1. G325 – CRITICAL
PERSPECTIVES IN MEDIA
SectionA , Question B –Theoretical Evaluation of Production

2. Section A: Theoretical
Evaluation of Production
 Section A, question 1b of the A2 exam is worth 25 marks
 You will choose to evaluate one of your pieces of
coursework in relation to a media concept.
 In the exam one of the following areas will be
selected for you to write about:
 Genre
 Narrative
 Representation
 Audience
 Media language

3. How to approach 1b.
 You need to understand all 5 concepts, including
relevant theories.
 Your task over the next 2 weeks will be to
produce a detailed evaluation of your
coursework using all 5 concepts.
 The documents you produce will be vital revision
aids for the exam this summer.
 These documents should be tailored to you, and
suit your own learning style. However they must
be detailed and use specific examples from one
of your coursework productions.

4. Genre
Genres are categories or types of media text.
Genres are recognisable through the repeated
use of generic codes and conventions:
 Iconographies
 Narrative
 Representations
 Ideologies
Which of the above codes/conventions does
your c/w use and how?

5. Genre and Audience
 Genre offers audiences a structure or framework
 Audiences gain enjoyment from “spotting the
conventions” (repetition) and making comparisons
with other films of the same genre
 If a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse
us, but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules
broken
 Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for the
predictable features
How did you use genre to offer your audience a
framework? Do you think your target audience
enjoyed spotting the conventions or seeing the rules
broken?

6. Genre theories
Over the next 2 weeks we will look at the
following theorists and start to apply these
theories to your own coursework
productions.
 Steve Neale (1980) - all genres are instances
of repetition and difference
 Douglas Pye - films have to conform to
audience expectations about narrative
 Tom Ryall – conventions =
Narrative,Themes, Characters/stereotypes,
Iconography

7. Narrative
 All media texts tell stories.The structure of these
stories is called the narrative.
 A story must have verisimilitude (appear to be real)
in order to engage us – how does your c/w have
verisimilitude?
 It might seem more obvious to apply narrative
theory to a film, but if you created a magazine you
need to consider the following:
 How is your magazine structured? How does the
front cover lead the reader into the magazine? How
does the contents page lead the reader into the rest
of the magazine?

8. Narrative theories
We will be looking at these narrative theorists
and begin to apply their theories to your
coursework productions.
 Propp – 8 character roles
 Todorov – equilibrium – disequilibrium – new
equilibrium
 Barthes – 5 codes
(action, enigma, cultural, symbolic, semic)
 Levi-Strauss – binary opposites

9. Moving texts and narrative
•To introduce character (Propp)
• Establish narrative structure (Todorov)
• Captivate audience/interest
• Establish core themes (Levi Strauss)
• Introduce core iconography
• Establishes audience expectation through use of
generic conventions
• Establish sense of enigma (Barthes)

10. Narrative conventions of Moving
Texts
• Predominance of action codes (Barthes)
• Significance of soundtrack – establishing
mood
• Use of titles as credits/ event signifiers
• Pace

11. Representation
Everything in the media is a representation - everything we
see is being represented e.g.
regions/locations, individuals, groups, places, nations, ideas
Questions we would ask when analysing representations:
 WHO orWHAT is being represented?
 HOW is the representation created?
 WHO has created the representation?
 WHY is the representation created in that way?What is the
 intention?
 WHAT is the effect of the representation?
You will need to consider the representations in your c/w and
answer the above questions in detail.

12. Representation
 To maintain a representation of reality, media
language elements such as
lighting, music, editing, camera work and mise
en scene are used. How did you use these micro
aspects to create representations?
 Sometimes, representations are seen to be a
deliberate attempt to create associations and
ideas for the audience – did you represent any
characters in a certain way so as to remind your
audience or someone/something else?

13. Representation theories
We will be looking at the following theorists and
examining how you can apply these theories
to your coursework production.
 Laura Mulvey (the gaze)
 Marjorie Ferguson (facial expressions)
 Trevor Millum (facial expressions)

14. Audience
 Every media text is made with a view to
pleasing an audience in some way – how did
you try to please your audience?
 Success is measured by the audience’s
response to a media text and those that do
not attract and maintain an audience do not
survive.
 At the heart of this is the fact that all media
texts are created in order to make money.

15. Audience
 We will be looking the following
theories/theorists and beginning to apply
these to your coursework productions.
 Demographics
 Stuart Hall (Preferred, negotiated and
oppositional readings)

16. Media Language
You made lots of decisions regarding the following micro
aspects:
 Camera
 Editing
 Lighting
 Sound
 Mise-en- Scene
 Special Effects: visual, sound and lighting
 These micro elements form a type of “Media Language”
allowing you to “speak” to your audience and
“communicate” your message.

17. Media Language
You will be using the following theorists to
explain how you have used media language
in your coursework productions.
 Saussure (Signifier and Signified)
 Barthes (Denotation and Connotation)
 Hall (Encoding and Decoding)