How can colour function as a visual code?

Particular colours carry cultural associations, so red can connote danger, passion or warning depending on what surrounds it.

How does costume carry meaning?

It signals a character's status, occupation, era, group membership and attitude before they speak.

What is a gestural code?

Meaning carried by the movement, posture and facial expression of a person in the frame.

WJEC A-Level Media Studies 603-1976-8

Contexts of Media

Topic overview The conceptual framework and its four inter-related areas The map of critical perspectives across the framework Ownership, funding and regulation as industry context Industry context, messages and ideologies Historical context and its effect on representations The time a product is made in and the time it is set in Social and cultural contexts and the discourses of a product Cultural influences: genres, styles, movements and other producers Why the same product is read differently in different places Wales as a media context: social, economic and industry factors S4C and Welsh-language broadcasting The global dimension and media beyond the US and UK

Media Language

Topic overview What media language is Technical, visual and audio codes Print design and layout conventions Camerawork and mise-en-scène Editing and sound Online media language and design conventions Mode of address Semiotics and Roland Barthes Narrative and Tzvetan Todorov Genre theory and Steve Neale Structuralism and Claude Lévi-Strauss Postmodernism and Jean Baudrillard Intertextuality and hybridity Viewpoints, values and ideology in media language How developing technologies change media language

Media Representations

Topic overview What representation means Stereotypes and their uses Representations of gender Representations of ethnicity and Stuart Hall Representations of age Representations of place, region and nation Representations of Wales and Welsh identity Representations of issues and events Identity and David Gauntlett Positioning the audience Context and its effect on representation Analysing and evaluating representations Representations of social class Representation and the global media Reinforcement of representations across products Constructing a representation in your own production

Media Industries

Topic overview What a media industry is Ownership and control Funding models Regulation of the media Public service broadcasting Production, commissioning and finance Distribution, marketing and exhibition Technological change and convergence Globalisation of the media industries The media industries in Wales News industries and their economics Brands, intellectual property and franchises Entering and working in the media industries Industry context and its effect on content Analysing a product's industry

Media Audiences

Topic overview What an audience is Grouping and categorising audiences Targeting, attracting and reaching an audience Media effects and Albert Bandura Cultivation theory and George Gerbner Reception theory and Stuart Hall The end of audience and Clay Shirky Fandom and Henry Jenkins Uses and gratifications Interaction, participation and specialised audiences Regulation, protection and audience harm Researching and measuring audiences Audience positioning and preferred readings Audiences and social and cultural circumstance Audiences and media technology Analysing an audience for a product

Advertising, Marketing and Music Video

Topic overview Print advertising: layout, typography and design codes Audio-visual advertising: camerawork, editing and sound Online advertising and its design conventions Charity and public information campaigns Commercial advertising for consumer goods Historical advertising before 1980 Barthes, semiotics and the meanings of an advertisement Representations of gender in advertising and music video Representations of ethnicity and age, and Stuart Hall on representation Gauntlett, identity and the audience as pick-and-mix Music video: performance, narrative and concept Music video before 2000 and the changing form Marketing, audience categories and targeting Audience response, reception theory and media effects

News in the Online Age

Topic overview Design and language conventions of print and online news The Guardian in print and online The Daily Mirror in print and online The Times in print and online BBC News Online and public service news The Huffington Post and digital-native news Wales Online and news for a Welsh audience Radio news conventions and Today on BBC Radio 4 Radio Wales Drive and Post Prynhawn News values and the construction of a news event Representation, ideology and re-presenting reality in news Ownership, control and public service in news Technology, convergence and the circulation of news News audiences, citizen journalism and the end of audience

Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood

Topic overview Film language: camerawork, mise-en-scène, editing and sound Genre codes, iconography and Neale's repertoire of elements Narrative construction and Todorov's equilibrium Film production and funding in Wales Co-productions, festivals and national cinema Hollywood ownership, vertical integration and diversification Distribution, marketing and exhibition in a digital age Regulation of film in the United Kingdom and the BBFC Film audiences: targeting, positioning and reception Don't Knock Twice and Drag Me To Hell Submarine and Clueless The Machine and Blade Runner Y Llyfrgell/The Library Suicides and Shutter Island Yr Ymadawiad/The Passing and The Village

Television in the Global Age

Topic overview Genre and the television crime drama Camerawork, mise-en-scène, editing and sound in crime drama Narrative structure and ideology in television crime drama Constructing representations of crime, gender and place The global television industry: ownership, funding and regulation Television audiences in the global age Y Gwyll/Hinterland, S4C and Welsh-language television The Bridge (2012), Denmark and Sweden The Killing (2007), Denmark The Disappearance (2015), France Arne Dahl (2015), Sweden Prime Suspect (1991), ITV Touching Evil (1997), ITV Morse: 'The Way Through the Woods' (1995), ITV Cracker: 'To be a Somebody' (1994), ITV

Magazines: Changing Representations

Topic overview Magazine media language: codes, conventions and design Constructing representations in magazines The magazine industry and its audiences Vogue, July 1965: the historical fashion magazine Woman, 23–29 August 1964 Woman's Realm, 7–13 February 1965 Cosmopolitan online Hello! online Men's Health online Vogue online Adbusters Attitude Huck Pride

Video Games in the Digital Age

Topic overview Media language and the codes of video games Interactivity, immersion and ludic qualities Video game genres and intertextuality Representations of gender and ethnicity in video games The global video games industry: ownership, synergy and economics Video game audiences, fandom and media effects Assassin's Creed Grand Theft Auto Mass Effect Tomb Raider Wii Sports Cooking Mama Minecraft The Sims

Creating Media Productions

Topic overview Researching the codes and conventions of a form Audience research and defining a target audience Analysing comparable products: genre and competitor research Investigative research and the development outline Treatments, storyboards, scripts and flat plans Schedules, shot lists and risk assessment Production in audio-visual, print and online form Working to a brief Applying media language to construct a representation Original material, copyright and ethics Independent, collaborative and cross-media production Reflective and critical analysis

Media Language

Technical, visual and audio codes

3 things to know
AS Unit 1 and A2 Unit 3

Overview

Technical codes, visual codes and audio codes.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

What are technical codes?

Key term

What are visual codes?

Key term

What are audio codes?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What are technical codes?
Model answer
The meanings created by the equipment and craft of production, such as camerawork, editing and lighting.
2
What are visual codes?
Model answer
The meanings carried by what is seen in the frame, including colour, costume, gesture, expression, setting and props.
3
What are audio codes?
Model answer
The meanings carried by sound, including dialogue, music, sound effects, silence and the qualities of a voice.
4
How can colour function as a visual code?
Model answer
Particular colours carry cultural associations, so red can connote danger, passion or warning depending on what surrounds it.
5
How does costume carry meaning?
Model answer
It signals a character's status, occupation, era, group membership and attitude before they speak.
6
What is a gestural code?
Model answer
Meaning carried by the movement, posture and facial expression of a person in the frame.

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Contexts of Media

Media Language

Media Representations

Media Industries

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An audience receives what is offered.

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