Understanding Media: Genre, Representation, and Audiences in Crime Drama and Film, Study notes of Marketing

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GCSE Media

Component 1 (Set Products)

Component 2 (Crime Drama)

Music Videos to follow

Revision and Home learning

Booklet

Key Terminology and ideas you need to know...

Visual codes: Technical codes

 Colour ^ Camera shots

 Location ^ Lighting

 Gesture codes ^ Language codes–^ written and spoken.

 Facial expressions

 Props

Genre:

Genre is a way of categorising media products. The concept relates to film and television, but can be applied to many products. Generic products are defined by a set of elements that are repeated across them:

 Visual iconography —visual codes associated with a genre.   Technical codes —different genres use different codes in specific ways.   Narrative —the way in which the story is told.   Characters —most genres have an expected type of character.

Key Terms: Genre

Familiar conventions: elements that we would expect to see in a particular genre.

Unexpected elements: conventions we would not expect to see in a genre.

Technological developments : new technologies that enable media producers to create products in a different way.

Subgenre: a more specific genre with two different genres (Rom-Com)

Hybrid: a combination of two or more different genres.

Disruption : an event or action that interrupts the narrative

Conflict : a clash between two characters or groups of people.

Linear narrative : a narrative structure where all of the events happen in logical order, one after the other.

Key terms: Narrative

Equilibrium : at the beginning, everything is calm and balanced.

Disruption : an event or problem occurs to upset the balance.

Recognition : the characters realise that there is a problem.

Resolution: the problem is solved.

New equilibrium: everything returns to a state of balance.

What if it is a non-linear narrative? It might include:

Flashbacks—Flash-forwards – creates suspense.

Enigma code: a mystery or puzzle, media products often don’t tell all elements at once but withhold information to keep audience guessing.

Transformation : a major change. Characters are often transformed.

Key Terminology: Representation

Construct: put elements together to create a media product

Version of reality: a particular view of actual events (newspapers)

Mediation : the way which media producers interpret and re-present aspects of reality.

Uphold stereotype: reinforce a stereotypical image of a social group.

Subvert stereotype: to go against a stereotypical portrayal and resent a broader view o a social group.

Masculinity: the trains are typically associated with males.

Femininity: attributes that are typically associated with being female.

Key Terminology: Industries

This looks at the study of the production processes, ownership and funding, technology and regulation.

 Production : the stage where the media production is created   Distribution and circulation: the way in which the product is delivered to different audiences.   Consumption: the way in which the audi- ence ‘takes in’ the media production for example, watching TV or playing a game.   Production values: the quality of technical elements of a product.   Public funding: money that comes from the government or TV licence fee.   Convergence: way in which products or brands are made available to audiences on a number of platforms.   Ofcom: The Office of Communication the regulator for broadcasting.   Video on demand: products that are available to be streamed or downloaded.

Ethnicity: relates to a person’s national,

cultural or religious identity. There are many ‘misrepresentations’ of ethnicity. For example:

 villains in television programs are often from ethnic minority groups   Immigrants to Britain are represented negatively   Antisocial young people are often from ethnic minority groups.

Technology: Plays an important role in the production of media texts. It also:

 impacts on how product are made, distributed and circulated.   The use of convergence allows producers to reach wider audiences.

Ownership: Some products are made by big

organisations (Channel 4, News Corporation, for ex- ample) Some are made by smaller companies.

 Production values may be different depending on the ownership (more money for bigger organisations)   A director might be down for a type of style   An actor may be known for a type of role or genre Funding can also impact on ownership.

Regulation: Most media industries are regulated. They are there to:

 offer guidance to companies about stand- ards or codes of practice they should follow   Monitor or control media companies. Might include responding to complaints for example.

Component 1

You need to be able to speak about these key areas for set products:

 Media language   Representation   Audiences   Media Industries

You must understand the context of these products. Context looks at these key areas:

 Political context   Social and cultural context   Historical context

The products you will study in this component are:

Section A: Media language and Representation

Magazine covers Film Posters Newspaper front pag- Print adverts (marketing) es Pride (2015) The Man with The Gold- The Guardian (2015) Quality Street (1956)

GQ (2016) en Gun (1974)^ The Sun (2013) This Girl Can (2015) Spectre (2015)

Section B: Media Industries and Audiences

Newspapers Radio

https://www.thesun.co.uk/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/

The Sun b006qpgr

The Archers

Film Video Games

Spectre (2015) Pokemon Go

Home learning Task 2: Comparison of GQ and an unseen magazine

Key questions to think abut when comparing:

 How is gender represented?   How is ethnicity represented?   How is age represented?    What is similar or different about the cover lines?   What ideology does the magazine have? Are they the same?

TASK: Complete an analysis comparing both magazine covers. What representations are

shown? (25 marrks )

Answer:

Answer these questions:

1. Consider the representations of ethnicity and gender. Provide examples

and what they connote.

2. What gratification would audiences get out of this magazine? Identify the Target audience and their

gratification.

How do the

images make

you feel as an

active or

passive

audience?

The Guardian

Regular Segment of the paper

Masthead

subtext

Dominant image

Mode of address

Emotive language

Linked article

Context of The Guardian

 T he Guardian is a British national daily newspaper with an average daily circulation of roughly 189 000 copies of their print edition in the UK.

• The Guardian newspaper targets a well-educated, relatively young, predominantly male and liberal audience. The demographic is 89% ABC1. Fifty-two percent of Guardian readers are male, and the av-erage reader age is 44.
• The Guardian has a UK online edition which has over 42.6 million readers (as of October 2014).
• In 2006, The Guardian went through a complete redesign. It became smaller, had a new typeface and balanced the longer pieces of journalism out with many shorter stories.

Caption

Just days before this front page, a YouGov Poll revealed that 42% of their responders said immigration was the key area where Britain needed to win back power from Brussels.

Britain ultimately voted to leave the EU on June 23rd 2016 – Brexit – and it is believed that many people voted this way due to their feelings about immigration

Headline Caption Stand first

Secondary story Splash Anchorage

Plug By-line Trail

How is immigration represented in The Sun?

Context of ‘The Sun’

The Sun is a British tabloid daily newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

• It was originally published six days a week until News Corp. also started producing The Sun on

Sunday in February 2012 to replace the News of the World.

• With an average daily circulation of roughly 1.6 million copies of their print edition in the UK and a

daily readership of around 4.1 million (http://www.newsworks.org.uk/The-Sun), The Sun has the

largest circulation of any daily print newspaper in the United Kingdom. In addition, The Sun on

Sunday is the UK’s biggest sell-ing Sunday newspaper.

• 18th December is International Migrants Day. A day where the UN encourages the world to

acknowledge the importance of immigrants.

• Just days before this front page, a YouGov Poll revealed that 42% of their responders said immigration was the key area where Britain needed to win back power from Brussels.

The most notable controversy was The Sun’s coverage of the Hillsborough Football Stadium disaster in Sheffield on 15th April 1989, in which 96 people died.

The paper ran a front page headline of “The Truth” and printed allegations that fans pickpocketed victims, urinated on members of the emergency services and assaulted a policeman who was administering the kiss of life to a victim.

The story was seemingly based on allegations from anonymous sources that were later proved to be false and The Sun apologised. The front page caused outrage in Liverpool where it was soon titled “ The Scum ” and a significant proportion of the city’s population still boycott the paper today with many shops even refusing to stock it.

Film (marketing)

Film posters help sell a film to an audience—this is called ’marketing’.

Conventions of Film Posters:

Main image Gaze Date of release

Institution logo Production credits Review by industry

Billing block (5 stars)

Name of film Name of stars Intertextuality

Why would you think Bond is the hero?

What does the tuxedo connote?

What intertextuality is shown?

What do the colours con- note about the narrative?

What does the ‘Day of The Dead’ in the background connote?

What intertextuality is there in the poster?

What does the gun connote about the genre?

TASK: Use these prompts to complete a textual analysis of Spectre film poster in note

Context of Spectre:

 Spectre is a James Bond film released on 26 October 2015, starring Daniel Craig as 007 in his

fourth per-formance as the fictional MI6 agent.

 Based on a book by Ian Fleming, the film was produced by the British company Eon

(Everything or Nothing) Productions and distributed by United Artists.

 The film was created with an estimated $245 million budget making it the most expensive Bond film and one of the most expensive films ever made. It grossed over $880 million at the worldwide box office.

Vladimir Propp’s Theory:

He believed that all narratives were repeated with the same function of characters. Every narrative tends to have...

 the villain, who struggles with the hero (formally known as the antagonist)    the donor    the helper    the Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain    the dispatcher    the hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds    the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess) 

TASK:

? Research into the James Bond Franchise. Who were the different actors? What was the gross income from all of the films?

Prior to the 1990s, illustrations were much more commonly used on film posters due to the

limited technology that was available.

Context of The Man with The Golden Gun

 At the start of the 20th century, many film depictions of minority ethnic groups supported the dominant

stereo-types of the time: to be pitied, to be laughed at, the exotic and/or dangerous.   The film was set in the middle of the 1973 energy crisis, when the oil producing Arab nations proclaimed an oil em-bargo causing an oil crisis which had both short and long-term effects across on politics and the economy across the globe.   Based on a book of the same name, written by Ian Fleming, the film was produced by the British company Eon (Everything or Nothing) Productions and distributed by United Artists. The film was created with an estimated $7 million budget and grossed over $97 million at the world wide box office.

Adverts

Adverts are used to sell products. They often carry hidden meanings which are for the audience to work out. The conventions below include some of the obvious conventions and some which institutions like to add in.

Conventions of Adverts

Logo Main image website

Tagline Slogan Social media

Hashtag Picture of the product Intertextuality

Key words to use in your analysis of this product. How can you incorporate these into a PETAL answer?

Dominant ideology Gender Campaign

Stereotype Social cohesion Brand logo

Sexism Aspirational role model Protagonist

Determination Positivity Ideology