By Kiranjit Khera

Key Concept Research

Key Concept definitons

1. People or market segment at whom an advertising message or campaign is aimed.

2. Total number of readers, listeners, or viewers reached by a particular advertising medium.

Audience:

Institution:A formal organization (with its own set of rules and behaviours) that creates and distributes media texts

Media Language:(Form and Conventions) The widely recognised way of doing something - this has to do with content, style and form

Representation:Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.

AudienceWhy do people like Game Shows?

Early shows provided a mix of entertainment and knowledge. The addition of a cash prize was especially popular in 1930s America, which was suffering from The Great Depression. Many people were unemployed, the financial situation was bleak. A l itt le l ight relief and the chance to win some money was greatly valued in these dark days.

Game shows were cheap and easy to transfer. The sets were simple, the casts were small , the format was straightforward, and the prospect of big money prizes drew in the audience. A lot of the prizes were donated by manufacturers in return for plugs and free advertising. To the audience this looked l ike the contestants were sweating because of the pressure and tension, making it all seem more dramatic and exciting.

A kids game shows would come on during the afternoon whereas a game show strictly for adults would come during the night as kids would be asleep.

Media Audiences If the 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. For example, Kerrang! Radio has a different ‘target Audience’ to Classic FM or Choice. Different media texts can also have a different target audience. For example BBC1 make Newsround and News at Ten but the target audiences are clearly different. 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.

Audiences also respond to the media texts they watch, listen to or download. Media Studies is also concerned with audience responses. Sometimes audiences identify with certain texts, like teenagers may like ‘Skins’ because they identify with the characters. Or maybe they aspire to be like them, or are gratified by the story lines or action. Audiences also respond by participating like when they vote for The X Factor, or for a ‘eviction’ type programme.

Cultivation theory examines the long-term effects of television. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend 'living' in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television."

Cultivation theory

Audience response theoryThe cultural theorist, Stuart Hall, explored how people make sense of media texts and claimed audiences were active not passive.•An active audience engages, interprets and responds to a media text in different ways and is capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it.•A passive audience is more likely to accept the messages encoded in a media text without challenge and are therefore more likely to be directly affected by the messages.

Reading DescriptionPreferred reading When the audience responds to the

ideas in the way the media producer wants them to. For a programme like The Voice UK or The X Factor this could be large scale audience voting and the purchase of the winning singer's single.

Negotiated reading When the audience responds by accepting and rejecting certain elements. Perhaps voting for the underdog in a talent competition or questioning the programme via social media platforms.

Oppositional reading When the audience understands the preferred reading but choses to oppose it. For instance, the campaign to stop the winner of The X Factor getting to Christmas number one in the charts.

He suggested three main responses an audience may have to a media text:

Uses and gratification theoryThe Uses and Gratifications Theory suggests there are certain reasons why an audience responds to different media texts:

Reason Description

Entertainment and diversion Audiences consume media texts to escape from their everyday lives. They choose entertaining texts that allow them to divert their attention from the real world, perhaps by watching a fantasy film like Harry Potter or reading a fashion magazine like Vogue.

Information and education Some media texts are consumed by audiences when they want to be informed and educated. Newspapers, news programmes and current affairs documentaries educate and inform. They help the audience to find out what is happening in the world.

Personal relationship Some media texts like The X Factor or I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Hereprovoke interaction with the audience. Social media can now spark an immediate reaction and get people talking while the action is still happening.

Personal identity Some audiences like to watch or read media texts because they can compare their life experiences with those represented in it. Audience pleasure comes from empathising and identifying with characters or content represented in them. Soap operas or lifestyle magazines can offer audiences this kind of enjoyment.

Hypodermic Needle TheoryThe "hypodermic needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences.

The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly by ‘shooting’ or ‘injecting’ them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.Both images used to express this theory (a bullet and a needle) suggest a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. The bullet theory graphically suggests that the message is a bullet, fired from the "media gun" into the viewer's "head". With similarly emotive imagery the hypodermic needle model suggests that media messages are injected straight into a passive audience which is immediately influenced by the message. They express the view that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of themessage. 

Two Step Flow Theory

This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. The term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction to that message. Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviours and are quite similar to those they influence. The two-step flow theory has improved our understanding of how the mass media influence decision making. Thetheory refined the ability to predict the influence ofmedia messages on audience behaviour, and it helped explain why certain media campaigns may have failed to alter audience attitudes an behaviour. The two-step flow theory gave way to the multi-step flow theory of mass communication or diffusion of innovation theory.

Reception TheoryReception Theories is when producers or directors constructs a text encoded with hidden message or meaning that the producers or directors want to convey across to the audience. If done correctly the audience will be able to pick up the meaning or message straight away, but the audience will need to be reminded of the message through out the film this could be done through character dialogue or actions within the film.

Stuart Hall identified three types of audiences reading messages.1) Dominant2) Negotiated3) Oppositional

Dominant is about what the audience wants to hear from people and agreeing, but with limited knowledge on the subject. One example is political speeches where politicians say what the public want to hear, like improvements to the NHS and improving public transport.

Negotiated is when the audience agrees, disagrees or questions a political speech or news broadcast due to previously held news, as many people in America question FOX news as it has been seen in the past as a biased news outlet who support the Republican party.

Oppositional is when the audience recognises the Dominant message but rejects it due to culture or political opinion, as people actively rejects any political speech from a party on any subject and acts as the opposition. When the audience is in this state you can’t get any message across to them, as they have already made up their mind on a person or subject.

InstitutionGame shows are produced by many channels including: Channel 4, ITV, MTV And Fox.

Game shows are much cheaper to produce because you don't have to pay high salaries to actors. And the production costs are pretty low as well. No need for a lot of different sets or shooting on location. The costs are paid by the companies who advertise on the shows as well as contribute the gifts that are given away. The shows (like 'Price is Right') get thousands of dollars in merchandise to give away from famous manufacturers. In turn, consumers see these goods given away and tend to buy more from those manufacturers! A typical 30 minute game show runs an actual 22-24 minutes and the remainder is taken up by commercials. SO if you take the 8 minutes time left and break that up into 30 second commercials, that's 16 commercials in that time slot. The winners on those shows also have to pay taxes on what they win (the value of the goods). 

Television game shows have a long tradition of being associated with spin-offs. For example, board games. Increasingly, these spin-offs have become more varied

Media Institutions. In Media studies, it is also important to consider the company or organisation that 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; Rupert Murdoch owns a company called ‘News Corp International’ which owns Sky TV, The Sun newspaper, The Times newspaper, FOX TV and 20th Century Fox films and lots more. Some people see this as worrying because increased concentration of ownership means that all our media content is getting more and more similar and its only real purpose is making money.

The study of institutions also includes looking at how a company makes its money. For example, a commercial institution like The Sun newspaper makes its money from advertising which means they need a very big audience to interest their advertisers. News articles are often cut or shortened to make more space for advertising to make more money for the institution. This worries some analysts, because it means that The Sun is not really concerned with news so much as advertising revenue and audience figures.

Another important part of institution is ownership and control. If an owner is able to control their institution and its content or audience then should there be a limit on how much one media conglomerate should be allowed to own?

Media LanguageForms and Conventions

1. Depending on how serious the game show there is mostly either a serious  male presenter or a cheesy  and funny male presenter.2. There is always a prize to win either money or expensive items.3. If they can fit one in they always have a good looking female with a role like statistics or just explaining how something is done or interviewing.4. Bright coloured sets5. Contestants with stories that will make the viewer want them to win desperately.6. Can’t be offensive7. Equal opportunities (contestants)8. No cheating9. No bias towards one of the contestants10. Theme tune11. Open credits (animation)12. Audience have to be there as it can add suspense

LANGUAGE AND SPEAKING

Texts (such as films, television programs, and commercials) are “like languages,” and the rules of linguistics can be applied to them. What a language does is enable the communication of information, feelings and ideas by establishing systems and rules that people learn. And just as there is grammar for writing and speaking, there are grammars for various kinds of texts—and for different media.Saussure made a distinction that is useful, between language and speaking. Language is a social institution, made up of rules and conventions that have been systematized, that enables us to speak (or, more broadly, toSIGNsignifierSound-imagesignifiedConceptcommunicate). Each person “speaks” in his or her own manner, but this speaking is based on the language and rules that everyone learns. A television program such as Star Trek can be viewed as speech that is intelligible to its audience because the audience knows the language. That is, we know the signs and what they signify; we know the conventions of the genre, or what is acceptable and unacceptable.

RepresentationMany television game shows are aimed at mainstream audiences and have broad appeal. Part of that appeal is having contestants from all walks of life competing – either just for the challenge, but often for fantastic prizes. Audiences can relate to these people.

People can be portrayed in a positive of negative way for entertainment purposes such as Big Brother. Celebrities are advertised before the game show airs to intrigue people to watching the show. For example, on I’m a celebrity. Celebrities are more likely to be represented in a good way or they won’t go on the game show.

Media Representations

This can seem complicated but it’s very simple once you get it and possibly the most important of all the key concepts. What we see and hear in the media is never real... It 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 organisation is represented is really important. A representation could be either positive or negative depending upon the way it is constructed. Costume, the language they use, the location are all part of how meaning is created. Another example might be with race. As Media analysts, we need to look at the representation of characters and organisations critically to uncover whether there is an unfair dominance of negative stereotypes.

Key areas for studying ‘Representations’:◦ Two detailed studies of the images of particular groups or places across a range of media.◦ Alternative images of these groups or places across the media.◦ General issues of representation and stereotyping within the media.◦ Problems of producing fair and accurate media representations.◦ Representations and power in the Media.◦ Reasons for dominant representations (e.g. historic, economic, social, political, etc).

The Male Gaze – Laura Mulvey – Feminist Theory – Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema – Written in 1975The cinema apparatus of Hollywood cinema puts the audience in a masculine subject position with the woman on the screen seen as an object of desire. Film and cinematography are structures upon ideas. Protagonists tended to be men. Mulvey suggests two distinct modes of male gaze – “voyeuristic (women as whores) and fetishistic – women as unreachable madonnas”. (Also narcissistic – women watching film see themselves reflected on the screen). (Film texts: Alien, Jackie Brown).

People who criticise her ideas say that she is ignoring the fact that all genders – male and female want to feel dominated and overwhelmed by the cinema experience. Also, she ignores the fact that men are capable of ‘metaphoric transvestism’ whereby they are able to view the film from the perspective of a woman. (Thelma and Louise, The Piano, Knocked Up, Brick Lane).Lacan – Psychoanalysis and ‘The Mirror’

Lacan’s theory of ‘the mirror’ is an idea around the idea of identity. He considers the point at which a person develops a sense of self and conscious identity. He considers the point at which a child recognises their own reflection and begin to consider how others perceive them, modifying their appearance to satisfy their perceptions of how others see them. Mulvey extends this idea when she writes about ‘the silver screen’ which she suggest operates like a metaphorical mirror; reflecting back to the female viewer representations of female identity, but these representations are not genuine reflections of the viewer but rather male perceptions of idealised femininity.

Queer Theory – Judith Butler

Emerging out of field of Gender studies (the study of males and female roles historically, politically, socially etc). Queer theory challenges the idea that gender – being male or female – is part of the essential self, that it is fixed, immovable – in other words Queer theory suggest that our male or female gender does not control all aspects of our identity or how we perceive other peoples identity. In other words gender, particularly as it is represented in performance – on TV, Film etc, is fluid, flexible depending on the context in which it is seen. For example an audience can see Tom Cruise playing a “straight” pilot in The Right Stuff and interpret his gender, although male, as having very “queer” or “gay” attributes. The theory developed as a way of combating negative representations of gay sexuality in the Media. It combats the idea that people should be divided and categorised, indeed marginalised, due to their sexual orientation or practice and that a persons’ identity should not be limited to their sexual preference. It asks us to consider how the media constructs gay representation. (Apply to representation of gay sexuality in Knocked up...any others? What about Graham Norton? Alan Carr? Does Post Modern Irony regarding representation of gay characters relieve the audience of burden of moral responsibility regarding evolving attitudes a more flexible idea of gender?)

Subculture – Representation of Groups – Dick Hebdidge

In his book, Subculture and The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdidge said that a subculture is a group of like minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and who develop a sense of identity which differs to the dominant on to which they belong. Ken Gelder lists 6 ways in which a subculture can be recognised: 1) Often have negative relationship to work 2) Negative or ambivalent relationship to class 3) Through their associations with territory ( The street, the hood, the club) rather than property 4) Through their stylistic ties to excess 5) Through their movement out of home into non-domestic forms of belonging (social groups as opposed to family) 6) Through their refusal to engage with they might see as the ‘banalities’ of life. Other ways of recognising a subculture might be symbolism attached to clothes, music, visual affectations like tattoos etc. (Examples – Ben and his friends in Knocked up representing a subculture some of the values of which Alison and as such the America she initially represents might benefit from). Subcultural values often associated with being ‘cool’.

Anthony Giddens – Traditionalist vs Post Traditionalist views of society

Media representations of society can be seen as traditional or post traditionalist. Traditional societies are ones in which individual choice was limited by its dominant customs and traditions. Whereas post traditionalist societies are one where the ideas set by previous generations are less important that those of individuals. Post traditional societies no longer feel so dependent and limited to time and place. Giddens says, we are living in a post traditional society where we are much less concerned with precedents set by previous generations and that our options are only limited by what the law and public opinion allows. We have replaced seen/discreet systems with remote ‘expert’ systems, institutions and corporations.

Bell Hooks: Interconnectivity of race, class and gender.

Pen name of Gloria Jean Watkins. First major work “Ain’t I a woman? Lack, women and feminity” written in 1981. Focused on the perpetuation of systems of oppression and domination in the media paying particular attention to the devaluation of black womanhood. The idea of ‘lack’ or ‘otherness’ refers to the way that women and ethnic minorities are usually represented as ‘other’. Their primary purpose is simply to be other than the norm (usually a white male hero). They are therefore known more by the context of lack than by a realised or complex identity. This theory can be linked to ideas of the monstrous feminine found in feminist analysis of literature and art.