Everyone has been in an audience. We have all been part of a group of people who come together to experience music, film, theatre or other live event. In media terms the audience is any group of people who receive a media text, and not just people who are together in the same place.

They receive the text via a media carrier such as a newspaper or magazine, television, DVD, radio or the internet. It can also be a mobile phone, iPod or any...

Media Studies isn’t easy to describe. It’s a living concept that continues to change just as technology and our experience with technology change. The purpose of Media Studies is to provide audiences with access to information no matter how it is experienced and allow people to adopt diverse critical positions.

Media Studies is desirable because its curriculum is inclusive; it recognises that the form of delivery as well as the content to be...

Studying media is about watching, reading, discussing and evaluating media texts such as films, television and radio programmes, newspapers and magazines, and advertisements.

An important aspect of Media Studies is evaluating (this is called ‘reading’) a media text to find out what it is trying to say to the audience, and how that message is being communicated. The first AS module is usually known as ‘Reading the media’.

In the course...

Trollied is a Situation Comedy set in a fictional supermarket, Valco in the north-west, specifically Warrington in Cheshire. It is broadcast on a Monday night at 9pm and more unusually it is on Sky 1 (it is rare for Sky 1 to commission programmes from the Sitcom genre). Trollied is repeated immediately after on Sky 2 at 10pm. In its classic 30 minute format it follows some genre conventions but offers post watershed representations.

The...

Associated Resources

• http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/as-ocr-media-studies-audience-and-institutions-film-production-film-industr/
• http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/as-ocr-media-studies-audience-and-institutions-film-industry-revision-ppt/

Key Principles

1. Have you got contrasting films you can use as case studies e.g. big budget Hollywood v low budget British indie which allow full range of issues to be discussed?

2....

Associated Resources

• http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/as-ocr-media-studies-audience-and-institutions-film-production-film-industr/
• http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/as-ocr-media-studies-audience-and-institutions-film-industry-revision-advic/

AS OCR A&I - Film Industry Revision.ppt

Associated Resources

• http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/as-ocr-media-studies-audience-and-institutions-film-industry-revision-advic/
• http://media.edusites.co.uk/index.php/article/as-ocr-media-studies-audience-and-institutions-film-industry-revision-ppt/

TOP TIP: Consider the issues for the studios and audiences at every stage.

When writing the exam essay - you should look for modern examples in the industry and be able to write a...

The rights to broadcast this years showpiece sporting tournament is in the hands of two national mainstream television channels: BBC and ITV.

The Football World Cup in South Africa 2010 will command many hours from both BBC and ITV primetime television slots from 11th of June – 11th of July. Games will be shown at 12.30, 17.00 and 19.30.

Programs will no doubt contain many hours of build up, the game itself, half time replays of highlights...

For A2 you will need to know these theories about Media Audiences.

Many theories try to make sense of the question: What effects do media texts have on audiences?

This question has interested people ever since the invention of the printing press, and it became possible to make hundreds of copies of a document, and a ‘message’ could reach a mass audience.

Researchers investigating the effect of media on audiences have considered the...

An American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, suggested that we all have different layers of needs. We have to achieve certain needs before going on to the next layer. Basically we all need to be able to eat and sleep in safety before we can go on to more complex social needs, such as getting married.

His Hierarchy of Needs suggests that once people have their basic needs met like housing, food, safety, shopping, technology, and a job they can then...

This model stems from the idea that audiences are a complex mixture of individuals who select media texts that best suits their needs – this goes back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

The Uses and Gratifications Model suggests that media audiences are active and make active decisions about what they consume in relation to their social and cultural setting and their needs.

This was summed up by theorists Blumler and Katz in 1974:

‘Media...

Discuss the issues raised by an institution’s need to target specific audiences within a media industry that you have studied.

Introduction

The need to target a ‘specific audience’ is a key issue for the ‘magazine industry’. Magazines are heavily ‘subsidized by advertising’ and the key to attracting a sustainable ‘portfolio of advertisers’ is the creation of a product that is desirable to their ‘target market’.

As a...

These quizzes are best viewed in Firefox.

Firefox is an excellent alternative to Internet Explorer which is available free for both PCs and Macs.

Audience Demographics.ppt

Audience Effects 1.ppt

Audience Effects 2.ppt

Audience Moral Panics.ppt

Understanding Audiences.ppt

4Cs Yound & Rubicam’s Consumer Characterisation Site

Y&R’s Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation (4Cs for short) is a consumer segmentation that ‘characterises’ people into recognisable stereotypes that reflect the operation of each of a set of well-known human motivations: comprising SECURITY, CONTROL, STATUS, INDIVIDUALITY, FREEDOM, SURVIVAL and ESCAPE.

Emap Insight & Data

Mediaed.org on Audience Theory

BARB Broadcasters Audience...

Media Studies isn’t easy to describe. It’s a living concept that continues to change just as technology and our experience with technology change. The purpose of Media Studies is to provide audiences with access to information no matter how it is experienced and allow people to adopt diverse critical positions.

Media Studies is desirable because its curriculum is inclusive; it recognises that the form of...