Now that you have revisited Digital Technologies and written an essay on it, you can use the remaining lessons this week to revisit the other areas of the Music Industry that you will need to have a handle on for the exam. To do this you should complete your…
These have been summarised for you in our whole class case study slide show
Take a copy of the whole class slideshow and slim it down to 12 case studies which you need to learn.
Re-read / Re-Watch Anima – Superb Case Study!
Listen to the Voicethread of the marketing 60″ case studies.
Review the material on the departmental blog (Exam Paper 1>The Music Industry)
If this is complete with about 12 case studies, you should have all you need to answer a question on the Music Industry. Remember, you can make the case studies work for you – not exactly ‘shoe horn’ them in, but they can all be used to evidence, illustrate a variety of key debates, discussions about audiences and institutions in the music industry.
Critical Reflection Final Submission
This should be copied into the blog as a new blog post.
You should include the following before the essay
Your full name
The brief in full
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
How do your products engage with the audience?
The essay should include the images (with captions). You should wrap the text around the images
All the section headings and questions in the body of the essay should be removed
You should make the following terms bold:
Branding
Research
Conventions
Use
Challenge
Representation
Star Image
Audience
Golden Gregsons Submission
You should submit your final coursework products for nomination to one of the categories in the Media & Film Studies Awards
Explain what elements of design are consistent across your products
These are the coherent design elements across your multimedia package, which communicate meaning (the brand values)
The message around ideology (values, attitudes and beliefs) which are central to your artists star image & the album they are just releasing (Hall)
Use some key buzz phrases from the above videos.
Make sure you have three images in this section, one from each of the products. You should also refer to at least one other unifying feature which communicates your brand message.
How do your products engage with the audience? (250 – 300 words)
A Recap on Marketing
Use the template to draft a response to the question.
Focus on the Social Media Page as this is where engaging the audience is tackled on so many levels and through the various products and across various platforms.
Think about those key ideas from the Uses and Gratification Theory – Blumler and Katz and why people seek to consume the media:
Entertainment
Information
Personal Identity
Social Interaction
‘AIDA’ – The Marketing Mantra
The goals of all marketing campaigns. AIDA…
attract
interest
desire
(call to) action
You might also weave in some key terms like encode, decode, target audience, demographic, ideologies, beliefs, representation etc.
Find two examples from the Social Media Page.
Describe their clear purpose of engaging the (interactive) audience.
Candidates must write an evaluative essay of around 1000 words. This critical reflection of their work should be guided by the following compulsory questions:
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
How do your products engage with the audience?
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
This critical reflection must be completed individually, even if candidates had collaborated in the creation of their products.
Task: Initial Brainstorm
You have already done a huge amount of research, planning & design as you made you multi media marketing package for the release of an album
As a whole class we completed the round robin and you are going to think about how you would answer these 2 questions using your own specific products:
How did your research inform your music video and the way it uses or challenge conventions?
How does your digipack represent the star and the issues they are concerned about?
You should describe and analyse your products with reference to specific examples and use terminology (just cite the theorist) to describe how those conventional features have been used, developed, challenged (designed) by you to construct/represent a specific set of ideas, which is: your brand or mission statement!
You must then go on to say how your representation (ideology) of your star and issues raised in digipak were shaped by you.
Task 1
Recap what conventions means?
Recap what representation means?
Task 2
Read the template, draft sheet.
Task 3
Then begin to make your own submissions regarding conventions in the music video and regarding representation in the digipak.
@ 250 words for Conventions and 250 words for Representation.
ADVICE
The conventional design features in your video, include examples such as lighting, framing & composition, camera movement mise-en-scene, editing styles, filters, effects g along with narrative structure and themes and also technical conventions such as lip syncing, edit to the beat.
The representation of social groups or issues in your digipak: include ideas such as star image, genre, brand – use of filters, fonts, body language, MES, imagery etc. And representation of issues – genre, the ‘vibe’ of the genre – anarchic, rebellious, contemplative, organic, upbeat?
To ensure you are addressing the question – bold or highlight or underline every time you use:
the terms use, develop, challenge, copy, emulate, follow etc
the terms represent, portray, convey, infer, imply etc
every time you have an adjective in the analysis of how the groups/issues are represented.
These are the assessment objectives – so keep it in mind when you are writing your response.
Candidates must write an evaluative essay of around 1000 words. This critical reflection of their work should be guided by the following compulsory questions:
How do your products represent social groups or issues?
How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
How do your products engage with the audience?
How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?
This critical reflection must be completed individually, even if candidates had collaborated in the creation of their products.
Task: Initial Brainstorm
You have already done a huge amount of research, planning & design as you made you multi media marketing package for the release of an album
As a whole class we complete round robin and you are going to think about how you would answer these questions using specific products:
How did you try to brand your star?
How did your research inform your music video and the way it uses or challenge generic conventions?
How does your digipack represent the star and the issues they are concerned about?
How does your social media page engage with the audience?
Media Theory & Key Concepts
From now on we are going to be explicitly teaching media theory. Previously we have been teaching this implicitly (without naming specific theory or theorists (except Blumler, Katz & Dyer)) however from now on and in all your exams there is an expectation that you will recognise that Media Studies draws on a range of theorists’ ideas and that you must name them and use some of the terms they used to explain the key concepts in Media Studies, which are:
Language
Representation
Industry
Audience
This is also true for the Critical Reflection:
Here is a table which illustrates which theorist / theory you should try and apply to each of the Critical Reflection questions:
The Media Theory Bible
Here is a detailed description of each of the key theorists ideas you need in your exam.
Please be aware that this includes some theorists that you do no need for the Critical Reflection, but will be used in the component 4 exam (Postmodernism, Media Regulation & Media Ecology). You should also note that this is a work in progress and will develop over the next few months.
Application of Questions to Products
We are aiming for an essay of 1,000 – 1,200 words. You do not have time (300 words max) to elaborate on the details of all your products in each section and so we will be applying specific questions to specific products. See below for details:
In order to understand audience you should understand what makes them tick, especially what reasons they have for consuming any media at all.
Remember Blumler & Katz, who suggested that there were four Uses and Gratifications that an audience seek from their media. Their theory describes an active audience:
USES AND GRATIFICATION
Information
Self education to suit personal needs; advice on practical matters; information on events or issues of personal interest; curiosity or general interest. News to help them decide how to vote.
Personal Identity
Media reinforces or challenges personal ideologies; models of behaviour explored to challenge, adjust or affirm personal values, attitudes and beliefs
Social Interaction
Identify with others to gain a sense of belonging (identity); find basis for real life interactions; a substitute for real life relationships
He argues that an audience decodes what the producer encodes in a text. However, how they read the text will depend on their
Demographics – age, gender
Psychographics – beliefs, politics, religion
Cultural competence – their knowledge of ‘stuff’
Circumstances in which they are consuming the media
So whatever you decide to include in your music video and associated products must use signs, symbols, cultural references and codes that your target audience will be able to read, interpret, recognise and decode so that they will enjoy it and have a preferred reading of your text(s)
This theory will be extremely helpful for the Critical Reflection. It will also be useful theory to understand for both Postmodernism and Media Ecology; sections of the last paper (Critical Perspectives).
Below is a handout on Hall and a slideshow on reception theory.
RECEPTION THEORY
Click for handout on Hall.
TASK
So…what am I supposed to actually do?
Answer… Design your perfect audience member.
Consider these questions when doing your research:
What platform is your production to be accessed on?
What is the product’s function? (What is it trying to do or achieve?)
What genre(s) does your artist typically work in?
Who are the target audience?
What do they find appealing?
What do they like to do?
What are their interests/concerns?
What do they expect from this type of media product?
As a pair/group agree the following features of your audience:
Which other bands/artists your audience would be into?
What other media they would consume, fashion tastes, musical genre preferences…
What are their values, attitudes and beliefs they hold about what’s important in their lives and the world around them.
What broad demographic groups do your audience fall into (gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, cultural background)?
What ‘communities’ do they belong to?
Where do they live, work and play?
Then as a group you should all contribute to designing your target audience profile in the form of a moodboard.
HELP
Here is a handout we gave you earlier this year which describes different audience groups / communities which is helpful in reaching some conclusions about their values, attitudes and beliefs, and how to describe their communities and social groups.
Use Google slides to design a profile for your target audience to include photos and call outs for key facts.
Give your ideal audience an image, name, gender, relationship status, groups, status, likes, dislikes…all of this should be through the filter of music and should help describe your audience profile. Make it as detailed as possible – why not consider someone you know (do not actually use them) who likes the music, is a fan of that music/band and use them as inspiration.
Note: This is a group task so share the document or moodboard.
You should try and outline the ‘typical fan’ on someone you know – this always helps to guide your design decisions – would he or she like it, respond to it, notice it, enjoy it?
REMEMBER TO USE TERMINOLOGY IN YOUR BLOG POSTS INTRODUCTIONS and REFLECTIONS! –preferred reading, encode, decode, oppositional reading, demographics, psychographics, cultural experience, uses and gratification, target audience, producer, target audience, entertainment, education, social interaction and personal identity, communities, tribes, tribewired, individualists etc from the audience segmentation sheet.
