Covering the Basics!

Key Media Concepts



Key Media Concepts are the most important framework for the whole media studies course. They have evolved as a means of understanding the text by using a critical framework, rather then making unconnected and meaningless observations. One way of memorizing the key media concepts is 'MIGRAIN'

• Media Forms and Language:
  

  

 This simply means the type of media text or media platform that we are studying. For example, a magazine is a different media form to a TV program or a website. Media Language will be used differently to analyze the different media forms. Analyzing a magazine we would discuss about masthead, main cover line, main image, it's position and the shot to be taken such as a close up or a full shot. Analyzing a newspaper we would discuss about masthead, captions, headlines and bylines. Film would consist of camera movement, editing, sound, Mise-en-scene etc.  

• Ideology: 
  

  

  
  

  

Ideology means a set of values, beliefs and ideas that guide our lives.
Literally the word means the ‘study of ideas’. It has become accepted as the set of values and beliefs that we believe to be true, and that have become part of our daily life. These are the natural agreed values, or common sense, that keep society running. One such belief is that we all need to work to earn money to live, and we agree to pay taxes to support the state that supports us. The ideology may be agreed by virtually everyone, but the means of carrying it out are certainly not agreed by everyone.
There are personal ideologies such as a religious belief, or a political belief. In Media Studies we are particularly interested in the dominant ideology. These are the beliefs, values and ideas that the majority of people in a society believe in.
The dominant ideology shifts and changes over time in tune with how society changes. The dominant ideology represents the values and beliefs of powerful groups such as the government, the law, the family and religion. In some societies, such as Iran, one ideology - religion - is the most powerful and dominant ideology. In communist societies the ideology of the state is dominant.

 

• Genre:
  
  
  
  
  

Different media forms are then split into genres. Film for example might be split into horror, comedy, action, western or thriller. TV might be split into soap opera, documentary, game show or drama.

Different genres have different ‘codes and conventions’. For example, we know a science fiction film when we see one because there are space ships and aliens, themes of discovery and technology, the future, time travel and robots. The dominant colors are metallic silver and neon blue or green. These codes and conventions are very different to a western where we would expect to see cowboys and saloons, horses, spurs, guns and maybe a cactus.

• Representation: 
  

It is possibly the most important of all key concepts. What we see and hear in the media is never real… Its is a RE-presentation of reality. When we see young people in the media, they are being re-presented to us. How a person or organization is represented is really important. For example,  a film about a police can be represented in a positive way- fighting crime or in a negative way as unfair and corrupt. In a magazine in the same way the artist can be shown wearing simple clothes representing simplicity and creating a positive impact that it is OK not to wear branded clothes. On the other hand he can promote branded clothes representing status and at the same time increasing class difference.  

• Audience:   
  

  

  
  

  

As media is about MASS COMMUNICATION, then it’s very important to look at who a media text is communicating with. Different media companies have different audiences. Different media texts can have different target audience. For Example, Stone Age focuses to draw attention of teenagers unlike Gucci which targets normally adults. Media audiences can be broken down into different groups, this is called audience segmentation. You can segment audiences by age, race, gender, social class, how much education they have, where they live, what sort of interests they have or the subculture they identify with. It is important in media studies that the target audience respond.

• Institution: 
  
  
  
  

In Media studies, it is also important to consider the company or organization who produce or broadcast the media texts that we receive. Different media institutions have different aims and visions and they often have different audiences or compete with each other for the same audience. Some media institutions are huge and they own lots of different media forms such as 'The times newspaper'.

• Narrative: 
  
  
  
  

The Narrative or story is also different; different themes and different types of characters too. The codes and conventions show us the type of narrative and genre and this helps us recognize and analyze the form of the text we are studying.