Media Theories

There are three media theorists that each have an individual theory about different texts (TV/film/poster etc.) They all have a set of ideas which they believe makes the audience become interested in a certain text. These three theorists are Barthe, Todorov and Claude Levi Strauss.

Barthes theory is called 'Barthes Enigma Code'. Barthes argued that different texts present a puzzle for the audience which has to be solved by the end of the text. A trailer or poster for a film displaying a puzzle to be solved draws an audience in as they want to find out the answer to the puzzle. This is why film trailers don't show the ending to a film, as there is no point watching a film if you already know the ending to it. For example, if you're watching a murder mystery, the murderer isn't revealed until the end so the audience will stay interested and think 'Who's the murderer?'.

Todorov's theory is about how a story evolves and ends. He believes that there are five different stages to a story. These stages are equilibrium, disruption, recognition, climax, resolution and back to equilibrium. The equilibrium stage is the beginning of the story when everything is normal. This changes when there is a disruption/disequilibrium (someone is murdered). The next stage is the recognition, this is when the realisation of the murdered rises. There is then a climax where something gets in the way of solving the problem. This is then followed by the resolution when the murder is solved. The last stage returns back to the equilibrium. Even though everything is back to normal, it is still not the same as someone has been killed and is no longer there.

Claude Levi-Strauss' theory is called binary oppositions. Levi-Strauss believed that every film have binary oppositions, for example; good vs bad, male vs female and love vs hate etc. These binary oppositions creates conflict in the story which make it become interesting. This is why an audience is attracted to a film as they like to seek other people's drama as they are not experiencing any in their lives.

My Favourite Genre of Film

Horror is my favourite genre of film because throughout the whole film, you get an adrenaline rush because of the intensity of the film. They also take you away from the norm a most events that happen in horror films don't tend to happen in day to day life, and we enjoy watching surreal events as it's different from what we usually see.

One of my favourite horror films is Paranormal Activity. This is one of my favourites as it contains supernatural events that wouldn't happen to anyone else. Also, Paranormal Activity goes further than any other supernatural films, it has a storyline to it. Other horror films don't usually have a good storyline to back up the supernatural events. Paranormal Activity also has follow on films to it which explain the story even further. My scariest part I found in this film was when the chandelier banged against the ceiling. I thought this was the scariest part because the audience don't know it's the chandelier. It was also filmed using a normal hand camera so you know it hasn't been edited which makes the film feel more real. It also makes you relate to it more because you feel like you're there because it's filmed like a home made video.