2. The Concepts
Question 1(b) requires you to select one
production and evaluate it in relation to a
media concept.
The list of concepts to which questions will
relate is as follows:-
Genre
Narrative
Representation
Audience
Media Language
3. Audience (June 2011)
Define your target audience in detail – age, gender,
lifestyle, media consumption patterns, aspirations, etc,
etc. Why have you decided to target this audience?
How have you tried to appeal to and address this
audience in your production? Consider all aspects of
media language.
What audience feedback have you received? Give
specific detail from the entire production process, both
positive and negative. How did this feedback influence
your decisions?
4. Narrative (Jan 2011)
What is the structure of the narrative in your
production? For example, is it linear or non-linear? Is it
chronological or does it use flash backs? Are there two
or more narratives working together at once? How does
your production tell its story? What governs the
beginning, middle and end of your narrative? What
impact has your learning on postmodernism had on your
narrative structure? If you are discussing a film trailer,
how much of the film’s narrative have you chosen to
reveal? What real world media texts have influenced you
and what narrative structures did they have? How have
you
5. REPRESENTATION (JAN 2010)
What groups, places, social structures, belief
systems or other have you represented in your
production? Consider age, gender, ethnicity,
sexuality, class, regional identity, location, etc.
How have you portrayed them (i.e. what is your
production saying about this group of people,
location, etc)? How have you used media language
to create these representations? (Think back to
your TV Drama exam in Year 12.) Is there
anything controversial about these
representations? How have you used
representation to address and attract your
audience? What feedback did your audience give
regarding the representations in your production?
6. GENRE (June 2010)
What is genre and why is it important to audiences
and to institutions? What other texts in this genre
did you study? What did you observe about the
conventions they used / subverted / played with?
How did this impact your decisions and your
production?
What genre / sub-genre did you work in? What
conventions did you use / subvert? Identify specific
aspects of your production where you have used /
subverted or played with conventions. How has this
impacted your work? Is there any theory you
could apply here, for example, Goodwin’s analysis
of the conventions of music video? What has
postmodernism taught you about genre and
conventions? How has this impacted your own
production? Give specific examples.
8. Media Language
Identify which of your productions would be most
appropriate for a discussion on language.
Essentially this is asking for a detailed textual analysis of
your production which explores the meanings created by
the camera angles, shots, distances and movements, the
mise-en-scene, sound, editing, lighting, colour and
special effects you have used. Link these meanings to
representations you have created, the ways you have
targeted the audience and the conventions of the genre
you are working in.
9. Homework task Due next Monday
Analyse the role played by target audience in one of
your course work productions
You can choose which piece – you don’t have to talk about
your music video.
