Overview

• Narrative


  Technical term for the story that is created in a product
• Linear Narratives


  Traditional beginning, middle and end
• Non-Linear Narratives


  Flashbacks and flash-forwards does not follow traditional chronological order.
• Genre


  French term for category, important when defining a media product
• Masthead


  Name of magazine
• Sub-genres


  Helps define the product further
• Hybrid Genre


  Genres blended together e.g. Rom-Coms
• Steve Neals Genre Theory- Repetition and variation
• Repetition


  Simple generic conventions
• Variations


  The difference in each product
• Audiences can be defined by using two categories:

  • Demographics
  • Psychographics
• Demographics


  Refers to the physical characteristics of a person e.g. Gender, ethnicity
• People grading is a method used to categorise audiences by social class. Based on the following scale, upper middle class people are grade A
• People Grading

  • A- upper middle class. Higher managerial, administrative or professional job employment
  • B- Middle class. Intermediate managerial, administrative or professional job employment
• People Grading 2:

  • C1- Lower middle class. Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial administrative or professional job employment
  • C2- Skilled working class. Skilled manual workers
• People grading 3

  • D- Working class. Unskilled manual workers
  • E- Casual/Lowest Grade Workers. Pensioners and others who depend on the welfare state for their income.
• Psychographics 


  Refers to people’s interests or values, things which are harder to define
• Psychographic Profiling

  • Mainstreamers (people who follow trends)
  • Aspires ( those who aim to improve themselves )
• Audience segmentation is useful for producers as it can ensure the product is constructed to meet the target audience's needs.
• Qualitative Data


  Refers to data which is rich in detail and is unable to be put in to numbers
• Quantitative Data


  Refers to data which can be put into numbers
• Active Audience 


  Refers to an audience that is involved in creating meaning of the product and so does not necessarily absorb the dominant messages being promoted by the media products
• Passive Audience 


  The idea that the audience is heavily influenced by the media and so will not question the messages it is promoting. Instead a passive audience will adopt these views.
• Dominant Reading 


  Where the audience agrees with and adopts the message encoded in the product
• Negotiated Reading 


  Where the audience agrees with elements of the product, however doesn’t fully adopt the messages encoded in the product
• Oppositional Reading


  Where the audience completely rejects the message encoded in the media product
• Audiences can be positions by media products. This means the product attempts to encourage the audience to respond in a certain way
• Mediation


  The process of constructing representations.
• As stereotypes have been used over and over again in media products, they can be easily identifiable for the audience.
• Dominant Ideology


  Widely held, mainstream views and values which are often stereotypical
• Stereotypes can restrict change within society if they are repeatedly used.
• Countertypes are the opposite of stereotype