Theories

Audience

• Uses and Gratifications

- Explain how we 'use' the media and what gratifications (pleasures) we receive

• Hypodermic Needle

- Early theory that suggests we are injected with ideas that we believe to be true

Narrative

• Todorov

- 3 parts to a narrative - equilibrium, disruption, resolution

• Propp

- Character types - hero, villain, princess, donor, helper etc.

• Levi-Straus

- Binary opposites - narratives feature conflicts between opposing forces (good/evil etc.)

• Barthes

- Narratives involve enigmas - questions/puzzles to be solved by the audience