Generic Research: Theorist work

In class, we were introduced to a variety of different theories in the media, who all have a different role and opinion on the way things work within the industry. Some of these theories were more applicable to the concept of a documentary than others. Here are some that I find most interesting:

This theorist is named Levi Strauss, and he focusses in on the idea of binary oppositions. This means that two ideas or physical characters within the content are the opposite to each other.  He was a French anthropologist and has been referred to as being the 'father of modern anthropology.'

The main example that many think of is 'Good vs Evil' which appears more within a film rather than a documentary. Their purpose is to help understand the events taking place within the storyline.  They are also frequently used within music videos, so then the audience can understand the meaning of the song lyrics more. 

In my documentary, I have a slight binary opposition due to the fact that I plan to compare lifeguards within the UK and also from Mallorca, to compare the roles and whether or not they're contrasted in any way. 

This is Stuart Hall, who us a Media  theorist  focussing in on the way in which the audience perceive something. This is called encoding and decoding, and he came up with a model which explains three ways in which one may read a text.

Dominant reading- the audience read the text in the way that the author intended it to be read, this is the preferred reading type.

Negotiated reading- the audience partly believe what is being put across within the text, but not entirely. However, they tend to modify this in a way that fits in with what they believe.

Oppositional reading- the audience will completely reject the reading. Their social position places them opposite positions in comparison to the dominant code.

I plan to have a dominant reading type in my documentary, so the audience will come away from watching it with knowledge they didn't know before. I want them to find out more about the role of a lifeguard and what it really takes to undertake the role. 

This is Steve Neale, who is a Media theorist focussing on the aspect of 'genre' as a topic.  He says that genre is an instance of repetition and difference. This means that when there is content that contains repetition, it becomes boring and not as entertaining to the consumer.

However, the content should match the genre to a certain extent, and follow the forms and conventions that would be expected in order to be labelled as being part of that genre.

I want to ensure that the piece I create doesn't have repletion to the point where it is classed as not being enjoyable to watch. I will do this by making sure I film many cutaway clips, that can be used to place over the top of long duration footage such as interviews.