Section A is the unseen product and we need a few ideas as to how we can focus attention on being successful
APPROACHES TO THE EXAMINTION
SECTION A: THE UNSEEN PRODUCT
For Section A you will be
shown a media product THREE times.
After each showing there will be a pause of
around 4 minutes for note-making.
You will also be provided
with some support information about the product that you may use in your
answers
To be successful requires
a well-practised approach to the tasks.
[A] What type of media
product is it?
This needs to as specific
as you can make it – an advert for a computer game is not really that specific
as ‘an advert for a first person shooter game’
The
latter tells us much more about the type of product, enabling a more detailed
response to [B] below
[B] Who is the product
aimed at – the target audience
This
needs to be as specific as you can. Consider the issues here of stereotypes. Do
not be afraid to use tropes, just point out that this is what they are and how the
product might use this. The Call of Duty advert uses this mercilessly – macho
images and sexualised women are all deployed to indicate appeal to audience.
[C] Expectations
If
we know what and who, we can consider the expectations they have of the product.
In the Call of Duty example the expectation might be: loud, fast-paced,
sexualised women, action, explosions. Realistic graphics, humour etc.
[D] If we know the
expectations we can then measure whether or not the product meets these and how
it meets these. The success [the pleasure audience gain] may well be reflected
in approval and sales. Sometimes the product might get there by subverting the
expectations [being unconventional] and this too ought to be mentioned.
No comments:
Post a Comment