AQA GCSE Media Studies Revision Guide - Revised Edition

Codes and conventions The ‘rules’ of media language: how signs are selected, deselected and assembled to conform to codes and make meanings. The constructed nature of reality. • The codes and conventions of media language, how they develop and become established as ‘styles’ or genres (which are common across di erent media products) and how they may also vary over time. Rapid Recap Codes are systems of communication. For a code to work it needs: • Signs : things we see or hear. • Rules: the ways in which signs can be organised. These become the conventions within each media format . • Shared understanding : the people sending and receiving the code both need to understand it. For example: Sign Rules Shared understanding Image of person standing behind a podium on a stage. Published as the main image on the front page of a newspaper . This image must be linked to an important news story and is likely to be an in uential person (e.g. a politician) making a speech. The media use a range of codes in their products to help the audience understand the meanings . Conventions are established ways of combining Media Language to create media products, such as newspapers having a masthead across the top of the front page and a photograph with each major story, or websites having a navigation bar or icon . Conventions make the products easier to understand quickly, as the audience quickly learn where to expect them, but these are more likely to be taken for granted than formally stated. As well as having common conventions to allow their audiences to understand them more easily, media products also need a unique selling point (USP) to make them di erent from other similar products, in order to attract an audience to buy, watch, listen, play or read them. Spec Spotlight The conventions of each media format can change gradually over time. If you are asked to compare two media products from di erent decades, you should be able to discuss these changes. Tip 23 2 Media Language Copyright: Sample material