Structuralism and post-structuralism

 Part 1: Media Factsheet reading

1) What is the definition of structuralism provided by the Factsheet? 
Structuralism is a theoretical perspective that emphasises the existence of universal structures underlying the surface differences and assumed randomness of various cultures, stories and media texts.

2) What are binary oppositions and why are they important?
Binary opposition is evident in the above kinship relations as husband / wife, parent / child. These are important because it allows people to categorise and represent objects and ideas with symbols.  

3) How do genre and auteur theory link to structuralism? 
Genre and auteur theory link to structuralism due to genre emphasise patterns that can be identified across a range of texts and usually focus on identifying key conventions within a genre.

4) Look at page 4 of the factsheet. What is post-structuralism?
Post-structuralism is interested in how ‘external’ structures can affect meaning and that it is polysemic meaning everything has a range of different meanings and society's not fixed.

5) What is your own opinion on this theory? Do you agree that we use established structures to understand the media (such as narrative and genre) or is the power now with audiences in a digital, post-structuralist media landscape? 
We do use established structures to understand the media because of the idea that most producers in the media still follow the ideal conventions in making their media texts such as in movies and the genre of science fiction where the producers still add the element of sci-fi through white and light blue colour scheme as well as in the setting. However, in the post-structuralist media the idea for different media texts are getting more diverse which is depending on the audience whether they want to be an active or passive audience where they could suggest ideas in the media based on what their preferences are for the media text.

Part 2: The Mitchells vs The Machines analysis

Write an analysis of the trailer from both a structuralist and post-structuralist perspective. Structuralist: 
  • Conventions of a typical sci-fi movie (robot apocalypse)
  • Stereotypical American family (mum, dad, 2 kids, and a dog)
Post-structuralist:
  • AI is taking over the world
  • Humans are under threat
  • Family dynamics are quite unique and their characteristics were less typical than others.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Narrative: blog tasks

  Read  Media Factsheet 14 - Telling Stories: The Media's Use of Narrative  and answer the following questions: 1) Give an example from film or television that uses Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium.  An example from film or television that uses Todorov's narrative structure is Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit.  2) Complete the activity on page 1 of the Factsheet: find a clip on YouTube of the opening of a new TV drama series (season 1, episode 1). Embed the clip in your blog and write an analysis of the narrative markers that help establish setting, character and plot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sNu11Om7lg The use of the frame as props for each of the characters shows how the design seems very elegant and old fashioned which could suggest how the story may be in a middle class perspective. Also, it shows how setting seems very dark during the opening titles which could give an idea...
Read more

Audience Classification: blog tasks

  Read Media Factsheet 232 - Approaches to Studying Audiences.  You'll find all our factsheets in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. You can also  access them online here if you use your Greenford Google login .  Read the factsheet and a nswer the following questions: 1) How is audience defined in the Factsheet? The audience is defined in the factsheet as the general term for all the individual people who consume a media product and someone who consume a mixture of products varying from a manstream to niche audience. 2) What does the infographic for Gen Z in the age of Covid-19 suggest about the media Gen Z consumes?  The ifnographic for Gen Z in the age of Covid-19 suggest how Covid-19 affected media consumption in a particular age consumption.  3) How do media companies target and measure their audience in the digital age? Media companies target and measure their audience in the digital age through platform, sch...
Read more