Genre is a French word that means type or kind. Most students will be aware of genre as a way of putting films, television programmes and other media texts into groups that have things in common, such as the story, or the ‘look’ of a film, or the characters, the settings and even the way the characters dress.

Genre, especially in film, is a key concept because it is more complex than just a way of putting similar films together in a...

In Media Studies we see iconography as part of genre, and particularly film genre. Students need to know the term and how it is used. It is quite a complex concept, that informs image analysis and the deconstruction of genre. Iconography originates from the study of art.

In Europe in the15th & 16th centuries artists creating work of a Christian nature would look up reference books to check the colours, composition, hand gestures, poses and...

Narrative is the media term for story telling. Narrative is the way the different elements in a story are organised to make a meaningful story. Some of these elements can be facts as in a documentary, or characters and action as in a drama.

Narrative, or telling stories, is our way of making sense of the world about us and trying to put some meaning into that world.

Because we live in a world that is organised by time – hours of the day,...

Definition

Ideology means a set of values, beliefs and ideas that guide our lives.

Literally the word means the ‘study of ideas’. It has become accepted as the set of values and beliefs that we believe to be true, and that have become part of our daily life. These are the natural agreed values, or common sense, that keep society running. One such belief is that we all need to work to earn money to live, and we agree to pay taxes to...

AQA says that candidates for AS and A2 Media Studies should study the historical, social, political and economic dimensions of representation.
Definition

Representation is the process by which the media presents the ‘real world’ to an audience.

Media texts construct meanings about the world – a picture, a film, a television programme or a newspaper article re-presents the world to help audiences make sense of it.

A popular...

The following A Level boards: AQA, OCR, and WJEC require students to demonstrate knowledge and critical understanding of media institutions. The key requirement across the syllabuses is to understand the relationship between Institutions and their media products.

Students should have knowledge and understanding of these six topics:

1. OWNERSHIP Ways in which ownership of a media institution can affect or influence the content and distribution...

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...

Brief Definition

Media language is the way in which the meaning of a media text is conveyed to the audience.

One of the ways Media Language works is to convey meaning through signs and symbols suggested by the way a scene is set up and filmed.

Signs and symbols in media texts are polysemic which means they are open to many interpretations. The different possible meanings in media texts depend on two things. The first is the way the signs and...

WHAT IS COPYRIGHT?

Copyright is literally a way of protecting the ‘right to copy’ something that someone else has created.

Copyright is an intellectual property right. It is a way of protecting the creative work – such as music, photographs or writing – from being pirated and used by someone else.

Throughout the world copyright exists. National laws cover different countries. Always check before using copyright material.

Whenever...

Why Regulate The Media?

The media now affects nearly every aspect of our lives.  It influences the products we consume, via advertising; our understanding of the world via news and documentary; our leisure via film and broadcast fiction and games; our methods of communication via the internet.  It is widely acknowledged that this dominance gives the media huge influence.

For example:

• The Media Effects theory has achieved widespread...

Source: http://www.manifestoformediaeducation.co.uk/

Get Involved

We hope that readers of this site will become writers too; we would like to invite you to participate in a number of ways.

To kick start the manifesto we asked a few media educators to provide us with their view on the purpose of media education (media studies/practice/production and media literacy). This initial set of contributions is only a starting point and is not supposed...

Genre is a French word that means type or kind. Most students will be aware of genre as a way of putting films, television programmes and other media texts into groups that have things in common, such as the story, or the ‘look’ of a film, or the characters, the settings and even the way the characters dress.

Genre, especially in film, is a key concept because it is more complex than just a way of...

Source: http://www.manifestoformediaeducation.co.uk/

Get Involved

We hope that readers of this site will become writers too; we would like to invite you to participate in a number of ways.

To kick start the manifesto we asked a few media educators to provide us with their view on the purpose of media education (media studies/practice/production and media literacy). This initial set of contributions is only...