exploring the key concepts in media

1. Key Concepts
Juliana Silva
Key Concepts help you analyse media, as each of the
concepts has theories and ideas behind it, meaning
you can use them to support your own ideas.

2. Audience
Audience theory is knowing where your product or someone else's media is being
targeted, and who they are aiming their product for.
One theory for Audience
is the Hypodermic Needle
Model. This was a theory
that suggested that we
took in everything the
media was telling us
without actually
processing it, and also
suggested that the media
could easily change how
we saw things.
Another theory commonly used in media is
the uses and gratifications Theory. This says
he society uses the media for 4 things:
Information, Personal Identity, Integration
and Social Interaction, and Entertainment.
We use Audience theory in Game shows to determine who
the whole thing is targeted to, so we can choose the
elements that will appeal to that certain audience. For
example, if you were targeting young children and families,
you wouldn’t allow swearing or inappropriate themes in
your game show. The uses and gratifications theory is also
useful, as you know to put in well known brands or
companies, so that people will watch your show for not
only entertainment, but also integration and social
interaction, as they will be able to make friends based on
common interests.

3. Institution
An institution is something that has a normal and has its own
values which are followed by society. For example, school is an
institution because it has a set of rule controlling the people in it.
The institutions responsible for the ‘Media’ as we know it are:
• Internet
• Print (Newspapers, Magazines etc)
• Film
• Music
• Broadcast (TV, Radio etc)
An institution in
media is a company
that owns other
companies. For
example, Disney
owns Marvel
Studios and there is
always a trend or
specific thing that
runs through all of
the companies that
Disney owns.This would help in game shows as game shows are largely based
on spin-offs of a board game or card game. This means that
knowing the norms and values of the original company or
institutions will help the game show immensely as they will
already know the types of things people expect from the
company and other things like who their targeted audience is, or
whether there is a running theme.

4. Media Language
Media Language is divided into three categories:
• Symbolic – lighting, setting, objects, clothing
• Written – slogan, captions, words chosen
• Technical – camera angles, cropping
In media, we use
semiotics to
analyse things. This
is when we look at
what certain
aspects of the
things in each of
the three
categories mean
and could be trying
to say. For
example, a red
rose, could
symbolize love and
passion, therefore
being what the
rose is
representing.
This is useful in game shows because there are a lot of different
genres of game show, so we need to understand what puts them
in that category ad how o analyse the setting and opening scene
to back up our ideas.
For example, if it was an intellectual, educational game show like
University challenge, the opening scene wouldn’t be people
jumping over obstacles, because that wouldn’t be telling people
what the game show is about. They have to follow the codes and
conventions of the genre of game show, so we can analyse it
correctly and understand what they are trying to put across.

5. Representation
Representation is vital for game shows, as they want to appeal to
the people they are advertising to. For example, if they are
advertising at entire families, then the contestants may be a parent
and a child, like in Big Star Little Star, but if the show is aimed at
mainstream adults, the contestants on the show may just be
mainstream adults from the public. This means the people watching
can relate to the people in the show, meaning they would be more
likely to watch it.
Representation is mostly divided into the
following parts, gender, age, ethnicity
and disability.
Girls are usually represented as feminine,
fragile, and nice, whereas boys are seen
to be tough, in control and energetic.
This is one of the problems the media is
facing as not everyone is like this
anymore, so it is an unfair
representation.
People with disabilities are not widely
represented in the media, and when they are,
the product or show is aimed at people with
disabilities.
Before, people that weren’t white had
hardly any representation in the media at
all. Now we have actors and actresses like
Taraji P. Henson, Idris Elba and Shilpa
Shetty that represent a large portion of
the audience that the media was tying to
attract.