theorists useful for the exam...

Glossary of Theorists:

1.    Identity is complicated everyone thinks they’ve got one- David Gauntlett

2.    A focus on identity requires us to pat closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups This relates to the incresed use of blackberry messenger, facebook and Twitter and how youths interact and share cultural views- David Buckingham

3.    There is a distinct ‘in group’ and ‘out group’ discrimination. An individuals self-esteem is maintaining by being part of the group. This relates to subcultures in soicety and particular gangs that are formed including peer pressure and social influences youth experience- Henri Tajfel

4.    The media as a principal form of ideological dissemination produces representations of the social world via images and portrayals. This explains how the media reflects social ideas that are relevent to how society is regulated– Stuart Hall

5.    Teens are constantly updating and customing their profiles online, adding photos and posting on each others virtual walls these activities can also be means for teens to construct and experiment with their identity- Relates to the use of social networks and how they are used on a daily basis to upload posts and to hold a collective identity.-Henry Jenkins

6.    We have an embodied expirence and anything in which we use our bodies to create new things with builds our identity- Can relate to the creation and construction of individual Facebook and Myspace pages-Merleau Ponty

7.    Survielllance in society is a constant notion that is internalised and used as a form of social organisation. We are born with a basic construction of our identity and we develop this further with who meet which forms our collective identity we mediate this for who we meet we do this through discourse and this leads to us influcing eachother -Relates to media proposed ideas and how we negotiate these mentally to form our identity. Micheal Foucalt

8.    The emergence of a social order in  which the importance and power of the mass media and popular culture means that they govern and shape all other forms of social relationships – Strinati Post Modernist theorist

9.    Development systems interact with people in many shapes or forms exsisting sense of identity in different forms –Piaget

10. The Mirror stage looks at how we reflect behaviour from the media (the mirror) and we reflect what we see and then mediate it and recongnise the ‘self’- Jacques Lacan

11. In media representations youth becomes an empty category- Giroux

12. Media representations of deliquient youth reinforce hegemony by showing what is uneceptable. They also justify state control of young people- the ideology of protection – Acland

13. Over time the media can influence how people percieve the world. This is known as the cultivation theory- This relates to how the media has changed conventions and heightened representations which have been acceped by us as the passive audeience-Gerbner

Glossary of Key Terms:

Hegemony-  A ruling class that dominates society eg. Adults

Construction- How ideas are put together through media devices to create an ideology

Subculture- A social group with a culture that diffentiates from a larger culture in which they belong to


Counter Culture- a group that forms a counter culture to subvert oppression with their behaviour they also challenge ideologies.

Ideology- a set of ideas that reflect actions and expectations in society


Dichotomous- two different things on opposite, sides that are divided.

Archtetypical- the typical and recognised ideology that is copied in society or reconstructed

Dissonance- two conflicting things

Mediation- A negotiation to resolve differences . The idea of us negotiated readings of the media to help us construct media. So not taking the messages at face value but understanding them in context and using our own expirences.

Representation- refers to the construction in media formats (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other concepts. Such representations may be in writing e.g nespapers or visuals e.g tv programmes/music videos.

Binary opposition- how ideas and meanings are being shaped, created or reinforced in a text. It is 'a theory of meaning' ,it is especially useful when analysing poetry where meaning has been 'compressed' into a very few words.

Reflection- How we as an audience look upon media texts and mediate our perceptions and have a mental debate about what we are being presented with in the media

Anarchy-A subculture that go against the norm to change views and ideas about politics they can often be violent and offensive about proposed societal views and often reject regulation.

Censorship-relates to the examining of media products and suppressing acceptable parts for a suitable audience e.g the parental advisory logo and film ratings

Globalised- An international influence media products have on a wide spread audience

Marxism-  A Dominant sociological theory that highlights the importance of regulation and capitalism in society. It also looks at how ideologies are proposed and used to regulate people in society. A key Marxists theorist is Stuart Hall.

Post Modernism-  A movement that emerged as a reaction to modern society and cultural views that reflect society and governs our reality as the media act as a mirror that we reflect and define ourselves with.