Les Revenants: what makes a cult show?

Les Revenants is a highly atypical TV program targeting a niche audience. In terms of genre, it could be described as a supernatural drama (according to Wikipedia anyway), horror, zombie, avant-guarde, mystery, or even a paranormal romance! However, Les Revs is frankly completely different to zombie shows like The Walking Dead and paranormal romance films like Twilight. It also breaks the rules of the mystery genre, by presenting many hermenutic codes to the audience, yet rarely answering any questions.

Clearly, something so niche and potentially frustrating is only going to appeal to a small audience. Yet the small number of people who get this show are going to love it, and probably won't be able to stop talking about it. This makes it the very essence of a cult tv show.

A cult audience is a small yet dedicated audience that absolutely love the media product. If people criticise it, they will defend it. If it gets cancelled, they will beg for it to be bought back (see: Firefly, Arrested Development, Brooklyn 99...). Cult shows will divide opinion. They will put most people off, but through a process of audience negotiation and active textual poaching, audiences can pick out the things that they really like about it.

Les Revenants is not the first cult TV show, and it has been clearly influenced by others that came before it. One of the most influential cult TV shows is Twin Peaks, which confused the hell out of American audiences when it first dropped in 1990. At its heart a straightforward murder mystery, Twin Peaks sees eccentric FBI agent Dale Cooper pulled in to a rural American town to solve the brutal murder of a young woman. However, Twin Peaks is less interested with telling a coherent story, and is much more interested in creating a dreamlike atmosphere with a cast of unforgettable characters. Twin Peaks will frequently switch genres, from crime drama to mystery to comedy to surreal to comedy to tragedy, often in the same scene! It's totally up to the interpretation of the audience what is going on. For most potential audience members, it's frustrating, boring, just too weird. But Twin Peaks still has a cult following today, which only grows as fans too young to have caught it the first time round discover the show in DVD and download sites.

Why do producers create cult TV shows if the only reason for a media product to exist is making money? It's an interesting question, because cult shows tend to not make much money, at least in comparison to big, sure fire hits. However, there are many advantages for producers to create a cult show:

• They are comparatively cheap to make
• They attract a stable, if small audience
• Through word of mouth, they increase respect and regard for the producer (prestige programming)
• They often have a very long shelf life, and can be sold to audiences many years later

Additionally, cult TV shows are becoming more mainstream! While this seems like a ridiculous and contradictory statement, audiences have become more fragmented thanks to digital technologies and methods of distributions. Younger audiences in particular are less likely to view live television, and feel dissatisfied at the 'broadcasting' model of entertainment. Increasingly, producers have taken to 'narrowcasting', and giving audiences more select and specific experiences. Netflix and Amazon Prime have both seen value in producing risky, strange and challenging cult programming, with Netflix producing shows like the mind-bending Maniac and the uncompromising crime drama Mind Hunter, and Amazon seem to have completely jumped off the deep end by bankrolling Nicholas Winding-Refen's brain melting fifteen hour long postmodern crime drama Too Old To Die Young. Cult TV shows can bring in audiences that would normally give the platform a miss, and can improve public perception of an institution through word of mouth.

Conclusion: rather than belonging to a particular genre, Les Revenants can be better identified as a cult TV show through the ways it provides opportunities for a small but dedicated audience to interact with it. It might not make huge amounts of money, but dedicated audiences are increasingly essential for media producers as audiences become ever more fragmented.

Exploring bias and the construction of reality in UK newspapers

To what extent do newspapers construct versions of reality for their target audiences?

Ways in which bias and agenda can be encoded in media products:

Bias through selection and omission
Bias through placement
Bias by headline
Bias by photos, captions and camera angles
Bias through use of names and titles
Bias through statistics and crowd counts
Bias by source control
Word choice and tone 

Jeremy Corbyn presented as a Chicken, symbolic of his status as a coward or a chicken. A playground insult
Biased selection of image for Corbyn: he looks frightened and 'stupid'
Use of word 'THIS' in capitals dehumanises Corbyn, presenting him as an animal
Use of rhetorical question allows audience ' the chance to decide for themselves'.
'Corbyn clucks up Brexit' use of alliteration. Reference to 'fucks up'. Both childish and adult joke, polysemic
Use of nickname 'Jez' is informal and derogatory
An easy to understand and decode argument for the working class target audience. Assumption that the audience are stupid!

Les Revenants: introduction and screening

Click here to find the activity

Humans: Exploring audience theory

Note: while we are going to by applying this theory to Humans, we can apply this theory to almost any media product we have studied and will study in the future!

7 - Theories of identity - David Gauntlett (this one also fits under representation)
"Media audiences can pick and mix which ideologies suit them"

16 - Cultivation theory - George Gerbner
"Media can shape and influence the way in which people perceive the world around them"

17 - Reception theory - Stuart Hall
"Media  is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences"

18 - Fandom - Henry Jenkins
"Media fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers (‘textual poaching’)"

19 - ‘End of audience’ theories - Clay Shirky
"Media consumers have become producers who ‘speak back to’ the media in various ways, creating and sharing content with one another"

Using reception theory and 'pick and mix theory' effectively

These two theories are both based around mediation or negotiation by the audience. It is based around the assumption that audiences can negotiate or simply ignore outright the ideological perspectives encoded by the producer

1 - What ideological perspective is encoded by the producer? Is it simple, straightforward and agrees with dominant hegemonic perspectives? Is it subversive and challenging? Or does it present polysemic interpretations?

2 - How could the audience negotiate the ideological perspective?

KEY SCENE - Anita gets kidnapped

The high angled close up of Nishka being dragged through the woods is a clear intertextual
reference to the horror genre, and can please audiences through the intense generic hybridity

Dominant ideology, preferred reading: intense sympathy for the synths

Oppositional reading - Who cares? They're only robots! Deeply polysemic media product!

• Provides audiences with a range of topics to discuss and potentially disagree on
• Audiences can take pleasure though the use of hermeneutic codes, pondering the mystery of the TV show
• Sudden realisation that Anita is there, apparently now a completely different character. She acts differently, she talks differently. This is a typical convention of the sci-fi-genre
• Emotionally manipulative scene. Audiences can take pleasure at the use of extreme
• Displays conventions of the horror genre, in particular the sound of the breaking twig, which turns out to be a fox. Tension is built up, and then built down. Also, CU shot of hand dragging body through the undergrowth. 
• Frustration at the stupidity of the gang of synths and Leo. Audiences may question his intelligence, and dislike him as a result.
• Foreshadowing of Leos status as human: a proairetic code
• Frequent encoding of hermeneutic codes. Who are they? What are they doing? What is a battery?
• Confusing establishing shot of tents, POV shot, cutting to Leo in the woods. Audiences may feel frustrated and turn off at this early point. 
• Use of sound. Dramatic, synthesised non-diegetic sci-fi music, appealing to fans of sci-fi.
• Setting: stereotypically British forest, allowing audiences to take pleasure at a familiar setting
• Sexual gratification - audiences can take pleasure at seeing attractive characters
• Ethnically diverse group of characters. East Asian audiences may be able to identify and to take pleasure at the representation of an east asian actor.
• Potential comment on racism: intertextual reference to Calais migrant camp?

KEY SCENE - Odi in the supermarket and Odi at home

The scene where George essentially chooses whether or not to euthanize Odi may be distasteful
or simply too emotional for many audiences, especially those with experience of mental health issues

Ideological perspective: Odi is allegorical of somewhen with mental health issues. Preferred reading: intense sympathy for Odi.

Oppositional reading: Odi is awful and annoying and should die. Harsh, but all audiences have potential different responses!

• Use of supermarket setting: Mise en scene of Coco Pops and Alpen reinforce the notion that the series is set here and now, allowing the British target audience to take pleasure in seeing a familiar setting
• Anchored to feel sympathy for Odi through his glitches and stutters. George's upset face and MES of Odi's half popped scruffy collar elicits sympathy.
• Odi collapsed in jam in the cereal aisle is a ridiculous and childish situation. Potentially funny!
• Frustration with George at not scrapping Odi! Some audiences will see Odi as a menace to society that should be taken out. 
• Frustration at seeing jam and produce spread over the floor!
• Upset and creeped out by the quasi-sexual relationship between Odi? Potential homophobic audience may take offence at the subversive representation of masculinity
• Audiences may take pleasure at seeing the nurturing representation of an older man looking after a disabled young man!
• People with phobia of the dentist may find the use of a dental probe extremely upsetting
• Transgressive and hyperreal representation of people with mental health issues. Audiences who care for those with dementia may find this particularly distressing OR perhaps take enjoyment at the representation and visibility of someone with mental health issues
• Odi's use of error messages may be pleasurable to audiences who are acquainted with computers
• Middle class audiences will appreciate George and his middle class attire, and his American accent will allow American audiences to identify with him 

Sentence starters

A powerful binary opposition is formed through…

The conflict created through this binary opposition positions the audience…

This specific aspect of mise-en-scene functions as a hermenutic code… 

The proairetic code formed by the typeface suggests… 

The target audience will of course be aware of the symbolic connotation of…

Analysis of a viral marketing strategy: Persona Synthetics spot advertisment

The mise-en-scene of the windswept garden provides a subtle yet threatening proairetic
code for the audience, symbolic of trouble ahead for the nuclear family

• Ominous connotations of the low angle shot of synth leading child up the stairs, a hermeneutic code further reinforced by the sparse narrative
• Highly polysemic advert: synth leading boy upstairs could either be construed as threatening, or could emphasise the synth's maternal nature. Boy walking downstairs, followed by eye-line match to mother, followed by the unexpected conclusion of the synth instead leading the boy upstairs perfectly demonstrates the themes of the TV show
• Todorov: use of disequilibrium
• Utilisation of direct mode of address is included to deliberately make the audience feel uncomfortable
• Advert lacks any form of anchorage, taking on the form of a consumer product advertisement as opposed to a trailer for a sci-fi TV show. Highly subversive.
• Elements of postmodernism. Lacks meaning, and is selling something that does not actually exist. A hyperreal advertisement?
• Synth is expressionless and appears to lack humanity. Takes on the role of a housewife or maid. Establishes right from the beginning key themes explored within the TV show.
• Additionally, Sally the synth plays the role of a doll, which again prefigures key themes of the TV show
• Utilisation of montage to construct a disquieting and threatening atmosphere. A chilling deconstruction of advertising norms and values? Or just a kooky advert designed to get 'em talking for profit? It's up to you to decide
• "Is this real"? Blurs the boundaries between fantasy and reality. A clear reference to postmodern theory. Preferred reading is to be confused and even repelled!
• Ethnically homogeneous: every character white
• No reference to the TV show Humans, other than a easily missed hashtag included at the end
• Highly hermenuetic structure forces audience to ask questions, and to question the nature of their reality
• Additionally, audiences are likely to share their experience of the advert with others
• Preferred reading: confusion and alienation
• Lacks conventions f a teaser trailer. Absolutely no footage from the TV show, no actors from the TV show, an American voice over, or even name of the show
• Deals with a range of themes and ideological perspectives fundamental to the series. 
• A range of suggestive and foreshadowing proairetic codes, including the low key lighting of the synth leading the child, and the paradigmatically threatening shots of the knife and the hacksaw being used by the synth
• Model playing the synth is angular, stern looking and hegemonically attractive

Last year's analysis: click here!

Register to vote now!

If you are eighteen now or will turn eighteen before the 12th January, you can (and frankly should) vote in the upcoming UK general election. It's possibly the most important election of the century so far, and the policy and decisions reached from this vote will affect your life substantially. No pressure!

You can register to vote by clicking here. It's really, really easy.

Don't have a clue who to vote for? Well, you should always question the ideological bias of any media platform. But a website like I Side With (click here) can broadly show who your own political ideologies match up with.  Try not to vote based on personalities. You're not actually voting for Corbin or Johnson, but for a range of policies and ideological perspectives. See which party the site suggests, then Google the party's manifesto, and then see what you think!

Please submit photos for the new textbook!

It could be pretty much anything. Media is a broad subject after all. Below are a few examples I took to get you thinking. Just avoid any clearly identifiable students. You will be credited, you will not be paid. Such is life. 

Please email any submissions to me, Michael. 

Cheers!

Daily Mirror front page analysis

Note: this is not the 'set edition' of The Daily Mirror that you may have to explicitly refer to from memory in the final and mock exams. However, it's absolutely essential to make reference to a wide range of examples from a range of UK newspapers. It's also absolutely essential to read a newspaper every day. 

You should click to see the image in full size, then save it and shove it in to your own blog. Get cracking!

First impressions

Lots of images not much text, targeting a working class audience

Main, central image suggests a breach of privacy, a pap shot, gossip!

Slogan: 'fighting for you' . Protecting the working class audience, a struggle!

Jeremy Corbyn: favourable coverage. Supports the labour party!

Bold text, big images, bright colours: eye catching and exciting!

Brilliant! Ready for power! Enthusiastic lexis

Football! informal, working class audience

You can find a complete list of newspaper terminology by clicking here! Copypaste it in to your own blog and make sure you're familiar with the terminology, because there's a lot of funky new language!

A-level exam paper June 2019

Component one

SECTION A: ANALYSING MEDIA LANGUAGE AND REPRESENTATION

Media Language

Question 1 is based on the audio-visual resource: an advertisement which is part of the This Girl Can campaign, produced by Sport England in 2017.

• You will be allowed one minute to read Question 1.
• The advertisement will be shown twice.
• First viewing: watch the advertisement and make notes.
• You will then have five minutes to make further notes.
• Second viewing: watch the advertisement and make final notes.
• Once the second viewing has finished, you should answer Question 1

1 - Explore how the combination of elements of media language influences meaning in the This Girl Can advertisement. [15]

Representation

Question 2 is based on the following:

 print resource: the front page of the Daily Mail, published on the day of the 2017 UK general election
the front page and article from the Daily Mirror you have studied, published on the day after the 2016 US presidential election.

2 - Compare how these pages from the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror construct versions of reality. In your answer you must: 

• consider the choices media producers make when constructing versions of reality 

• consider the similarities and differences in the representations 

• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the representations relate to relevant media contexts. [30]

SECTION B: UNDERSTANDING MEDIA INDUSTRIES AND AUDIENCES

3a) What is meant by an independent film? [2]
3b) Briefly explain what you understand by vertical integration. [2]
 3c) Explain two features of mainstream film production. Refer briefly to Straight Outta Compton to support your points. [6]

 In Question 3(d) you will be rewarded for drawing together knowledge and understanding from across your full course of study, including different areas of the theoretical framework and media contexts.

3d) Explain how economic contexts shape independent films. Refer to I, Daniel Blake to support your points. [15] 

4a) Explain how the radio industry targets audiences. Refer to Late Night Woman’s Hour to support your points. [10]
4b) Explain the impact of media technologies on audience consumption of radio. Refer to Late Night Woman’s Hour to support your points. [10]

Component two

Section A – Television in the Global Age

Humans and The Returned

‘Television is a global industry.’ To what extent do Humans and The Returned support this claim? [30]

Section B – Magazines: Mainstream and Alternative Media

Answer one question in this section. Each question is in two parts.

Woman and Adbusters

a) Discuss the influence of historical context on representations in the set edition of Woman magazine. [15] 

b) Explore how the set edition of Adbusters conveys viewpoints and ideologies. [15]

Section C – Media in the Online Age

Zoella and Attitude

Clay Shirky argues that audiences in today’s online age are no longer passive consumers of media content.Evaluate this ‘end of audience’ theory. Refer to Zoella and the Attitude website to support your answer. [30]

Newspaper set products for examination 2021+

If you started A-level media in 2019 or later, then these are the set products for the newspaper industry.

Below you can find low resolution previews, and a link to a high resolution .pdf file which will be loads easier to read.

Remember, you need to know these pages like the back of your hand...

The Daily Mirror front page – Wednesday March 13 2019

The Daily Mirror article – Wednesday March 13 2019

The Times front page – Wednesday March 13 2019

Click here to access higher resolution versions of all the set text print media products 

Hyperreality and simulacrum in Humans and beyond

Examples of hyperreality and simulacra

• Christmas. In family films and Netflix specials, Christmas is a 'magical' time with food, fun, friends and shopping. In reality, Christmas is stressful and often isolating. It rarely snows, and the process of Christmas shopping can be nightmarish. The representation is clearly superior to the reality, and remains far more popular too
• Small town life. Living in a small down sucks! It can be isolating, cliquey and frankly depressing. However, small town life is often fetishised and idealised by hyperreal representational constructions in films and TV shows.
• Sex. Represented in a variety of ways in films and videos. 'The first time'. The loss of virginity narrative. The reality never lives up to the fantasy. Rose petals, low key lighting... Also hard core porn. 
• War. Represented in a fun and exciting way in films and videogames. War films such as Hacksaw Ridge. Heroic! Exciting! Glorification! Must be entertaining for an audience, avoid offending an audience. Propaganda!

Examples of hyperreality and simulacra in Humans

The synths themselves are an excellent example of hyperreality, a 'perfect' representation of humanity, who look identical to humans. Arguably synths are even better than humans! For example Nishka decides to not switch off her pain-chip to deliberately force herself to suffer. This illogical yet highly noble act is exactly what a human may choose to do... yet Nishka is a machine.

The breakfast scene

To what extent can it be argued that Humans is a postmodern media product? {15} {25 minutes}

...I shall argue that is a fundamentally postmodern media product, and in particular is an excellent exploration of the concepts of hyperreality and simulacrum....

One particularly convincing example of hyperreality occurs during the breakfast scene.

The breakfast itself. MES: arrangement of toast, "the jam's in a thing!". Sophie's excitement can be explained by the fact that she clearly recognises such scenes from films and TV shows. Her excitement indicates that this is different from how breakfast usually is in the Hawkins household. Joe: "this is what breakfast is supposed to be like!"clearly happy and excited! Excitement at a hyperreal construction, a fantasy. The breakfast resembles a hotel breakfast, or a breakfast in a film or TV show. Characters within a TV show discussing the nature of reality is a highly hyperreal, postmodern aspect.

Anita herself. A hyperreal construction of hegemonic female attractiveness. More hegemonically attractive than Laura, and forms a powerful diametric opposition. While Laura has skin blemishes, ginger hair, and slightly larger frame constructs her as less hegemonically attractive. For Laura, Anita is a hyperreal version of herself, stealing her life. Not only does Anita read stories to Sophie and do the ironing, she also constructs a fabulous, hyperreal breakfast. Joe may even prefer her to Laura for the very fact that she is not real. Cognitive dissonance. The inability to hold two thoughts in ones head at the same time. Anita is both alive and beautiful, yet dead and cold.

Anita's laughter is also an example of a hyperreal construction. Joe tells an appalling pun that normally would be met with groans. When prompted, Anita reacts with a fake, empty and repetitive and creepy laugh. By doing what she is told in an exact way, Anita reinforces the patriarchal hegemony wielded by Joe, and inflates his ego. Disturbingly, this theme is returned to later on in the series when Joe essentially demands sex off Anita, presenting her with the 18+ card.

Even more confusingly, Anita is not even Anita, but a brainwashed synth called Mia. A copy of a copy of a copy... Postmodern media products generally make deliberately complicated and confusing statements about the nature of our existence and our inability to distinguish between fact and fiction. Anita's loss and reclamation of her identity is a classic postmodern narrative.

Jack's big research task

How was Humans marketed, distributed and circulated? Please complete a channel 4 fact file.


Ideological perspectives
Funding
Channels (UK, US and international)
Notable releases
Ownership

Marketing and promotion

How was Humans marketed and promoted in the UK and internationally? What PR stunts were pulled? Teaser trailers? Official website? Whatever else!

Exploring how representations of gender are encoded in the final montage sequence of Humans S1E1

By being placed or situate in a stereotypically domesticated middle class setting, Anita's status as a stereotypical, hegemonic construction of a woman is reinforced. This setting also provides a binary opposition between the highly sexualised brothel setting, which again suggests that there are two diametrically opposed representations of femininity (see Freud's 'madonna and whore' theory).

• MS of Anita cooking reinforces a long held female stereotype
• CU of iron on ironing board, a metonymic representation of femininity
• Challenging stereotypes: Matty has dreams of being a doctor?  A programmer? Both non-stereotypical female roles
• Matty calls brother 'knob-cock', highly unladylike...
• MES of Laura and Anita facing each other: a contrast in terms of motherhood and humanity. Is Anita a 'perfect other'?
• A range of attractive female characters to appeal to a heterosexual male audience
• Sexualisation of Anita:18 plus rating similar to online pornographic website
• Anita carrying the child in to the suburban night functions as a hermeneutic code, enticing the audience to interact with the next episode
• MES of water running down window is symbolic of Anita's past, raising themes of loss, emotion and humanity
• Diegesis - in the world of the narrative
• Diegetic narrator underscores key plot information, allowing the audience to comprehend a difficult narrative, and to reinforce themes such as "what is love?"
• Men consistently represented in positions of dominance. The punter in the brothel has a shaved head, rough clothes and briefly barks orders at Nishka
• Double standards of representation. Women often sexualised. Nishka's revealing costume. However the camera zooms in on Nishka's face. acting as a direct mode of address top the audience
• The preferred response is for the audience to identify with Nishka, and to feel as uncomfortable as possible. This is further anchored through the lexis that the punter uses, which is both unloving and aggressive. This is further reinforced by Niska's dead expression.
• Van Zoonen: Male gaze. Women as object to the male. 'We're not taking it back'. Dismissive objectification of the female cyborg

How to submit your work to the shared google drive

Note: this is the system that Michael uses. Your teacher may use a completely different system to submit work!

1 - The first time you submit work, you will need to first log in to your college Google account, then follow the shareable link your teacher sends to your college email address (NOT your Google address)

2 - Every other time, you just need to log in to your Google account, open your drive, and then find the submission folder under the 'shared with me' tab

3 - Click on your block. If you don't know what block you're in, ask your teacher

4 - Click on the folder for the task you are completing. Sometimes this folder has sub-folders. Sometimes you will have your own named folder to submit your work to. Media sure is exciting

5 - Drag your work in to the appropriate folder. Remember, your work is hosted (stored) on your Google Drive, so never delete it. If you delete it, your teacher will be unable to access it!

Key assessment 1/October mock - Mark scheme and feedback

Mark scheme and indicative content

1)                  Explore how the combination of media language creates meaning in the poster for Avengers Endgame (2019) [15]

• Identification of ideological concepts
• Identification of conventions of theatrical posters
• Uses standard conventions of the superhero genre, providing a familiar experience to audiences. Standard conventions for a standard product?
• Clear branding: Marvel Studios branding, allowing audiences to identify quality and ownership of product
• Use of distinct character types
• Distinctive mise-en-scene: superhero costumes, iconographic elements
• Symbolic connotations of the US flag in Captain America’s shield thing
• Representational issues, including the roles that male and female characters play. Possible references to Berger, Stuart Hall, etc
• Densely packed composition, inferring excitement of ensemble cast
• Use of star appeal: cast black lists a range of high profile actors.
• Narrative elements: gestures and facial expression indicate a clear disruption of the equilibrium
• Frequent use of binary oppositions for dramatic impact: male and female, protagonist and antagonist, black and white, human and alien…
• Possible application of Z-line rule and rule of thirds
• Students may make comparisons between contemporary poster design and classic, ‘vintage’ style of the Kiss Of The Vampire poster. Such comparisons may briefly focus on respective representations of women etc
• Representation of women: stereotypically sexualised and marginalised in the background, or subversive, active representations?
• Potential audience appeal. Identification of primary ‘core’ audience and secondary ‘casual’ audience.
• Possible use of postcolonial hegemonic norms and values. White characters maintain compositional dominance, the few BME characters take side roles
• Mise-en-scene and gestures functioning as proairetic and hermeneutic codes, increasing audience engagement and involvement. In particular the proairetic code formed by the mise-en-scene of weapons, and the hermeneutic code formed by the gesture of the performers looking towards and und=seen threat

2 ) Compare how the audio-visual advert for WaterAid and the print advert for Oxfam construct representations [15]

In your answer you must:

•             Consider the choices that producers have made when constructing representations

•             Explore the similarities and differences of representations

•             Comment on how and why representations may be shaped by historical circumstances

• In order to achieve the highest marks, a response must construct and develop a sustained line of reasoning, which is coherent, relevant, substantiated and logically structured.
• Stronger answers will explore the differences in ideological intent between the two adverts, as in the ‘pathetic’ representation of African people in the Oxfam advert, and the more nuanced and potentially ‘empowered’ representation of African people in the WaterAid advert
• Consideration of financial implications 
• Students may refer to Gilroy’s theory of postcolonial identity
• Use of audience positioning: audience positioned as white middle class ‘saviour’ 
• Possible consideration of how hegemonic norms are reinforced through binary oppositions between rich and poor
• Students may come up with radically different arguments from one another, some seeing simplistic representation as a necessary evil in order to ensure financial success, and others 
• Use of stereotypical mise-en-scene in the WaterAid advert, with iconographic aspects including the stereotypical African wilderness and village scene
• Use of emotive language and direct mode of address
• Use of Hall’s theory, considering how representations are encoded through media language

Feedback legend

i - Media language - you are not using enough key media language! Make sure to revise the textual analysis toolkit. Remember, without media language, you are giving a common-sense response! DON’T DESCRIBE. ANALYSE.

ii- Knowledge and understanding - you are not familiar enough with the set texts... or you are simply not getting this knowledge across in the response. Re-read/watch the media products we have studied in class!

iii - The big concepts- you are not making enough considered reference to concepts such as ideology, cultivation, patriarchal hegemony, polysemic readings and so on. Revise and apply advanced media concepts for a better result.

iv- Theorists – You are either not refereeing to enough theoretical perspectives, or not referring to theories and theorists by name. Sort it out!

v- you must answer the question. If the question asks you to consider representation, then this is what you must write about!

Detailed feedback

You've got to make a plan! Plans are not only essential for structuring your response, but you can also demonstrate knowledge and understanding. If the worst comes to the worst, and you are unable to finish your response, you can still pick up a surprising amount of marks from your plan. It's really absolutely essential! 

Many of you are just not writing enough. This is something that can only come through practice: by taking detailed notes and completing past paper questions! Remember that every lesson is exam practice!

Media language

More successful answers made reference to conventions such as the Z line rule and the rule of thirds

Other successful answers made reference to genre conventions, and how genre conventions can increase audience appeal

There really should have been more references to Barthe's semiotic codes and Levi-Strauss's diametric oppositions. Some students nailed this. Just remember that these theories are GOLD when it comes to textual analysis/media language questions in particular!

Representation

Gilroy's theory of postcolonial identities was Extremely Useful here, and students who applied it well gave themselves a HUGE advantage

Some students didn't make reference to stereotypes. This is very much a case of shooting yourself in the foot. TOP TIP: in a representation question, ALWAYS refer to stereotypes!

Very few students referred to Hall's representation theory. We probably need to go over this in more detail...

There was not nearly enough detailed textual analysis of the Wateraid advert. For example, the use of cinematography (establishing shots, tracking shots, close ups) and mise-en-scene and setting. These would help your discussion of how representation is constructed.

EVENT: Tuesday 19th November.

If you're interested in a career in news, journalism or writing in general, we definitely recommend you check out this talk in the student centre! For more information, read the below flyer. Click to see full size!

I, Daniel Blake: research and presentation assessment tasks

You can find all nine research tasks by clicking here 

Viral marketing: the Dark Knight augmented reality PR stunt

This user created documentary, found by Freddy in S block, documents one of the most detailed and in-depth examples of viral marketing and film promotion I've ever seen. It would be a great case study to refer to in the film industry unit. Check it out!

Explore how the trailer to Black Panther appeals to both mass and niche audiences

Black Panther combines the iconography of the superhero film with the highly stylised mise-en-scene of traditional African costume and culture to create a highly original and potentially lucrative motion picture

• Clear genre conventions: big, loud fights with carefully constructed choreography 
• Costume! Form fitting, tight costumes demonstrating the character's muscles 
• Clear binary opposition that exists between the protagonist and the antagonist
• Use of a popular rap song: Kendrick Lamar. Appealing to a mass audience
• Stunning visual effects, high production values
• Exciting, exotic locations including African countries such as Uganda, and East Asian countries such as South Korea
• Huge actors! Martin Freeman! Angela Basset, Andy Serkis... Targets pre-existing fans
• Huge appeal to hetero women and gay men: a range of attractive men in skintight costumes
• Female audiences: use of empowered, powerful female characters: "Wakanda forever!"
• Based off a lesser known marvel character: targets niche comic book audiences 
• Use of technology and technological designs. Interesting to niche audiences. 
• Afro futurist design
• Narrative: good vs evil. A positive story line. The good guy always wins! reinforces dominant hegemonic ideological values 
• African religious myths
• Primary target audience: male, black, American, 15-21?
• Marvel branding: high brand awareness
• Huge ensemble cast
• Hollywood blockbuster: high production value
• Well known, easily identifiable actors, for example Chadwick Boseman
• An involved yet easy to understand narrative
• Aesthetically pleasing: attractive people, attractive settings: Korea, America, and African countries
• Sci-fi/action hybrid genre: appeals to even wider audiences
• Black actors, including a black protagonist
• Association with Black Panther movement: themes of black empowerment and challenging racist steretypes. Potential controversy, and possible ties to the Black Lives Matter movement

You can find the trailer here.

These notes were created by first year media students in S block and Q block.

Media theory revision task

Below are most of the theories we have explored so far. You are probably familiar with most of them, and you can find detailed definitions for each of these by checking your notes or by clicking on the 'theories and theorists' link on the rights of this blog.

However, do you actually understand what these terms mean? Can you explain them to a 12 year old?

TASK - copypaste the below. By each theory, write a clear and distinct summary even a year seven student could understand.

LANGUAGE

1 - Semiotics - Roland Barthes

2 - Narratology - Tzvetan Todorov

3 - Genre theory - Steve Neale

4 - Structuralism - Claude Lévi-Strauss

REPRESENTATION

6 - Theories of representation - Stuart Hall

7 - Theories of identity - David Gauntlett

8 - Feminist theory - Liesbet van Zoonen

9 - Feminist theory - bell hooks

MEDIA INDUSTRIES

12 - Power and media industries - Curran and Seaton

13 - Regulation - Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt

14 - Cultural industries - David Hesmondhalgh

AUDIENCES

16 - Cultivation theory - George Gerbner

17 - Reception theory - Stuart Hall