MIGRAIN: Audience classification

Our next key concept of Media Studies is Audience - a crucial aspect of the subject.

We need to study both how audiences are targeted and also why audiences enjoy or use certain types of media - plus the effect that media may have on us. There are a range of theories we need to learn over the next few lessons alongside important terminology.

Target audience profiling

Media institutions are always looking for more detailed audience profiling – so they can target their product more successfully.

These include VALS (values, attitudes and lifestyles) or Mosaic consumer classification. There's a good PDF explaining the Mosaic consumer classification here. 

Advertisers and institutions also use Psychographics.

Psychographics

Young and Rubicam invented a successful psychographic profile known as their 4Cs Marketing Model: Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation. They suggested people fit into one of seven groups:

Resigned
Rigid, strict, authoritarian and chauvinist values, oriented to the past and to Resigned roles. Brand choice stresses safety, familiarity and economy. (Older)

Strugglers
Alienated, Struggler, disorganised - with few resources apart from physical/mechanical skills (e.g. car repair). Heavy consumers of alcohol, junk food and lotteries, also trainers. Brand choice involves impact and sensation.

Mainstreamers
Domestic, conformist, conventional, sentimental, passive, habitual. Part of the mass, favouring big and well-known value for money 'family' brands. Almost invariably the largest 4Cs group.

Aspirers
Materialistic, acquisitive, affiliative, oriented to extrinsics ... image, appearance, charisma, persona and fashion. Attractive packaging more important than quality of contents. (Younger, clerical/sales type occupation)

Succeeders
Strong goal orientation, confidence, work ethic, organisation ... support status quo, stability. Brand choice based on reward, prestige - the very best . Also attracted to 'caring' and protective brands ... stress relief. (Top management)

Explorers
Energy - autonomy, experience, challenge, new frontiers. Brand choice highlights difference, sensation, adventure, indulgence and instant effect - the first to try new brands. (Younger - student)

Reformers
Freedom from restriction, personal growth, social awareness, value for time, independent judgement, tolerance of complexity, anti-materialistic but intolerant of bad taste. Curious and enquiring, support growth of new product categories. Select brands for intrinsic quality, favouring natural simplicity, small is beautiful. (Higher Education)

Psychographics: presentation

In pairs, you are going to investigate one of Young and Rubicam’s Psychographic groups.

You need to put together a presentation in which you create an example couple for that particular psychographic group and suggest what their media consumption might involve.

Note: You need to publish the tasks on each of your blogs individually.

Structure

Who you are working with:

The psychographic group you are researching:

Introduce your example couple that represents your group:

1) Make up their names:

2) Where do they work/study?

3) What do they do in their spare time?


Now suggest their media consumption:

Print: What newspapers/magazines does your group read (if any)? Is this on paper or tablet? 

Broadcast: What TV programmes/channels do your group watch? Radio stations? TV package – Freeview or Sky? Films?

Online: What technology do they own? What websites do they visit (if any)? What social media do they use?

Audience classification: blog tasks 

Create a new blogpost called 'Audience classification' and work through the following tasks: 

1) Media Factsheet

Read Media Factsheet 232 - Approaches to Studying Audiences. You'll find all our factsheets in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. You can also access them online here if you use your Greenford Google login. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) How is audience defined in the Factsheet?

2) What does the infographic for Gen Z in the age of Covid-19 suggest about the media Gen Z consumes? 

3) How do media companies target and measure their audience in the digital age?

4) What did the NRS used to do and what does PAMCO do now? 

5) How are demographics and psychographics defined in the factsheet?

6) Now read the rest of the factsheet - we'll be studying these theories over the next few lessons. Choose one audience theory you think is interesting and explain why. 

2) Psychographics presentation and reflection

1) Post the details from your psychographics presentation (details in the blogpost above) to your blog with all details of the couple you created and their media consumption (it needs to be on your blog individually but can be a duplicate of your partner's post).

2) Reflect on what you have learned about psychographics. Which psychographic groups do you feel best fit YOUR lifestyle and personality? Explain how and why you made your decision and provide evidence justifying this.

Due date: on Google Classroom

Film & TV Language: Cinematography practical task

Cinematography is the key term to describe camerawork: framing, angle and camera movement.

You need to be able to accurately identify camera shots, angles and movement - and most importantly the effect it has on the audience.

This video from Darius Britt will help you if you're not sure on any of the shots:



Cinematography: Practical task

Create a one minute cinematography video that illustrates the main types of camera shot, angles and movement that we learned in the lesson on cinematography.

Complete the following:

1) Get into pairs or work individually. Note: although the planning and filming can be done collectively, all students MUST edit their OWN video.

2) Plan out the different shots, angles and examples of camera movement you need to include.

3) Film everything you need - as creatively as possible. You can use comedy, narrative or just keep it simple and descriptive. However, you MUST make sure the framing and labelling using media terminology is accurate. This means text on screen labels as part of your editing process.

4) Edit your video to approximately one minute, adding music, voiceover, effects and anything else that will make your film visually effective and entertaining for an audience. You can edit in school using Premiere Pro but are welcome to edit at home if you have the laptop/PC to do it. Remember, the one element you must include is titles - text on screen - correctly identifying each shot type / camera movement / angle you use. Here's a YouTube tutorial if you're not sure how to add text for each shot/camera movement you include.

5) Export your finished video, upload it to YouTube and post it to your blog along with a brief explanation of your work.

Here's an example from a previous year to give you an idea of what we're after (note - this goes a little beyond the brief!)



Deadline: on Google Classroom

MIGRAIN: index so far

We are approaching the halfway point in our MIGRAIN Introduction to Media unit and need to create an index to ensure we are up-to-date on all work so far.  

Confident use of media language is crucial across both exams in A Level Media so it is important we are revising terminology and theory on an ongoing basis and making sure there are no gaps as the course continues. 

MIGRAIN Introduction to Media index - Media Exam blog

Keeping an index of all your work is extremely good practice from a revision perspective. Not only does this keep the concepts and media terminology fresh in your mind but it will also highlight if you've missed anything through absence or any other reason. Your index should currently include the following:

1) Introduction to Media: 10 questions

2) Media consumption audit
3) Semiotics blog tasks
4) Language: Reading an image - media codes

5) Reception theory - advert analysis and factsheet

6) Genre: Factsheets and genre study questions
7) Narrative: Factsheet questions

For your index, the text should link to YOUR corresponding blogpost so you can access your work on each key concept quickly and easily. This also means you if you have missed anything you can now catch up with the work/notes and won't underperform in assessments or exams due to gaps in your knowledge. Here's a guide to creating a blog index that I did in a previous year:

Important: indexes are a great way to revise for your assessments and check you haven't missed any important content.

Due date on Google Classroom.

MIGRAIN Introduction to Media: Narrative

Narrative is a vital concept for A Level Media Studies and underpins the success or failure of most media texts.

We look for narratives - stories - to make sense of media products. Everything from film and television to news and adverts rely on narrative to help audiences understand the message. 

There are narrative patterns and four key narrative theories we need to learn as part of our introduction to A Level Media. The notes as a reminder:

Narrative patterns

Linear Pattern: progresses forward towards a resolution - Beginning, Middle and End.

Multi-strand Narrative: popular in broadcast TV (e.g. soaps) and film. Involves more than one narrative running parallel involving different characters and locations.

Documentary narrative: this may revolve round a central theme (e.g. troublesome neighbours) or group of people.

Long-running TV series such as classics Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad have one major narrative arc and lots of mini-narratives. The overarching narrative runs over the series (or even multiple series), the mini narrative may be resolved within an episode (also known as an episodic narrative).

Narrative theories

When studying narrative in Media, we need to be able to identify what the story is and how it is being told. We also need to see how narrative is being used to encourage the audience to buy or choose the media product - or keep them engaged if they have already started to consume it.

There are three key theories we need to learn and apply:

Enigma and Action Codes - Roland Barthes

Barthes suggested that stories have certain codes that audiences understand and respond to.

ENIGMA codes: control how much we know and help hold our interest. It creates mystery during the narrative.

ACTION codes: events or actions in the story that are important in developing the narrative, e.g. a gun being cocked signifies that a violent scene will follow.

Todorov: equilibrium

Tzvetan Todorov proposed a theory of equilibrium:

Equilibrium: An existing state of harmony

Disequilibrium: Equilibrium is disrupted by an unfortunate event or evil character which leads to a chain of events involving conflict

New Equilibrium: The evil forces are defeated, the conflict is resolved and harmony exists once more

Character theory: Propp

Vladimir Propp came up with a list of stock characters in narratives by examining Russian fairytales. He called them the seven spheres of action:

The Villain: Creates a complication in the narrative

The Donor: Gives the hero something that will help in the resolution

The Helper: Helps the hero in restoring the resolution

The Princess: Has to be saved by the hero

The Dispatcher: Sends the hero on a task

The Hero: Central protagonist, saves the day and restores equilibrium

The False Hero: Rare character that appears to be good but is revealed to have been bad all along.

Levi-Strauss: binary opposition

We will return to this later in the course when we explore ideology but Levi-Strauss suggests that media texts use binary oppositions to create conflict and narrative for the audience to follow. His idea is that all culture can be understood in relation to these opposite forces such as heroes and villains.

Narrative: blog task

Complete the following questions using the Media Factsheet resource available on the Media Shared drive. 

You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. You can also access them online here if you use your Greenford Google login.

Read Media Factsheet 14 - Telling Stories: The Media's Use of Narrative and answer the following questions:

1) Give an example from film or television that uses Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. 

2) Complete the activity on page 1 of the Factsheet: find a clip on YouTube of the opening of a new TV drama series (season 1, episode 1). Embed the clip in your blog and write an analysis of the narrative markers that help establish setting, character and plot.

3) Provide three different examples from film or television of characters that fit Propp's hero character role.

4) Give an example of a binary opposition.

5) What example is provided in the Factsheet for the way narratives can emphasise dominant ideologies and values?

6) Why do enigma and action codes (Barthes) offer gratifications for audiences?

7) Write a one-sentence summary of the four different types of TV narrative:

• Episodic narrative (the series)
• Overarching narrative (the serial)
• Mixed narrative
• Multi-strand overlapping narrative (soap narrative)

8) How does the Factsheet suggest adverts use narrative?  


A/A* extension task

Use our brilliant Media Magazine archive to read Narratology: Todorov, Propp and Freytag from MM70 (page 24). This applies some of our narrative theories (and one new one) to Star Wars, Avengers and more. Which of these theories do you find most useful when applying to media texts? Why? 


You will be given lesson time to work on this but will need to complete for homework - due date specified on Google Classroom.

Film & TV Language: Sound video feedback and learner response

It's always a great pleasure watching your parallel and contrapuntal sound videos. 

When they are done, you'll need to complete the following tasks on your blog:

Video feedback/learner response

Create a new blogpost called 'Sound video feedback and learner response'. Make sure your video is on YouTube and embedded on your blog and then complete the following tasks:

1) Type up your feedback from your teacher.

2) Type up your feedback from fellow students - you can summarise key points if several students give you similar feedback.

3) Now reflect on your work and write your own evaluation of your video. Write a 'What went well' (WWW) paragraph and a paragraph for 'Even Better If' (EBI) underneath the rest of your feedback.

4) Learner response: compare your own video against your evaluation of the top three videos in the class. Whose did you think was best and why? How could you have improved your own video?

5) Finally, what have you learned about the importance of sound to film and TV through this week's work?

Complete this for homework if you don't get it done in the lesson - due date on Google Classroom.

MIGRAIN: Genre

Genre is a crucial concept in media and underpins our understanding of all media texts. 

If you missed the lesson on genre the key notes are here:

Genre: notes

Genres may be identified by the following:

Narrative structures
Plot
Typical situations, characters and relationships

Visual iconography
Mise-en-scene: props, costumes, locations etc.
Cinematography

Ideology and themes
Representations, values and ideologies

Daniel Chandler suggests definitions of genre tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings - iconography) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them.


Genre: institution and audience

Tolson (1996) suggests that genre “mediates between industry and audience”.

Abercrombie suggests that “television producers set out to exploit genre conventions... It... makes sound economic sense.” 

Abercromie adds: “Genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience which becomes used to seeing programmes within a genre.”

Genres of order and integration

Some theorists (including Schatz) have suggested there are only two genres:

Genres of order: western, gangster, action, sci-fi etc. Identified by hero (dominant; male), setting (contested, unstable), conflict (external; fighting), resolution (death). 

Genres of integration: comedies, musicals, rom-coms etc. 
Identified by heroes (couple or collective); setting (civilised space); conflict (internal; emotional); resolution (love).


Neale: “Repetition and difference”

Steve Neale declares that “genres are instances of repetition and difference” (Neale 1980). He adds:  “Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre” - mere repetition would not attract an audience.

Buckingham (1993) agrees, suggesting contemporary theory sees genre as dynamic: “Genre is not... simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change”.

Schatz develops this idea that genres are dynamic and suggests they go through a cycle:

Innovation: genre codes are established
Classical: conventions are repeated
Parody: codes become clichéd and are mocked
Deconstruction: the genre is experimented with to establish new or different conventions

Watch this evolution of the James Bond movie franchise to see how a genre can adapt, innovate and reinvent itself:

Genre: blog tasks

Work through the following tasks on your Exam blog. There is a lot of work here - factsheets to read and questions to answer before carrying out your own in-depth blog case study on a moving image text of your choice.

Task 1: Genre factsheets

Complete the following tasks using the Media Factsheets available on the Media Shared drive. You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets or can access them online using your Greenford Google login here.

Create a new blogpost in your Exam blog called 'Genre blog tasks' and complete the following:

Read Media Factsheet 03 - Genre: Categorising texts and answer the following questions:

1) What example is provided of why visual iconographies are so important?

2) What examples are provided of the importance of narrative in identifying genre?

3) What are the different ways films can be categorised according to Bordwell? 

4) List three ways genre is used by audiences.

5) List three ways genre is used by institutions or producers.

Read Media Factsheet 126 - Superheroes: A Genre Case Study and answer the following questions:

1) List five films the factsheet discusses with regards to the Superhero genre.

2) What examples are provided of how the Superhero genre has reflected the changing values, ideologies and world events of the last 70 years?

3) How can Schatz's theory of genre cycles be applied to the Superhero genre?


Task 2: Genre analysis case study

Carry out your own genre analysis using the model provided by media theorist Daniel Chandler. Choose a film or TV text and answer the following questions - brief answers/bullet point responses are fine:

General
1) Why did you choose the text you are analysing?
2) To what genre did you initially assign the text?
3) What is your experience of this genre?
4) What subject matter and basic themes is the text concerned with?
5) How typical of the genre is this text in terms of content?
6) What expectations do you have about texts in this genre?
7) Have you found any formal generic labels for this particular text (where - try imdb.com if unsure)?
8) Which conventions of the genre do you recognize in the text?
9) To what extent does this text stretch the conventions of its genre?
10) Where and why does the text depart from the conventions of the genre?
11) Which conventions seem more like those of a different genre (and which genre(s))?
12) What familiar motifs or images are used?

Mode of address
1) What sort of audience did you feel that the text was aimed at (and how typical was this of the genre)?
2) What assumptions seem to be made about your class, age, gender and ethnicity?
3) What interests does it assume you have?

Relationship to other texts
1) What intertextual references are there in the text you are analysing (and to what other texts)? Intertextuality is when a media product references another media text of some kind.
2) In terms of genre, which other texts does the text you are analysing resemble most closely?
3) What key features are shared by these texts?
4) What major differences do you notice between them?

This is a fair amount of work - but you will have plenty of time to complete it (including lesson time). Anything you don't finish this week in the lesson complete for homework. In total, we think this work will take around 2-3 hours so plan your homework time accordingly.

Due date: on Google Classroom

Film & TV Language: Sound analysis tasks

As with every aspect of our Film & TV Language unit, you also have some written analysis to complete for Sound.

Work through the tasks below. If you need the notes on Sound from the lesson, you can find them in your Film Language booklet or on the other blogpost for Sound.

Sound analysis: blog tasks

1) Find a film clip on YouTube that uses sound in an interesting way. Analyse the use of sound, making sure you use the key language we have learned about sound in film:

• Diegetic and non-diegetic sound
• Parallel and contrapuntal sound
• Sound bridges

Remember to discuss/analyse all the different types of sound present in the clip:

• Music
• Dialogue
• Voiceover
• Sound effects

You also need to highlight or put in bold any use of media language.

Extension/additional task

If you didn't get to them in the lessons, watch the sound clips in the Film Language booklet and write answers to the questions to go with each clip on your blog: A Clockwork Orange, Life On Mars, Once Upon A Time In The West, Once Upon A Time In America. The clips are all available on the Media Shared drive M: > Resources > A Level > Film Language and also here in Google Drive using your Greenford Google login.

Complete for homework - due date confirmed by your Film Language teacher and on Google Classroom.

Film & TV Language: Sound notes and practical task

Our next aspect of film language is crucial: Sound.

A reminder of our notes on Sound:

Sound is incredibly important to our understanding of a film. The music, dialogue and sound effects (SFX) all contribute to the way we appreciate what we are watching on the screen.    

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound

Diegetic sound comes from the world of the film we are watching.  This could include dialogue by characters in the scene or music or other sound that comes from a source we would naturally expect that sound to come from, e.g. a radio or TV.

Non-diegetic sound is added during post production, e.g. voice over or music sound track.

Parallel and contrapuntal sound

Parallel sound is music we would normally expect to hear accompanying a scene, e.g. soft romantic music might be played over a love scene.

Contrapuntal sound is music that we don’t normally associate with the scene we are watching, e.g. classical music played over a bloody fight scene.

Sound bridge

Sometimes you will notice that sound from a scene continues even though the visual image has moved to the next scene. Alternatively, the sound of the following scene may begin before the image changes. This is a called a sound bridge and helps create a smooth transition from one scene to the next.

Practical assignment: parallel and contrapuntal sound video

Complete this video task in pairs - you only need to create ONE video between the two of you but it must be uploaded to YouTube and posted to BOTH of your blogs.

1) Choose a 60 second piece of music - it can be a film score or a song, it is up to you.

2) Using editing software (we recommend using Adobe Premiere Pro so you get more confident using it) produce a one-minute montage of images and videos. Half the images need to be parallel to the music and half need to be contrapuntal. Think carefully about how you can best select images and videos to have a significant impact on the audience. For this task, you do not need to use original images or videos.

3) Upload the finished video to YouTube and embed it in your own blog with a brief description of what you've created. Note: due to videos occasionally being blocked on copyright grounds, please also save the exported video file (e.g. MP4) into your student folder on the M: Media Shared drive.

4) Present your video to the class next week, explaining the thinking behind your work.

Deadline: set by your coursework teacher and on Google Classroom

Here's an example from a previous year to give you an idea of what to produce: