NQ Media Studies
Intermediate 2
Analysis
Student Reference Book
Kate Henderson
January 2005
© SFEU/COLEG
NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
Acknowledgements
SFEU (Scottish Further Education Unit) and COLEG (Colleges Open Learning
Exchange Group) gratefully acknowledge the contribution made to this publication by
Avril Smillie, Falkirk College, who reviewed the material.
First published May 2004
Revised version published January 2005
© SFEU/COLEG 2005
NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
Contents
Media Analysis
1
Categories
2
Language
4
Narrative
7
Representation
9
Audience
11
Institutions
14
Notes for Lecturers/Teachers

The words and questions in italics could be substituted to suit the specific text.

In the early part of the course candidates should be provided with specific
questions, eg Explain why the girl is wearing a red dress. As candidates
progress they could be expected to select and analyse codes themselves, eg
Choose a technical/cultural code and explain its connotations.
NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
Media Analysis
Media Analysis will involve the study of media texts in terms of Fiction (name text
and/or medium) and Non-fiction (name text and/or medium ). Working through the
Units will help you to develop skills of deconstructing (breaking down into key aspects)
a range of media texts and explaining their relationship to social, institutional and
audience contexts. The makers (the institution) often want you (the audience) to think
or react to their product in a certain way. By completing the Units, you should develop
the ability to think for yourself and question the content and purpose of the media
messages.
The analysis of all media texts will develop the knowledge and understanding of the
key aspects of Media Studies:

categories

language

narrative

representation

audience

institution

technology
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NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
Categories
MEDIUM (eg print, television, radio, film, internet)
PURPOSE (eg to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to educate, to gain profit)
FORM (eg drama, light entertainment, newspaper, magazine, series, feature film)
GENRE (eg science fiction, soap opera, documentary, game show, broadsheet)
TONE (eg serious, comic, formal, informal, sad, happy, objective, personal)
OTHER CATEGORIES (eg nationality, target audience, director, star, public sector)
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Analysis Student Reference Book
Cover the following:
Examples:
(The word ‘text’ could be substituted by the name of the film, programme, newspaper
etc.)

What is the medium of the text?

What is the purpose of the text? How do you know? Give examples from the text.

What is the form of the text? Give a reason for your choice?

What is the genre of the text? Give examples from the text explaining why you think
it is this genre. You might compare the text to another in the same genre.

What is the tone of the text? Give examples from the text.

Explain why (name of another category eg one of the stars) makes a difference
to the text.

What is the target audience of the text? Explain which of the categories attract this
audience to the text?

Who made the text and why?
You should explain one of the categories in detail.
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Analysis Student Reference Book
Language
DESCRIBE
Signs
Sign: a sign is the smallest unit of communication. A sign can be a word, object,
image and sound which communicate meaning.
BREAKDOWN
Cultural/Technical Codes
Code
– a combination of signs. To understand the meaning you must
break the code, in other words analyse their construction
Cultural code
– a system of signs whose meaning is shared by members of a
culture, eg dress/costume, gesture, mise-en-scene, intertextual
reference. (Often associated with cultural assumptions.)
Technical code – specific to media eg A fade-in is an editing code and may
suggest (connote) the beginning; in print ‘sans serif’ is a
typographic code and may connote modernity.
EXPLAIN MEANING (DECODE)
Denotation/Connotation
We can describe signs but we also associate signs with different meanings eg a red
rose can be described as a ‘certain type of flower’ but it could mean or represent
‘love’, ‘the Labour Party’ or ‘the House of Lancaster during the War of the Roses’
Denotation – the description/definition of a sign, eg red rose, jeans, fade-in.
Connotation – the meaning associated with the sign, eg a red rose may be given to
show love, jeans connote informality, fade-in may connote a
beginning.
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REASON FOR INCLUSION
Motivation
There can be several reasons for including codes:
To aid understanding, to tell the story, for realism, to conform to style, to engage
audience, to move the story on, for link to other texts, to make the audience react or
think in a certain way.
DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS
Polysemy
The idea that a sign can have several different meanings at one time, eg by the
reader decoding the same sign using different codes. A building on fire could be
decoded as arson, accident or natural disaster.
NARROWING DOWN INTERPRETATION
Anchorage
A way of ‘tying down’ meaning. Without anchorage, meaning could be open to
various interpretations, eg a picture of a building on fire with the caption ‘Gas Leak
Destroys Home’ immediately lets you know what caused the fire.
Music can anchor mood in a film, a voice-over can anchor meaning to moving image.
THE USE OF SIGNS AND CODES
Conventions
Conventions – Standard way in which signs and codes are used in different genre,
eg interviews, voice-overs, talking heads, vox pops are conventions
of documentary. In a newspaper, conventions would adhere to house
style, eg layout, character formatting, text, page size.
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Analysis Student Reference Book
Cover the following:
Choose a short extract of the text to analyse in detail eg the opening sequence of a
programme or front page of a newspaper
Examples:

Name as many cultural/technical codes as possible and explain why they have
been used (denotation/connotation).

Are any of these codes being used by the maker to make the audience think or
react in a certain way (ie create preferred reading). Do you agree with their
interpretation?

What is anchorage? Give as many examples of anchorage as possible.

Why are the conventions/ mode of address used? (The question could name
conventions and mode of address.)

Integrate with other key aspects, eg Name a convention used and explain how it
conforms to the genre.

What technology has been used to create the text?
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Narrative
How fictional and factual stories are organised into a sequence. Every media text has a
narrative.
Story: The actual order of events as
they took place in the text, ie how
the audience would explain what
the story is about
Plot: How the maker/producer arranges
these events, eg the plot could tell
the story as a flashback
Narrative Structures/Codes/Conventions

Classic Structure – Equilibrium (normality)/ disruption/ return to equilibrium
(normality)

Order – Chronological/flashback/forward. Hard news/soft news/sport

Single or multiple story-lines

Serial and series

Investigation (interview, observation, presentation of data)

Conflict

Development

The resolution of the narrative in relation to what the audience want and expect,
eg ‘goodies’ beating ‘baddies’

The meaning of the narrative, eg the moral of the story or the result of the
investigation

Conventions or devices used to tell the story, eg voice-overs, point-of-view,
format, colour, mise-en-scene
News stories portrayed as battles with winners and losers – happy endings in
films – cliff hangers in soaps – adverts solving a problem


Technical/cultural codes used that affect the narrative, eg cropping, soft focus,
type of font

Audience engagement, eg cliff hangers, teasers, enigmas, genre, stars.
Strategies used to ‘hook’ the audience and develop the story, ie move the story
on

The effect of the institution on the narrative and its need to make profit, eg genre,
finance. And the effect of external constraints, eg market position/share, type of
market and competition
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NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
Cover the following:
Examples:

What is the structure of the narrative? Your answer could cover – classic narrative,
conflict, development, resolution, order. (Examples from the text could be given in
the question.)

How is the structure similar or different to other texts of this genre?

Whose point of view is the story told from. How do you know?

Is the audience treated as an observer or a participant? Give an example.

Are there single or multiple storylines? Give examples/Explain.

Why would the audience want to watch the next episode /buy the next edition?

What effect does the institution have on the quality/bias/genre of the text?

Specific technology questions when appropriate, eg How do the special effects
influence the narrative?

Specific questions could be asked integrating to other key aspects, eg What effect
does ‘name of star’ have on the film?
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Representation
How and why the media select particular representations of people, places, ideas and
events. Such representations may be stereotyped (instantly recognisable) eg tartan
images of Scotland.
Concepts of Representation
The process of
translating cultural
assumptions into
words, sounds and
images.
The continual representing of
stereotypes.
The presenting of
images in new
ways (going
against
stereotype).
A question of who
represents whom
and for what
purpose.
Mediation

Ways in which the media select, interpret and represent social, economic,
political and cultural events.

Consider the effect of target audience, regulatory controls, sources of funding,
ownership and news values on the maker’s (institution) selection of what reaches
the audience.

Consider the role of the media in creating and perpetuating representations.

Consider the reason and method of selection or de-selection, eg to create bias by
selective editing.
Discourses and Cultural Assumptions
Examine:

How some groups of people interpret a text in the same way, eg most young
people enjoy pop music.

How some people will interpret a text in different ways, eg Christians would think
a film about Christ is true, other religions would see it as fiction.

The relationship between the real world and the representations in the text.

Do other texts reinforce these representations? (Intertextualise)
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NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
Cover the following:
Examples:

Describe in detail several representations in the text (people, places, events,
ideas).

Give examples of how they are conveyed by use of cultural/technical codes.

Discuss any stereotypes and non-stereotypes.

Examine cultural assumptions, eg young and beautiful equals slim. Are
cultural/technical codes used to reinforce, eg costume, cropping.

Mediation. Why did the institution select the representations? Did the audience
influence the selection? (or Why do you think the main character is 16 years old?
Why was an unknown actress used? Why was the teacher played by Jack
Nicholson?)

Compare the representations to another similar text.
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Audience
Identify Target Audience
The audience or audiences may be identified by the following features in a text:

Categories

Access (eg Channel/ Scheduling/ Certification)

Intertextual references

Narrative codes

Discourses

Commercialisation of product

Relate to Institution (external controls) eg type of market (niche market –
narrows, targets and specialises audiences)
Mode of Address
How a text speaks to its audience:

Direct/indirect

Individual/collective
Preferred Readings
The meaning of the text that the maker/producer hopes the audience will accept, the
idea that texts contain messages which support mainstream thinking, eg a news
story which presents protesters as disrupting social order. Different newspapers –
because of political allegiance – will present the same information with a different
bias, ie they will have different preferred readings.
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Differential Decoding
How audiences actually read texts. This may be completely different to the preferred
reading of the maker, eg an anti-smoking ad will not stop all its audience from
smoking.
Different individuals or groups react differently to a text.
Consider:

Age

Gender

Ethnic background

Education/knowledge

Experience

Affiliation/Identification to different groups
Text
A maker produces a text in
order to send a message
and, generally, make a
profit.
Preferred Reading
The maker wants the
audience to interpret the
text by use of preferred
reading.
12
Differential Decoding
Different people in the
audience will interpret the
text in different ways
NQ Media Studies – Intermediate 2
Analysis Student Reference Book
Cover the following:
Examples:

What type of audience might read/watch/listen to this text?

What similar texts would attract this audience and why?

Who would be interested in the front page, who would be interested in page three?
Why?

Would the audience identify with the main character? Why?

Explain why some people in the audience might disapprove of the language?

What does the maker want you to do/think once you have read/seen/listened to the
text?

Describe the mode of address and why it has been used or Why is the presenter
talking straight to the camera?

Would the audience (you) react differently seeing the film on video at home or in
the cinema?

Would an older audience enjoy the text?
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Analysis Student Reference Book
Institutions
Legal Constraints
External Constraints
Eg Statutory (Acts of Parliament), eg:

Sex Discrimination Act

Racial Discrimination Act
Copyright laws
Libel laws
Self-Regulatory/Codes
of Practice
Eg Press Complaints Commission
Broadcasting Complaints
ASA (Advertising Standards Authority)
Guidelines
Market Controls
Eg Audiences buy media products
Advertisers buy access to these audiences
Market structures can also restrict media messages
Type and size of market
Competition
Societal Controls
Eg Public opinion
Gate-keeping and changing perceptions of media
texts
Censorship
Technology/Materials
Eg The ability with new DTP packages to copycat
publications or produce new magazines cheaply
Pirating
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Internal Constraints

The role of ownership

Type of ownership, eg entrepreneurial, conservative

Finance

Internal operation, eg editorial policy, budgets, the control of senior appointees.
Whether it is pro-active, reactive, innovative etc.

Quality of staff

Reputation/Image

Company – remit, mission statement, logo, slogan
Cover the following:
Examples:

Who produced the text? Are they linked to other companies?

Who financed the production? Does this have an effect on the text and why? Eg
market controls/sponsors invest to access the audience.

What effect do ownership, finance and market structures have on the text?

How was the text distributed? (Consider technology.) Did this have an effect on the
audience?

Did certification, scheduling, distribution restrict the audience?

Consider any other effects on the text such as legal constraints, the watershed,
taste etc.
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