Audience and Intertextuality

Learning objectives: Apply the concept of intertextuality to media texts.

Key words: Pastiche and parody, Homage. Mimicry. Marketing.

• Intertextuality is the way in which texts refer to other media texts that producers assume that their target audiences will recognise. 
• One of pleasures that audiences experience is the joy of recognition. 
• One form of this pleasure comes in recognising the reference in one media text to other media texts. 
• This process of referencing is called intertextuality.

Intertextuality can be demonstrated in several ways in the media:

Pastiche and parody are both examples of INTERTEXTUALITY. Intertextuality is the defining of a work’s meaning through the understanding of other texts. Look at this example from the Simpsons. It’s meaning is made when you understand that it’s a reference to the film Silence of the Lambs.

The image of Monty in restraints links him to the mass murderer Hannibal Lecter. If you have the foreknowledge of Lecter then you can make the connection; Monty is evil. Intertextuality is like a short cut to meaning, it uses people’s understanding of media texts to make new meanings.

- Parody Taking the mickey out of different texts for example “scary movie”. Anything that takes itself too seriously is putting itself up for parody!

- Pastiche Recycling other media texts for example Kill Bill is a mixture of Japanese samurai, french new wave, Hong Kong kung fu. 

- Homage referencing other texts and people for example the remake of Hitchcock's 1960 film Psycho in 1998.

- Mimicry Often this borrowing of a text to link it to a second one is stylistic. This means that a text will mimic or otherwise copy stylistic features of another text, for example Katy Perry’s ” The one that got away” music video.

- Marketing of media texts. Making reference to other texts and marketing them, for example when Jonathan Ross had Daniel Radcliffe and David Attenborough on his TV chatshow.

- Media performers working in more than one media form. (Cheryl Cole as a judge on The Xfactor. Cheryl Cole won a show similar to Xfactor).

Task 1: (Classwork Orange books)

• Analyse the following videos and make comparisons. 
• How would you categorise the different features of intertextuality? 
• Are there any other intertextual considerations? 
• Research the director of the Thriller video and other texts he directed?

Task2 (Homework): This cover of Vogue sparked a debate about racial imagery. 

Do some research and write 200 words on how intertextuality has been used and what effect it may have had.

Task3 (Homework): This Vanity Fair magazine cover received a lot of publicity.

Research the scandal surrounding it and write 200 words considering the intertextual aspects. (Disney,Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus career).

Year 12 written tasks success criteria:

Knowledge of the concept of audience/representation/narrative

Awareness of relevant theories

Uses examples to draw on relevant issues

Use of media terminology/key words

Quality of written communication