Intertextuality:
Derived from the Latin intertexto, meaning to intermingle while weaving, intertextuality was first introduced by French semiotician Julia Kristeva in the 1960s.
• Parody films such as 'Scary Movie' and 'Superhero movie‘, ‘The Starving Games’ ‘Vampires Suck’ were created almost completely out of Intertextuality.
• For example the 2008 spoof film 'Superhero movie' is a parody of superhero films (hence the film's title).
• In particular, this film uses the superhero film 'Spider-man(2002) as its main template , since Superhero movie contains a similar storyline with similar characters.
Parody and Pastiche:
• Producers employ parody and pastiche in the Horror genre e.g. Shaun of the Dead (2004). These concepts are rooted in postmodernist theory, and the changing nature of modern audiences.
• Definitions
• A parody film is a film that mocks through comedy films of a particular genre. Hot Fuzz is a recent example that makes fun of the genre of cop action films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayTnvVpj9t4
• A pastiche film borrows a number of themes and styles, or codes and conventions from other films even to the extent of copying some scenes and imitating others. The aim of pastiche is to make it obvious that these elements have been borrowed or imitated as a form of flattery to the original.
• These terms link in with Intertextuality, which we also covered earlier. What is Intertextuality?
• Deliberate reference in a text to another media text or form which is already known to audiences
The Hypodermic Needle Model:
• The Hypodermic Needle Model argues that the audience is passive.
• The Hypodermic Needle is the media, and the audience are injected with its messages, which they do not question.
• For example – “Violent videogames make people violent”.
• The violent content of a game is absorbed into the audience members’ brain and makes them think violent behaviour is acceptable.
• The hypodermic needle model demonstrates the effects of the mass media on their audiences. This model owes much to the supposed power of the mass media – in particular film – to inject the passive audiences with ideologies.
• Repressive regimes around the world (such as North Korea now) control the media organisations in their countries, usually in the belief that strict regulation of the media will help in controlling their populations.
• The audience is seen as a passive mass who will immediately accept whatever version of events is given in the media.
• It is worth noting that through the years this model has been known by the following terms.
Hypodermic Syringe,
Hypodermic needle theory,
Hypodermic theory,
Magic bullet,
Bullet theory.
• All of the above refer to the hypodermic model.
The Uses and Gratifications Model:
• From the 1960s it became clear that audiences made choices about how and when they consumed media texts.
• Far from being a passive mass, audiences were made up of individuals who actively consumed texts for different reasons and in different ways.
• Blumler and Katz suggested a series of possible reasons why audience members might consume a media text:
• Diversion – escape from everyday problems and routine.
• Personal relationships – using the media for emotional and other interaction, e.g. substituting soap operas for family life.
• Blumler and Katz suggested a series of possible reasons why audience members might consume a media text:
• Personal Identity – constructing their own identity from characters in media texts, learning behaviour and values.
• Surveillance – Information gathering e.g. educational programmes, weather reports, financial news and holiday bargains.
Subverting Audience Expectations:
• For modern audiences, as various media formats have been around for so many years now and are the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, audiences have expectations and understandings of what they will expect to see in a media text, even being able to predict how a film will end.
• For example, cinema would become stale if all films followed the same template – and while most films do still stick to genre conventions, film makers do what they can to keep things fresh.
• This is either through hybrid films – merging more than one genre together, or through subverting the audience’s expectations of the genre.
• By subverting expectations, we mean a media text does the opposite of what we expect to happen.
• Action films where the damsel in distress saves herself, gangster films where the criminals use their brains rather than violence to solve problems, rom coms where the star struck lovers don’t end up together at the end – these are all examples of subverting genre expectations.
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