Critical Context

Critical Perspectives

Audience

There are two types of audiences:-

• Passive Audience = This audience are easily manipulated. They look at a media product the way it is intended to be looked at and don't develop their own opinions on it.
• Active Audience = This audience aren't easily manipulated. They think 'outside of the box' about a media product and they form their own opinions on it.

The Uses & Gratifications Theory = This theory suggests the audience use the media rather than the media uses the audience. For example, people watch films as a form of escapism from life.

Desensitisation = This is when an audience watch something so much that they will react to it less, especially something sad, scary or emotional. For example, someone who watches horror films regularly will be less scared of them than someone who doesn't watch them regularly.

Cultivation Theory = This theory suggests that repeated exposure to television over time will change their perception of the world.

Alignment = The process of identification with someone or something

In my essay, I plan to use this critical perspective to discuss how the audience can be affected by the romantic comedy e.g. how they use the romcom as a form of escapism and how they can relate to the characters.

Auteur

The Auteur theory suggests the director is viewed as the major creative force of a motion picture. In cinematically successful film, the director will take more credit than the writer. Modern examples of auteurs include directors such as Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton and Richard Curtis.

In my essay, I plan to use this critical perspective to discuss how Richard Curtis can be considered as an auteur for romantic comedy as this is a genre he is predominantly known for.

Gender & Representation

• Gender perspective is based on how men & women perceive the media differently and how this affects a director's decisions.
• Representation is how different people, places, objects, events and cultures are portrayed on-screen.
• Gender stereotypes play a large part in representing men and women in the media.
• The way certain groups of people, issues and concepts are portrayed in the media can have a big impact on how the audience perceives certain groups, for example, in America, black people are shown to be more prone to violence, which evokes fear in people.

In my essay, I plan to use this critical perspective to discuss why women are more likely to enjoy the romantic comedy than men because of the emotional stereotype that society throws at them.

Genre

Genre is the style of a film so we may see elements of a film that we may have seen in other films, for example, in a sci-fi movie, you would expect to see aliens, spaceships, laser guns and futuristic things.

In my essay, I plan to use this critical perspective continuously to describe the elements of a romantic comedy feature.

Narrative

Narrative consists of three theories:-

• Todorov's Narrative Theory = This theory suggests that there are 5 parts to a narrative; an equilibrium (happy start), a disruption to this equilibrium (problem), a realisation that the disruption has happened, an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption (problem is solved), a restoration of the equilibrium (happy ending).
• Propp's Character Theory = This theory suggests that every narrative has eight different character types; the villain (the bad guy), the dispatcher (the person who sends the hero off on a journey), the helper (the hero's companion), the princess/prize (the hero's prize), the princess' father (gives the task to the hero), the donor (gives the hero a 'magic object'), the hero (reacts to the donor) and the false hero (takes credit for the hero's actions).
• Levi Strauss' Binary Opposites Theory = This theory suggests that there is a constant contradiction in societies in film known as binary opposites such as Good vs. Evil.

In my essay, I plan to use this critical perspective by discussing how Todorov's Narrative Theory applies to the romantic comedy genre e.g. boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back again.

Academic Sources

Examples of academic sources can include:-

• Books
• Magazines
• Websites
• Academic journals

Academic sources can be identified using:-

• Author's Credentials = The author should be an expert in what they're writing about. They should have a degree from a scholarly organisation like a university.
• Bibliography = A list of the works in the back of a book that the author has studied as they were writing the source
• Publisher = They should be published by a professional association or a university such as The Oxford University Press or a recognised academic publisher.

Books = an advantage is that it provides a thorough overview of a topic however the disadvantage is that the information can be out of date.

Magazine = an advantage is that they feature up to date coverage of news however the disadvantage is that the coverage is not as extensive.

Website = an advantage is that they are easily accessible however the disadvantage is that they are not quality checked so anyone can edit or create a website.

Academic Journal = an advantage is that they include the latest research however the disadvantage is that they're not as broad as books, with regards to the information they give.