You need to focus on one production piece

and analyse it in terms of: Genre/

Narrative/ Representation/ Audience/
Media Language
Must use media theory/ theorists
You do NOT need to:
Learn a load of quotes although one or two may be useful
Explain their theories in great depth
Know them all
You DO need to:
Use a few quotations if you can keep them short
If you dont have a quotation try to summarise the idea and
apply it to your trailer/music video/poster etc
Be able to apply them to your work/ case studies
Consider how useful/ not useful they are when discussing your
work
Quote
Summarise
Comment

Assume your reader knows about the theory/ theorist.
Dont explain the theory; use it.
A Todorovian analysis would argue
Mulveys notion of the Male Gaze provides a useful way of
understanding the video in that
Kate Wales statement that Genre is... an intertextual
concept could be useful here because

Denis McQuail The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently
and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers.

Nicholas Abercrombie It makes sound economic sense. Sets, properties and costumes can be used over and over again.
Teams of stars, writers, directors and technicians can be built up, giving economies of scale Directors/stars are used to
portray genres.

Christine Gledhill Differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified and catered to... This
made it easier to standardise and stabilise production Different genres have different audiences

John Fiske A representation of a car - we are unlikely to have experienced one in reality, therefore intertextually.
Repetition/stereotypes/conventions makes us understand the genre

Andrew Goodwin - Genres change and evolve

David Buckingham - Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and
change. Genre changes with culture

Stephan Prince Horror, unlike other genres, challenges the unknown. Good vs evil (foil) has evolved into crazy dad or
neighbour etc, this has happened through time. Humans are not top of the food chain, which creates helplessness

There is no pleasure without difference , Genres are instances of repetition and difference - Steve Neale

How we define a genre depends on our purposes Chandler




Tzetvan Todorov Narratives always have a structure of Equilibrium/
Disequilibrium/ New equilibrium
Story versus plot
Levi-Strauss Human cultural understanding is based upon a system of
binary opposites (good/ bad/ black/ white/ male/ female).
Narratologists have taken this theory and applied it to narrative, arguing
that binary opposition forms a fundamental way of understanding
narrative.
Roland Barthes: Enigma code; Action code. Also, Open and Closed texts.
Propp argued that narratives always have certain character types who
perform certain actions. Characters are agents of action.
Noel Carroll - Traditional 3 part structure for horror: Onset phase where
a disorder is created, Discovery phase, where characters discover the
disorder, Disruption phase where characters destroy the source and
restore normality.
Horror genre most important characteristics are the modes of affect that
horror films intend to create in their audiences other characteristics and
generic conventions evolve - Brigid Cherry
Representation is what are the connotations of the media text - Symbolism. Verisimilitude
appears to look real. Socially what they look like, and how they are represented through
society e.g. policeman with respect.
Stereotypes are used to generalise and represent society. It is easier to group
characteristics and social positions together as it builds a stronger ideology of what they
are like, without actually knowing them (assumption) Shown through: Appearance and
Behavior.
Perkins argues that stereotypes are not simplistic, they contain complex understanding of
roles in society. Not always negative and often contain truth.
Dominant Ideology Widely held belief by many members of society. Marxist theory
Dominant ruling classes shape culture (Hegemony)
Baudrillard We watch hyperreality were everything is a depiction of what the world is like.
Laura Mulvey argues that cinema positions the audience as male. The camera gazes at
the female object on screen. It also frames the male character watching the female.
We watch the girl; we see the male watching the girl; we position ourselves within the text
as a male objectively gazing at the female.
Hegemony leadership by one smaller group over another larger group (male over female,
the consumer is forced to accept what has been shown)
Pluralism that the audience can choose wither to accept what they watch is real etc.
Selection: What shot has been chosen to go into media text.
Organisation: Mise-en-scene
Focusing: What we are forced to focus on; by choice of the cameraman and director

Stuart Hall - Encoding and Decoding; Preferred/ negotiated/ oppositional readings
Denis McQuail Uses and Gratification theory (audiences consume media texts for Surveillance;
Personal Identity; Presnal Relationships; Escapism/ Diversion.
Dyers Utopian theory How audiences consume media products with a clear set of pleasures to draw
from that experience. Escapism from peoples real lives.
The Hypodermic Syringe - According to the theory the media is like a syringe which injects ideas,
attitudes and beliefs into the audience who as a powerless mass have little choice but to be influenced-
in other words, you watch something violent, you may go and do something violent.
The Culmination Theory - Years and years of watching more violence will make you less sensitive to
violence
Morleys Research - Women tend to watch something whilst doing something else and they watch soaps
etc. Men put full focus onto watching a film, sports and news.
If a media text attracts a wealthy amount of people then it is likely to continue even if that percentage is
small. A series such as Star Trek (attracts single male men), although it only attracts a small amount of
people, the figures and collectables that come with it, make the series successful.
Audiencehood is becoming an even more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices
and experiences. Ien Ang


Camera Angles, shots, body language etc..
Style and type of editing and filming
Written, Symbolic, Technical (WST)
Semiotics Signs of what we see (signifier)
Denotation/Connotation
Iconography
Paradigm set of codes that we see in a
media text


Is also the conventions that we expect of the
media product -
E.g. music video editing in time to the music,
montage, direct address, abstract or visuals that
may link to the music or the musical genre, star
construction, the creation of the relationship
between the star and the performer
Intertextuality is important in music videos and
gives additional meanings for the audience.
Trailers use of narrative/thematic/genre/
signifiers from the film cut together in order
to make the audience want to see the film.
The ordering of these so that it gives a taste
of the film and a sense of its visual style
The use of intertitles to anchor meaning
The use of sound to anchor meaning
The use of institutional titles to make
intertextual links to similar films etc.
It is really important to give clear examples
from the piece that you have decided to
analyse.