ND Creative Media Production YR 2 2019-20

Semester 2 Unit 6: Critical

Approaches to Creative Media Products
Assignment Details Evidence
Title: Understanding Media Products & Producers This assignment is in 3 parts with 3 separate
Assessor: Jim Doherty completion dates for each Outcome. You can
School: Media, Multimedia & the Arts base all 3 Outcomes on any product for a Client
Programme level:3 Assignment number: 2 Brief or Competition you made or stick to the 3
Issue date: 06/04/20 Interim Hand-in: separate Tasks set.
15/05/2020 1. 27/04/20 – Produce report
Due: 26/05/20 Feedback: 27/05/20 2. 04/05/20 – Powerpoint Presentation
3. 26/05/20 – Written Report
IV: IV date:

Outcomes:
2 Understand how media producers create products for specific audiences
3 Understand how media audiences respond to media products
4 Be able to develop responses to media products.
Overview
Understand how media producers create products for specific audiences
2 Addressing audiences: selection of content, eg words, images, sound, sequences, colours, fonts;
construction of content, eg narratives, layout, captions, anchorage; codes and conventions, eg
linguistic, visual, audio, symbolic, technical; modes of address
Audience feedback: eg focus groups, audience panels, trialing and testing, reviews, complaints
3 Understand how media audiences respond to media products
Audience theory: hypodermic needle model; uses and gratifications theory; reception study; passive
or active consumption
Effects debates: eg effects of exposure to explicit sexual or violent content, effects of advertising,
health concerns; censorship debates
Responses: negotiated; preferred; oppositional; participatory; cultural competence; fan culture
4 Be able to develop responses to media products
Critical approaches: eg content analysis, semiotic analysis, structuralism,
Genre: according to production technology, eg film, video, audio, print, digital; distribution method,
eg television, cinema, radio, internet, CD, iPod, mobile phone, home computer, hand-held consoles;
generic codes and conventions (content, style, symbolic, cultural, technical); changes over time, eg in
audience, ideological shifts, re-definition, obsolescence, spoof, pastiche, parody
Narrative structures: narrative, eg single strand, multi-strand, closed, open, linear, non-linear;
alternative narrative; enigma; climax; equilibrium
Representation: negative; positive; of social groups; of social issues; stereotyping; presence and
absence

Brief
In order to work successfully in any of the media industries it is vital that you understand
how an industry thinks about its audiences when constructing products and how those
products are received by the target audiences. This means being able to think critically about
the products others professionals are making or have made. You need to understand the
dynamic relationship between media producers and their audiences.
You will explore the way producers think about and target specific audiences, looking at both
how producers create products for audiences and how audiences use and respond to those
products.
ND Creative Media Production YR 2 2019-20
Semester 2 Unit 6: Critical
Approaches to Creative Media Products

Tasks Pass Criteria

This assignment is in 3 parts with 3 separate completion dates for each
Outcome. You can base all 3 Outcomes on any product for a Client Brief To achieve a pass, the
or Competition you made or stick to the 3 separate Tasks set. student must:

Task 1 – Constructing Media Products for Specific Audiences P2 describe how media
For this task you must compare 2 different media texts from the film producers create products
and TV industries. for specific audiences with
some appropriate use of
One of your texts must be a big budget Hollywood production and the subject terminology
other a low budget independent production and your findings need to
be presented in the form of a written report consisting of between 800 P3 describe how media
-1000 words. (P2) audiences respond to
media products with some
You must: appropriate use of subject
 Identify & describe the target audience for each text using the terminology
correct audience profiling terminology.
P4 present a descriptive
 Explain how these texts are constructed to appeal to the target response to a media
audience e.g. genre codes and conventions, etc. product with some
appropriate use of subject
 Conduct audience questionnaires on between 5-10 people to terminology.
gain feedback on the two texts above.

 Include your findings in a report.

Task 2 – Media Texts and Audience Responses (P3)

For this task you must analyse the content of a music video (from the
list below or choose one of your own) and explain how it could be
interpreted differently by different audiences and why.

You must refer to a media audience theory in your answer.

Your analysis must be presented in a Powerpoint presentation of
Between 6-10 slides.

 M.I.A. – ‘Born Free’

 The Cardigans – ‘My Favourite Game’
 Lady Gaga – ‘Telephone’

Task 3 – Developing Responses to Media Products (P4)

For your final task you must select a media text of your choice (e.g. a
film trailer, music video, TV show, newspaper, etc.) and carry out a
content analysis on it. Your analysis must be presented in the form of a
written report consisting of between 800-1000 words.

You must do the following in your analysis:

 Identify the genre codes and conventions featured
 Explain how these have been used to create meaning for the
ND Creative Media Production YR 2 2019-20
Semester 2 Unit 6: Critical
Approaches to Creative Media Products
audience
 Discuss how narrative structure, ‘mise-en-scene’ and
representation are used to help construct the text

Merit Criteria Distinction Criteria

To achieve a merit, the student must:
M2 explain how media producers create
products for specific audiences with reference to
detailed illustrative examples
and with generally correct use of subject
terminology
M3 explain how media audiences respond to
media products with reference to detailed
illustrative examples and with generally correct
use of subject terminology
M4 present a discussion of a media product with
reference to detailed illustrative examples and
with generally correct use of subject
terminology.
To achieve a distinction, the student must:
D2 comprehensively explain how media
producers create products for audiences with
elucidated examples and consistently using
subject terminology correctly
D3 comprehensively explain how media
audiences respond to media products with
elucidated examples and consistently using
subject terminology correctly
D4 present an analysis of a media product with
supporting arguments and elucidated examples,
and consistently using subject terminology
correctly.

Guidance
Suggested Reading:
Baylis P, Freedman A, Procter N et al – BTEC Level 3 National Creative Media Production, Student
Book (Pearson, 2010) ISBN 978-1846906725
Baylis P, Freedman A, Procter N et al – BTEC Level 3 National Creative Media Production, Teaching
Resource Pack (Pearson, 2010) ISBN 978-1846907371
Baylis P, Holmes P, Starkey G – BTEC National in Media Production (Heinemann Educational, 2007)
ISBN 978-0435499198
Abercrombie N, Longhurst B – The Penguin Dictionary of Media Studies (Penguin, 2007)
ISBN 978-0141014272
Branston G, Stafford R – The Media Students Book (Routledge, 2006), ISBN 978-0415371438
Briggs A, Cobley P – The Media: An Introduction (Longman, 2002) ISBN 978-0582423466
Clark V, Jones P, Malyszko B, Wharton D – Complete A-Z Media and Film Studies Handbook
(Hodder Arnold, 2007) ISBN 978-0340872659
Gillespie M, Toynbee J– Analysing Media Texts Issues in Cultural/Media Studies (Open University
Press, 2006) ISBN 978-0335218868
McDonald K – Film and Television Textual Analysis (Auteur, 2005) ISBN 978-1903663547
O’Sullivan T Dutton B, Rayner P – Studying the Media: An Introduction (Hodder Arnold, 2003)
ISBN 978-0340807651

Websites
www.asa.org.uk – the Advertising Standards Authority
www.barb.co.uk – Broadcasters Audience Research Board
www.bbfc.co.uk – the British Board of Film Classification
www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mediamag.html – the English and Media Centre
www.imdb.com – a movie database
www.mediaknowall.com – a web guide for media students
www.mediawatchuk.org – campaign for accountability and decency in the media
ND Creative Media Production YR 2 2019-20
Semester 2 Unit 6: Critical
Approaches to Creative Media Products
www.ofcom.org.uk – the regulator of the UK’s broadcasting, telecommunications and wireless
communications industries
www.rajar.co.uk – official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK
www.vlv.org.uk – the Voice of the Listener and Viewer