Key Concepts of Media Studies

The key concepts of media studies are:

• Media language- the nuts and bnolts of media products
• Representation - how people, especially certain groups such as age, gender, ethnicity, sexuallity, regional identify, ability/disability and class/social status, are portrayed by the media.
• Audience- the ways of describing nad appeling to consumers of media
• Institution- the producers and regualtors of the media

What does each of the key concepts refer to?

Media language refers to the following:

• cinematography
• editing
• sound
• mise en scene

Cinematography is the type of technique that is use in media this the way the media has been developed, which includes the types of shots that have been used to produce the media.

Editing is one of the final tasks when producing the product; when editing you are able to choos what type of transitions you would like to use and what transition would be the most effective when transtitioning from each clip. When editing you are able to rearrange the clips and input non-diegetic sounds.

Sound is split into two different catagories; diegetic and non diegetic. Diegetic sound is the sound that is within  the clip and the charactor are able to hear the sound. Whereas, non diogetic is the type of sound which can be inserted into the clip and when filing the  clip the charactors are not able to here thed sound ad it has be covererd over the clip.

Mise en Scene is everything that is in the scene this includes;

• the setting
• location
• lighting
• costume
• make up
• props
• blocking
• body language

Representation refers to the following groups

• age
• gender
• ethnicity
• sexuallity
• regional identify
• ability/disability
• class/social status

These groups in the media are portrayed stereotypically to what the ceratin roles are in the society.

Institution in the media includes the producers and regulators of the media who are the people who are able to control the stucture of the product such as the creation and distribution of the media.

Audience is the consumers that are exposed to the media, depending of the type of media you have different demographic which  the media is aimed to.

How does the exam go abput testing your knowledge of each concept?

For media language you'll be tested on your ability to analyse the following:

• cinematography
• editing
• sound
• mise en scene

For representaion you'll be asked to analyse how the media lauguage bulids a represention of one of the following:

•  age
• gender
• ethnicity
• sexuallity
• regional identify
• ability/disability
• class/social status

For audience and instituion you'll be tested on your knowledge of the realtionship between the people who produce distibute and exhibit the films.