Theories

Vladimir Propp's Theory 

The same 8 charters appear in every story tail. These are The Hero, The Villain, the Dispatcher, The Helper, The Princess, The Princesses Father, The Donator and The False Hero.

Hero:

The character whose story we follow. Set out to achieve some task. Who we want as an audience to achieve their task.

Villain:

The antagonistic force of the story. They are opposed to the 'Hero'. They don't always need to be evil. 

Dispatcher:

The character who makes the 'Villains' scheme known to the 'Hero' and sends them on their task.

The Helper:

They help the 'Hero' achieve their task.

The Princess:

Who the 'Hero' is looking to marry and or rescuer. They can either be a prize as well.

The Princess Father:

The person who needs to be won over by the 'Hero'. The person who gives the 'Princess' or 'Prize' to the 'Hero'.

The Donator:

The one who prepares the 'Hero' in some way. Gives the 'Hero' an object or knowledge or skills that will help them on their task.

The False Hero:

They swoop in and taker the credit for the 'Hero's' work. They try to get the 'Princess' or 'Prize' first.

Drawback:

It only works with fiction story's, movies and or television.

For example Shrek. This is because Shrek is the hero, Lord Farquaad is the villain and it carries on. 

The Hypodermic Needle Model

This model argues that audiences are ‘passive consumers’ of media messages. Media products ‘inject’ ideas into our heads and we have no control over our responses.

It is based on the idea that human brains are hardwired to respond to certain stimuli in the same way, which is why we have mass hysteria

For example, Donald Trump talk directly to  his audience, by different social media platforms. This would mean everything he says, everyone who reads it would believe and agree, but actually not everyone agrees and people argue back. 

The Uses & Gratifications Model

Uses & Gratifications Model assumes that media consumers are ‘active’, making choices and responding in individual ways to media

This model suggests that we have particular needs that media products are designed to satisfy.

People use media to divert themselves from their everyday life.
People use media to learn and inform them selfs about whats happening in the world or what they want to learn about.
People use media as a social way to communicate. 

Representation

Representation refers to the ways in which an artwork or media product (and film) portrays particular social groups, cultures, genders, sexual orientation, etc. from a specific ideological viewpoint

This is good because is help to highlight stereotypes so the audience can associate with them.
On the other hand, this can be bad because there are negative stereotypes.

Tzvetan Todorov Narrative Structure

Todorov was a theorist who predominantly studied folk tales and literature and identified recurring elements in how stories were structured

He said that all stories had 5 distinct parts

1) Equilibrium

2) Disruption

3) Recognition of Disruption

4) Attempt to Repair Disruption

5) New equilibrium

Equilibrium:

This is the normal state of things at the beginning of the story.

Disruption

Some key event occurs that causes a disruption to the lives of the main characters.

The protagonist does not need to know about it at this stage, but the event will impact their lives in some way

Recognition of Disruption

The protagonist is made aware of the cause of the disruption and begins to do something about it.

Attempts to Repair Disruption

The protagonist sets about trying to resolve the cause of the disruption.

The Hero will set out on a quest or will begin to solve a mystery or confront a Villain.

New Equilibrium

After the protagonist has overcome the cause of the disruption, a new state of affairs is established.

For example the film Thor follows this structure.

The Hero’s Journey

The Hero’s Journey is another model for understanding narrative, again based mainly on fairytales and folklore, originally by Joseph Campbell

The call to adventure, supernatural aid, threshold guardian, threshold, helper, mentor, challenges and temptations, abyss death and rebirth, transformation, atonement and the return.
Binary Oppositions 

Claud Levi Strauss - Good verses Bad and Rich verses Poor. Narrative conflict, crime verses legitimate business.

Encoding and Decoding 

Encoding, media producers encode into their products e.g image of the bad guy like scar in the lion king.

Decoding, what the audience does e.g black is a lucky colour in some cultures so scars mane black wouldn't seem bad/ evil.