Media

1. Key concept research
Ellysha & Ellie

2. • Conventions – Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something.
There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee
quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.
• How codes and conventions apply in media studies
Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre – it is not enough
to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is
conventionally used in a genre.
• Representation – Representation is concerned with the way that people, ideas
and events are presented to us. This could be representation in magazines, news,
soap operas, films and so on. It may include representation of people, places,
events.
Representation is the way the media RE-PRESENT individuals, groups, events and
issues.
• Audiences –
• An individual or collective group of people who read or consume any media
text
• Examples: Radio listeners, Television viewers, Newspaper and magazine
readers, Web traffic on web sites.
Institutions – Organisation or company, public or privately owned that produces
and/or distributes media products’

3. Andrew Goodwin Theory
Music videos more often than not tend to include a demonstration of typical genre
characteristics For example: a video of a stage performance is typical for a metal video, a
dance routine typical for a boy/girl band and bikini clad women by a pool and flashy sports
cars in a rap video Music videos can also link to film genres, this is know as intertextuality. e.g.
Many heavy rock songs are influenced by horror films
There are frequent references to the notion of looking and the voyeuristic treatment of the
female body. The notion of looking includes men or women being portrayed seductively or if
there is eye contact with the camera. The notion of looking can also be referenced by the
use of props. e.g. Mirrors, television screens, cameras, telescopes, binoculars and magnifying
glasses are all references to, these are commonly used. Voyeurism is widely used to sell the
artists music through sex appeal, a recent example being Miley Cyrus. Voyeurism today is
only shown at one angle. You do not see a male doing that, only women.
There is a relationship between music and visuals. e.g. either illustrative, amplifying,
contradicting this can be seen in killer/papa was a rolling by George Michael
The record label which the artist is assigned to tends to have certain demands. They often
include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist will have a visual style which
recurs across their work. e.g. An example of a visual style could be Lady Gaga as she is
always wearing quirky clothes.

4. Genre theory
• John Hartley argues that 'genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the
meaning- potential of a given text' John Hartley notes that 'the same text can belong to
different genres in different countries or times‘.
• John Fiske defines genres as ‘attempts to structure some order into the wide range of
texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers
and audiences.’
• in 1986, Ralph Cohen published a paper titled: "History and Genre." In this article Cohen
argued that "genre concepts in theory and in practice arise, change, and decline for
historical reasons. And since each genre is composed of texts that accrue, the grouping is
a process, not a determinate category. Genres are open categories. Each member alters
the genre by adding, contradicting, or changing constituents, especially those of
members most closely related to it. The process by which genres are established always
involves the human need for distinction and interrelation
• Steve Neal said that ‘genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations’ which
meant certain generic features had to be included and repeated

5. • Jason Mittell (2001) argues that industries use genre to sell products to
audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that
very often make references to their audience knowledge of society,
other texts.
• Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they
want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular
pleasure. • Theorist Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers
audiences ‘a set of pleasures’.
• This can also be linked to Denis McQuail’s(1972) theory on ‘uses and
gratifications’ of media texts for audiences. Basically, the genre of your
text will have provided your demographic/subculture with some
satisfaction upon their consumption.