Term 1: Component 1: Advertising and Marketing & Film Industry (Print & Film)
This term will begin with a brief introductory unit on some of the key concepts of Media: students will learn what is meant by Media Products, Media Language and Representation, and Industry and Audiences. By grounding this understanding early on, students will be equipped to break down the exam papers and have a clear understanding the focus of each question. The rest of the course will be split between two teachers, focusing on different areas of the course. Teacher 1 will focus on preparing for the set products on the component one examination, in studying advertisements for Tide, Tokyo 2022 Paralympic Games and Kiss of the Vampire. Teacher 2 will focus on marketing within the film industry. Students will explore how various marketing strategies are used in mainstream and independent films through the films, 'Black Panther' and 'I, Daniel Blake'.
Comparison of unseen audio-visual text with a television poster deconstructed in class. Exam-style questions throughout lessons. Key examination set products: Tokyo 2022 Paralympic Games – audio visual advert; Tide – print advert; Kiss of the Vampire – film poster; 'Black Panther' and 'I, Daniel Blake' - film.
Signifier
Any material thing that signifies, e.g. words on a page, a facial expression, an image.
Diegetic sound
Sound belonging to the world of the production e.g. voices, music coming from a source within the setting (radio, jukebox etc.), voiceover commentary from the protagonist e.g. Sarah Connor in Terminator 2.
Non-diegetic sound
Sound not produced by anyone or anything in the world of the production e.g. explanatory voiceover, music (to apply and add to emotional dimensions of a production).
High key, low contrast lighting
A style of lighting which allows a full range of tones to be seen in shot. These scenes tend to be brightly lit but a similar effect can be achieved with less overall light.
Low key lighting
A system of lighting in which shadows are not eliminated by fill lighting but are used to add overall effect to the mise-en-scéne.
Extreme long shot
Also called the establishing shot, as it is often the first shot of a scene. Performers are distant in the setting.
Long shot
The setting still takes up most of the frame but performers are closer to the camera.
Medium long shot
The performer is framed from the knees up.
Medium shot
The performer is framed from the waist up.
Close up
Frames part of the body, such as head or hands.
Extreme close up
Frames part of the face, such as eyes or mouth.
High/low angle shot
Can be used to create a particular idea or power dynamic e.g. vulnerability from a high angle shot or a sense of power and dominance from a low angle shot.
Canted shot
Set at an angle, as if the head has been tilted.
Denotation
The literal or primary definition of something.
Connotation
The implied, suggested or abstract meaning of a word, sign or symbol - connotations carry a secondary, cultural meaning.
Polysemy
Having more than one idea or interpretation.
Paradigmatic relations
Where signs get meaning from their association with other signs - comparing and contrasting each of the signifiers present in the text with absent signifiers that in similar circumstances might have been chosen, and considering the choices made.
Syntagmatic relations
Where signs get meaning from their sequential order, e.g. the sequence of events that make up a story.
Ideologies
Codes that reinforce or are congruent with structures of power. Ideology works largely by creating forms of "common sense," of the taken-for-granted in everyday life.
Dominant preferred reading
The meaning that has been encoded into media texts and constructed by producers in the hope that this meaning (only) will be understood.
Negotiated reading
Meanings of a sign which are not always agreed upon.
Oppositional reading
The interpretation of a mass-media text by a decoder whose social situation places them in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code, who understands the preferred reading but rejects this reading, bearing an alternative ideological code.
Synecdoche
A kind of connotation in which a part is used for the whole e.g. The White House to represent America.
Metonymy
A kind of connotation where in one sign is substituted for another with which it is closely associated e.g. a white flag for surrender.
Semiotics
Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs, symbols, and signification. It is the study of how meaning is created, not what it is.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 2-3: Component 1: Industry and Audience & Media Language and Representation (Print, Music Video & Newspapers)
This term, with Teacher 1, students will study the Music video set texts for Component1 - Beyonce's 'Formation' and Vance Joy's 'Riptide'. Students will explore the cultural contexts surrounding the music video, as well as how media language and representation are used to convey various ideologies. With Teacher 2, students will continue with a focus on marketing, however applying it to the newspaper industry. Students will explore the technical, political and regulatory aspects of newspapers, building on theories around audiences. Set newspaper products will include 'Partygate' edition of The Mirror and The Times (from Feb 2022). The expectations are that students can deconstruct the examination set products in relation to media language, representation, audience and industries. Deconstruction of set products, with an exam-style focus, including:- The Daily Mirror - The Times. Prior learning will include: • Deconstruction of a media text • Semiotics (Barthes) • Structuralism (Levi-Strauss) • Audience theories
Students will deconstruct and analyse two newspaper front pages and their subsequent articles for the following: - Representation - how media language is used to create representations of individuals, social groups and/or events through a process of selection and combination; - Industry and Audience - how various political, cultural, moral and social ideologies are constructed across these examination texts.
Audience categorisation
How media producers group audiences (e.g. by age, gender, ethnicity) to target their products.
Conventions
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text.
Cover lines
These suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers and rhetorical questions. These relate to the genre of the magazine.
House style
What makes the magazine recognisable to its readers every issue. The house style is established through the choice of colour, the layout and design, the font style, the content and the general 'look' of the publication.
Censorship
Keeping material from audiences. Such material will include graphic images, speech or ideas which may be considered harmful, sensitive or offensive to audience members. Material and levels of censorship are determined by governments and regulatory bodies.
Self-regulation
Self-regulation is when individuals make choices about what media to access, or publish as a prosumer. It is also the display of control by established media outlets who can choose what content to distribute based on moral and ethical guidelines.
Gatekeeper
Gatekeeper is the term for who allows and decides which content will go forward and be published or broadcast. Changing technologies have drastically altered the traditional gatekeeping process.
Private vs. public
Private vs. public is debate about what information is kept from the wider audience and what information (about individuals) should not be allowed into the public domain.
Desensitiation
The idea that prolonged exposure to violent images numb the effects of them. The more you become accustomed to violent images, the less likely they are to have an impact on the audience. Arguably this had influenced more liberal regulation.
Deregulation
The freeing of media from strict/state controlled regulation. It is the relaxing of regulation laws, which pave the way. The 1990/6 Broadcasting Act was said to signal deregulation of the media, with Murdoch’s BskyB allowed to operate in the UK.
Target audience
The specific group at whom the product is aimed.
Niche audience
A relatively small audience with specialised interests, tastes and backgrounds.
Active audience
An audience who responds to and interprets media products in different ways and who actively engages with the messages encoded in the products.
Passive audience
An audience that does not engage actively with the product. They are more likely to accept a preferred meaning of the text without challenge. This also suggests that passive audiences are more likely to be directly affected by the messages in the product.
Demographic profiling
A way of categorising audiences by dividing consumers into groups based on age, sex, income, education, occupation, household size, marital status, home ownership or other factors.
Psychographic profiling
A way of cateogrising audiences based on personality, lifestyle, values and opinions, attitudes and lifestyles. Young and Rubicams Four C’s.
Prosumer
A term used to describe those individuals who comment on, create and adapt existing content and then distribute it through social media.
Uses and gratification theory
The uses and gratifications theory assumes the audience chooses what it wants to watch for five different reasons: Information and Education; Entertainment; Personal Identity; Integration and social interaction, and Escapism.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 4: Component 1: Industry and Audience (Radio, Podcast & Video Games)
Students will cover the Industry and Audience section of the Component 1 examination, with particular focus on the Radio set text – ‘Late Night Woman’s Hour’ – and the Video Games set text – the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ franchise. They will explore: • processes of production, distribution and circulation by organisations, groups and individuals in a global context • the specialised and institutionalised nature of media production, distribution and circulation • the relationship of recent technological change and media production, distribution and circulation • the significance of patterns of ownership and control, including conglomerate ownership, vertical integration and diversification • the significance of economic factors, including commercial and not-for-profit public funding, to media industries and their products • the impact of digitally convergent media platforms on media production, distribution and circulation, including individual producers • how media producers target audiences.
Exam-style focus on Late Night Woman’s Hour (stepped questions) and on online media (30 mark extended answer).
Fan
An enthusiast of a particular media form or product.
Four Cs
This stands for Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics and was a way of categorising consumers into groups through their motivational needs. The main groups were Mainstreamers, Aspirers, Explorers, Succeeders and Reformers.
Ideology
A set of messages, values and beliefs that may be encoded into media products.
Interactive property
The ways in which audiences can become actively involved in a product, for example, by posting a response to a blog or live tweeting.
Mediation
The way in which a media text is constructed in order to represent a version of events.
Mode of address
The way in which a media text 'speaks to' its target audience.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 5: Component 3: Non-Examination Assessment
Component 3 involves one cross-media production in two forms for an intended audience. The brief (released at the beginning of March) will specify time and length, and be dependent upon the form chosen. Students will have to cover media language, representations, audiences and media industries (including digital convergence). A Statement of Aims and Intentions should be 500 words approximately, and will outline their production. The following forms will always be set: - Television - Music marketing - Film marketing - Magazines. The exam board will stipulate the industry and audience contexts, and specific key requirements to be included in the production. Learners will develop a response to their chosen brief and create a production in a genre of their choice for the specified industry context and intended audience.
Component 3 draws on the knowledge and understanding of the theories framework and the analytical skills developed in components 1 and 2, through the practical application of knowledge and understanding in a media product. Internally assessed and externally moderated, students will be permitted a period of 16 weeks from the start of production to its completion. Prior to this, students will carry out research into their chosen media text, audience and industry, including: research into similar products, storyboards, scripts, timelines, focus groups, pitches, treatments, audience and industry research.
Anchorage
The words that accompany an image (still or moving) contribute to the meaning associated with that image. If the caption or voice-over is changed then so may the way in which the audience interprets the image.
Audience categorisation
How media producers group audiences (e.g. by age, gender ethnicity) to target their products.
Audience positioning
The way in which media products place audiences (literally or metaphorically) in relation to a particular point of view. For example, audiences may be positioned with a particular character or positioned to adopt a specific ideological perspective.
Brand identity
The association the audience make with the brand, for example Chanel or Nike, built up over time and reinforced by the advertising campaigns and their placement.
Camera shots
The type of shot and framing in relation to the subject, for example, close-up shots are often used to express emotion.
Caption
Words that accompany an image that help to explain its meaning.
Conventions
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text.
Cover lines
These suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers and rhetorical questions. These relate to the genre of the magazine.
Editing
The way in which the shots move from one to the other (transitions), e.g. fade, cut, etc. Fast cutting may increase the pace and therefore the tension of the text, for example.
Feature
In magazine terms, the main, or one of the main, stories in an edition. Features are generally located in the middle of the magazine, and cover more than one or two pages.
Target audience
The people at whom the media text is aimed.
Visual codes
The visual aspects of the product that construct meaning and are part of media language, for example clothing, expression, and gesture.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community:
Term 6: Revision and NEA
Students will revise all of the year's content thus far, revisiting set-texts and media theorists prior to end of year examinations. Students will continue work on their cross-media production NEA for Component 3 (30%)
End of year examinations focusing on Component 1. The NEAs will be graded, as specified by the exam board, when submitted as complete.
Primary research
Primary audience research such as focus groups, surveys and questionnaires - research prior to completion of production work.
Secondary research
Academic theoretical research appropriate to A Level to develop understanding and support analysis.
A project plan
This could include a timeline and the planned use of, for example, resources or equipment.
Planning documents
Planning documents appropriate to the form/product undertaken such as: a step outline; a shot list; a storyboard; a script; draft designs; mock-ups of composition and layout.
Cross-media production
Conceptualised as a complete package of interrelated products in two forms, reflecting the nature of the contemporary media and the importance of different platforms in distributing, and enabling audiences to access, the media.
Media treatment
A media treatment (or simply treatment) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture, television program, or radio play.
Develop the individual:
Create a supportive community: