AQA Media Studies for A Level: Revision Guide

63 5 Media language Introduction This chapter will offer a reminder of the main issues relating to the way media language is used, covered in Chapter 1, and will then offer activities to help you revise the remaining ideas that are required for the A Level examinations. Structuralism Postmodernism From Lévi-Strauss : • Binary oppositions • Mytheme • Cultural codes • Ideological reading • Deconstruction • Pastiche • Bricolage • Intertextuality • Implosion From Baudrillard : • Simulacra • Simulation • Hyperreality 5.1 Review of introductory ideas Platform, form and genre Media products can be divided into different categories: • based on the method used to distribute the information – the platform : • Print • Broadcast • e-Media • based on the different types of product using the distribution method – the form : • Print – newspapers and magazines • Broadcast – TV and radio • e-Media – social media , gaming • based on different categories within each form – the genre : • Print – newspapers and magazines: tabloids , fashion magazines • Broadcast – TV and radio: drama , news reports • e-Media – social media, gaming: video-sharing sites , rst-person shooter games . This is from the AQA speci cation. In this section students will develop their knowledge and understanding of: • how the different modes and language associated with different media forms communicate multiple meanings • how the combination of elements of media language in uence meaning • how developing technologies affect media language • the codes and conventions of media forms and products, including the processes through which media language develops as genre • the dynamic and historically relative nature of genre • the processes through which meanings are established through intertextuality • how audiences respond to and interpret the above aspects of media language • how genre conventions are socially and historically relative, dynamic and can be used in a hybrid way • the signi cance of challenging and/or subverting genre conventions • the signi cance of the varieties of ways in which intertextuality can be used in the media • the way media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies. PLATFORM FORM FORM GENRE GENRE GENRE