AICE Notes

Thomas Grace

AICE Media Studies

5/17/22

 Digital Media refers to media that is created, stored and/or distributed electronically.

The BBC was the only option for television viewing for some years.

Audiences had few ways to communicate with institutions

Digitalisation has also created technological advances that allows audiences to construct different types of relationships with media products and producers.

A media institution produces media texts, has to distribute them to the audience

The production of all media forms has been impacted by digitalisation in some way

- access to streaming video have encouraged television drama to use longer, more complex narratives. Stories now can have arcs that extend over 12 or 24 hours and, in some cases over 5 or 6 (or even more) seasons.

- Computer technology was introduced in the printing of newspapers in the mid-1980s and it allowed newspapers to include colour images

Social networking has replaced institutional based media for some whilst others access media products in alternative ways, such as streaming on-line, downloading or DVD/ Blu-ray.

Due to digital media audiences can be seen to have more of an impact on production

- A modern example of this could be how Amber Heard’s role in the Aquaman movie has been reduced due to public backlash over her and Johnny Depp’s drama

- Anyone can have easy access to the means of production. Videos can be made and edited at home and uploaded to YouTube.

Digitialisation isnt all good

- Audience generated material is always cheaper than that produced by professionals and so institutions also benefit from the move towards including more user generated content.

- Online discussions often veer towards aggression and have often been identified as including sexism, racism and homophobia in the discourse of debate

- Crowd sourcing is magnifying the emotional reaction of a few vocal audience members rather than reflecting all viewpoints. This minority is influencing the news agenda.

Many media institutions are conglomerates. A media conglomerate is a large company that is comprised of several smaller companies (or subsidiaries)

The creation of such conglomerates has led to a concentration of ownership in the media industry.

Benefits of convergence and synergy institutions

The institution can control more of the production, distribution and exhibition cycle.

Several theories have been developed which offer specific viewpoints on the effects the media may have. Audience theories regarding the effects of the media on audiences can be divided into these categories:

• Direct Effect Theories

• Diffusion Theories

• Indirect Effect Theories

• The Pluralist Approach

Potential readings can, therefore, be: 

• the dominant reading

     o an acceptance of the intended meaning

• a negotiated reading

       o a broad acceptance of the intended meaning but with some personal modification

• an oppositional reading

       o an understanding of the intended meaning but a rejection of it in favour of one created by the individual

Genres provide a clear framework for production so institutions find them useful. Genres use codes and conventions and so institutions can write their stories and create the look and feel of their products with an awareness of what has gone before. Audiences like the familiarity that genres provide as being able to predict the way a film or TV series will play out can be reassuring.

The superhero genre has to fit in with the dominant values of the day if audiences are going to be able to relate to such a fantastical story.

Schatz says that during the innovative and classical parts of a genre’s development, genres are ‘transparent’ - that is the audience does not see the genre, rather they ‘look through it’ to the story being told.

Representation is:

the constructed and mediated presentation of people, things, ideas, places etc.

In other words, everything in the media is a representation – everything we see is being represented. A representation is the final product after all of the decisions have been made.

looking at gender representations means looking at the representation of women. This focus on representations of femininity and females comes from the traditional position of women in society as the ‘second’ sex. Until the latter part of the 20th Century some generalisations about society, women and therefore their representations, could be made

If women’s place within society has changed then it is only logical to assume that men’s has too.

Conventional action films provide a fairly simple definition of what it is to be a man. Often these ideas are based on traditional masculine values such as physical strength, aggression and the protection of the weak. However, there are alternative representations of the male