Everything we study in Media over the next three years will be based around the theoretical framework. This means four key concepts: Language, Industries, Audience and Representation.
If you missed any of the notes from the lesson this should help:
Language
- The Language of Media Studies
- How we ‘read’ media texts
- Recognising the codes and conventions of media texts
- Key media terms e.g. genre… denotation… connotation… narrative…
Industries
- The companies, organisations or regulators behind the media
- Most aspects of the media are a commodity: something that is bought and sold. There is competition and a demand for profit.
- Huge institutions are called multinationals e.g. News International
- Smaller institutions can include media texts we create ourselves (blogs etc.)
Audience
- The people who consume media products
- How does the media influence its audience? Who holds the power?
- How is an audience targeted? What do the audience enjoy or learn from the media product?
- Audience research: who exactly is buying our product?
Representation
- The people who consume media products
- How does the media influence its audience? Who holds the power?
- How is an audience targeted? What do the audience enjoy or learn from the media product?
- Audience research: who exactly is buying our product?
Key Concepts homework blog task
Create a new blogpost called 'Key Concepts film poster analysis' and complete the following tasks:
Find a film poster of your choice (use Google images) and add it to your blog post. You'll need to save it to My Pictures or a similar folder and then import the image using the 'insert image' icon in Blogger. Now complete the following questions:
1) How can you tell this is a film poster? Identify at least one key convention or typical feature that tells you this is a film poster (e.g. title, tagline, age rating etc.)
2) What type of film is it? How can you tell? Try and write about specific things on the poster to explain your answer.
3) What audience do you think the film is aimed at? How can you tell? Explain why you think it is aimed at that particular audience and refer to things on the poster that provide evidence for this.
Extension task
Try writing a media analysis using the four key concepts of media - see the examples below.
The key questions to ask:
Language: how do we know it is a film poster? What impact do the key conventions have on the audience?
Industries: who are the companies behind the film? Who directs or stars in the film? Who is making money from this media product?
Audience: who is the target audience for this film? How can we tell?
Representation: what representation of people or groups can we find in this poster? What does it tell the audience?
Example: Splice (2009)
Language
The title and tag-line, release date and billing block (information about the Director and the production company) all follow the expected codes and conventions of a film poster. The effect created here is…
Industries
The film was produced by Dark Castle (for Universal Entertainment) who are associated with horror… It was executively produced by Guillermo del Toro who is a well known director. It was commercially successful (being the highest grossing Canadian feature film in 2010)…
Audience
This looks like it would be targeted at an audience of mixed gender (although perhaps slightly more female?) An adult age range might apply due to the 15 certificate and the content which includes hybridity and genetic experimentation…
Representation
The focal picture shows a female in a dominant position with another female confronting her. There is a male in the background which is perhaps unusual, particularly in science fiction…
Example: The Meg (2018)
Language
The Meg film poster is immediately recognisable as a film poster because the actor names are placed across the poster along the bottom just above the film's title. The title 'The Meg' is the largest text on the poster which clearly communicates to the audience that this is the title. The title is in bright green which stands out against the murky blue background and the greenish blue colour scheme has connotations of the sea and the science fiction film genre. The central image is of one person above a shark which is in turn above a much bigger shark. The light in the top left of the image could suggest safety or life - emphasising the danger and death of the sharks below. This image suggests the film has elements of horror.
Industries
The Meg is a Warner Brothers film starring Jason Statham and it made $530m at the worldwide box office against a production budget of $130m. The director was Jon Turteltaub.
Audience
The target audience for The Meg would likely be teenagers - perhaps from 13-37 years old. The film was rated 12A by the BBFC. The target gender for The Meg would be both males and females but perhaps slightly more males as it involves giant sharks. In terms of audience pleasures, someone might enjoy The Meg because the shark attacks will be dramatic and full of action and danger. The film will provide escapism and jump scares to make them forget about normal life. The audience will also want the main character to survive and will be scared when they are in danger.
Representation
There is only one person on the film poster which makes it difficult to analyse the representation. However, the main star is Jason Statham and the character on the poster appears to be male so this perhaps reinforces the stereotype that action heroes are male. The sharks are represented in a very stereotypical way as they are presented as dangerous, hungry beasts. This is emphasised by the size differences of the sharks and person.
