Brief
The first two pages of a new local newspaper, together with two of the following three options:
A poster for the newspaper;
A radio advertisement for the newspaper;
Two hyperlinked pages from the paper’s website.
The production process
Pre-production
- Research the target audience and match the idea to this audience.
- Deconstruct existing media texts that are similar in form or content.
- Plan each stage of production with equipment, locations, etc.
- Additional material should be found at this stage, so that I have a clear idea of the identity of the product I am creating.
- Create the storyboard, flatplan, page layout, etc so I know exactly what I need for my production.
Production
Involves creating the raw material that will constitute the final product. Therefore the construction will lead to my final product.
Post-production
This mainly consists of editing, constructing the raw material into the form that the audience will receive. It is to see my idea come together. Also, important to remember the target audience at this stage and make sure the text will appeal to them.
Print
- A computer with some DTP software.
- A camera to take ORIGINAL images to use in my text. Ideally digital camera as it is easier to get the pictures into my print pages.
Planning my artifact
It is very important to define my target audience well before I start to construct my project because the target audience will affect every design decision I make. For example the target audience for a new newspaper will significantly influence the font chosen for the masthead and the audience for an advertisement and will make a big difference to the representations used in my website/radio ad/poster. Next, I should produce a flatplan or page layout in line with my decisions and the overall look of the product (publisher contains good layouts for newspapers). I also need to do some research into similar products.
Designing
- Keep my pages uncluttered and not run text right up to margins. A picture can speak for itself and that long sections of text can be broken up in many ways. Always relate any design decisions you make to the target audience and to codes and conventions used in similar publications (unless I have made a deliberate change).
- When I am taking photographs, bear in mind the mise-en-scene as well as camera angle, framing and lighting to create the effect I want. (It is much easier to get it right when I take the photo rather than trying to manipulate it later).
- Make sure the vocabulary, sentence structure and content match with my target audience and institutional context. For example, a report about John Terry’s affair with Wayne Bridge’s wife in The Sun is going to be written very differently from a report in The Times.
- Also, my purpose is to provoke some kind of emotion in my audience. I am not producing factual texts but texts which affect a mass audience. For example, a newspaper does not seek simply to report the news but to make judgements on it and to make the reader react to what is reported – with anger at a dreadful crime on my front cover story for example or with sympathy for a celebrity having difficulties in their personal life.
- House Style: where publishing institutions produce more than one title, they often use the same house style across a group of titles so that the audience can easily recognize them. This can be useful when promoting my newspaper through a website/radio ad/ poster.
Key concepts
Media language
Media language means the way in which a text is constructed to create meaning for a reader or viewer of the text. Each media text communicates in many different ways. Each of my news stories will communicate its message according how it’s interpreted. Different techniques are used to create meaning such as the use of colour or the framing used in a camera shot. The text acts as an interface between the institution that has created the text and the audience that will receive the text. For example;
- An active institutional view is that meaning is transmitted by the text from the institution to the audience. The institution is seen as active and the audience as passive receiver. Is it a one way ideology that my news stories convey?
- A negotiated view is that meaning is constructed by the text. The institution encodes a meaning into the text and the reader interprets this and therefore negotiated between institution and audience.
- An active audience view is that meaning is re-created by the audience and so the institution becomes passive in the relationship since it has no control over how the audience re-creates meaning from the text in an active way.
Representation
All media texts are representations of reality and identify what representations of people, place time, etc is being established within a text and how these are employed to create meaning. They may be stereotypes or complex representations but it is still important that they will have all been constructed to appeal to a particular target audience. Will my products appeal to my target audience?
It is impossible for these representations to be unbiased in any way. Whatever representations are used, their ideology, meanings and values are implicit in that presentation. This gives power and responsibility to media institutions. For example, the presentation of asylum seekers in some newspapers over the last few years has been very negative and this can be seen to have influenced social attitudes in many ways. Newspapers in particular are often accused of starting moral panics by the way they represent people or groups. Representation of social groups in media texts includes;
- Age
- Disability
- Gender
- Race
- Nationality
- Sexuality
- Socio-economic grouping
Audience
Any media text is created for a particular audience and will usually appeal most to this particular target audience. I should be aware of ways that audiences can be categorized and how the makeup of the target audience affects the media language employed by a text.
The consumer
We are all consumers of media texts every day and it is our consumption which is of interest to media producers. My product needs to ensure it can readily define a target audience and will directly appeal to them. The success of a media text is directly judged in terms of audience size, so media producers have a good reason for wanting to attract large audiences.
Mass audiences
Are large audiences often termed as broadcast audiences who consume mainstream or popular culture texts. For example, the audience for Eastenders or a Premiership football match.
Niche audiences
Much smaller than a mass audience but usually very influential. Niche audiences are often very dedicated and loyal and therefore may still be very attractive to advertisers or sufficiently reliable to enable a niche publication to continue due to the consistent revenue being generated by sales. For example, The Sun newspaper’s football gossip is aimed at a niche audience who are interested in football.
Audience demographics
A common way of identifying a target audience is the socio-economic model and therefore allows us to deconstruct a text. The basis for this system is money – an AB audience is assumed to have more spending power than a CDE audience for example. It is also presumed to consume different media texts such as high culture texts (broadsheet newspapers). A more successful media product will have a clear understanding of its audience and its target. The area of Willesden is less likely to appeal to an AB audience.
Ideology
Relates to the values and attitudes employed within a text and conveyed to the audience. These may be explicit or implicit. I should identify the ideologies within my product in relation to a particular audience.
Ideologies are promoted in many ways, for example the ways that women are portrayed in films, on television and in magazines.
- Are they explicit or implicit?
- How does the text employ dominant ideologies?
- What ideological assumptions are made in the text?
- Do the ideologies reflect the type of text? (For example, the ideologies being established in a newspaper may well shape the form and content of the whole news story).
Institution
A media text is made by a particular media institution and this will also affect the way that it is constructed and the meaning it communicates. It may also affect the audience expectations. Some media institutions are more heavily commercial while others have a requirement to produce particular types of text and to support minority audiences for example. I should be aware of how institution affects the shaping of a text and the relationship to its target audience. The shape of a media institution and the texts it creates is usually formed by four influences;
Also I need to identify;
- What institution created a particular text
- How this institutional context has shaped the text
- What ideologies are therefore established in the text
- What institutional codes and conventions are used in the text (which are the influences of the institution that creates a particular text and will be revealed by certain symbolic codes that I can deconstruct when looking at the text. Some of these conventions are typical codes for this particular institution.
Commercial institutions have to make money to survive (newspapers have to sell advertising space and sell copies) and so cannot afford to produce texts which will attract small audiences, especially niche audiences. Advertisers will want access to large and stable audiences. This is why most commercial institutions will target a mass audience rather than risk losing the advertisers. Many newspapers use similar tactics to gain increased market share. For instance, The Sun usually has a competition on the front page because they know that this will attract their target audience to buy the paper, so does this mean I make my local newspaper very dramatic or in a way it will stand out?
Narrative
Basically means story. All media texts have a narrative. It may be an explicit or implicit narrative. Newspapers usually refer to a story even though they are reporting fact and not fiction.
- Has the institution created a text with a conventional narrative structure?
- If not, which conventions have they broken?
- Why have they done this?
- What impact does this have on the audience?
- What audience expectations have they established or challenged by using this structure?
An action is something that a character does to himself, an object, or another character. An event is something that happens to the character, something that impacts on him/her, and over which he/she has little control. A narrative is usually a series of events and actions and the audience’s expectations at any stage are often related to the pattern of events and actions taking place. All of my news stories will have narratives.
Genre
For example, in television genres, programmes within the same genre will have similar, familiar or instantly recognizable patterns, techniques or conventions that include one or more of the following: setting, mise-en-scene, plot, motifs, technical features, situations, characters and format. I should identify various codes and conventions employed and relating these to the genre codes and conventions into my product. Audiences apply their previous knowledge of each genre to create meaning for a text.
Codes and conventions
The textual codes which give meaning to an audience and the conventions of the genre, such as themes/ideologies or narratives which are used by the text. These codes and conventions are important for the audience (because people know these codes and conventions are likely to be used in a text within its genre) and also for the institution because there is a genre framework for the text and it is likely to attract audiences.
Identifying a genre
What particular codes and conventions are being used in the text and also why are they being employed. For example, in a tabloid newspaper, the audience will be expecting the conventional masthead, a dramatic headline, images of celebrities, competitions and particular types of content. Therefore, identify how and where some of these codes and conventions have been used in the text and why it has been used in this way.
Audience
Genre is a useful hook for an audience. A typical masthead for a tabloid newspaper will clearly identify the genre and along with establishing an enigma which the audience will want to resolve as this genre attracts an audience. Audiences like genre because it enables them to pigeonhole a text and they feel secure interacting with a generic text.
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