological significance.

• The topic I think this theory link to is The kiss of the vampire, the reason for this is because the movie had a vampire as the villain and a man supposedly to be the hero but that's just how people perceive it stereotyping women being the ones that always need rescuing but in this case it is the man who needs rescuing as he's on the floor and the women is the ones who's fighting the vampire which goes against that stereotype. But there is always a villain and a hero without these there wouldn't really be a film, its all about how binary opposites are depended upon in things, without even knowing the genre of a film you can perceive what it is by looking at the characters and seeing if there's the villain character and the supposed hero. But you could rely on the codes and conventions, what we are expecting to see on a horror poster and what actually is there, we expect to see a man vs some kind of supernatural creature but this time its a women vs the creature. Pairs of oppositions which basically means Good vs evil.

Jean Baudrillard //Postmodernism//

• Baudrillards theory contains the thought that the idea in postmodern culture the boundaries between the 'real' world and the world of media have collapsed and this it is no longer possible to distinguish  between reality and simulation. In postmodern age of simulacra we are impressed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything "real". Also that media images have come to seem more "real" than the reality they supposedly represent (hyper reality).

• There are two topics this theory could link to in my opinion, firstly it could link to the tide print advert, the idea that she has about how media is kind of complete different to the everyday things that are going on which she represents as the "real" thing. In the the tide advert it contains a women with red lipstick, hair done up all nice and quite a lot of skin showing which signifies a bit of a sexual theme to the poster, back then women were looked down on if they wore things like the women in the poster, people now would automatically assume that women back then were all like this which wasn't the case but as Jean has said media images have become more "real" than reality, looking at this poster now all women would be represented like this as this is how they're putting women out to be even though maybe women were completely different this. The other topic I think links to this theory is the water aid advert, everybody assumes that the children are all fine when watching the advert as there shown with water and being happy which again there is her theory being shown, media is being more taken serious than actual reality, without that advert people wouldn't of taken any notice, some still don't as they don't perceive the children as being really desperate as the video (media) is showing them with water.