LIIAR- (using media terminology)

This blog will underline five key terms used as preparation for any media work. The five terms are:

• Language
• Ideology.
• Institution
• Audience
• Representation

LANGUAGE in the media are terms that are specific to the medium that they are associated. Several examples of language terminology that are specified to the media are Masthead, Splash, Plugs, Anchorage and Jump-line. This is important as it creates all the text that is used in the media. This can be seen in magazine front pages, billboards, on the television, the speech used as script for the radio, etc. Denotation and Connotation are also examples of language.

IDEOLOGY in the media is used to create, reinforce and alter aspirations and ideas. Ideology for a Wyke College, for example, would be that it offers aspirations for young people to mature socially and economically, after fulfilling a rewarding course and sustaining a high-paid job. This type of ideology is effective as it targets a specific audience and offers them the belief that they can be in a certain class or social group. E.g. X Factor reinforces the Ideological belief that the everyday member of the public can achieve high potential in the music industry.

Ideological values are displayed both explicitly and implicitly. Explicit values are clearly expressed, for example, Wyke openly states that its aim is to achieve high pass-rates in A levels and make students learn. The implicit values that are expressed would be that Wyke offers many courses from a wide-range of choices and mentors to encourage learning.

INSTITUTION is basically the company, business or person that controls the production of the media product. The promotional or advertising company can affect the final product because, even though they are ordinarily a corporation, they are still presented by people with their own beliefs and ideologies. These beliefs may affect the way the program is presented and the Representations that are portrayed.

The institution that I will use for my College magazine will be Wyke College, written by the students.

AUDIENCE is another example of something I will need to address in my work. The audience I am targeting is 16-18 year olds, who are hoping to attend Wyke, OR who already attend however want a broadened knowledge of the courses on offer at Wyke.

When evaluating what target audience to address you must first take a look at the social structure of the audience. Class is one way of defining this structure. I will not be targeting under-class people because they will not be attending Wyke. Similarly, Upper Class students are most likely not hoping to enroll either. Therefore I should take into accound the fact that my audiences class structure will most likely be Middle-Class.

Key points to make about Audience:

Age- 16-18 year olds for my magazine

Class- Middle/perhaps some lower class

Occupation- Students-mostly unemployed

Gender- Both male and female audience, my magazine should be gender neutral.

This is called S.E.G (Social and Economic Grouping).

REPRESENTATION will be used in my magazine front cover. I will be representing students of college age at 16-18. I will perhaps decided to include a central image of a student who is young and also attractive to represent the ideology of young people. I may decide to represent a student who appears to be from a Chinese ethnic background, for example, to illustrate that Wyke is a multi-ethnic college. Similarly, I could use a white student because the majority of people hoping to attend will be from this ethnic group. The students portrayed shall be represented as eager to learn and also have fun, I may include a picture of students working as a group, laughing, to encourage the feeling of a social acceptance at this College.