Welcome to MS4

MS 4: MEDIA – TEXT, INDUSTRY AND AUDIENCE

This unit focuses on developing both the knowledge students have gained in other areas of the course and their understanding of the links between texts, the industries that have produced them and the different audiences that respond to them.

Key Features:

Centres select three industries to study. Centres then select three main texts from each industry to focus on. 

Two of the three selected texts per industry must be contemporary (made within the previous five years)

One text per industry must be British

We have chosen to focus on:

Music Industry:

Nirvana, Olly Murs, Britney Spears

Television:

The Big Bang Theory, Walking Dead, Life on Mars

Advertising Industry:

Halo, Gola, Dove

For each text selected, students will need to consider the following and the links between them, as relevant to the texts selected.

Selected Text

Industry Issues

Production

Background/ Context 

Marketing/ Promotion

Regulation

Global Implications

Distribution/ Exhibition

Genre

Signifiers, Conventions, Iconography

Narrative

Structure, Conventions, Key codes

Representation

 People, Places, Events/issues

Audience/ Users

Targeting

Positioning

Debates

Responses

What will students be required to do in the examination?

Students will be required to answer three questions: one question (from a choice of two) from Section A and two questions (from a choice of four) from Section B. They will be required to select a different industry for each answer and to make reference in their answer to their three key texts.

Section A will be based on the texts themselves and questions will be based on the areas of genre, narrative and representation. Section B will be based on industry and audience.

Sample approach:

MAGAZINES:

Big Issue: Skeleton outline

TEXT

Genre

How is Big Issue different to other magazines? Compare and contrast with other magazines studied and its front cover and contents page with a range of other front covers and contents pages

Narrative

Analyse at least 3 editions to ascertain typical structure, special and regular features, with a particular focus on contents pages.Representations

To what extent are representations of social issues, especially homelessness and poverty, realistic? How might this compare to representations in newspapers and other media forms?

Investigate positive representations of homeless people: students may wish to focus on the Street Talk feature, usually on the last page, or on Streetlights and Mr Big Issue Man, usually found on p.6.

INDUSTRY Production

Who owns The Big Issue? Introduction: a rare example of a successful independent magazine. Read the about us and how we work sections on the website.

Context

Research background and history: http://www.bigissue.com/magazinesite/introduction.html

Marketing

Discuss the magazine’s house style with particular reference to the Badger feature on the contents page and the editorial overview on the website.

Read http://www.bigissueonline.com/cgi-bin/foundation/info.html?domain=info&name=mission

How are the advertisements carried in Big Issue different to those in other magazines you have studied? How does Big Issue advertise itself?

Find and print off the magazine’s rate card and compare it to the rate card for another magazine you have studied. How can you explain these differences?

Regulation

Search the Press Complaints Commission website for any adjudications against The Big Issue. (there aren’t any. Why?)

Global Implications

Research the International Network of Street Papers:

Distribution

How does Big Issue distribution differ from that of any other magazine? Students may wish to use the website or to chat to a vendor.

AUDIENCE Target Audience Who they? Ways of classifying the Big Issue audience Discuss demographic and psychometric profiles and apply audience theories, then look at

the reader profile on the website. http://www.bigissue.com/profile.html

How does this magazine attract different groups within the target audience? (e.g. editorial content, Big Scene “what’s on” feature, film, book, music and art reviews, featured subscriber, competitions, letter, crossword..)

Investigate the magazine’s use of stars and celebrities with a particular focus on covers and the This Is Me feature usually found on p.20.

Positioning

What assumptions does this magazine make about its audience that set it apart from other magazines ?

Debates

Given stereotypes about the homeless, how do the students feel about Big Issue vendors? Look at the Big Issue code of conduct. http://www.bigissue.com/magazinesite/conduct.pdf To what extent is The Big Issue a “pro-social” text? Discussion of the idea of positive effects.

Responses

Look at the ABC data on the magazine and at the blurb which is usually found on page 4 to establish how many copies it sells. http://abcpdfcerts.abc.org.uk/pdf/certificates/13993353.pdf

Resources:

International Network of Street Papers: http://www.bigissue.com/intl.html (links to the excellent Big Issue website.) http://www.bigissue.com/magazinesite/ Vendors’ Code of Conduct: http://www.bigissue.com/magazinesite/conduct.pdf Audit Bureau of Circulations: http://www.abc.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=nav/abc&noc=y National Readership Survey: http://www.nrs.co.uk/open_access/open_topline/GeneraMagazines/index.cfm Press Complaints Commission Code of Practice: http://www.pcc.org.uk/assets/111/Code_aug_06.pdf