The Media Text: Questions to ask

Key idea:

A media text can be

• a skateboard, a sitcom, a blockbuster movie;
• a shopping mall, a newspaper, an Internet webpage;
• a Barbie doll, a commercial or a radio talk show.

In short, a media text is anything that carries a message to a mass audience. The message is most likely to include the following three components:

• who we are (or are not),
• who we would like to be (or like not to be)
• what we believe and value (or distrust and dismiss).

The Media Text

Medium Where can you find this text? (television, radio, print, material object[e.g. CD, doll, fast-food styrofoam container]) Form What sort of text is this? promo movie magazine television show music Genre film: screwball comedy, romantic comedy, drama, science fiction, horror, documentary television: hour-long drama, news, sitcom, cartoon, sports event, videoflow, soap opera, western radio: talk show, news, classic rock, alternative, easy listening, classical, urban pop culture: toy, pop culture space (arena, shopping mall, theatre), fad (tattoos)

Connections

Are there intertexts (one text referred to in another: e..g when the Arlen baseball team from King of the Hill comes to Springfield to play football on the Simpsons)

Are there spinoffs? (e.g Pinky and Brain from Animaniacs)

Does a similar text exist in another medium? (eg. Small Soldiers: animated feature-length movie, action figures, CD-Rom computer game, soundtrack CD.)

Commodity

How is this text bought and sold?

How is it marketed?

How is it packaged?

What price range does it fall into? Who can have it? Who can't?

In this text, what objects or qualities are shown as suitable for being bought and sold (e.g. loyalty, love, pleasure, people)?

Are there product placements in the text?

The Media Text: Constructing Reality

Composition How is this text constructed? images, words, sounds borders, sequence, movement perspective, emphasis, light and shadow colour, texture, odour.

Representation

1. Are there examples of stereotypes in this text?
2. What or who is not here? What parts of the story are you not getting?
3. In what ways is life in this text different from your life?
4. How easy or hard to solve are problems in this text?
5. How are different groups represented in this text?
   • (children, the aged, the poor, minorities, the business class, the family, religious groups, women, men)

Values What behaviour is assumed to be desirable, acceptable, or bad? What beliefs are assumed to be wise or foolish? What appearance is presented as desirable or undesirable? Who is shown as having power or being powerless? Attitudes What attitudes to authority are represented? How are the attitudes represented? What types of relationships between different groups are shown?

The Media Text: Reading Meaning

Narrative

Does this text tell a story? or is this text a scene from another story?

What is the story?

Do we know the ending of the story? Is there a winner? Is there a loser?

Codes

What are the unspoken or implied meanings in this text?

Symbolic codes

• language, dress, characters' actions, setting, objects, colours

Technical codes

• camera angles, lighting, camera distance, sound effects, music

Conventions

Are there standard characters, standard plots, or standard settings that identify the text as a particular type or genre?