National/Regional Identity

National/Regional Identity

News Representation

News Representation

Germanwings Plane Crash

This is the report on the BBC News YouTube channel for the Germanwings plane crash. The video starts off with a voiceover report talking about how the scientist crews have been out salvaging pieces of information from the crash that could solve the case. 

Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis

Target Audience - Early teens to 30s/Predominantly male - We know this because of an existing fan base of the original film. Also the action genre can be identified due to the explosions, giant monster attacking the city and the halo jumpers coming from above.

PIES
- Personal: Actors names at the top of the poster so the audience can identify to them as they may have seen them in something else before.
- Information: Information about the subject can be acquired from the poster, someone who is interested in the film.
- Entertainment: A teaser for the film attracts the audience as they want to see what the film is about due to the enigma codes such as why there are HALO jumpers, what happens to Godzille and what happens to the city.
- Social: This is a well known film and due to the famous actors in it such as Bryan Cranston who is famous for his performance in Breaking Bad. People could feel left out if they didn't watch this as it can appear as a conversation topic.

PON
- Preferred: 

Media Theories

Media Theories

Pick and Mix Theory

This theory suggests that audiences are sophisticated and use texts to satisfy their own particular needs. They pick bits out of the text that they can relate to and are appropriate to them and their lives and ignore the rest.

Values, Attitude and Lifestyle

If the producer knows which values the audience prioritise in their lives, what attitude they take on the topic and what lifestyle they lead, they will be able to address this. The use of certain themes and conventions throughout the text can gratify the audience by getting to grips with the audience's VALs (Values, Attitude and Lifestyle).

Innovator - These consumers are on the leading edge of change, have the highest incomes and such a high self-esteem and abundant resources that they can indulge in any or all self-orientations.

Thinkers - The high-resource group of those who are motivated by ideals. Mature, responsible and well-educated professionals. Practical consumers and rational decision makers.

Believers - Low-resource group of those who are motivated by ideals. Predictable consumers who favour local products and established brands.

Achievers - High-resource group that are motivated by achievement. Successful and work-oriented.

Strivers - Low-resource group of those who are motivated by achievements. Values similar to achievers but have fewer economical. social, and psychological resources.

Audience - Key Words

Audience - Key Words

Target - The audience that is addressed by the text.

Appeal - How the audience's gratifications are addressed/met.

Attract - What elements are used to attract the audience, e.g. famous actors.

Position - The different perspective the audience take on the text due to the technical conventions. The producer would include conventions and common themes that run throughout the genre to ensure this response will be met.

Respond - Whether the audience's response is preferred, oppositional or negotiated.

Encode and Decode - The producers encode the messages within the text for the audience to decode them, therefore extracting the meaning

The example above demonstrates these elements in the following ways:

• The target audience could range from mid teens to early 30s as the stars in the video are also of this age and therefore a relation can be established.
• The excessive portrayal of money and an  extravagant lifestyle can appeal to the audience and inspire them to live the same way or achieve this status. This could achieve the gratifications of the audience by almost fulfilling their dream virtually.
• The audience almost feels part of the event and within the party due to the handheld camera and rapid succession of shots with the use of straight cuts. The audience are addressed directly by the artists as they are looking into the camera and therefore a sense of involvement is established.
• The negotiated reading for this text would be the audience sympathising with the artists and addressing their lifestyle with a neutral mindset.

Case Studies - Age/Ethnicity/Gender

Case Studies

Age - Bad Education

• A young teacher is represented as a pushover and and awfully organised.
• An immediate comparison between him and an old teacher is made within the first minute of the show. The old teacher has her class under control.
• The main character, the young teacher, can be classed as the Geek stereotype. We know this from his awkward behaviour when he interacts with the students.
• Also the mise-en-scene can tell us he fits in to this stereotype. We know this from what he is wearing and his behaviour around the students. He is being blocked by the students who are taller than him.
• The first shot shows him pulling up in an old, dirty car. His attire is informal and messy, he is wearing a hoodie (with his hood up), a shirt that is untucked and grey jeans. Not an outfit of the stereotypical teacher. 

Ethnicity - Stormzy - Not That Deep

• This music video for a British grime and rap artist called Stormzy. He is a 21 year old British, black male.
• The representation of these males is significant for the generalisation of the age range and race they represent.
• The majority of the males in the video are black and British. This is significant because it can generalise to the larger population that fit into this stereotype, age range and class grouping.
• The beginning of the video shows them riding bikes around an empty car park, the mise-en-scene tells us they are within the working class/underclass boundaries.
• Mise-en-scene including their clothing and performance.

Gender - Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents

Stereotypical Race Representation

Stereotypical Race Representation

In the show The Big Bang Theory, the main Indian character Raj is represented as a Geek. We know this by his performance and the mise-en-scene that is framed within the scene. His fashion sense is clearly randomised and we know he has very few social skills and experience because of his dialogue in this scene. His friend Leonard tells him he thinks it's good for him to get out of the apartment from time to time which tells us he rarely leaves the safety of his own home, therefore connoting few social skills and little experience with people. The conversation topic also tells us that they are classed under the Geek representation for males as they are talking about the Indiana Jones films. The manner in which they are talking about these films is significant as they are very enthusiastic and know the specialist knowledge and vocabulary from the show. They also sound educated and well mannered. Although the negative representation of the Geek side of Raj is present there is also a positive representation that he is a nice person, well mannered and also relatively positive. This representation can be seen as negative because it could represent the whole American Indian community can be classed under the Geek stereotype. An audience that has no experience with this group of people will assume this is the same for all people within that group.

In the music video All of Me - John Legend we can see a positive representation of a black male. We can see from the mise-en-scene that he is a well groomed and dressed man who clearly cares about his appearance. This could break the stereotype of most of the people that fall into this group as other forms of media such as films can represent the black male population as being thugs and gangstas. We can see from the mise-en-scene that he is a higher class, wealthy male. We know this from his big house and