Media Studies

Media Transition Booklet

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Media Key terms glossary

Forms of Media Language:

Denotation: what you actually see. For example, a wooden cross and a rose are the literal meanings.

Connotation: what meanings you associate with the signifiers. For example, we could say a rose connotes a symbol for passion and love and a cross connotes a symbol for religion and Christianity.

Convention: They are common elements or characteristics which are associated with a certain media text. E.g. fangs, coffin, garlic, blood and stake are all generic conventions for a vampire film etc.

Genre: What genre is your music video? Is it a hybrid? Is it a sub-genre? What evidence is there in your music video to prove what genre it is?

Mise-en-scene: the location and setting. Everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement. Consider the props, lighting and costumes etc. It is not just the setting or location, but also everything that is included in the shot (or anything visually presented to us).

Iconography: the images and symbolic representations that are traditionally associated with a person or a subject. For example, a pirate’s costume and props typically consists of guns, swords, bandana, beard, ‘scraggy’ clothes etc. which helps the audience to determine the genre.

Camera shots/angles: Medium shot, Long shot, Close-Up shot, Extreme Close Up shot, Medium Long shot, Medium Close-Up shot, Establishing shot, Wide shot, POV (point-of-view) shot, Over the shoulder shot, Low Angle shot, High Angle shot, Birds-eye-view shot, Helicopter shot etc.

Lighting: high-key lighting typically reflects a happy and upbeat atmosphere, whilst low-key lighting typically reflects something sinister or intimidating. Audience:

Target Audience: Who is the target audience of your music video? How do you know this? You must explain this through who is being represented

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Primary Audience: This is very similar to the target audience. For example, the primary audience of One Direction will be teenage girls worldwide.

Secondary Audience: The secondary audience is the audience who the music artist might appeal to, although this is not the intended target audience. For example, some teenage boys or older women might be fans of One Direction, however they are not the primary audience.

Mainstream Audience: This is when a music artist appeals to a very large population of the audience. For example, One Direction, Lady Gaga and Rihanna all appeal to fans globally and are constantly in the public eye.

Niche Audience: This is a much smaller audience who have a unique interest in a very specific genre. For example, Fleet Foxes are a small folk band in the USA which many people will not have heard of.

Wider Audience: This is when a music artist/band appeals to an additional audience which they might not have expected to. For example, Mumford & Sons are a folk band who originally started with a niche following but later the success of their music become popular and mainstream.

Audience Demographics: See your handout sheets from class for this/student area. There are separate categories of audience which are segregated through A, B, C1, C2, D and E. Students would come under the category ‘E’ demographic.

Audience Psychographics: e.g. Aspirers: people who want to appear rich and attractive. 'People who aspire to be...‘ e.g. Mainstreamers: people who follow the crowd e.g. Explorers: adventurous people who like taking risks

Polysemic meanings: when a media text (for example, a music video) has multiple meanings. For example, one audience member may view 50 Cent as promoting violence and drug culture, whilst a different audience member may consider him a hip-hop legend and be a loyal fan.

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Representation:

Costume: Consider which clothes are worn and how this helps to create a stereotypical representation.

Props: Consider which props are demonstrated on the music video and whether any help to construct any significant meaning.

Dominant Ideology: The dominant viewpoint from the public. For example, the dominant ideology of men in the media would be intelligent, powerful and strong – e.g. James Bond, whilst the dominant viewpoint of women in the media would be domesticated, weak and sexualised.

Alternative Ideology: The alternative viewpoint which subverts (goes against) the mainstream. For example, this could be women being represented as powerful and men being represented as weak and inferior to them e.g. Katniss and Peeta in the Hunger Games.

Institution:

Conglomerate: the famous institution which made your film e.g. Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney, Columbia Pictures, Universal and 20th Century Fox (not all institutions are conglomerates).

Subsidiary company: the smaller companies who were also involved with your film through either; production, distribution, exhibition or marketing etc.

Synergy: is when the interaction of two or more companies working together creates a greater effect than the sum of their individual efforts. For example, if Warner Brothers works with ‘Hoey productions’ to distribute their new film this would reflect synergy as both companies are working together to create a greater effect.

Synergy can also relate to when certain conventions are used across two different media products (film trailer and film poster). For example, the same typography (font style) and colour palette may be present on both to show consistency and represent the film with a certain style.

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Typecasting: This is when an actor is associated with a certain genre of film. For example, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is typically associated with action films, Jonah Hill and Adam Sandler are typically associated with comedy and Rachael McAdams is associated with the romance genre.

Franchise: a general title used for marketing a series of products, typically films or television shows: e.g. the Harry Potter franchise.

Sequel: a film which continues the story of a previous one (after) e.g. The Hunger Games

Prequel: a film containing events which precede those of an existing work (before) e.g. The Hobbit tells the story of Bilbo Baggins which is set in a time period before the Lord of the Rings (even though the Hobbit trilogy was released after the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

Hybrid: A film which is a combination of two or more genres together (e.g. a rom-com or sci-fi horror)

Sub-Genre: A specific film which comes under a certain area of a main genre but is distinct through certain features (e.g. a vampire film is a sub-genre of the horror genre. Also, a gangster film is a sub-genre of the crime genre).

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Theories:

Todorov (5-stage narrative structure): The order in which films are structured to keep the audience interested and engaged throughout, without getting too confused. They are in order of EQUILIBRIUM – DISRUPTION – RECOGNITION – REPAIR – RESTORATION (see below). You should know this structure for each of your 4 case studies (some may challenge it).

Stage 1 • The Equilibrium – Everything is normal

Stage 2 • The Disruption – Something happens

Stage 3 • The Recognition – Realisation that there is a problem

• The Repair – Take steps to correct the problem Stage 4 • The Restoration – Return to normality Stage 5

Propp – character types: 1. The hero: departs on search, reacts to donor, attempts difficult tasks 2. The false hero: takes unfounded glory for the hero's actions 3. The villain: villainy, fighting, action 4. The princess/heroine and her father: a sought-for person who assigns difficult tasks, brands, exposes, recognises, punishes 5. The donor or provider: giving, magical agent or helper 6. The helper: moves the hero, rescues from a pursuit, solves difficult tasks, transforms the hero 7. The dispatcher: sends the hero on quest or mission

Blumler and Katz (Uses and Gratification theory): Suggested there are four main reasons why people consume media texts (e.g. a video game):

• Information (release date awareness, age certificate, actors, institution that produced and distributed the film, technology in terms of IMAX 3D or 2D screenings and the implied narrative etc.) • Personal Identity (how certain characters or situations appeals personally to somebody – e.g. modern girls will see Katniss Everdeen as a role model-like figure rather than being seen as weak and ‘the victim’) • Social Interaction (online discussion or responses on social media, website links and forums – enables audience to be active rather than passive) • Entertainment (how the film is interesting and engaging through the use of sound and entertaining narrative and other features)

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Stuart Hall – ‘Reception Model’: This is how audiences respond to different media texts. Stuart Hall argued audiences respond with one of three different readings: a preferred, negotiated or oppositional reading. This is dependent on their cultural knowledge and beliefs (for example, feminists would be against women being represented through a ‘male gaze’ and being sexualised – an oppositional reading).

The ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey): Is the ‘male gaze’ evident in your music video? State how this has been constructed through referring to forms of media Language.

The ‘female gaze’ (Gamman & Marshment): Is the ‘female gaze’ evident in your music video? State how this has been constructed through referring to forms of media Language.

The ‘beauty myth’ (Naomi Wolf): the theory suggests how women are brainwashed by the media to view skinny, pretty and petite girls as the ‘norm’ and conform to this ideology. This is particularly evident in fashion magazines as it is highly unlikely overweight and spotty women would be considered as beautiful models.

‘All men are violent’ (Earp and Katz): the theory suggests men are represented in the media as being violent and always wanting to fight. This could be particularly evident in gaming magazines or film magazines.

Barthes – ‘enigma codes’: Texts can often tease the audience with mysterious or unexplained elements to draw them into the narrative. For example, a shadow of a person in a horror movie would be considered an enigma code as the audience do not know who it is, however they have been given a clue of what is happening. Another example could be a car randomly being blown up at the start of the narrative. Again, the audience would be questioning why the car has blown up as they have not been told why at this point.

Levi-Strauss – ‘binary opposites’: Levi Strauss identified that narratives were often drawn out of the conflict of oppositions. He called these binary oppositions. For example, this might relate to: Good vs. Evil Male vs. Female

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Love vs. Hate Dark vs. Light Rich vs. Poor Man vs. Machine

The use of binary oppositions are used to influence the audience who they should side with.

Andrew Goodwin’s theory relates to the relationship between the lyrics and on screen visuals. These are split into three areas:

 Illustrative – when certain lyrics are written somewhere in the video (e.g. a word on a mobile phone or graffiti on the wall)

 Amplifying – When word are amplified through a dance move or the body positioning of artist (e.g. Beyonce – put a ring on it hand gesture or Snow Patrol artist lying down on the floor to ‘If I lay here’ lyrics)

 Disjuncture – when the visuals of the music video have nothing to do with the lyrics of the track (e.g. Fat Boy Slim – Praise You)

Fiske (1987) – Transparency Fallacy: Fiske argues that TV news reporting involves just a representation of reality; in other words it is constructed and therefore open to bias. The ideology involved in TV news reporting is that it is considered to represent a neutral ‘window on the world’.

However, now audiences can access their own news through social networking sites they can now make up their own minds (rather than be influenced by bias news without realising it).

‘Hypodermic needle’ theory:

This theory states that people watch/read media texts and they believe every part of every media message they are told. They consume it like a drug straight into the brain. It is the effect of BRAINWASHING someone.

If the hypodermic needle model is to be believed, then these audiences are PASSIVE.

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Technical glossary

Editing techniques:

Cutting (Cut)

Cutting is when one shot suddenly changes to another shot. Cuts are made very regularly; for example, television shows consist of cuts which occur approximately every seven to eight seconds. Cuts aren’t always left as a sudden change from one shot to another, sometimes these cuts are transitioned as a fade, wipe or a dissolve.

• To change the scene and setting • To compress the time • To vary the point of view • To build or create and image or an idea

Slow Motion

When the action on the screen has been edited to move at a slower rate than the original action did. This can be used to do the following.

Long Take A shot that takes an unusually long length of time before cutting to the next scene.

Short Take

A shot that is a very quick shot that takes a very short length of time before cutting to the next scene.

Shot/Reverse shot

A shot and reverse shot is where several shots are edited together and alternate characters. This is very typically used in a conversation situation.

Eye line Match

An eye line match consists of two shots. The first shows the character look off in one direction. The following shot shows what the character is looking at.

Graphic Match

A good example of this would be a washing machine spinning around and dissolving

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Action Match

An action match is when two different views are shot of the same action, and are edited together so that the action appears to continue uninterrupted.

Jump Cut

A jump cut is when a single shot has an interruption. The interruption is either the background changes instantly while the figure in the shot remains the same, or that the figure changes instantly while the background remains the same.

Parallel Editing

This is an editing technique where two or more shots, set in different places, alternate, these are usually simultaneous, and the actions are linked in some way.

Dissolve

Dissolving is a transition used in between two shots so that the shots don’t suddenly change. Dissolve is the transition in which one shot fades out while another shot fades in, meaning at one moment in this transition the shots are blended together.

Fade in/Fade out

Fading into a shot is when the screen appears just a blank, black screen to begin with, and then the shot begins to fade in. This usually occurs at the beginning of a scene to indicate a softer, quieter introduction.

Fading out of a shot is when the shot is shown on the screen and then slowly fades out into a blank, black screen.

Superimposition

This is where two shots are blended into one, and unlike dissolve, this is not a transition between two different shots.

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Camera movements: (see your worksheets too)

Sound:

Diegetic Sound = real sound coming from the scene (such as dialogue or natural sounds)

Non-diegetic sound = sound added to the scene which not natural (such as a soundtrack or sound effects)

Synchronous sound = when the sound matches what is on screen (the visuals) e.g. violin sound to a romantic scene

Asynchronous sound = when the sound goes against what we expect to see on screen e.g. dub-step sound to a romantic scene

Sound Bridge = when a sound is carried through from one shot to another

Foley sound = when a certain sound is exaggerated and made much louder over the natural sound (such as a slap or a gun shot) – typically to make it more suspenseful

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Lighting:

High-key lighting = high-key lighting typically reflects a happy and upbeat atmosphere

Low-key lighting = low-key lighting typically reflects something sad, sinister or intimidating

Natural lighting = when the lighting is natural and not used to create any particular meaning

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Psychographics: Definition: the study of the psychological profiles of potential buyers of a product, used to improve its marketing (more suitable for advertising). Mainstreamers: people who follow the crowd Asp irers : people who want to appear rich and attractive. 'People who aspire to be... ‘ Su cceed ers : people who seek control. Strong goals, confidence, work ethic and organisation. Typically higher management and professionals. Res igned: People interested in past and tradition (typically older people) Refo rmers: people who want social change, are unimpressed by status and make decisions based on their values (e.g. envir onmentalists) Ex plorers : adventurous people who like taking risks Strugglers: people who find it hard to achieve (often connected with poverty)

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Summer Prep

Task 1: Analyse a music video of your choice (from YouTube). On a Word document, I want you to focus on 3 sections:

 Camera shots and angles (Google these)  Camera movements (Page 12)  Editing techniques (particularly use of short takes and action match – Pages 10-11)

Please write three separate sub-titles using the 3 bullet points above. I want you to identify 5 separate examples for each of the 3 areas and aim to explain how they create meaning to the audience. Please use screen grabs too to show where in the music video these examples were evident.

Task 2: I want you to produce a 1-minute short film using your mobile phones. Your short film topic can be on anything (so long as it is sensible). Please see exemplar 1-minute short films on YouTube (there are many examples) to give you an idea of what you need to produce. If you have an iPhone, you can use the iMovie app for free to edit your footage. If you have an android phone, you can free video editing apps such as YouTube Capture or Cute Cut.

Task 3: Watch a documentary of your choice (ideally one which you have seen before and enjoyed). I want you to compile a list of which conventions (typical techniques/features) are used in documentaries (such as interviews, archive footage and statistics etc.) and then give examples of how these have been used in your chosen documentary film. You can produce this on either Word or a PowerPoint.

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