Advertising Overview

The Media Studies framework will be used to explore all topics. It is based on:
 texts (genre, narrative and representation issues)
 organisations (marketing and promotional strategies, regulation and control issues and intrusion & privacy) and
 audiences and users.
The convergent and increasingly interdependent nature of contemporary digital media should be studied where appropriate.

Media Texts: Genre, Narrative and Representation
For genre, candidates study:
 generic features, conventions and iconography
 principles of repetition and variation of a repertoire of elements
 hybridity
 intertextuality
 genres – relationship between organisational and audience/user needs.

For narrative, candidates study:
 narrative construction and the role of editing in creating narratives (to include different types of montage)
 implied narratives – visual organisation, hierarchies and compositional codes
 narrative structures (based for example on equilibrium, disequilibrium and restoration of equilibrium; binary oppositions and their resolution; open & closed narratives; interactive narratives; linear and non-linear narratives; multi-stranded or flexi-narratives)
 character functions within narratives
 settings and locations in which narratives take place.

For representation, candidates study:
 what makes representations - images plus points of view about them
 the processes of 're-presenting' mediated versions of the 'real' world
 stereotypes and representations - processes of categorisation, identification and recognition
 the way people and groups of people are represented in the media - in terms of gender, ethnicity, cultural diversity, age and nation
 the way events and issues are represented in the media.
Media Organisations: Marketing and Promotion, Regulation and Control Personal, Social and Ethical Dimensions

For media organisations, candidates study the ways in which media organisations create, sustain and expand their markets and the way they are regulated and controlled. They will also ask questions about personal, social and ethical dimensions in an increasingly convergent media world.

(a) Marketing and Promotion
For marketing and promotion, candidates study through their investigation and production work:
 the ways in which media organisations (such as film organisations, television channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, websites, social networks and individuals self-promoting) market, promote and brand themselves in a commercially competitive environment.
Consideration can be given to such issues as:
 competition
 use of stars/celebrities in marketing
 cross-media campaigns
 schedules and ratings
 audience/user research and targeting
 distribution strategies.

(b) Regulation and Control
For regulation and control, candidates study through their investigation and production work:
 how different types of media are regulated and controlled
 the reasons for media regulation and control and the problems of regulating within an increasingly global media environment
 the way individuals can manage their own media.
Consideration can be given to copyright and fair use, initiatives such as the 'creative commons' and taste and decency.

(c) Personal, Social and Ethical Dimensions
For Personal, Social and Ethical Dimensions, candidates study through their investigation and production work:
 conflicts between individual freedoms and media organisations
 the personal, social and ethical dimensions of online environments.
Media Audiences/Users
For media audiences/users, candidates will study:
 issues raised by the media for a range of audiences and users, including fans, both in terms of audience/user engagement and audience/user response and interpretation.

This is likely to involve consideration of:
 ways of categorising audiences/users and audience/user composition
 organisational issues such as how audiences are targeted, appealed to, created
 audience/user response issues such as everyday uses and pleasures together with the different ways audiences and users interpret and interact with a variety of media.

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Men in Advertising
 Fragrance ads – the ‘beautiful man’, notions of body image, attractive to both
sexes. Explicit nature of some campaigns e.g Aspirational appeal for both
genders. Lynx campaign is interesting in looking at man as the ‘object’ for the
woman.
 DIY, Homemaker ads – ‘it does what it says on the tin’. ‘basic’ man. Often
featuring inept, challenged representation of a man e.g. Flash who needs an
easy solution to domestic problems.
 Car adverts – man in control of machine, ideas of power, often seen to be
overcoming adverse environment e.g. fire, desert etc.
 Family man – cereal ads etc. still usually good looking.
 Consider adverts that play upon and also challenge conventional stereotypes
 Audience issues: How do the persuasive techniques used by advertisers work
upon a range of audiences?

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The Media Students’ Book, Branston
and Stafford. Good chapter on advertising and audience categories