Module 5 Blog - Independent Study

Tuesday, 9 September 2008

The Day After Tomorow Movie On Youtube

Uses and gratifications theory

Uses and gratifications, is not a single approach but a body of approaches developed out of empirical studies beginning in the mid 20th century. It is one of many audience theories recognised in the media.
The basic theme of uses and gratifications is the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications. This is in opposition to the Hypodermic Syringe model that claims consumers have no say in how the media influences them. The main idea of the Uses and Gratifications model is that people are not helpless victims of all powerful media, but use media to fulfill their various needs. These needs serve as motivations for using media.
Jay G. Blumler and Elihu Katz devised their uses and gratifications model in 1974 to highlight five areas of gratification in media texts for audiences. These include:
Escape — Some media texts allow the user to escape from reality. For example, video games.
Social interaction — People create personal relationships with the characters in a media text. Potentially this could become dangerous if people do not question the reality of such texts. It also creates a common ground for conversation in people's every day lives.
identify — People often identify a part of themselves in a media text, either through character or circumstance. For example, hair style trends stemming from a magazine feature. This can go a long way in people's ideologies.
Inform and educate — the audience gain an understanding of the world around them by consuming a media text, for example print and broadcast news.
Entertain - consumed purely for entertainment purposes, meaning that text need not have any other gratifications.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_gratifications"

Also look at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Communication_Theory/Uses_and_Gratifications
http://www.mediaknowall.com/alevkeyconcepts/audience.html

Sunday, 20 July 2008

Global Issues raised within Bbc's Dr.Who

This episode reflects on the worlds issues of global warming through the pollution that cars create, as well as reflecting on the worlds fears of an attack from the alien nation on the world. It also targets the scientific side on humans being able to clone or modify people and their attitudes.

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

Reception Theory by Wikipedia

Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes the reader's reception of a literary text. In literature, it originated from the work of Hans-Robert Jauss in the late 1960s. Reception theory was at its most influential during the 1970s and early 1980s in Germany and USA (Fortier 132), amongst some notable work in Western Europe.
This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for "negotiation" and "opposition" on the part of the audience. This means that a "text"—be it a book, movie, or other creative work—is not simply passively accepted by the audience, but that the reader / viewer interprets the meanings of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader.
Therefore a basic acceptance of the meaning of a specific text tends to occur when a group of readers have a shared cultural background and interpret the text in similar ways.
It is likely that the less shared heritage a reader has with the artist, the less he/she will be able to recognise the artist's intended meaning, and it follows that if two readers have vastly different cultural and personal experiences, their reading of a text will vary greatly.
Cultural theorist Stuart Hall is one of the main proponents of reception theory.
Reception theory has since been extended to the spectators of performative events—predominantly theatre. Susan Bennett is often credited with beginning this discourse within theatre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reception_theory

also look at: http://www.savoyhill.co.uk/technique/reception.html

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Reception-Theory.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/reception-theory