AS Media Studies
MEDIA FORMS
**Media Platforms** – the technology through
which we receive media products (broadcasting,
print, e-media)
 **Media Forms** – the distinguishing
characteristics of types of media products.
 What would you expect to see and hear in a
trailer for a disaster movie?
 What would you expect to see in a TV newsroom
set?
To identify a media form...
Film
Trailer
Form =
News
-Voiceover
- Short in length
-Music
-Clips from film
- date of release
- “Coming soon!”
- actors and
actresses
- mini narrative
Platform =
Broadcast, Print
and E-media
Characteristics or
CODES AND
CONVENTIONS
Codes and Conventions =
newsreader
BBC English
Events – local, national
and global
Headlines
reporters
GENRE
 The term used for the classification of media
texts into groups with similar characteristics.
 It is useful in looking at the ways in which media
texts are organised, categorised and consumed.
 Am important element in identifying genre is the
look or ICONOGRAPHY of the text.
**key term** iconography – the particular signs
we associate with particular genres, such as
physical attributes and dress of actors, the
settings and typical props (cars, guns etc)
GENRE
 Complete the following table...
GENRE
Codes /Conventions
Horror
Gangster
Western
Romantic Comedy
Iconography
GENRE
Expectations and pleasures
 Audiences understand genre through their
familiarity with the codes and conventions
used in the text.
 They take pleasure in familiarity as well as
anticipating a new twist.
 They enjoy the mixture of repetition and
variation and find it reassuring.
Genre – the ‘chick flick’
 Slightly derisive term
 Formulated romantic comedies
 Tearjerkers
 Family crisis
 Emotional catharsis
 Empowered females
 Female bonding situations
 Female protagonist or heroine
GENRE
 Genres develop and change with changes in
technology, popular culture and the nature of
audiences.
 Producers have to continually come up with
something fresh to keep audiences
entertained.
 Genres that are a mixture of existing ones are
called HYBRID GENRES.
Genre =
Teenage
Sub Genre
= Romance
= Horror
= Fantasy
= Vampire Movie
Hybrid genres
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Genres
Horror
Crime
Western
Comedy
Action
Thriller
Sci-fi
Hybrids
 Docusoap
 Supernatural
 Reality/gameshow
 Film noir
 Chick flicks
 Romantic comedy
 Tearjerkers
 Eg. Scream –
 Disaster
teenage/slasher/
 Spy
 Fantasy
horror/comedy?
Sub-Genres
**Add notes to
worksheet**
Postmodernism
 Many modern texts are postmodern.
 Ideas, styles and icons are taken from another
medium and reworked into a new text.
 This is called INTERTEXTUALITY.
 Audiences enjoy recognising and
understanding intertextuality.
 Advertisers rely on our recognition of
intertextuality in order to get their message
across in a short space of time.
Intertextuality
 **key term** INTERTEXTUALITY – the way
in which texts refer to other media texts that
producers assume audiences will recognise.
 DANCE – Justin Timberlake borrows dance moves from
Michael Jackson.
 MUSIC – DJs remixes of popular songs...or the mash-ups
in Glee.
 FILM – Scary Movie borrows clips from other horror films
to create comedy.
 FASHION – Lady Gaga influenced by Madonna.
Intertextuality
 Is not always obvious...
 References can only be recognised if you
know what they are referring to.
 Cultural, social and linguistic limitations.
 People bring their own experiences to the
text.
 “I’ll have what she’s having.”
 Family Guy
 PG Tips
The Simpsons and Clockwork Orange
Edvard Munch
– The Scream
Homer Simpson –
The Scream
SHREK
 Shrek
 An animation
 Two levels in movie – first, the simple
children’s story.
 The second level is full of references and
quotes (intertextuality) that are probably only
decoded by adults.
 Watch the clip and note down any
intertextual references you see.
Shrek and popular culture
Numerous references to American brands.
 Burger Prince (Burger King)
 Olde Knavery (Old Navy)
 Far Far Away sign (Hollywood sign)
 Saxon Fifth Avenue (Saks Fifth Avenue)
 Versarchery (Versace)
 Gap Queen (Gap kids)
 Farbucks Coffee Starbucks)
Shrek and fairy tales
 “Once upon a time”
 “Happily ever after”
 Good v bad
 Magic
 Hansel and Gretel
 Red Riding Hood
 Peter Pan
 Cinderella
 Beauty and the Beast
Shrek and popular culture
 “Kings are from Mars, Queens are from Venus”
 The Oscar’s Award ceremony
 Ghost Busters
 ET
 Mask of Zorro
 Flashdance
 Cabaret
 Mission Impossible
 Alien
 Spiderman
 Beverly Hills Cops
 Lord of the Rings
Rodney
Dangerfield
Joan Rivers
Marketing + Intertextuality
 In order for a media product to be promoted

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successfully, it is advertised extensively.
Trailers on TV for programmes shown later in
the schedule.
Documentary ‘exclusives’ advertised on
news.
Trailers for new films in the cinema shown on
TV.
Celebrity news stories in the press linked to
promotion of new book/album/film.
Parody and Homage
 Parody – aims to mock an original in a
critical way .
 Can only be effective through our
knowledge of the text or genre that is
being parodied.
 Cheryl Cole – comedy fight for this love clip
 Watch the following trailer for ‘Scary Movie’ – what
generic codes and conventions are being parodied?
Homage
 HOMAGE suggests respect for a particular
text, acknowledging the power and
importance of the original by imitating it.
 Homage is often experienced in the
cinema where a director will deliberately
create a scene where intertextual
elements combine to pay respect to an
earlier creation.
Homage – Film Noir
 Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern
films and other forms that prominently utilize
elements of film noir, but with updated
themes, content, style, visual elements or
media that were absent in films noir of the
1940s and 1950s.
 The Coen Brothers
 Seven
 Sin City
Activity
 Textbook page 20
 Choose a film genre and three films that
could be included in it.
 Complete the table.
Key questions to ask..
 To which genre does the text belong?
 What are the major generic conventions within the text?
 What are the main iconographic features of the text?
 What are the major generic themes?
 To what extent are the characters generically
determined?
 To what extent are the audience’s generic expectations
of the text fulfilled or cheated by the text? Does the text
conform to the characteristics of the genre, or does it
treat them playfully/ironically?
 Does the text feature a star, a director, a writer etc who is
strongly associated with the genre? What
meanings/associations do they have?