A2 Revision
Booklet
June 2011
MEST 3 Exam Thursday 16th June PM
2Hrs
Section A 1 hour including 15 minutes reading/viewing time 32 Marks
The first section will be based around unseen stimulus materials which may be print, e-media,
audio or moving image based. The stimulus materials will be designed to be easily assimilated by
candidates in the space of 15 minutes and there will be time for note-taking and essay planning.
The materials will be chosen to raise issues about:
• media concepts (form, representation, institutions, audience, values and ideology)
• wider contexts
• media issues and debates.
There will be three compulsory questions based around the stimulus materials. The questions will
demand short answers to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the media.
Section B (60%) 1 hour 48 marks
Candidates will have been given two pre-set topic areas for study during the year. They will be
expected to answer one question from a choice of questions linked to the pre-set topics.
Questions will be open-ended so that candidates can respond to the question utilising the media
texts that they have studied throughout this course through the application of their synoptic
knowledge and understanding of the media.
Representation
Impact of New Media
Assessment Objectives
AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates
AO2 Apply knowledge and understanding when analysing media products and processes (and
evaluating own practical work) to show how meanings and responses are created
Key Concepts
Audience
Genre
Narrative
Media language/form: Codes and Conventions
Representations
Institution
Media Debates
Representation
Effects on Audience
Reality TV
News Values
Moral Panics
Post 9/11 and the Media
Ownership and control
Regulation and censorship
Media Technology and the digital revolution
Media Theories
Semiotics
Structuralism and Post-Structuralism
Postmodernism
Feminism
Ethnicity
Genre theory
Audience theory
Marxism, Hegemony and Liberal Pluralism
Cultural Imperialism
Cross-Cultural factors
Globalisation
SECTION A
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You must be confident in your ability to deconstruct texts quickly
picking up on the key aspects of form, codes and conventions and be
able to use the right terms, vocabulary to describe the texts and
their effects
You must be confident in your ability to compare and contrast two
texts, possibly from two different platforms in terms of form or
subject matter
You must be confident in your ability to apply relevant theory to the
text
You must be confident in your ability to consider wider contextual,
cultural and ideological issues concerning the texts.
Question not just
HOW the text producers have constructed meaning but
WHY they have constructed the meanings they have and with what
possible effects on the audience.
Deconstructing Texts
Technical Elements of Moving Image
Mise-en-Scene /Framing : everything that is included in the frame
Composition : How the elements of the scene or frame are organised
Camera Angles: Low, Eye level, High, Bird’s eye, Tilted
Camera Shots: Establishing or Extreme Long shot, Long shot, Medium shot,
Point of View shot, Over The Shoulder shot, Close-up, Extreme Close-up,
Bridging shot, shot/reverse shot
Camera Movement: Panning, Tilts, Tracking, Zoom, Aerial, Handheld
Editing: Quick cutting, Cutaways, Wipe, Fades,
Montage
B-roll footage
Anchorage
Sound: Diegetic and Non-diegetic
Lighting: high key, low key, filtered, saturated and de-saturated
Colour
Weather
Set
Location
Contrast (music – asynchronous sound, image, voiceover etc.)
Set-ups
Idents
Technical Elements of Print
Masthead
Headlines
Sub-headings
Banners
Boxes
Bullet points
Captions
Visual Image
Text to image ratio
Colour
Contrast
Anchorage
Emotive Language
Imperatives
Rhetorical Questions
Personal Pronouns
Facts and Statistics
Typography: Font, size, colour etc.
Coverlines
Inverted pyramid structure
Key Concepts
Barthes Signs and Semiotics
Objects can be read as signs and these can be interpreted literally
(denotation – a dove is a type of bird) or symbolically (connotation – a dove is
a symbol or sign of peace). Media texts are made up of a series of signs that
combine to make meaning.
Hall’s theory of Readings
Specific signs can be put into media texts to create a specific meaning.
These texts are encoded with messages and the audience decode the
message when they engage with the text. Advertising does this alot when
the audience encode the message that a particular product will make you
happier, more successful, more popular etc. The decoding of a text is also
called a reading and these can be preferred, negotiated or oppositional.
A person smoking could be decoded as, and connote to some - sophistication
or cool, to others ill-health or stupidity and to others anti-social behavior or
a desire to be non-conformist. Other signs (dress, body language, facial
expressions etc.) will add together to suggest one of these interpretations
stronger than another. All messages could be seen as polysemic – and at best
media text producers will achieve negotiated readings. Audiences will accept
most of the dominant or preferred reading but reject some aspects of it.
Nobody can predict or dictate how a person will read a message.
Audience
Audiences traditionally classified through demographics - age, gender,
location, status etc. This led to A, B, C1, C2, D categories. More recent
audience classification through psychographics – values, political beliefs
etc. Types of audience include Primary, Secondary, Niche and Mass. Many
media theorists believe there is no mass audience in the digital age as
because of market or audience segmentation.
Narrowcasting is taking over Broadcasting and the number of texts which
can attract large numbers of television viewers is decreasing rapidly.
The same is true of film, where the industry relies on formulaic
blockbusters or franchises to generate large incomes. In addition, many
argue the world of print media is dying but The Sun and The Mail still have
significant readership in the UK. A good example demonstrating change is
the Independent publishing I paper. This is a print media product, for a
niche audience to supplement and boost the sales of the conventional ‘parent’
product.
Although choice has grown significantly, mass appeal texts still exist and
have remained largely unaffected (Eastenders, Coronation Street, Harry
Potter Franchise etc.)
Cultivation/Desensitization theory: audiences adopt the views and beliefs
presented by the media over time and become desensitized to aspects such
as violence, political bias etc.
Two-Step Theory: that our media consumption is shaped by the opinion
leaders who influence our critical reception of media texts. These opinion
leaders can be reviewers, award givers, news programmes which highlight or
make texts prominent or even our peers who shape opinion through social
media.
Uses and Gratifications theory: that media is used by audiences for
entertainment/diversion, information/surveillance, maintaining personal
relationships, personal identity. This theory suggests that all media
consumption is positive for the audience. The Audience is King making
conscious choices about what to watch and consume. But a criticism of this is
that these needs are created by the media and that they create needs that
only they can fulfill, making the audience once again vulnerable to the
‘effects’ of the media.
If the audience are ‘King’ they are still constrained by several factors such
as
 expense – not all channels are free and not all people can have access
to all consoles, games, films, internet experiences.
 Access could be restricted for a variety of reasons by a variety of
institutions
 Unintended access the internet in particular delivers us to countless
advertisers which we have no control over. Audiences are products.
Audience can also be described as subversive and will continually seek to
oppose the dominant ideology being delivered. This is a powerful argument –
consider how audiences responded to the digitalization of music, the
response to viral campaign of Cloverfield, the audience response to Justin
Bieber, X Factor etc. The top-down force (the media industries) try to push
values on the audience which significant groups reject, criticize and mock.
These have been termed as the resistant audience.
Questions to consider:
1) To what extent does the media construct viewpoints that the
audience automatically accepts?
2) Many media audience theories ignore the role of pleasure in
considering consumption of media texts. How far do you agree?
3) Audience segmentation is essential to deliver audiences to
advertisers. How far do you agree?
Narrative
All media texts have narrative. Narratives are the threads which pieced
together make meaning. A narrative is constructed from elements of form
(codes and conventions) and representation. Barthes’ states that narrative
codes typify the style of ‘unfolding’ of the story (action codes, enigma code
etc.) Sometimes students find this difficult to identify when they are
deconstructing print media. In Print, look for meanings which have been
constructed through the relationships between character types (heroes,
villains, victims). Also look carefully at language to used create these
characters (emotive, strong adjectives) and the images used.
Genre
In media Genre is important for rapid identification of the text by the
audience. This is essential in texts where time is money such as advertising.
Consumers need to be able to recognize in seconds the type of advert with
regard to narrative structure, product and outcome. In other types of
programming too, audiences use their prior knowledge and understanding to
create meaning from the images they read on the screen. These sets of
signs from which text producers can make choices (crime fiction: male
detective/female detective, smoking/alcohol, femme fatale/innocent woman,
well dressed in suit/scruffy shows difficult personal life, urban environment)
are called paradigms. Chained together these create a syntagm (a new
meaning from the added signs). The paradigm and the syntagm are central to
creating genre.
Like Representations, genre changes and adapts over time and moulds itself
to our ever changing culture and society. A typical Postmodern feature is
that of the hybrid genre, which uses several paradigms, fuses them together
to create an original genre e.g docu-soap, sci-fi comedy, rom-com etc. this
fusing together of genre also bridges divides and can double or maximize
audience figures.
Parody and Pastiche are also features of postmodern media. Both are
thought to be generally good-natured mimicry of a style or form rather than
aggressive mockery and criticism, although pastiche is gentler than parody.
Parody often takes a genre or specific film and subverts it exaggerating
some of the codes and conventions (Scary Movie/the Office). Pastiche on
the other hand tends to weave elements of a genre into another. A further
postmodern feature is intertextuality which uses existing narrative within
another to create a new text.
Questions to consider:
1) Is the concept of genre still a useful tool given the increasing use of
hybrid forms?
2) How has parody been used in contemporary media?
Institution
Historically, media has always been produced by the rich and powerful. Only
a select few have the funds and resources available to own and create an
institution for broadcasting or publication. These are major operations
requiring large sums of money. The digital revolution has changed this but to
what extent? Anyone with a computer, internet connection and digital video
camera can broadcast to an audience – creating websites, blogs, video
content, even their own ‘tv channel’ or ‘radio station’. The large corporations
– conglomerate and independent, are still the most viewed, most bought and
most trusted sources for information and entertainment. There has been a
shift however. UGC is an increasingly common feature of the media but is
supplementing it rather than replacing it. Audiences have more interaction
and control over their media choices but it could be argued that it is still the
institutions that are providing those choices – manipulated and mediated by
them. A negative shift is the power of the conglomerate and their ownership
of vast numbers of smaller companies resulting in a watering down of
diversity and promotion of a single dominant view.
Commercial channels need to be fiercely competitive in the media saturated
market. A company like ITV must be as competitive as possible to attract
audiences so that sponsors and advertisers will continue to pay high rates
for advertising. With low viewing figures, advertisers will go elsewhere to
‘get’ the audience. One outcome of this is the need to drive the cost of
programmes down as far as possible, using members of the public to be the
stars of the show, buying in programmes from abroad, or using the same
programme set and actors/stars to make a variety of programmes (Big
Brother, BBLB, 24hr coverage, What happened next type programmes and
more recently Eastenders and E20). This maximizes the investment or initial
outlay. Other ways the institution can make money include exporting
programmes abroad and premium rate phone lines.
Media Debates
Representation
Media representations either reflect or, over time, create dominant
ideology. Signs together also create powerful meanings. A syntagm is a
sequence of signs which add together to create new meaning. An example of
this is a montage – picture 1 + picture 2 = meaning. A paradigm is a related
set of signs which are alternatives of each other. An example of this is a
journalists use of the word ‘evil’ rather than ‘bad’.
Representation in media becomes an issue for debate particularly in the
representation of gender roles, race and ethnicity, age, ability, social status.
Questions to consider:
1) Media representations of the world appear so natural that we can
easily see them as real. To what extent do you think this is true?
2) How far is it possible for the media to produce fair and accurate
representations?
Reality TV
In a multi-channel world and mentioned already, competition is fierce and
the need to broadcast programmes which are cheap and attractive to the
highest number of viewers is vital. Hence the enduring appeal of reality TV
for the broadcasting institutions. How does this explain the lasting audience
appeal? Reality TV has grown and developed into many different forms which
can attract the broadest range of viewers. Uses and theory would suggest
that reality TV now fulfills the all needs: maintaining personal relationships,
affirming personal identity, diversion/entertainment and surveillance/
information as many can share knowledge on a range of skills, professions or
topics. Often at the heart of these programmes is the element of emotional
realism which hooks the audience into investing their time and loyalty. With
voyeuristic power, audiences are given access to some of the most difficult
moments that public and celebrity participants have to go through. Part of
these hooks are created by ‘coming up’ and ‘next time..’ sequences, again
rewarding the audience for staying till the very end. The never-ending and
highly familiar narrative cycle including tension, conflict and resolution keeps
audiences satisfied.
News and Documentary
News is seen as central to any study of media and culturally, politically and
historically vital to our understanding of the world. News presents us with
information locally, nationally and globally that we would otherwise not have
access to. News plays an important ideological role in interpreting the world
for us that shapes our attitudes and beliefs. This is partly the reason for
Baudrillard’s concern about our media created ‘reality’ within which we exist.
The Digital age has changed news dramatically:
 Digital services have enabled 24hr rolling news channels. This has
stimulated greater need for round the clock information and constant
updates.
 Terrestrial news has responded to these new demands by using ticker
tape style bulletin updates, 60 second news programmes on TV and
tabloid sized quality papers and successful commuter papers like
Metro and now i.
 Internet sites concentrate on headlines and condensed stories
 Internet and phone apps allow audiences to select the news they are
interested in which means they can ignore other news.
An interesting point to note is that whereas news from the BBC prides itself
on unbiased objectivity and fulfilling its mission statement ‘to inform’, and
channel such as Sky prides itself on being ‘first for news’. Speed of
information as well as 24 hour supply is becoming increasingly important.
Other points of importance regarding news:
 News more often than not focuses on the negative
 News has been accused of dumbing down – trivializing important issues
focusing more on sensational stories
 News is also a commodity like any other and many institutions are
governed by the need for profit and good viewing/circulation figures –
with regard to the points above conflict and celebrity sell.
 Each story featured is a possible story from a range of other stories
which could have been chosen – a paradigm. The way these stories are
placed in hierarchical order next to each other in a news bulletin or in
a paper is a syntagm
Questions to consider:
1) How have recent changes had an impact on news coverage? Give
examples to support your answer.
2) Bias in news in inevitable. Do you agree?
3) Who selects news and why?
Moral Panics
Media has a long history of moral panic and witch hunting. Some more recent
examples include influence of violent games on behavior and overuse of game
consoles, influence of ‘hardcore’ music such as Slipknot, Marilyn Manson etc.,
spread of viral diseases like Swine Flu, Sars, Bird Flu etc., Social media’s
links to Paedophiles, Teenagers including gangs and knife-crime, Islam and
the threat of terrorism, Asylum seekers, Benefit ‘scroungers’ and out of
control and offensive Comedians. Many of these panics are symptoms of the
moment in time we are caught up in. It is rare these days to read endless
stories of young people’s involvement in drug culture and the threat this
causes to society. Moral panics reach a crescendo and then rapidly disappear.
It is interesting to consider where the blame or judgement lies in a moral
panic. It is usually the Government, the Family, the Masses or society as a
whole, the Other (China, Middle Eastern nations, etc.) . Is it ever the media
themselves? Moral panics work by feeding into existing fear or concern,
showing the public the outcome of that fear (death, illnesss, decline etc.)
and passing a judgement.
Questions to consider:
1) How do the Media present themselves and their role in the moral
framework of society?
2) How does the media benefit from this role?
Post 9/11 and the Media
As we have seen already narrative clearly changed Post 9/11 particularly the
narrative of Action film and the role of the Action hero. Some theorists
have noted that in the years following the US also became keen on the ‘Good
vs Evil’ narrative and the ‘just war’ narrative with a return to films and
games on WW2 to show how justifiable war is when faced with an evil enemy.
Post 9/11 there was also a shift in the representation of the Other. This
moved unsurprisingly, to Middle Eastern countries. This fear deepened when
attacks happened subsequently by US/UK nationals who were Muslim
Fundamentalists. Has this caused a fear of all ‘Other’ ? Could this also
explain the obsession with unknown ‘Other’ of sci-fi – aliens, zombies,
vampires. Vampire and Zombies are particularly interesting as the ‘one of us’
but ‘not us’ fear can be explored fully.
Ownership and control, Regulation and censorship
Significant changes in recent years to traditional media include
 Shrinking ‘traditional’ industries – print media, music industry
especially the CD market, DVD sales
 Expanding digital industries which in some cases are out of the
institutions control – music file sharing, film downloads, online print
media content.
 The changes from mass audiences to a segmented market leading to a
huge variety of products and choice. However, take a closer look at
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the choices. Are many produced by a single corporation seeking to
maximize their profits?
The rise of the conglomerates leading to a small group of about 8
corporations responsible for the creation, production and distribution
of nearly all major media products in the world. Some argue this
contributes to the dominant Western world view. It also narrows the
range of choice of products and can restrict the freedom of the text
producers.
The rise of UGC and mass-amateurisation making some previously
highly skilled professionals in the industry – redundant.
Social media, blogging, comments etc, are all examples of everyday
audience interaction with and shaping of media content. This is not
‘controlled’ in a traditional way. Content can be filtered by official
sites but the vastness of the web means no organization can ever have
the power to mediate all daily traffic. Oppressive regimes around the
world have experienced serious uprisings in recent years. The power
of social media and image sharing particularly from one culture to
another cannot be ignored.
On demand services mean that there is no ‘watershed’ and content is
freely available to audiences. Even though content is flagged as being
only suitable for over 18’s, unless parental controls are set on the
computer, they are accessible to all.
There have been several high profile cases regarding privacy and the
Web. The recent Footballer Twitter super-injunction is a good case in
point. Debate still rages on about the ‘public right to know’ what
media figures are up to and whether ‘it is in the public interest’ for
private lives to be exposed. These issues became public concern in
recent years as facebook was called into question over their privacy
policy and comments left on wall’s were considered in the public
domain rather than private chat.
Media Theories
Semiotics
Semiotics is how audiences create meanings from messages from the
systems of codes and signs.
Structuralism and Post-Structuralism
Structuralism is the process of deconstructing texts by examining the
underlying generic structure. The theory is that the meaning exists within
texts but is deep rooted because its construction is natural to us, we have
created the text naturally without conscious thought – we just need to
deconstruct the text to find it and understand it. Post-structuralists would
argue that this deep rooted structure should not be analysed as there is no
concrete meaning - signs are open to an infinite number of interpretations
and so do not have any useful meaning or pattern.
Postmodernism
Postmodernism is not a theory but more a collection of elements that add
together to make a text postmodern. These elements include
intertextuality, bricolage, pastiche, parody, hybrid, CGI, Simulcrum and
Hyperreality.
Feminism
Feminism seeks to challenge traditional power structures that exist between
the genders. Some would argue that as Media institutions are predominantly
run by ‘white, middle/upper-class men’ their ideology is prevalent in media
texts which then perpetuates the dominant ideology in society. This has
major implications for those in society who are women, non-white and
working class. Mulvey suggested that all media is created through the eyes
of the heterosexual male, called the ‘male gaze’ and that as a result women
are viewed in terms of the pleasure they give to men.
Post-feminism allows women to use their sexuality for their own benefit
giving them power. Signs which are associated with femininity (heels, lipstick
etc.) are used against men as weapons to make them vulnerable rather than
the other way round.
Marxism, Hegemony and Liberal Pluralism
Marxism is the idea that the elite few are in a continual state of conflict
with the many or the mass. The powerful elite wants to pay as little as
possible for the labour of the mass. The mass wants to get as much out of
their work as possible. It is therefore the role of institutions like the Media
to keep the mass happy so that they continue to offer their full support to
the capitalist ideals. Marxists would argue that the media’s use of celebrity
is such a device – used to create a diversion, keeping the minds of the
masses off of the more serious issues like working conditions, pay and rights.
Hegemony takes this idea a step further suggesting that the dominant group
persuades the mass that the power structure is necessary and more
importantly in their favour. This suggests a more fluid power struggle, that
the ruling group may allow the mass some victories, essentially maintains
control, not through predominant force but negotiation.
Liberal Pluralism relates to capitalism in that it suggests a free media that
like any market economy, it responds to the demands of the consumers.
Liberal pluralists would argue that the success of genres like reality tv are
simply the result of supply and demand. It is worth considering who the
media text producers are that are in the position to fulfill this demand and
to what extent the demand been created by the media themselves.
Cross-Cultural factors
You should always be aware of how media texts or genre are created in
other countries. These are cross-cultural factors. Console games, reality tv,
sit-coms are modified for different audiences. There have been a number of
high profile media products being spread around the world in recent years
which have undergone slight changes for each cultural audience – X-factor,
Big Brother, The Office). Media text products, the representations
contained within them, the dominant ideologies are culturally bound and may
not translate globally.
Globalisation
Globalisation refers to the media texts which are ‘translated’ around the
world. These are global products and the term refers to brands (Nike, Coke,
Apple etc.) as well as texts (Toy Story, Harry Potter etc.). Much
globalisation is attributed to American industries, owned by Western
conglomerates and is sometimes referred to as Disneyfication. This is
concerning to many as it suggests that Western (American or European)
ideology is having an impact on developing countries and that the Western
view of the world will dominate. This will and already does cause significant
conflict to people from cultures which are significantly different to those in
the west. It is important to consider how other views, rather than those of
the White, Western Male might be marginalized and un- or mis-represented.
SECTION A
Media Product One – The game play trailer for Call of Duty
Media Product Two – The cinema trailer for Battle for Haditha
1 How do the two media products represent war?(8 marks)
2 What is the appeal to audiences of such shocking war films and war games?
You may refer to other media products to support your answer. (12 marks)
3 Some media research has raised concerns about unrestricted access to violent
images. Do you think control is necessary? You should refer to other media products
to support your answer. (12 marks)
Media product 1 – front page of Metro newspaper
Media Product 2 – article from the Daily Mail
1 Compare and contrast the two texts, with particular reference to the
representation of teenagers. (8 marks)
2 Consider the view that the current press treatment of teenagers is simply
another .moral panic.(12 marks)
3 There are always concerns about new technology. In your view, what are the
possible benefits and problems attached to social networking, particularly on the
Internet? (12 marks)
Media product 1 – Clip from ITV News the day Obama became president
Media Product 2 – Youtube clip called ‘Obama President’
1. How do the two texts represent black Amercians? (8 marks)
2. How do ITV1 News at Ten and YouTube use different platforms to inform their
audience? You may also refer to other media texts to support your answer. (12 marks)
3. What were the advantages of Barack Obama using the internet as a marketing tool?
You should answer with reference to other media texts. (12 marks)
Media product 1 – MoBo awards of Best female Estelle
Media Product 2 – Official website for Estelle
1 How do the two media products represent women in the music industry? (8 marks)
2 How and why do programmes such as the MOBO awards appeal to niche audiences?
You may also refer to other media products to support your answer. (12 marks)
3 What are the advantages and disadvantages for performers of using the internet as a
marketing tool? You should also refer to other media products to support your answer.
(12 marks)
SECTION B
Representations in the Media
4 (a) “1Xtra, MTV Base and ZeeTV are all hugely popular. But whenever I watch these
channels, all I see is a ghetto... Nobody wants to be in the ghetto, OK? We all want
to live in the mainstream.” (Lenny Henry in a speech to the Royal Television Society,
Guardian News and Media Ltd, 2008)
Why would the group or place you have studied want to be represented in the
mainstream media? (48 marks)
OR
04 (b) A dominant representation is one which is repeated across the media over time
and so are the values that it carries. Discuss. (48 marks)
The Impact of New/Digital Media
04 (c) Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to
a greater variety of views and values. To what extent are audiences empowered by
these developments? (48 marks)
OR
04 (d) Why and with what success are traditional media institutions adapting to the
challenge posed by new/digital media?
Representations in the Media
1 (a) It has been said that media representations often reflect the social and political
concerns of the age in which they are created. Discuss.
(48 marks)
OR
1 (b) .Media representations favour those with power at the expense of those without..
To what extent do you think this statement is true? (48 marks)
The Impact of new/digital media
2 (a) .Digital media have, in many ways, changed how we consume media products..
Who do you think benefits most , audiences or producers? (48 marks)
OR
2 (b) .Media Institutions are right to feel threatened by new/digital media. Consider this
statement and show how media institutions are reacting to technological developments.
(48 marks)
Sources:
A2 Media Studies: The Essential Introduction
Peter Bennett, Jerry Slater, Peter Wall Routledge (2006)
A2 Media Studies
Jaqueline Bennett, Tanya Jones, Julian McDougall Hodder and Stoughton (2002)
AQA Website