Likely questions

 Language  -

Steve Neale - genre theory
Claude Levi-Strauss - structuralism (binary oppositions)
Tzvetan Todorov - Narrative theory (equilibrium)

What media language is associated with this product? And how does it create multiple meanings?​
How does media language combine to create meaning?​
What are the genre conventions of this product, how do they work, and how have they developed?​
What is the historical context of the genre? How has it shifted over time?​
How do audiences respond to and interpret all the stuff above?​
How do the genre conventions of this product reflect the sociohistorical context, and how does it use genre hybridity?​
In what ways does this product use media language to encode the ideology of the producer?​



Representation - 

Stuart Hall - Representation 
Liesbet Van Zoonen - Feminist theory 
Bell Hooks - Feminist theory


How are events, issues, individuals and social groups in this product represented through the selection and combination of media language?​
How does the social and cultural context of the product effect how it represents people, places etc?What messages and beliefs does it encode?​
How (and why!) have stereotypes in this media product been used both positively and negatively?​
How (and why!) have certain people been under-represented or misrepresented?​
How do the representations in this product show the values, attitudes and beliefs of the producer? And how are these beliefs reinforced in other media representations?​
Dow do audiences respond to and interpret the representations in this product?​
In what ways do the representations in this product make claims about realism?​
In what ways does the type of media (i.e newspapers, magazines or television) effect how the producer represents issues, events, people etc?​
How does historical context effect the representations in this product?​
How does the producer use representations to position the audience with this product? And what does this tell you about the producer’s ideology?​
How do audience responses to these representations reflect the time in which they were made? How can audiences interpret the social and cultural messages?​

Industry - 

Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt - Regulation
David Hesmondhalgh - Cultural industries

How is this media product produced, distributed and circulated, and by who?​
In what ways does the specific industry (i.e. film, newspaper, radio, videogame, TV or magazine) use specialised forms of production, distribution and circulation?​
Who owns this media product? Who owns them? Are they a part of a conglomerate, and/or vertically integrated?​
What economic factors have affected this product? How financially successful was it? Was it made commercially or not for profit?​
How does this product attract and maintain its audiences both locally and globally? What marketing and promotion does it use to do this?​
How exactly is this industry regulated, and who does it?​
How did the specific process of production, distribution and circulation shape this media product?​
How has the way this product is regulated affected its global production, distribution and circulation?​




Audience - 

Stuart Hall - Reception theory

How does this product attract/target it’s audiences? How does it construct an audience?​
How does this product and its marketing appeal to its target audiences?​
How can audiences interpret this product in different ways?​
How does the industry that makes this product address the needs of mass and specialised audiences through targeting?​
In what ways can audiences use these media products, and how does this reflect their identity and cultural capital?​
What role do fans and other niche audiences play in the popularity of this product?​
How do audience responses to this product demonstrate sociohistorical circumstances?​