AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction for AQA, 2008 Specification

✍ Scribed by Philip Rayner, Peter Wall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 355
• Edition: 3
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction for AQA is fully revised for the current specification with full colour throughout, over 100 images, new case studies and examples. The authors introduce students step-by-step to the skills of reading media texts, and address key concepts such as genre, representation, media institutions and media audiences as well as taking students through the tasks expected of them to pass the AQA AS Media Studies exam. The book is supplemented with a companion website at www.asmediastudies.co.uk featuring additional activities and resources, further new case studies such as music and sport, clear instructions on producing different media, quizzes and tests.

Areas covered include:

• an introduction to studying the media
• the key concepts across print, broadcast and e-media
• media institutions
• audiences and the media
• case studies such as Heroes, Nuts, and The Daily Mail
• guided textual analysis of real media on the website and within the book
• research and how to do it
• preparing for exams
• a production guide and how to respond to a brief.

AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction for AQA clearly guides students through the course and gives them the tips they need to become proficient media producers as well as media analysts.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Cover
AS Media Studies: The Essential Introduction for AQA
Copyright Page
Contents
List of figures
How to use this book
Introduction
Faster! Faster! More! More!
What do we mean by ‘the media’?
Why are the media important?
Postmodernism
Conclusion
Part 1: Key Concepts
1.
Image analysis
What is a media ‘text’?
Semiotics
Signs
Codes
Denotation and connotation
The process model of communication
Criticisms of semiotics
Worksheet for analysing advertisements
2.
Narrative
Narrative construction
Mode of address
Relationship between narrative and genre
3.
Genre
The function of genre
Iconography
Genre and audiences
Genre and producers
Genre as a critical tool
Limitations of genre
4.
Representation
Media representation of the world at large
How accurate?
Stereotyping
5.
Media Intertextuality
Mimicry
Parody, pastiche and homage
Marketing of media texts
Reviews
Media performers in different media forms
6.
Media Ideology
Belief systems
Big Brother
Ideology and gender
7. Media audiences
Different types of audience
Why are audiences important?
How have audiences changed?
‘Martini media’
How is audience consumption patterned and determined?
Who is the audience?
‘Television doesn’t make programmes, it creates audiences’
(Jean-Luc Godard)
Gendered consumption
The ‘effects’ debate and moral panics
The effects of advertising
Audience participation
And finally . . .
8. Media institutions
Ownership: commercial media institutions
Types of ownership: horizontal and vertical integration; convergence
Public Service Broadcasting (PSB)
Alternative media
Manufacturing consent: Noam Chomsky
Regulation of the media
Self-regulation and the press: the Press Complaints
Commission (PCC)
The cinema: the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)
Regulation and advertising
Media imperialism
Globalisation
The internet
Conclusion
Part 2: Investigating Media
9. Broadcast fiction: Heroes
Codes and conventions
Representation
Institution
Audience
And finally . . .
10.
Documentary and its hybrid forms
Different types of realism
Continuity editing
Documentary film-making
The docu-soap and beyond
Reality television
11.
Lifestyle magazines and television
‘Lifestyle’ magazines
‘The most fun a girl can have with her clothes on!’: teenage magazines
She’s a woman with responsibility . . . and a hangover’: women’s lifestyle magazines
Nuts: grab yours every week
‘Vol-au-vents like Fanny’s’: lifestyle television
Conclusion
12. News production
Newsroom roles
Construction of a news story
Television news presentation
Case study: the Daily Mail
Press regulation
Ownership
Part 3: Creating Media
13.
Production
Why practical production?
Getting an inside view of the production process
Creating media – MEST2
Getting started
A closer look at the AQA specification
Evaluation commentary
Case study: film and broadcast fiction
14.
Planning/organising your studies
How to look at media products
How to plan and get the best from your own media consumption
Using textbooks
The bibliography
Using the world wide web
Other sources of information
And finally . . .
Glossary
Bibliography
Figure acknowledgements
Index