Media studies assignment 2

Genre is another word for type, it is the type of something. Genre comes in many different categories, and sub categories.

Genre is useful to both audiences and media products, when it comes to audiences people like different types of things so there are so many different types of categories of e.g. film. Genre is useful in media producers because if they know what people like then they can make money by producing something in that category, e.g. music or books.

Some examples of genre are:

Games

• Fps
• Rts
• Mmorpg
• Simulators

 Music

• Hip-hop
• Dance
• Pop
• Metal

 Magazines

• Game magazines
• Music magazines
• Car magazines

 Websites

• Gamer sites
• Property sites
• News sites

 Radio

• Key 103
• Galaxy
• Xfm
• Century

Codes and Conventions 

Codes:  Codes are basically ways of communicating meaning without words.

The news for example, normally we see the presenter sitting at a desk and talking to the camera, this is a code that shows us that it is the news because we all know how the news is produced. The starting intro to the news uses pacey yet important sounding music, in the main show many images are shown about what is going on around the world.

 

 

Symbolic codes: Symbolic codes are the choice of content in something e.g. How the colour red is used in something such as the colour can suggest danger in a vampire movie because it is the colour of blood but it could also suggest passion or love in another thing.

Technical codes:  Technical codes are the use of images, lighting camera angles, special effects in something .E.g. the images they use in the news for the different news.

Historical Codes: Historical codes are how a film/TV programme has to be shot and set e.g. the film 300 is set in 480 B.C. so the director must make sure he uses items from that time era and not have anything from our time period.

  Conventions: 

Conventions are the accepted and expected ways of doing something e.g  the news, originally news readers sat behind a desk and read with scripts but now news readers move about and use laptops.

 

Content appeal in games:

 

Half-life 2

 Half-life 2 is an action fps with a good firm storyline and is based at 15+ year olds, this has abit of blood but not too much and is mostly all action.

The first half-life sold millions so the media producers have seen this and decided to make a second because they know they can make money off it.

Big companies such as EA do a vast range of different genre of games and this is how they can make money easy. We all know that people like different things and EA have made games that people want.

  Content appeal in music 

It is the same in music, the media producers sell different types of music for people who like different genres, and this is how they make money.

 

 Different Codes In Media

 Games: 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R – Shadow Of Chernobyl

 

 

In this picture you can see that the lighting is dark and eerie, this sets the mood for the atmosphere. In parts of the game there are meant to be scary sections and this is one of them, the use of freaky characters and industrial location this all sets the mood when playing.

This falls in to two of the code categories, symbolic and technical. Symbolic because there is abit of blood but also technical because of the dark lighting.

At the same time there is also a historical reference in this game because it is based upon Chernobyl and what happened there. It shows how pipryat is after what happened many years ago.

 

 

 

Conventions in media products

 

When reading a readers questions in a game magazine you would expect the writers to get back to the readers about what they asked/talked about, but if you had a writer get back talking about something completely random then you would start to lose readers.

 They could also review cars even though it is a game magazine but that is not what you would expect and so from the front cover you know what to expect.

 

 

 

Modes Of Address:

 

The way media products speak to their audiences.

 

Over the years modes of address have changed, in the 1980’s news and radio were spoken in proper standard english unlike now there is more slang e.g.

 

Galaxy fm

 

Galaxy presenters all speak in a slang talk because its the type of speech the listeners use and know, and the music they play is also within that style.

 

 

Classical fm

 

As for Classical fm presenters they mostly speak standard english in a very mild tone, which again is how most of the listeners would speak.

 

 

Audience feedback:

 

• Focus groups – made up of representatives of the target audience.
• Audience panels – members of panels provide feedback on a regular meeting of the panel.
• Trialling and testing – samples of the audience give feedback on short ‘pilot’ extracts of what the complete product will be like.
• Reviews – somtimes, ordinary members of the audience provide reviews about new media products for newspapers, magazines, websites.There are also professional reviewers who write for newspapers:they can sometimes provide the cruellest feedback of all.
• Complaints – can be recieved directly from members of the audience, or they may complain to an official body, such as Ofcom for broadcasting, the ASA for advertising and the Press Complaints Commission for newspapers and magazines.