Here are a few examples of audience and representation questions to focus on.
Audience
With reference to your own detailed examples, explore what influences how audiences or users respond to media texts
With reference to your own detailed examples, explore how audiences are categorised by the producers of media texts
With reference to your own detailed examples, explore the ways in which media texts are constructed to target audiences
With reference to your own detailed examples, explore what affects how an audience may respond to a media text
Discuss how media texts attract different audiences. Refer to your own detailed examples
Representation
Using your own detailed examples, explore representations of gender in the media today
Using your own detailed examples, explore the representation of young people in the media today
Using your own detailed examples, explore the representation of two issues in the media today
Some of these we will be covered in more detail when you come back (specifically youth and issues), but you should be good to go for the audience questions. If you're stumped for examples, then select your favorite film, TV programme, videogame, radio show, musical artist etc and apply a range of audience concepts and theory. Some examples include:
- Uses and gratifications
- Reception theory (preferred, negotiated, oppositional readings)
- Two-step flow
- Utopian solution
- Positioning
- Gauntlet's 'pick and mix' theory
And so on. If you want to do some revision on audience concepts, check out this post.
If you want a revision guide, check out this post.
I strongly advise meeting up with classmates to share notes, representation examples and audience examples. Unless of course you prefer to work by yourself!
Have a great holiday!