• If you are interested in finding out how media texts such as TV programmes, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, video games, podcasts and music videos are constructed and designed to appeal to certain audiences, then this is the subject for you! You will learn about how media representations manipulate audiences, studying texts from a diverse range of backgrounds, including some historical and even foreign language products. The two tasks provide an introductory insight into how we critically engage with texts and spend time pulling them apart, which is so important in the media-saturated world we now live in.

      Task 1: Genre and Audience



      Identify the film’s       genre from the following aspects of mise-en-scene:

      - Costumes:

      - Settings:

      - Props:

      - Characters:

      The correct genre of this film is: 

       Identify two possible audiences for the film.  Give reasons:

      Task 2: The Daily Mirror – American Election (2016)

      Analyse the newspaper front cover and comment on the imagery and language used. What do you think their view is on the 2016 American election result?

      newspaper

    • If you would like to test your knowledge further, have a go at the below task- you need to match up the key Media terminology with the explanations.

      Terms: 

      1.   Binary Opposition

      2.   Enigma

      3.   Intertextuality

      4.   Representation

      5.   Stereotype

      Explanations:

      1. The contrast between two mutually exclusive concepts or things that creates conflict and drives a narrative e.g. good/evil, day/night, male/female, presence/absence, old/young

      2. Stereotypes are negative (usually) representations of people that rely on preconceived ideas about the group that person is perceived as belonging to. It is assumed that an individual shares personal characteristics with other members of that group e.g. blondes are all stupid, accountants are all boring.

      3. The influence that media texts have on each other. Sometimes this is the result of direct cross-references (e.g. music mash ups) or indirect (the way gossip news items regulate the way we view a star's performance)

      4. A question that is not immediately answered and thus draws an audience into a text e.g. a body is discovered at the beginning of a tv detective drama. The killer's identity is an enigma. We watch to find out who the killer is.

      5. The way in which the media "re-presents" the world around us in the form of signs and codes for audiences to read

      You can finds the answers here. 

    • You can find out more about studying A Level Media Studies at Huddersfield new College by clicking here to read the full course guide.