Media Consumption diary:

Complete the three charts for each of seven days to begin to get some sense as to how much, what type and for what reason for your own personal consumption of the media.

Day:

Media consumption: hours    

 

TV
CD/MP3
DVD
Cinema
Magazine
Computer
Internet
Radio

Media consumption :  type 

TV

CD/MP3

DVD

Cinema

Magazine

Computer

Internet

Radio

 

 

 

 

Media consumption :  Purpose [needs/gratification] 

TV

CD/MP3

DVD

Cinema

Magazine

Computer

Internet

Radio

Media Diary

 The consumption of media texts is composed of many elements – the amount and range of media texts that an individual consumes [the ‘saturation’ element] has already been addressed.  The other key elements of media consumption are type and purpose

Type of consumption – patterns and connections

On the surface this might appear quite obvious – a film, a computer game, a magazine – but within this there are important elements that media students need to be aware of.  Is the film an action adventure, a sci-fi or a romance?  Answers to this give us our first brush with how we categorise media texts and the idea of genre. When this information is linked to other media products that an individual consumes and facts about their age, income, ethnicity, gender etc then the more certain we can become in our assertions about individual and group patterns of behaviour and media consumption.  We can begin to ask relevant questions [why is the prime audience for horror films 16-24 year old males?] and use these answers to begin to make assertions about the target audience for particular texts that are grounded in research.  We are beginning to construct an audience profile. We are treading in the area of demographics.
 

 

Question:  Why is this important?  How can this be used? By who? 

 

Task: Outline the way you think that a film company might use information on patterns of media consumption. [consider production decisions, marketing, advertising, release, budget etc]

 

Task: Think of a situation where the pattern of media consumption of individuals or groups is seen as relevant or crucial or is utilised in a specific manner? E.g. the blaming of the Colombine high school shootings on the fact that the students involved listened to Marilyn Manson music and visited ‘Goth’ web sites; the Jamie Boulger case

 

 Purpose – needs and gratifications

It may sound obvious, but each of our interactions with a text is driven by a purpose [a need] – often the avoidance of boredom, but sometimes with a specific goal such as the acquisition of information.  These needs have been categorised by psychologists such as Maslow and used by media theorists to quantify and explain audience reactions to the media.  You will encounter these later in the course in more detail, for the moment it is sufficient for you to consider what drives your own use of the media and the extent to which these needs are gratified.

Task:

This will be your first piece of Media research, and as it’s on yourself it shouldn’t be too difficult to gather quality data. You are going to keep a media diary.  Each day over a period of a week spend 5-10 minutes noting:

·    What media interactions you have been involved with

• Approximate time involved
• What you watched/involved with
• Why?
• What pleasures/uses it provided?
• How far it gratified or disappointed you?

Saturation

The notion of saturation is vital in any attempt to understand the importance of studying the media.  Once recognised it will help you realise why this subject places so much importance on concepts such as representation, inter-textuality and how society constructs meaning.

 

To get some idea of the current depth of media saturation complete the table below to provide some data on your own personal consumption of the media over the periods of time given.

Media text consumed	Time  [ the last 24hours]	Time on avg. week
TV [live]
Video/Sky+  recording viewing
DVD  watching
Cinema
Newspaper
Magazine
CD/MP3/i-tunes
Radio
Computer console gaming
Internet  leisure [Facebook/ebay etc]
Internet  work [research etc]
Total time

Remember:  These figures do not take into account other aspects of media consumption such as the posters you have ‘read’ or the packaging on products you have encountered.

Compare your consumption with someone else.  What do you find?  What factors might account for variations in media consumption?  What use might such information be?  To whom would it be useful?

In order to write effectively on the media you must be aware of the Key concepts.  These are the toolbox of Media Studies and knowledge of them is essential to success in each of the modules and in the final assessments for each.

The Key Concepts

• Media Representations
• Media Language
• Media Institutions
• Media Values and Ideology
• Media Audience

Additionally the areas of genre and narrative [which are aspects of the concept  of media language] are so important to understanding media texts that they are also considered as essential parts of the conceptual framework.

 

Media Representations

Who is being represented?

• In what way?
• By whom?

Why is the subject being represented in this way?

• Is the representation fair and accurate?
• What opportunities exist for self-representation by the subject?

Media Languages and Forms

•  What are the denotive and connotative levels of meaning?
•  What is the significance of the text’s connotations?
•  What are the non-verbal structures of meaning in the text?
•  What is the significance of mise-en-scene?
•  What work is being done by the soundtrack/commentary language of the text?
•  What are the dominant images and iconography and what is their relevance to the major themes of the text?
•  What sound and visual techniques are used to convey meaning [eg camera positioning; editing; mix of sound/image]?

Media Institutions

• What is the institutional source of the text?
• In what ways has the text been influenced or shaped by the institutions which produced it?
• Is the source a public service or commercial institution?  What difference does it make to the text?
• Who owns and controls the institution concerned and does it matter?
• How has the text been distributed?

Media Values and Ideology

• What are the major values, ideologies and assumptions underpinning the text or naturalised within it?
• What criteria have been used for selecting the content presented?

Media Audiences

• To whom is the text addressed?  What is the target audience?
• What assumptions about the audience’s characteristics are implicit within the text?
• What assumptions about the audience are implicit in the text’s scheduling or positioning?
• In what conditions is the audience likely to receive the text?  Does this impact upon the formal characteristics of the text?
• What do you know or can you assume about the likely size and constituency of the audience?
• What are the probable and possible audience readings of the text?
• How do you as an audience member, read and evaluate the text?  To what extent is your reading and evaluation influenced by your age, gender, background etc?

 

Narrative and Genre are aspects of the Key Concept of media language dealt with above but these elements are so important to any understanding of how and why media texts work that they are essential to your work in every module in AS and A2.

 

Narrative

• How is the narrative organised and structured?
• How is the audience positioned in relation to the narrative?
• How are characters delineated?  What is their narrative function?  How are heroes and villains created?
• What techniques of identification and alienation are employed?
• What is the role of such features as sound, music, iconography, genre, mise-en-scene, editing etc. within the narrative?
• What are the main themes of the narrative?  What values/ ideologies does it embody?

Genre

• To which genre does the text belong?
• What are the major generic conventions within the text?
• What are the major iconographic features of the text?
• What are the major generic themes?
• To what extent are the characters generically determined?
• To what extent are the audience’s generic expectations of the text fulfilled or cheated by the text?  Does the text conform to the characteristics of the genre or does it treat them playfully or ironically?
• Does the text feature a star, a director, a writer etc who is strongly associated with the genre?  What meanings and associations do they have?



a brief moment of respite in a typically busy day

A Word From the Staff

 

This is the initial post in a blog that has the intention of presenting a range of Media Studies and Film Studies materials developed over the 20 years I have been involved in teaching these subjects at AS and A2.

 

Much of this work has been inspired by the students that I have taught and has evolved from implementing the feedback that they have provided for me for each unit over this time.

 

Film and Media is a fantastic subject for study.  Each day the drive to work provides a wealth of material in adverts and radio items that link current daily issues that impact upon us all to the theory we are exploring in the lessons and provides relevant material to hang the work on.

 

Any study of the media is a study of the culture we inhabit and the way in which we both understand it and the manner in which it shapes who we are.

 

The key to a successful [and interesting] study of the media is to take the materials covered by this blog and apply them to your own daily encounters with the media that saturates us all.

peace