Media Studies: Reading, Questioning and Creating Media: Unit Review

The photographer chose who to include, the angle, the moment and possibly edits; the yearbook team chose which photo and the caption. It's real, but it's shaped by choices.

Text: what images and words are on the box? Audience: who is it designed to appeal to (children and parents)? Production: which company made it and how does it want to make money?

Media have commercial implications.

Psychographic.

Bright, silly scenes appeal to children; jokes only adults understand keep parents (who buy tickets) interested.

Each form and platform reaches a different audience where they already are, with images and language that suit them.

Denotation: the sun rising. Connotation: a new beginning, hope, adventure.

"Banking with us helps you reach life's big dreams" or "Owning a home is what success looks like."

A single word names a topic; a sentence states the idea the text suggests, which is what you need to analyze.

Logos; pathos; ethos.

A PSA's purpose is behaviour change; views show attention, not whether people changed what they do.

Sample: The PSA is partly effective: its sad music and images create strong pathos, but with no logos or credible source, viewers may not believe the risk is real.

Accepting parts of the intended meaning and questioning others. Example: "Fun ad, but my family could never afford that trip."

Any three: age, culture/language, lived experience, values, knowledge, context of viewing, identity and representation.

Different lived experience and knowledge: the lifelong Canadian recognizes the habits being joked about; the newcomer may find it confusing or unkind.

Every text has a perspective (point of view); bias is an unfair slant shown by selection, omission, placement or word choice.

"What do these ads teach viewers about who has knowledge, and who benefits from that idea?"

Including one person from a group to appear diverse without giving them a real role or voice.

Yes: P and L = 2 of 4.

Marketing; distribution; production.

It decides what appears on home screens and feeds, so promoted content is seen far more and other content is hard to find.

General.

Any two: cold open, host's voice, theme music, segments, interviews, sponsor reads, outro.

It needs a hook in the first seconds, one simple idea and captions, so complex details are cut or saved for another form.

Non-diegetic; diegetic; non-diegetic.

Everything in the frame: setting, props, costume, lighting, actors' positions.

Viewers expect danger in darkness, so daylight horror surprises them and suggests that nowhere is safe.

Bandwagon.

Helps and up to.

Advertising made to look like regular content; it blends in, so readers may not apply their usual skepticism.

Technically true but misleading: most shoppers will get much smaller discounts.

Who, what, when, where, why (and sometimes how).

Sample: Council Approves Bus Fare Increase.

Any three: headline words, order of information, sources quoted, photo choice and cropping, captions, placement.

Sample: To persuade students and families to donate gently used winter coats to the school drive by December 15.

Sample: short attention → keep it under a minute; watching with sound off → add captions.

Why the form suits the topic, purpose and audience, and why an alternative fits less well.

Wireframe.

Sample: ...listeners are hooked by a real moment (the crunch of snow) before the intro, and want to keep listening.

Sample: a hook and captions. Captions keep the message clear for people watching with the sound off and make it accessible.

Pre-production, production, post-production, test, revise, publish.

Sample: What do you think it's saying? and Where did you lose interest?

Any three: captions, transcripts, alt text, strong colour contrast, readable font sizes.

What? So what? Now what?

Sample: controlling pace and pauses in a voice-over; asking follow-up questions in an interview.

Sample: For the next two weeks, I'll name the target audience and one technique for one ad each day.