1. Media Institutions
 Understand the requirements of G322 Section B
 You will understand your institution and be able to
place your case studies within their institutional
context.
 You will identify how your films engage with the
audience.
 You will understand the difference between
independent and mainstream cinema.

2. The expectations
• Re-sitting an examination is difficult.
• Complete all the work set in sessions and on blog (1 textual analysis, usually 1
Audience and Institution task)
• I expect you to attend every session that is planned. These are:
– Monday 7th Nov
– Monday 14th Nov
– Monday 21st Nov
– Monday 28th Nov
– Monday 5th Dec
– Monday 12th Dec
– Monday 19th Dec – optional
– Tuesday 3rd Jan
– Thursday 5th Jan
– Monday 9th Jan
– Tuesday 10th Jan
The exam is Friday 13th January, 2012. 2 hrs, am.

3. The specification
Through specific case studies of the centre’s
choice, candidates should be prepared to
demonstrate understanding of contemporary
institutional processes of
production, distribution, marketing and
exchange/exhibition at a local, national or
international level as well as British audiences’
reception and consumption. There should also be
some emphasis on the students’ own experiences
of being audiences of a particular medium.

4. The Specification 2
• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
• the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in
production, distribution and marketing;
• the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of
production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
• the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and
audiences;
• the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences
(specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption
illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.

5. The Mark scheme
• Take 2 minutes to look over the mark scheme.
• Highlight the important words for
achievement in Level 3 and Level 4.
• What is required of you to succeed?

6. Links to the exam paper
• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media
practice;
• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences
(specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media
consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience
behaviour.
Media Institutions
 Understand the requirements of G322 Section B
 You will understand your institution and be able to
place your case studies within their institutional
context.
 You will identify how your films engage with the
audience.
 You will understand the difference between
independent and mainstream cinema.

7. Links to the exam paper
• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
Media institutions
• Your film companies are Media institutions.
They are commercial institutions and
independent institutions.
Words for your glossary
Commercial institutions – institutions that are large and have
hige budgets. They are usually conglomerates
Conglomerate – when a larger institution is made up of
smaller companies that have been purchased or merged (e.g.
20th Century fox).
Independent institutions – are independent of larger
companies and hae smaller budgets. They do not follow
tradition (.e.g traditional Hollywood).

8. Look at your film companies
• Are they independent or commercial?
• Are they a conglomerate – who are they part of or who
owns them.
• Is there a difference in the style of the films produced
by each? What are the codes and conventions of the
films produced by your companies?
• Unlike a public service broadcaster which aims to be
ideology free, independent and commercial companies
are shaped by the context they work in. This is their
institutional context. What factors do you think shape
the films they produce?

9. Consider…
• What advantages does a commercial company have that an
independent one doesn’t?
• A conglomerate is often vertically integrated , giving it
control over production through to exhibition – how is this
an advantage over smaller, independent companies?
Successful media products depend as much upon
marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do
upon good production practices." To what extent would
you agree with this statement, within the media area you
have studies?

10. Terminology check-point
• Institution
• Codes and conventions
• Institutional context
• Ideology
• Commercial institution
• Independent institution

11. RECEPTION THEORY
• No text has one single meaning
• Consumers/individual society members help
to construct meaning
• Expectations and experience
• Complexity of response
• CONTEXT OF CONSUMPTION
• Creating alternative interpretations

12. Audience theory
• Preferred reading: the reading that is received.
• Oppositional reading: the opposite reading to that intended by the
institution
• Negotiated reading: basically accepts preferred reading but
modifies it to their own position.
The institutional context in which media texts are produced often
means that films are aiming to encourage a particular ideology or set
of beliefs and ideas. The hypodermic needle model of media
communication suggests that all consumers receive the media and the
message in the same way. However, we know this is not the case.
What is the preferred reading of your film – what message is it trying
to give? Is this message the same for everyone?

13. ROLAND BARTHES
• Preferred negotiated meaning: argues that meaning in
text was somewhere between institution and the text –
it rests with the audience.
• ‘The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the
death of the author’
• Cultural context
• Networks
• Enigma code

14. NARRATIVE THEORY
• Propp • Torodov
– Hero • Equilibrium
– Villain • Disruption
– Donor • Journey
– Dispatcher • Climax
– False hero • Equilibrium
– Helper
– Princess Codes and conventions
– Father
Do your films satisfy the narrative shapes?
If not – bet they are independent.
What does this suggest about how audience choice and
consumption habits differ between independent and
mainstream films?

15. Genre
• Do the films made by your companies meet a
particular Genre? What does this tell you
about their production practices or ideology?
Genre – category; group associated by typical codes and conventions
Cultural homogenisation – beliefs created b the media; consumers
impressions of countries, age group etc based on the media.
Hybrid/hybridity – mixing of codes and conventions associated with
genre.
Audience expectations – what codes and conventions the audience
expects to see in the genre/from the company.

16. Terminology check-point
• Reception theory
• Genre
• Hybrid
• Codes and Conventions
• Enigma
• Preferred meaning
• Oppositional meaning
• Negotiated meaning
• Hypodermic needle model
• Narrative theory (Propp and Todorov)
• Cultural homogenisation

17. Independent v Mainstream
Link to the exam paper
the issues raised by media ownership in
contemporary media practice

18. Mainstream
• By 1920s, there were 20 Hollywood film studios.
• Organised into Genres
• Studio system – stars (star theory), high production
values, control of directors and stars.
• Vertically integrated
• Large budgets
• High spec technology (35mm prints – 25kg – exhibition
costs are high)
• 1929 – Big Five responsible for 90% of global output
(Warner Bros, Paramount, RKO, MGM, 20th Century
Fox)

19. Mainstream
• Hollywood
• Dreamworks SKG (newest Hollywood studio in 1994)
• Stars and auteurs
– Stars have become increasingly important to the strength
of a film. Films that are most dependent on their stars are
known as star vehicles.
– Auteur theory is becoming an increasingly out-dated
concepts. Auteurs were directors that had a lot of power
an influence over the shape of a film, such as early
Hollywood director Alfred Hitchcock. To a lesser extent,
directors like Speilberg and Tarintino could still be
considers Auteurs due to their distinctive style.

20. Star Theory
• Richard Dyer (Remember this name)!
• Star is a constructed image
• Stars are commodities of institution
• Stardom = worship = cultural practice
• Hegemonic ideal
• Beauty myth
• Aspirational
• Commercial companies can afford stars by which the film becomes
instantly recogniseable and attracts an audience based on celebrity
culture.
• Working title formula: British film + American Star = ££££££

21. The challenge of conformity for
Independent films
Independent film makers are
becoming increasingly
institutionalised. They need to
compete and so there is a clash
between the desire to make
independent films and to be
successful at the box office.

22. Independent
• Indie implies that the film will break from traditional
narrative, filming practices, codes and conventions – it
implies something new.
Some orignal codes and conventions
• Action may be in chapters
• Disjointed narrative sequence/ non-linear
• Narrative not resolved
• Audience cannot empathise with characters
• Close-ups not used
• Characters/objects move outside the frame
How “indie” are your independent films really?

23. Horizontal and Vertical Integration
Vertical
Exhibition integration
Game based Film Website for
on film Release film
Horizontal
integration
Production
Merhandising DVD release
company
DIVERSIFICATION DIVERSIFICATION

24. Commercial v Independent?
What advantages and disadvantages can you see for being horizontally
integrated, vertically integrated or both?
Synergy between companies is where they work together – this is more common
with independent films. What advantages and disadvantages can you see here?

25. Terminology check-point
• Studio system
• Star theory
• Auteur theory
• Star vehicles
• Big Five
• Horizontal integration
• Vertical integration
• Production values
• Hegemonic ideal