Media Language Media Key Terms MEDIA LANGUAGE Refers to; media language elements, technology, genre, Media Language Target audience Technical Codes intertextuality and narrative. The way in which a text is a particular group at which a Technical codes are all the ways MEDIA REPRESENTATION constructed to create meaning. product is aimed at. e.g. a film. in which equipment is used to Mediation, stereotypes, inequality in representation, themes and tell the story in a media text, for ideologies, representation and context and audience. example the camera work in a Codes Conventions film. Systems of signs which create The generally accepted ways of MEDIA INDUSTRIES meaning. doing something. Symbolic Codes Media producers, ownership and control, convergence, funding, industries and audiences, media regulation, target audience, Show what is beneath the technology, active audiences, uses and gratification, changing surface of what we see. For audience responses Denote Connote example, a character's Its literal meaning. e.g. a To suggest a connection. e.g. actions show you how the Social How media products heart is an organ in the a red heart connotes love. character is feeling. reflect the society in body. which they are produced and that of Uses and gratifications theory their target audience. Is an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek MEDIA TEXT out specific media to satisfy specific needs. Refers to any product Cultural How media products ESCAPISM reflect the arts and How users deliberately choose media that will satisfy given needs To seek distraction and relief culture, including such as: enhancing knowledge, relaxation, social interactions from unpleasant realities CONTEXTS popular culture, of their time. • Inform and educate/Surveillance Using the media to find out what is going on around us. Niche Market Intertextuality - When a text For example, reading a music magazine which tells the A small, makes deliberate references to Historical How media products audience what has been going on in the lives of celebrities specialised other media texts reflect historical events • Entertainment market for a and social changes. Viewers watch programmes for enjoyment. = particular • Personal Identity product or Political Hoe media products Viewers can recognise a person, role models that reflect service. reflect political similar values to themselves and mimic or copy some of viewpoints, messages, their characteristics Mass Market values and beliefs • Social Interaction The market Introducing the key concepts IDEOLOGY the ability for media products to produce a topic of for goods • Representation A system of ideas and ideals. Usually conversation between people. that are • Audiences referring to economic or political produced in • Institutions theory. large • Language STEREOTYPE quantities • Ideology a widely held but fixed and • Narrative oversimplified image or idea of a Genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature • Genre particular type of person or thing. Music Magazine Music magazine comparisons MOJO magazine REPRESENTATION - MOJO wishes to attract a target audience that shares its reverence for ‘classic rock’. MOJO’s anti-stereotypical positive representation of older people as popular musicians. The magazine represents white male musicians . CIRCULATION - Magazines receive revenue from circulation, advertising, sponsored content and product placement and events. The print magazine industry is suffering from falling advertising revenues and falling circulations as many of their audience go online. Bauer Media Group is a European- based media company, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany that manages a portfolio of more than 600 magazines. MOJO readers Class MOJO gains a similar share of middle class and working class readers (MOJO’s pitch to advertisers claims a mostly middle class audience, possibly based on circulation, but the National Readership Survey readership figures suggest otherwise). Media MOJO Connotation We Love Pop Connotation language Gender MOJO is four times more likely to be read by men than by element women Age The readership is adult. Nearly two thirds of the readers are over 35. However, a higher proportion of 15-34 year olds read the magazine compared to the proportion of over 35 year olds. Layout Ordered content Connotes Cluttered Connotes with the cover seriousness layout with excitement lines mostly use of Music magazines aligned and one diagonals and come in a range central image irregular of genres. In the boxes exam you may be asked to Colour Colour palette is Black Colour palette Connotes compare MOJO Scheme mostly limited to background includes neon youthful magazine with a black and white connotes pink and femininity magazine from plus touches of sophistication saturated blue another genre. muted red and and elegance There are a yellow range of music magazines Practical Content Photoshop Workspace : Below is the workspace area for Photoshop PHOTOSHOP is a digital photo editing software created by Adobe. You will find that all Adobe packages follow a similar house style CMYK vs RGB CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black are the colours used when images are being printed. Therefore when work is going to be printed make sure it is adjusted to CMYK in the settings. RGB: Red, Green and Blue are the colours used when images are viewed onscreen. There are many features within Photoshop that you will discover. Some examples are shown here. ENHANCING TOOLS If you have a slightly blurry image, use the ‘SHARPEN’ tool to make an image look sharper. Whilst the ‘BLUR’ tool will make your image Types of graphics become blurry. A Layers within Photoshop View tools WHAT IS A BITMAP GRAPHIC? In Photoshop, layers are used to work on individual SELECTION TOOLS When you take a photograph using a digital camera or scan an parts of an image whilst not affecting other parts. They The ‘CLONE’ tool allows you to B image the image shown is bitmap. allow you to modify your image, add text, change copy one area of the layer to Select tools another area of the layer. A bitmap graphic is composed of many tiny parts, colours, put two pictures on the same page, and more without modifying your original photo. called pixels, which are often many different colours. It is The ‘MAGIC WAND’ selects possible to edit each individual pixel. pixels based on tone and colour. Bitmap graphics are often quite large. Photoshop layers are like sheets of stacked acetate. You C When you resize a bitmap graphic, it tends to lose quality. can see through certain parts of a layer to the layer Enhance tools below. The ‘QUICK SELECTION’ is WHAT IS A VECTOR GRAPHIC? somewhat similar to the Magic Vector graphics are created in graphics packages and consist of There are different type of layers within Photoshop, Wand but also looks for similar shapes called objects. Vector graphics are scalable - i.e. when these include: textures in the image. D you resize them, they do not lose quality. ADJUSTMENT LAYER Draw tools This layer allows you to create a transparent layer There are many standard formats for saving bitmaps. where you can make direct changes to your Below are examples of some of the most common files: photograph without making any changes to your original. GIF is a common format for images that appear on Web pages. TEXT LAYER E This allows you to add text to your image. You can Modify tools JPEG is a compression scheme that works well for natural change the font, colour, size and shape of text. scenes such as scanned photographs. DUPLICATE LAYER This layer will create a duplicate copy of whatever layer F PNG format retains many of the advantages of the GIF format you are on. This sharpens the image or layer you are Colour but also compresses files without the loss of data. currently working on. Music Magazine Genre What is meant by target audience Genre is the way in which a text is constructed to create meaning. There are many different A particular group at which a product such as a film or advertisement is aimed at. If there music genres such as Pop, Rock and R&B. isn’t an audience for a media text then it won’t be successful. Media producers define and Conventions categorise their audience through demographic profiles. The generally accepted ways of doing something. For example notice that all three music Age and Gender Music magazines often use a gender profile to attract their magazines feature a masthead at the top and have a three colour-way. audience. They may be read by anyone – but they are specifically targeted towards a specific gender profile. Psychometric A Psychometric Audience Profile defines an audience by how they think and by considering their values, attitudes and lifestyle (VALs). Understanding class and status Below is the NRS Social Grade classification created by the National Readership Survey over 50 years ago. Class and status is important when targeting an audience. MASS MEDIA products that are A Upper Middle Class intended to reach a large B Middle Class audience. C1 Lower Middle Class NICHE MEDIA is designed to C2 Skilled Working Class appeal to very specific audience D Working Class E Those at the lowest level of subsistence CODES are systems of signs which create meaning. Representation Here is an example of singer Rihanna featured on the front cover of two music magazines Technical Codes with different genres. ‘We love pop’ a pop magazine and ‘Vibe’ an R&B magazine. Music Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media magazines follow particular codes and conventions not matter the magazine genre. text, for example, ‘We Love Pop’ using lots of images and layers to create a collage, which is something many young females would do. Target Symbolic Codes Audience Show what is beneath the surface of what we see.