Approaching Exam question 3

Learning objective: How to approach a response to question 3 of the written exam

Questions 2c and 3 are the more challenging questions on the exam paper.
They will ask you to discuss the concept of audience or representation.

It is important that your responses are structured and coherent.
Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of these concepts to the examiner.
Have a clear introduction, main body and conclusion to help you achieve a more sophisticated answer.

Opening paragraph:

This should define any key terminology showing that you understand the meaning.
Do not start to analyse the texts until you have shown that you understand the question by defining the key terms they have used.
Place the texts in a context.

You should be able to explore all of these key terms using specific examples:

For audience:

• Audience positioning.
• Audience responses
• Audience appeal
• Audience categories
• Audience construction

For representation:

You should be able to use relevant examples to show understanding of how...

Age

Gender

Ethnicity

Issues

Events

Regional/national identity

...are represented in the media today.

For representation you must be able to include terms like construction, ideology and mediation.

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Example question:

Explore how media texts target different audiences.

(Opening paragraph example)

The aim of all media texts, both print based and audio visual is to target an audience who will then be the consumers of the product. In a competetive, media saturated society it is vital that strategies are used in order to target the appropriate audience. Some texts will target a specific, niche audience and the aim of other texts will be to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. All texts are in competition with other existing products and therefore it is essential that their strategies work. The text may also be targeting a primary, secondary and in some cases a tertiary audience.

I have chosen three different texts to demonstrate how they use different strategies to target their audience....

It is important that you plan your answers using a grid to plan your answers.

Like the example here:

So for those that look like a rabbit in the headlights, here is some help with how to approach a question about audience.

• Audience positioning.

Audiences are not passive, we are active.

Texts are polysemic.

Text producers encode texts according to their own ideology.

The encoders include: Editors, journalists, photographers and designers.

Encoding is done through visual and technical codes, language and mode of address.

Some ideologies from Marie Claire magazine (October 2007 featuring Angelina Jolie)

• Looks and appearance are important
• Other people's opinions of you are important
• Feeling good about yourself and having self confidence is important
• Strong independent women should be celebrated - women hold positions of authority and influence
• Emotions and feelings should be discussed and reflected upon
• Celebrities are people too - with feelings and vulnerabilities
• Women need guidance to help them make the right choices
• Women are maternal
• A fashionable look is important but people (children) shouldn't be harmed in attaining this look
• Materialism

You can also discuss the Hollyoaks extract we looked at or the promotional poster for Kidulthood. (See your own task responses.

Audiences are positioned through the use of camera shots, angles and framing.

Humour and sometimes colloquial language or slang.

• Audience responses

This does not necessarily mean that an audience will accept and agree with these ideologies.

Stuart Hall should be applied when the question asks you about responses.

There are a few important things to remember about the three different positions that we can take.

Preferred Reading

Is not just about 'liking' a text - you must understand what the purpose of a text is and agree with its ideologies and the messages it carries.

Oppositional Reading

Is not just 'disliking' a text - there are many reasons why someone may take an oppositional reading - but whatever these reasons are, the audience member must understand what the intentions of the text are, but reject them.

Negotiated Reading

Can be the case whereby an audience member agrees with some ideologies and not others, but it can also be the case where the audience doesn't fully understand the intentions of the text - or is confused about the purpose of the text.

Readers of Marie Claire might take an Oppositional Reading, which might include...

• Rejecting materialism
• Believing that there are more important things in life than appearance
• Believing that having fashionable clothes is more important than knowing where the clothes come from
• It doesn't matter what others think of you so long as you are happy with yourself

• Audience appeal

Media texts appeal to audiences using a variety of methods:

Technical and audio codes - fast paced editing in an action text or bright colours in a gossip magazine

Language and mode of address - Voice over in a horror genre film may attract an audience with promises of a horrific narrative. 

Subject specific lexis

Hyperbole

Imperatives

Quotes to make the text authentic

Elipsis may put answers in the audiences head. 'Got Milk?'

• Audience categories

Here you can consider Psychometric profiles which deal with values and interests, lifestyles of the audience. 

The 4 C's - Mainstreamers, aspirers, reformers, succeeders.

Demographic profiles 

NRS - A, B, C1, C2. D, E

• Audience construction

This is to do with enigmas that keep the audience hooked. 
This is to do with use of celebrity to endorse a product or be a spokesperson for a campaign.

Magazines use the cover, sell lines and cover lines on its front to construct a clear idea of who the audience is.

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Representation

When considering representation of age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality, you should be thinking about the following things:

• ·       Can I identify what approximate age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality the characters are?
• ·      Are people from different age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality groups shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours?  If so, how?
• ·      Is their age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality represented as being important in their life?
• ·      Are people from particular age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality groups portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• ·      Are people from particular age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality groups portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others? 
•  How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality groups?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about age, gender, ethnicity, issues, events or regionality?

Age You can refer to The Daily Express covering the London Riots, Waterloo Road, Harry Brown, 

Gender You can refer to Cosmopolitan (Fearn Cotton), GHD, Persil (Rubber).

Ethnicity You can refer to Spooks, Hotel Babylon, Eastenders.

Issues You should discuss body image and teenage delinquency (as seen in the media coverage of the London riots)..

Events You can discuss the media coverage of the London Riots, Christmas as represented in the Sainsburies advert.

Regional/national identity You can refer to Dr Martin

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How people, places and situations are represented is also dependent on;

• Costume
• Language / regional identity
• Settings / locations [geographical markers] 

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Task 1: Answer the question below 

Using your own detailed examples, explore the representations of gender in the media today.