Drew's A Level Media

Genre: Horror There are some generic paradigmatic and iconographic features that help to construct the genre of horror. These are features such as: the dark lighting in the background, the full moon, a castle in the background, bats, blood dripping from the text and the two people who appear to be being murdered. Therefore, it conforms to the general rules of the horror genre because of some of the darker colours. The fact that there is an vampire depicted as part of the main image also conforms to this genre. We can also see what appears to be a castle in the background which makes the poster recognisable as a horror film because there are spooky/creepy connotations that are tied to a dark castle. Furthermore, there is a full moon that is visible ion the background that also conforms to the horror genre because that has connotations of werewolves. However, in some ways the poster subverts from the genre conventions because the women that are featured in the poster are quite well ...

Component one - Media products, industries and audiences Section A - Analysing media language and representation Briefly  define the following terms: [6] Ideology:  Ideology is the beliefs behind a media text. It is the thoughts that the media producer is trying to convey through the media product. Intertextuality: These are textual references to another media product from within a media product. Positioning: All media texts have messages encoded by the media producer and it is down to the audience to decode these messages. Most audiences will decode the messages differently and as a result take different readings from the product. Lexis: The language that the media product/text uses. Diametric opposition: Two groups that are radically different and come into some form of conflict. Paradigmatic feature: They are signs, signified and signifiers and they are essentially the meaning behind a media text. Which two theoretical perspectives have we studied tha...

Advertising Print Codes and conventions Layout and design Composition Images/photographs - camera shot type, angle, focus Font size, type of font (e.g. serif/sans serif), colour  Mise-en-scène – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up  Graphics, logos etc. Language – slogan/tagline and copy  Anchorage of images and,. text Elements of narrative Levi-Strauss talks about binary oppositions: Men vs Women. Woman in power. Main image of a female. Famous logo. Not even full name. Male gaze Producer may have wanted to appeal to wider audience. Marvel is  predominantly male audience. WW appeals to women.  Weapon could appeal to men. (Compensation).

Key Theory 6 - Stuart Hall - Theories of Presentation Representation: Re/Presentation. Re presenting something. e.g: re/peat, re/mix. Representation is the ways in which a media product constructs the world and aspects in it, including social groups, individuals, issues and events. Richard Dyer - The Role of Stereotypes Stereotypes: A commonly held belief about a certain group of people. Key Theory 7 - David Gauntlet - Theories of Identity He believes that despite many negative perceptions of the media, audiences are capable of constructing their own identities through what they see on television. Additionally he writes that there are now many more representations of gender than the traditional 'gender binary'. Key Theory 3 - Steve Neale - Theories around genre Neale believes that genre us essentially instances of 'repetition and difference'. He suggested that texts need to conform to some generic paradigms to be identified within a certain genre - but must...

Audience Continued The Hypodermic Needle Model: The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with a desired response. They express the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message. People are seen as passive and are seen as having a lot of media material 'shot' at them. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information. Passive Audience Theories: Cultivation Theory Hypodermic Theory Active Audience Theories: Reception Theory Encoding: To give something meaning. Decoding: To break something apart. To figure out the meaning. Producer: Somebody who creates a media texts. Producer encodes text. Audience decodes text.

Key Theory 17 - Stuart Hall - Reception Theory Preferred Reading: The 'right' reading of a text, which can be enforced by positioning. This concept has to be approached carefully: often texts intentionally have multiple meanings/readings, and of course, as we have discovered, audiences can potentially get whatever they want out of any media text. Hall categorised audience response into three separate groups. These groups can help us to understand whether or not an audience sticks to the preferred reading, or if they decide to make their own decisions as to how to decode a text. Dominant Reading: The audience agrees with the dominant values in the text, and agrees with the values and ideology it shows. Negotiated Reading: The audience generally agrees with what they see, but they may disagree with certain aspects. Oppositional Reading: The audience completely disagrees with what they see, and rejects the dominant reading. Nike Advert: Dominant reading: If you...

Narrative and Representation Key Theory 2 - Narratology - Tzetan Todorov: Todorov's theory is that within a narrative, the power is in a state of equilibrium. As the story progresses the state of equilibrium can change and develop. Each narrative should start with initial equilibrium. However, the equilibrium is changed after disruption, resulting in a disequilibrium. The old equilibrium is broken, and therefore anew one must begin. This will repeat during the narrative until we reach a final equilibrium. The types of Narrative Linear narrative is a narrative that follows a line from the beginning to the end. (Beginning, middle, end). Non-linear narratives do not follow a line from the beginning to the end - it goes back and forth in an order which is not chronological. John Lewis Christmas Advert (2014) How is meaning created through the narrative? Meaning is created through the narrative because it is trying to promote the idea that John Lewis can supply a really m...