2. Key Media Concepts
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Media Language
Representation
Genre
Audience
Narrative
These should underpin all aspects of
your practical work and will be a
fundamental requirement of the exam.

3. Genre

Barry Keith Grant (1995) suggests that
genre allows audiences to identify texts
specifically by their familiar and
recognisable characteristics.

4. Genre

Jason Mittell (2001) argues that
industries use genre to sell products to
audiences.

5. Genre

Denis McQuail – uses and gratifications
 Information – Learning, satisfying curiosity
 Personal Identity – gaining insight to ones self,
reinforcement of personal values.
 Integration and Social Interaction – Identifying with
others, sense of belonging
 Entertainment – escapism, relaxing, filling time

6. Genre
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Genres are not fixed. They constantly change
and evolve over time.
David Buckingham (1993) argues that 'genre is
not... Simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is
in a constant process of negotiation and
change’.

7. Media Language

the language of film and television is
defined by how camera, editing, sound
and mise-en-scene create meaning

8. Codes and conventions in
Music Videos
Carol Vernallis (2001)
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Vernalis’ theory centres around 4 key
concepts that all relate to the way the
music video is constructed (how it creates
meaning). They are:
1. Narrative
2. Editing
3. Camera Movement and framing
4. Diegesis

9. Carol Vernallis

Editing
Jump cuts
Juxtaposed shots
Breaking 180 degree rule
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Narrative
Disjointed/fragmented narrative
May not be clear resolution
Video may pose question it doesn’t answer
Full information on Carol Vernallis is on G325 blog

10. Carol Vernallis
 Camera movement and framing
○ Camera moves in time with the music
○ Close ups and master shots often used
 Diegesis (the world of the music video)
○ Diegesis revealed slowly
○ Character or objects move in time with the music
○ Some frames more important than others
○ There may be gaps in the audience’s understanding of the
diegesis – in time and space,music, performance and narrative

11. Andrew Goodwin
Thought Beats
Narrative and Performance (repeatability)
Star Image (also Dyer)
Relation of visuals to a song (illustration,
amplification, disjuncture)
Technical aspects (camera, editing, effects etc)

12. Andrew Goodwin’s Theory
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- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the
main artist or vocalist
- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in
the treatment of females, but also in terms of systems of
looking. Some examples are screens within screens,
cameras, mirrors, etc.
- there are likely to be intertextual references, either to other
music videos or to films and TV texts, these provide further
gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.

13. 
Media
Language/Genre/Representa
tion
Laura Mulvey – Gaze Theory “Visual
Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

In film, the male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a
heterosexual man. A scene may linger on the curves of a woman's body, forinstance.
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Feminists would argue that such instances are presented in the contextclosest relating
to that of a male, hence its referral to being the Male Gaze.

14. Media Language
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When analysing media language you
must also consider the technical aspects
and how these are used to create
meaning:
Editing, camera, mise en scene

15. Representation
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
Stuart Hall (1980)
How the media shows
us things about society
– but this is through
careful mediation.
Hence re-presentation.
For representation to
be meaningful to
audiences there needs
to be a shared
recognition of people,
situations, ideas etc.

16. Representation
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Stereotypes/race/age/gender/sexuality
David Gauntlett (2007) argues that
“Identity is complicated. Everybody thinks
they’ve got one. Artists play with the idea of
identity in modern society.”

17. James Baker (2007)
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1. Selection: Whatever ends up on the screen or in the
paper, much more will have been left out.
2. Organisation: The various elements will be
organised carefully in ways that real life is not
3. Focusing: mediation always ends up with us, the
audience being encouraged towards concentrating on
one aspect of the text and ignoring others.
As a producer of a media text you are
responsible for how you construct
representation.