Applying Theorists - Revision Number 1

EITHER: 

Media Language Questions

Analyse the way that Media Language is used to present social and cultural contexts in Source A (The Daily Mail) and Source B (The Guardian Online).​

• Apply Barthes Theories about Semiotics in your answer.
• Apply Levi-Strauss theories about structuralism in your answer.
• Apply Todorov's theories about narratology in your answer.
• Apply Baudrillard's theories about Postmodernism.
• Apply Neale's theories about genre.

NB: Contexts can be social, cultural, political or historical.

Media Representations Questions

Analyse the different social and cultural representations in Source A (The Daily Mail) and Source B (The Guardian Online).​

• Apply Hall's theories on representation in your answer. ***
• Apply Van Zoonen's theories on Feminist Representations in your answer. ***
• Apply Gilroy's Post-Colonial Theory in your answer.
• Apply bell hook's theories on Intersectionality in your answer.
• Apply Gauntlett's theories on Identity in your answer.
• Apply Butler's theories on Gender Performativity. 

NB: Representations can be social, cultural, political or historical.

QUESTION CONTEXT: 

On March 7th, 2021, Meghan Duchess of Sussex gave an Interview to Oprah Winfrey in which she accused the Royal Family of racism. This came just a few hours after the Queen's speech to the British Commonwealth in which she stressed the importance of duty.

 SOURCE A: DAILY MAILCOVER MARCH 8th 2021

SOURCE B: THE GUARDIAN ONLINE MARCH 8th 2021

Hall theorises that Media producers attempt to fix a preferred meaning by manipulating what is present, what is absent, and what is different. He argues that these representations often reinforce dominant ideologies (hegemony) through the use of stereotypes and selective framing guiding audiences to accept certain values and beliefs or viewpoints and ideologies. 

Van Zoonen theorises that media representations of women in patriarchal cultures rely on objectification, positioning women as objects of a male gaze rather than as subjects in their own right. Conversely, men are positioned as active subjects, shaping their environment. She argues that gender is socially and culturally constructed, meaning that newspapers both reflect and reinforce dominant ideological assumptions about gender roles, consistently serving patriarchal power structures.

hooks theorises that media representations actively reinforce a system of interlocking oppressions. Through her concept of intersectionality, she argues that gender, race, class, sexuality and disability interact within representation to reinforce a white supremacist capitalist patriarchal system, making structural inequality appear natural and inevitable.