How do the set theorists Barthes and Todorov explain how media texts create meaning?
The set theorists for media language: Roland Barthes on signs, codes, denotation and connotation, and Tzvetan Todorov on narrative equilibrium and disruption.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Media Studies set theorists for media language, covering Roland Barthes on signs, codes, denotation and connotation, and Tzvetan Todorov on narrative equilibrium, disruption and resolution.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
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What this dot point is asking
AQA names Barthes and Todorov as the set theorists for media language. You must know their named ideas accurately and apply them to set products, because the exam can ask you to use a specific theorist by name. Knowing who said what, and being able to apply it, is essential for the higher mark bands.
Roland Barthes
Barthes built on Saussure's semiotics to explain how texts make meaning. A sign carries denotation (its literal meaning) and connotation (its cultural associations). Texts are organised through codes that readers decode, and Barthes argued these codes guide readers towards a preferred reading. His distinctive contribution for AQA is the idea of myth: where a connotation becomes so widely shared that a constructed, ideological meaning comes to seem natural and obvious rather than made. Myth is how dominant values are reproduced, because the audience accepts the constructed meaning as simply the way things are.
His key contribution for AQA is that meaning is constructed through signs and codes, and that media texts naturalise particular values through this process. When you apply Barthes, move from denotation to connotation to myth, and end by naming the ideology the text naturalises.
Tzvetan Todorov
Todorov argued that narratives follow a structure of equilibrium, disruption and a new equilibrium. A stable situation is disturbed, characters work to resolve the disruption, and the narrative ends in a transformed state of balance. The model is transformational: the new equilibrium is not a return to the start but a changed situation, and the difference between the opening and closing states is where the narrative's meaning and ideology often sit.
Using both theorists together
The two theorists complement each other: Barthes explains how individual signs and codes carry meaning, while Todorov explains how meaning is organised across the whole narrative. A strong answer can read a set product's signs with Barthes (denotation, connotation, myth) and its structure with Todorov (equilibrium, disruption, transformed equilibrium), showing that meaning is constructed both at the level of the individual sign and at the level of the whole story.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 20209 marksApply Barthes' theory of semiology to the print extract in the resource booklet. Refer to denotation, connotation and myth in your answer.Show worked answer →
A Paper 1 question weighting AO2. Markers reward applying Barthes' named concepts to specific signs, not a general account of the theory.
Choose signs in the extract and read each through denotation (literal content) and connotation (cultural association). Then take the further step Barthes adds: identify a myth, a connotation so widely shared that a constructed, ideological meaning seems natural (for example an image that makes a particular idea of family or success appear normal).
A strong answer names the codes the signs belong to and explains how the product naturalises a set of values, reaching a judgement about the ideology the myth supports.
AQA 20214 marksExplain what Barthes meant by the term myth. Use an example to support your answer.Show worked answer →
A short AO1 plus AO2 response. Define myth as the process by which connotations become so widely shared that constructed, ideological meanings come to seem natural and obvious rather than made.
Give an example, such as an advertising image that makes a particular lifestyle look like the normal, desirable way to live. For the four marks, distinguish myth from connotation: myth is the further step where the connotation appears natural, which is how dominant ideologies are reproduced.
AQA 201810 marksDiscuss how far Todorov's narrative theory can be applied to a media product you have studied.Show worked answer →
An evaluative question weighting AO2. Set out Todorov's model (equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium) and apply it to a named product, then weigh how well it fits.
Show the fit: map the product onto the stages and explain how the transformed new equilibrium carries its meaning. Then weigh the limits: note any non-linear, fragmented or unresolved structure the simple model struggles to capture, and any deliberate subversion.
Reach a judgement: the model is a useful frame for the product's overall shape but may need supplementing where the product departs from it, supported with specific evidence.
Related dot points
- Semiotics: signs, the signifier and signified, denotation and connotation, codes, anchorage and the construction of meaning in media products.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Media Studies media language framework on semiotics, covering signs, signifier and signified, denotation and connotation, codes, and how meaning is constructed and read in media products.
- Narrative in media language: Todorov's equilibrium model, Propp's character functions, Levi-Strauss and binary oppositions, and how narrative structure is built across media forms.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Media Studies media language framework on narrative, covering Todorov's equilibrium model, Propp's character functions, Levi-Strauss and binary oppositions, and how narrative structures meaning across media forms.
- Genre in media language: codes and conventions, repetition and variation, hybridity, and Steve Neale's view of genre as a process of repetition and difference.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Media Studies media language framework on genre, covering genre codes and conventions, repetition and variation, hybridity, and Steve Neale's theory of genre as repetition and difference.
- Intertextuality in media language: references, homage, pastiche and parody, and how the relationship between texts shapes audience understanding and pleasure.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Media Studies media language framework on intertextuality, covering references, homage, pastiche and parody, and how the relationship between texts adds layers of meaning and audience pleasure.
- Technical and stylistic codes: camerawork, editing, sound, lighting, mise-en-scene, and layout and typography, and how these codes construct meaning across media forms.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Media Studies media language framework on technical and stylistic codes, covering camerawork, editing, sound, lighting, mise-en-scene, layout and typography, and how these construct meaning across media forms.
Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level Media Studies (7572) specification — AQA (2017)