Structuralism and post-structuralism

 Part 1: Media Factsheet reading

1) What is the definition of structuralism provided by the Factsheet? 

Structuralism is a theoretical perspective that emphasises the existence of universal structures underlying the surface differences and assumed randomness of various cultures , stories and media texts.

2) What are binary oppositions and why are they important?
Binary oppositions are two things that are polar opposites.

3) How do genre and auteur theory link to structuralism? 

Auteur theory looks for patterns in the films made my the same directors which links to structuralism as it suggests that directors have a certain structure to how they create films. Genre links to structuralism as it implies that each film/ tv show in that genre have similar conventions.

4) Look at page 4 of the factsheet. What is post-structuralism?

Post-structuralism is interested in how ‘external’ structures can affect meaning. For example, post structural analysis may look at how attitudes towards gender or ethnicity in society affect the audience’s understanding of a text and the meanings it generates.

5) What is your own opinion on this theory? Do you agree that we use established structures to understand the media (such as narrative and genre) or is the power now with audiences in a digital, post-structuralist media landscape? 

I think that both structuralism and post-structuralism are used to understand a piece of media since the context in which it is made such as the genre impacts how an audience views the text but a audiences' experiences also impact how they view and generate meaning in media. However, I overall agree with post-structuralism as any piece of media can be polysemic.

Part 2: The Mitchells vs The Machines analysis

Through a structuralist lens the trailer exhibits conventions of a sci-fi film as there plots involves a robot apocalypse. In addition, they main characters are in a stereotypical American family dynamic as they have a mum, dad, two children and a dog. On the other hand, it shows post-structuralist traits as it could be looked at as an analogy for AI taking over society and humans being at threat. Also the family dynamic is quite unique and their characters are less typical.