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10 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre

MM

If you’re preparing for AQA’s Mest

1 and 2, you’ll know it’s all aboutmedia platforms and concepts. Senior

Examiner Steph Hendry gives you

the lowdown on what you need to

know, and some useful examples to

demonstrate it.

Over the past few years the mass media has

undergone many dramatic changes. Media

Studies examinations have recently altered to

reflect the way modern media texts are produced,

marketed and accessed by audiences including

technological innovations which are still

developing. As ever, Media Studies is a subject

that is constantly adapting to stay up-to-date.

Current issues and debates are often centred on

the way modern media institutions are using

developing technologies and the subsequent

alterations in audience behaviours and needs.

In the past, media texts were often dealt with as

individual products but it is now more relevant to

consider ‘media platforms’ rather than individual

‘media texts’. This approach is applicable to all

Awarding Bodies’ specifications but is specifically

related to AQA’s AS modules: Mest1 ‘Investigating

Media’ and Mest2 ‘Creating Media’.

Media platforms These are the different technologies and

formats used to present and distribute media

products.

Platform Forms include

Broadcasting Film, television, radio

Print Newspapers, magazines,

posters

e-media Web content, podcasts,

streaming/downloadable

video, mobile phone content,

gaming

Many media texts that are created by themajor institutions now appear across the three

platforms. Institutions use the platforms to

reach broad audiences, to offer texts in different

formats and so provide a range of different

potential gratifications for audiences.

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english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 11 

MM

Media conceptsIn your first year of study you will also be

introduced to the media concepts. These are

the ideas that will enable you to engage formally

with the way media texts are constructed.

 The main concepts are:

• Media Language

• Audience

• Representation

• Institution

… and also

• Narrative

• Genre

• Ideology

Media texts need to be considered across the

media platforms using the media concepts to

identify how and why institutions use a mixture

of broadcast media, print media and e-media to

construct related texts.

Issues to consider include:

• how the texts interrelate to create a

multiplatform text

• how each text is constructed (in terms of Media

Language, Narrative, use of Genre codes and

Representations)

• how the texts communicate ideas and values

(ideologies)

• how the texts benefit the producing institutions

• how institutions use different platforms to

increase the potential target market/audience

for a text

• how different platforms provide different

audience experiences, activities and

pleasures.

Platforms and media conceptsMedia language

Each different platform and form uses its

own media language codes which are chosen

specifically to appeal to the audience, meet

the specified intentions of the text, identify the

genre and construct a narrative. Media language

choices take the expectations of the audience

into account and the way that people/places/

ideas etc. are to be represented.

e-media tends to use a combination of print,

moving-image and sound-based media language

depending on the technology used and the

function of the text.

The Sun online shares many media language

codes with its paper counterpart. Both use

the same type of language in terms of simple

lexis, short punchy sentences and a tendency

to use word play. Both have the same news

values as they prioritise entertainment . They

cover hard news stories but with limited detail

and tend to focus on human interest stories,

scandal and celebrity gossip. The tone of the

writing and the types of stories covered are part

of the codes and conventions expected by The

Sun’s readership and it is important that these

expectations are met within each platform. The

Sun’s online edition has the capacity to use

video to provide additional information and

can include reader comments, allowing more

interactivity than The Sun in its traditional

format. The online edition is, therefore,

more dynamic, more up to date and can be

seen to offer its audience more in terms of 

entertainment and information than the paper-

based version. Of course, being online it’s not

as portable as the newspaper itself. Although

the increase in mobile technologies does mean

more people are able to access The Sun online

whilst out and about, mobile internet hardware

is expensive when compared to the cover price

of the paper itself.

InstitutionWhen looking at multiplatform texts it is

important to consider the function of the texts

constructed. Multiplatform texts often act as

promotional material for each other and so

you should try to work out how the texts work 

together to generate income.

Print is still the primary platform forThe

Sun but the online edition is becoming

increasingly important in terms of generating

advertising revenue, alternative sources of 

income and developing reader/browser

loyalty. Some online editions of print-based

media offers ‘tasters’ of stories and features

which can only be accessed by buying the

paper-based edition. In this way, web editions

act as marketing for the paper-based versions

and, whilst being accessible and entertaining,

encourage the audience to purchase the

primary platform version.

Recently film and television productioncompanies have seen the potential in creating

massive online marketing campaigns which act

to:

• spread the word about the primary platform,

generate interest by selective revealing of 

images and information

• encourage audience loyalty through long term

involvement in online activities which include

games, chat rooms and competitions

• provide additional narrative information about

characters and related events.