Spurlock- Supersize Me, Where On Earth Is Osama Bin Laden
Bowling For Columbine- Michael Moore
Louis Theroux- tv
Tiger King- tv
Frederick Wiseman- mental institutuion doc
CASE STUDIES FOR THIS BLOG
- Extreme Love: Louis Theroux on Autism
- Don't F*** With Cats
INTRO
In this blog, I will see how media theories influence a range of media texts. By doing this, it will start to influence what media theories I use in my final product.
MEDIA THEORIES USED IN EXTREME LOVE
Gauntlett's Identities
Theory: The media have an important but complex relationship with identities. The media gives a diverse and contradictory messages about identity.Individuals can use this to think through their identities and how they express themselves.
Application: Louis Theroux challenges the perceptions of Autism in his documentary by demonstrating a wide variety of people on different sides of the Autistic spectrum. By presenting this from the neurotypical perspective, it allows a neurotypical audience to compare and contrast the way they express themselves to the way the subjects of the documentary express themselves. The subject, despite being about the singular topic of Autsim, covers a whole series of people with different identities and ways of expressing themselves to promote the meaning that Autism is a spectrum of different behaviour
Todrov's Narratology
Theory: Narratives can be seen to go from equibrillium to disequibrillium until a state of equibrillium is returned to
Application: Louis Theroux begins the documentary in a house in equibrillium, metaphorically implying the beginning of the narrative of Theroux's discovery into Autism. The disequibrillium begins almost instantly, showing how the behaviours of people on the Spectrum that don't fit into social norms can be unpredictable and challenging for parents of children on the spectrum. Equibrillium is restored at the end of the documentary when Theroux goes back to visit the main subjects at the end of the documentary to see the progress they've made, before leaving the house to move on from the theme of autism.
Levi-Strauss' Structualism
Theory: Study of hidden rules that shape a structure to communicate ideologies or myths. We understand the world and our place within it through binary opposites
Application: The title of this documentary is seemingly juxtaposing vocabulary, reflecting the binary opposition within this documentary of positive (love) over negative (extreme behaviours) For instance, some of the subjects in the documentary abused their parents. However, these parents still love them and there are several mid shots of the families being close together within the centre of the frame to reflect this love they have for eachother.
MEDIA THEORIES USED IN DON'T F*** WITH CATS
Barthes' Semiology
Theory: Study of signs. Signs can create denotations and connotations derive from these denotations. Denotations and connotations create ideological myths.
Application: The documentary features a lot of cultural and referential codes to illustrate the delusions that the killer was living under- that they were the Sharon Stone of their own Basic Instinct esque adventure. In addition, the internet is used to symbolise the danger and power of internet crime. The accessibility of the horrific graphic content is denoted from the shots of FaceBook notifications and YouTube videos throughout. This connotes the horror and callousness of crimes and the denotations make it alarming for the viewer. This creates the ideology that the internet is too powerful and cannot be regulated, also alinging with Livingstone and Lunt's view that traditional regulation on online platforms is challenged by digital media and convergence
Hall's Representation
Theory: Through stereotyping and communication of ideology, power fixes the meaning of a product so that there can only be one true meaning. Despite this, preferred readings (meanings) can be contested by alternate readings (meanings) Meaning is created by representation and what isn't being represented. Stereotypes need to be picked apart to reveal facts about ideologies.
Application: This documentary has a variety of readings used throughout. A preferred reading from the protagonist and producers for instance is that Luka Magnotta is evil and cruel but before the final revelation, a lot of viewers would have taken a negotiated reading about his personality. His actions would've been attributed to a disastorous start to young adulthood. Even in the ending, one might use the negotiated reading of this to justify such actions (like Magnotta's mother)
CHALLENGES: Butler's Gender Performativity
Theory: Gender roles are ritualsied and repeated to the point of normalisation.
Challenge: Stereotypically, men are portrayed as the powerful & dominant one in crime and action adventures. However, the protagonist in Don't F*** With Cats is Deeana Thompson and she is repeatedly presented as the leader and most active and dominant one in the group.This is also shown through the fact that Deanna repeatedly uses her real name and the male doesn't want to in order to preserve his identity implies she is more confident and dominant than the man.
CONCLUSION (TBC When I plan more of my production)
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