Narrative and audience theories (Additional Work)

Theories

Hypodermic Needle Audience Theory:

= Beliefs, attitudes and ideas are used by the media to influence the audience. An example of this is shown by the BBC news illustrating the 9/11 attacks as a purposeful act done by a certain group. This was done by being melodramatic and using phrases such as “omg it happened again!” This is an example of how informal language can be used as a persuasive technique.
This is used today in many teenager movies to portray a message to them and help them in real life situations they have today. (e.g. Kidulthood)

Uses And Gratification Theory:

= These are the different reasons us as an audience watch certain programs. For example; diversion, personal identity, personal relationships and entertainment. For instance a person would watch “Neighbours” to gain intellect of personal relationships, this is because in our society we lack community spirit.

Todorov’s Narrative Theory:

= Todorov’s theory is that a story always has 5 stages which are; Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Action and back to Equilibrium. We see these stages in many media texts such as the movie “Tangled”; here we see how happy she is in the beginning, then finds out that the witch isn’t her mother and she tries to escape from her. Then Flynn Rider helps her get to her real parents and therefore she is back to being happy again.

Propps Character Theory:

= Propp’s theory is very simple. He believes that every movie or book has a; hero, heroin, villain, the prize, the donor, dispatcher, helper and the king. We can relate this to the movie “Shrek” as this movie has the following characters; Shrek (hero), Fiona (heroin), The prince (villain), marrying Fiona (prize), farquaad (doner/dispatcher), Donkey (magical helper) and finally the King- Fiona’s father.

Levi-Strauss Theory:

= This theory was found by examining how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. These are usually expressed in the form of “binary oppositions” For example 1970’s Western films

Homesteaders	Native Americans
Christian	Pagan
Domestic	Savage

Roland Barthes Theory:

= Barthes believed that you can control info through codes which are Enigma and Action codes. Enigma is teasing the audience with a puzzle and an action code is a narrative device by which a resolution is produced through an action.