MEST 1 Questions to Use When Analysing a Text

1. What is being done by the soundtrack/ voiceover/ dialogue?
2. What sound and visual techniques are used to convey meaning?
3. What are the denotative meanings and connotations?
4. What is the significance of the mise-en-scene?
5. What are the dominant images and iconography?
6. What assumptions about the audience are made?
7. How might the audience react to the text?
8. How does the text appeal to the audience?
9. How do you read and evaluate the text?
10. Who is the target audience?
11. How do the characters relate to the genre?
12. To which genre/ s does the text belong?
13. Which generic conventions is the text using?
14. What are the audiences’ generic expectations are they fulfilled or subverted?
15. What are the major generic themes?
16. Who is being represented?
17. What is being represented?
18. Why is the subject being represented in this way?
19. Are there any stereotypes?
20. Is the representation fair and accurate?
21. What are the major ideologies, values and assumptions behind the text?
22. How are these ideas and values put across in the text?
23. How are characters shown and what is their narrative function?
24. What techniques of identification and alienation are used?
25. How is the narrative organised and structured?
26. What are the themes of the narrative?
27. How did the institution affect the text?
28. What is the institutional source of the text?
29. How has the text been distributed?
30. Who owns and controls the institution?
31. Is the text a public service or commercial institution?