#mediatheories

So, after reading Baudrillard I felt that I had a better grasp on all three of the media theories that we have read thus far (excluding the GNU Manifesto). That being said, I am not sure who I agree with yet. Here is my condensed summary of each theory:

McLuhan ~ a medium is an extension of the person.

Enzensberger ~ transform media into a socialized means of production.

Baudrillard ~ media should allow for a response instead of negating any linked communication.

McLuhan’s belief that the medium is the message is an interesting point, and it seems that both Enzensberger and Baudrillard agree on that point, but they differ on other points. Baudrillard and Enzensberger agree that there is a need for more communication in the media, but Baudrillard thinks that the media does not allow for any response. In a way, I see all three of these men agreeing with each other about their discontent with the media, but I think that they are posing different kinds of solutions to the problem.

My question for Baudrillard, though, is how can “a medium deprive information of its original context”??? I would think that the original context of information is a thought in someone’s head. How can it be skewed then from your head to a piece of paper?

I would consider that everyone take a look at this article by Jason Gross on Smashing Magazine. He has an interesting perspective on McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Message” and I think it is very relevant to our conversations this month.

Semiotics

Post-structuralism

Semiotics - study of signs and codes; mise’en’scene, language, colour, lighting detonation vs. connotation

Three levels in which we read texts:

Syntactic level - basic

Representational level - representation

Symbolic level – put things together and the meaning

Barthes & Cultural myths - the way texts are constructed promotes certain ideologies

Cultural Myths - texts have typical narratives and characters and out of these certain myths emerge & we believe they are true

Rags to riches example = Bridget Jones ‘Diary’, ‘Pretty Woman’, ‘Maid in Manhattan’

Underdog wins example = ‘Mean Girls’, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’

It’s not the myth that matters but the cultural meaning

Cinderella myth is telling us we need to look good, appearance values matter

Fiske - argues that there is a problem - connotations become so part of our ideological thinking that we read them as detonation; they are natural, we don’t even notice them – impact that media has on us

Structuralism focuses on semiotics - how structure helps us achieve meaning, looks at form, genre and narrative

Action code and enigma code

Symbolic code: binary opposites & psycho-analytic themes: e.g. (1) Male emasculation anxiety; fear of degradation/humiliation Pursuit of Happiness, (2) Father vs. son competition; presence of fathers body during sons development essential to understanding of masculinity, son always feels competition with father but refrains from winning because of the guilt, conflicting masculinity, both men

Auteur theory - patterns in films of particular directors who are seen as authors of their films, see a directors and understand what movie it will be:

Christopher Nolan e.g. Momentum, Inception, themes – plays with our perception, blurs the line between real and unreal 

Wes Anderson – recognise his movies by the cinematography