critical context

Auteur 

this theory me and Hannah did a presentation on which is below.

Audience

This is split into three section the passive audience, the active audience and the negotiated audience.

The passive audience is the audience that may enjoy a show or film but wont go out of their way to have their views heard or be effected by the certain decisions that is made in the show, for example I watch Emmerdale because I enjoy it but I’m not to bothered with what happens and I don’t watch it all the time.

An active audience is where someone is very interested with the show that they become part of the fandom and they go out of their ways to get the views heard especially if they don’t like what has been done or they go and buy the merch that is being sold by the thing they like for example I am a massive fan of Paramore so I have gone out of my way to get the albums and I’ve seen them perform live and I have also bought a number of items from them, and I have also bought the hair dye that Hayley Williams has created ‘good dye young’ just because she’s the lead singer of the band.

A negotiated audience is someone who can see the good within the show and also the bad within the show, and when they are talking about the show they will say both sides of the show the good and the bad, for example I am a fan of glee but when talking about I always so what I liked about the show but also how terrible some parts of it was, especially the certain songs they picked which sometimes was justice for the songs.

Desensitization theory.

this theory suggest that watching something for a long period of time makes things less sensitive which a good one for this is horror films during the time of horror films being around they have gradually gotten worse but because people have gotten used to the horror and the gore, they don’t mind watching more, but it can be the same with in the news because we have watched so much in movies that now seeing it in the news it doesn’t bother us as much, for example the saw movies because there is so many is because people are getting used to people having their limbs chopped of and they want more jump scares so the creators are trying to create that for them.

Representation and gender

This is about how the sexualities and the different genders are represented within the different media forms, even though when if first appeared there wasn’t much representation of the different genders or sexualities, however it has improved through the years so much, with having more female lead films or tv programmes and even more female lead books.

The Bechdel test – this is a test that has three attributes to it the first one is that the film has at least 2 women in it, secondly they talk to each other and thirdly about something besides a man, it is also called the mo movie measure or the Bechdel rule, it was popularised by Alison Bechdels’s comic dykes to watch out for, in a 1985 strip called the rule. A great example of this rule in play would be birds of prey as it has a female lead cast.

There are many other theories that go with this such like the queer theory or the male gaze or even the female gaze.

Narrative

This is in every media it structures the whole media story, in the way everything is written, there are many theories about this for which the most common one is Todorov’s theory, that suggests there are 5 stages to a narrative.

Starting with the equilibrium, where the story starts, everything being peaceful and calming for the characters, then the disequilibrium, where a change happens and effects the characters, then acknowledgement where the characters realise that something is wrong and something is going to change, then they solve the problem however and whatever it might be to which they then return to the equilibrium and everything goes back to normal, which is the end. A great example for this would be the maze runner, the equilibrium would be Thomas appearing in the maze, and then him going though the maze and finding the creatures and finding out that it is by wicked, then realizing they have to get out, to which they end up doing but with only a small group of them to which they are held up and then saved by someone new, to which they are safe again of their knowledge.

genre

A genre is a category-based similarity in either the narrative elements or the emotional response to the film such like comic, tragic, etc. most theories of film genre are from the literary world. Some of the common genres are horror, comedy, romance, science fiction (sci fi), to which there has been subgenres such like a romcom, and a docudrama, also horror and comedy such like Shaun of the dead. But there is so many more. And now there are new ones such like superheroes having their own genre as well as action and comedy. 

Academic sources – books, journal articles, expert reports

Theses are examples which you can tell they are academic sources because they are peer assessed from others that are in the same are of the writer, and they got to know what they are talking about. For example an author work is an academic source because they are a professional in their field of work and they have the publisher is able to peer assess it to which is a professional association or even by a university.

A list of references:

-      Books

-      Academic journals

-      Magazines

-     Websites

The pros and cons of each of theses

Books

The pros – they are reliable then most and they have reliable references.

The cons – might not be up to date , not easy to find what you are specifically looking for, they can be biased and you may have to pay for the book.

Academic journals

The pros – reliable sources, written by experts, and they are up to date.

The cons – may have to pay for it, and again they could be biased.

Magazines

The pros – up to date, easy to find.

The cons – it can be changed for viewers, even though it may seem easy it can also be hard to find what you are specifically looking for.

Websites

The pros – the most easy to get to what you want and easy to access.

The cons – however, it can some times not be reliable, it can be changed easily and it could also be false.