HOW TO UNDERSTAND A MEDIA TEXT

It is important to understand how key media concepts are used to create a deeper meaning within a media product.

Magazine institutions are companies that create and distribute magazine products. Examples are IPC, Bauer media group and EMAP. These three companies are some of the biggest in the UK. They have the power to determine what is published within the magazine. For example, Bauer Media Group produce Kerrang and Mojo. Both of these magazines have similar forms and conventions. Companies like this grow their circulations of the magazines by large amounts every year.

Ideology is understanding society and peoples beliefs. With regard to the music press, the magazines are promoting the values and beliefs of the particular genre. For example magazines like 'Q' are expected to convey the ideologies of the pop genre.

I have already posted about genre in music magazines and it is important to understand how different magazines convey different genres through the way they address the audience. Also how different genres have different stereotypes attached to them.

Representation in media is extremely important. Representation is the who, what, where and when of a media product. Editors use different techniques in order to represent their ideologies through the narrative and the media language of the magazine.

As mentioned before, it is extremely important to determine a target audience for the product as without a target audience, the views and figures of the magazine will decrease as the content will not be relevant. With an audience determined, the editor can adapt the mode of address and the narrative to fit the stereotypes of the audience.

The media language is everything inside the product and how it is represented to the audience.

The narrative is the way that the different elements of the magazine combine to represent a story. The narrative changes in characteristics due to the influence of different genres.