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.