Media Studies: 2016

Using a Wacom Tablet, I played around for a while, and used a few different

bases to figure out how to adjust the pen to my preferences.

After a little while I found the pressure and such really easy to work with, and I

managed to sketch out some wings. I found a picture of wings online, that
had to side-by-side sketch my own copy onto my image.
Once I had completed the outline I found it really easy to finish the wings off,
the hardest bit was the wing tips, and figuring out how to give it an angelic
feel on the overall image. Playing around with levels and effects managed to
allow me to alter the actresses eyes, and the overall mood of the image
changed. I finished off the text in Pixlr, and used tilt flares to blur
the images overly sharp features.

M – Media Language
I – Institutions
G – Genre
R – Representation
A – Audience
I – Ideologies and Values
N – Narrative
E – Economical, political, social, historical

M
Media Languages & Forms • Language is a code through which meaning can be expressed and shared by groups of people
• In media terms, it describes the sign systems, structures and codes used by a particular medium, such as photographic language, film/moving image language or print medium language.
• In media studies, language is the code used within a particular medium to convey messages to the audience. Unless the audience can decode messages and share the meanings intended, communication cannot take place.
• These codes are culturally determined can be culturally specific. This means that they may be understood by some audiences and not by others.
TECHNICAL CODES SYMBOLIC CODES
Lighting & sound Facial expression
Framing Body posture
Camera angle Body contacts
Editing Clothes & appearance
Layout Other objects Media Languages & Forms
How are the technical (i.e. camera) and symbolic (i.e. costume) codes used to communicate meaning?

How can you use semiotics to deconstruct the text?

In what way could you say the text is conventional with regard to it’s form?

I
Ideology & Values • Ideology consists of a set of attitudes, beliefs and values held in common by a group of people and culturally produced within a community to sustain a particular way of life
• All media products have an ideological dimension to them and are constructed within the context of a dominant ideology or series of common sense values that are generally shared and understood by all members of a community
• Marxists see these values as representing the interests of the dominant or ruling class and their maintenance of power
• Ideology is present in all media texts. It can be explored by assessing the attitudes, beliefs and values embedded within a text. Ideology & Values

What messages are being communicated by the text?

How are the messages communicated?
G
Genre
• All media products can be categorised as belonging to genres
• Genres are identified by the repetition of distinctive features (conventions)
• Genres can be divided into sub-genres
• Genres can determine the narrative conventions of a text
• Genres generate expectations in audiences
• Genres are used by producers to structure media products
• Genres can usually be identified through the sharing of things in common Genre

What genre is the text?

How are you able to identify what genre the text is?

Is the text unconventional in any way?
R
Representations • This is the process whereby the media construct versions of people, places and events in images.
• Media texts construct versions of the living experience through re-presentations
• Representations provide models of how we see gender, social groups and places – aspects of the world we inhabit (stereotypes)
• They are ideological in that they are constructed within a framework of values and beliefs
• They are mediated by individuals and media organisations and reflect the value systems of their sources
• No representations are real; they are only versions of the real Representations

Who or what is being represented?

Is there a use of stereotypes or archetypes in the representation?

A
Audiences • Audiences are the groups of individuals targeted by producers as the intended consumers of media texts
• All media products assume the existence of an audience
• The identification of an audience is vital for media producers, as this will affect the contents of the media text
• Audiences are affected in some way by media texts and the nature of this is the basis for a wide range of media research
• The actual consumers of a text may not always be those who the text was originally intended Audience

Who does the text appeal to?

How is the text targeting it’s audience?

How could the text affect an audience?

I
Institutions • Institutions are collections of individuals working together in hierarchal structure to achieve clearly defined goals.
• Institutions determine and constrain the ideology, structure, content and distribution of media texts and are involved in the regulation and control of those texts.
• Nearly all media texts are produced within a business or industrial context, and financial structures are designed to produce a positive response from audiences and a profitable return for the product.
• Media ownership and cross media ownerships are important to discuss when considering institutions. Institutions

In what way has the text been constructed to reflect media ownership?

N
Narrative
• Media texts such as film and adverts will have a plot or storyline
• The concept of Narrative allows us to explore how that plot/storyline has been put together, and how characters are integral to how the narrative is executed
• We use the concept of narrative to look at the structure of a storyline
• A story can have many different narratives Narrative

What narrative theories could be applied to the text?

How is the narrative structured?

How does the narrative structure affect audiences understanding of the story/plot?
KEY CONCEPTS