Critical Context

What makes a source academic?

A source is made academic when it is on an academic subject that contains a question or a title that ends with a conclusion, contains a bibliography and has used both primary and secondary research in the creation of their journal or dissertations. another factor is that it is created or published by a university or created by experts of the subject such as a professor. 

  

Different types of sources 

some of the best sources for information are Academic journals written by uni or professionals on the subject as well as the backup research they use to help support their academic work. the downside to these books and journals is that they can become outdated over time as new information comes to light about the subject your researching the downside to this is that you might not be able to gain access to the book's you want as your local library might not have it or you can only access them at certain times. one way to get around this is by finding a virtual copy off Google books or similar websites. 

 Some of the worst ways to gain Information for essays are Articles, YouTube, Wikipedia, YouTube and newspapers. The reason for them being bad is because they can be edited and changed by anyone as well as they can use a more personal view on the subject and can twist the data to their liking. The pro to these sources is that they can always be accessed as its online and they are easier to cite in a bibliography. A good way to try and use sources such as videos and Wikipedia is by looking for the sources they used and check if its creditable. 

  

Gender and representation theory 

Gender representation theory is how both Males and Females perceive different types of media and how they perceive the media influences the decisions made by directors, writers and crew. One such idea is the Male gaze as it is based on what Males stereotypically see (beautiful women and a lot of action and fighting) and the Female gaze is what they stereotypically see (more story, more romance). 

The way representation fits into this theory is using the subjects such as cultures, places and people are represented in film and TV such as the LGBTQ movement. 

 

An example of gender representation in recent years are strong female protagonists in films such as the recent star wards sequel trilogy starting with force awakens and ends with rise of Skywalker with the main protagonist is a female Jedi called Rey. 

  

Another good example of Racial representation is Apu from The Simpsons which caused major outcry's not by the Indian culture but by social justice warriors calling out racist which then caused the voice actor for Apu leave the show over this backlash. 

  

 Genre Theory and Stephen Neale

The genre theory is how we as an audience use stereotypes of films to class them under certain groups (genres) these groups have come under names such as Sci fi where their stereotypes include ufos, lasers and space as well as the future as a subject, Under these main genres there are sub genres which use these factors of the main genres and group them in separate genres within the main ones such as a sci fi thriller or a sci fi comedy. There are also combined genres that were created when a director wanted to add a twist to their film such as a rom-com or a horror-western. The creator of this theory is a chap named Stephen Neale. 

Stephen Neale is a British philosopher and a specialist in philosophical language. he graduated from Stanford university with a PHD in Philosophy. he now is a professor in Philosophy and Linguistics at City University New York.  

Narrative theory 

This theory is made up from 3 separate narrative theories and they are Propp, Todorov and Strauss. 

Vladimir Propp 

Propps theory is that every fairytale, film and tv show has characters that build up and create the story there are 31 different roles some of these roles include: 

Hero, Princess, False hero, Villain, Helper, Donor and princesses' father. 

These roles all come in line with each other such as the Helper and the donor helping the hero and that the princess's father usually dispatches the false hero to rescue the princess from the villain. 

A good example of this structure is Shrek due to Shrek being the hero and donkey being the helper along with princess's father dispatching prince charming the false hero to save Fiona the princess. 

Tzvetan Todorov 

His theory is simpler where it is based off 5 sections that help the plot of the story continue. 

Equilibrium: is usually the start of a film where everything is peaceful, and nothing Is worn in the world. 

Disruption of the equilibrium: this is when something happens in the film to disrupt peace such as in war films the first bomb is dropped. 

Recognition of disruption: this is when the main character of the story realizes somethings wrong and that they will start to figure out what to do, an example of this is in Shrek when Shrek realizes Fiona is trapped in the tower and realizes he has to save her. 

An attempt to repair the damage: This is when the hero attempts to rescue or fix the problem at hand, such as in Shrek when he rescues Fiona form the castle. 

New equilibrium: this is when the disruption is sorted and stopped, and everything goes back to normal but with the memory of the disruption. 

 

Levi Strauss

Strauss's theory is when he believes in binary opposites in storytelling and society such as good vs evil such as the film cats vs dogs where it's obviously cats vs dogs again binary opposites. 

The audience theories 

  

Audience theory passive and active 

Both audiences referenced in the title uses the audience as the example. 

The man who helped bring this theory to life is gentleman called François Truffaut. 

He is a French film critic who attacked the established filming techniques and paved the way for a new style of film making called Nouvelle Vague or in English New wave. 

He was one of the first French film directors in the 1950s to dominate his films as if he was the author of the films he created. 

  

Passive: This type of audience is part of the sheep society which follow all the new trends set in by society such as new clothes and films and are often weak willed. They often look at media as they were made to look at and not looking into the finer details and classed as just observers. 

  

Active: This type of audience can't be easily manipulated and always look at the finer details in media. They will often try and challenge the media they see such as the Star Wars fan culture where they often look deeper into the lore of the franchise and create fan made media such as fan fiction and when it comes their more popular sections of the franchise such as the clone wars they make armor and props for conventions such as Star Wars Celebration and May the 4th being referred to as Star Wars day. 

One word that sums up the Auter and that is Le camera-stylo. Basically, it means the camera pen it means that every detail and style in the film reflects the director personally, such as Quintin Tarintino as I have mentioned beforehand. 

Uses and Gratification theory

This theory suggests that the audience instead of just viewing media they actually use the media to help gather information on a subject such as going on wookiepedia when looking for character lore for the Star Wars franchise. I my self have done a power point on this theory and have also applied it to my every day life.
Such as when I'm gaming and want to find a certain achievement for a game I personnally go out of my way to find how to do it and end up completing my task and I end up getting a sort of feeling like I achieved something.

This can be seen in shows such as Gravity Falls from 2012 as an entire fanbase was founded upon decoding secrete messages and Easter eggs hidden in the show to help discover the potential ending of the show or even a deeper story beneath the original story presented in the show.

Reception Theory
This theory (created by Sturat Hall) presents the idea that then way a piece of media is taken in by the audience can alter by the audiences age, race and culture, a way that this theory can be seen in everyday life for example a teenager could buy a game and in their eyes it the best thing in the world at that moment but firm someone at the age 60 they see it as them wasting money and that there's no point in it. 


The alignment theory
The way this theory works is by using an object a character uses or an action they do links back to the attitude and factors that make up the character on the piece of media.

Auter theory 

This one is my favorite due to the director being the driving force of creativity in the film, 

Every director has their own way of thinking and being creative and this theory helps show that and that creativeness leaves like a watermark on the films they create as they add their own ideas. 

for example one of these directors are Quintin Tarentino who is known for in his films for using the same cast in most of his films with stars such as Sam L Jackson and Leonardo Decaprio in his many films such as Django and the hateful eight, He is also known for the blood and extreme violence in his films basically his watermark. 

Desensitization

This theory suggests that due to the audience of a media product watching the same type of product continuously have began to react less to the events transporting in the media bother are watching, a good example of desensitization is the genre of horror. As the audience watch films such as Saw and witness the blood and the gore in this film over and over again they will start to react less and less to these actions as they have grown used to this feeling they recieve when viewing this content.

Desensitization has been related to violent acts committed in the media they watch they then eventually carry out such acts like Murder or robbery in real life. A good example of such is how especially in the US that video games such as GTA has helped made children and teens more violent in recent years.

Cultivation Theory
This theory suggests that repeated viewing of a media product can slowly affect the viewers view on reality and slowly perceive the world as such they have been watching. This theory goes in hand with desensitization as it links to violent action committed by certain audiences.

In some ways cultivation has been proven to help the viewer gain a more positive view on the world if they watch more positive content such as a charity gala or the great british bake off as these shows might inspire you to become more creative.
The theories I have chosen
The theory I think that best suited my question is the genre theory as I use the audience of such films as Natural Born Killers to help show what Hollywood has done to help invoke acts of murder form within that films audience as well as using a combination with an active audience theory to he;p show that these copycat killings are with in the active audience demographic as they go out of thier way to commit these acts of violence around the world.