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Showing posts from June, 2020

Videogames 10 - Playing games: alternatives to the mainstream

A counter example to the assassins creed franchise: sky: children of the light (mobile game) what is the narrative style of the game?        there is a quest that the characters follow, they save spirits and collect ancient treasures along the way, in a way the narrative is linear, it is partly cinematic and partly interactive and there is not a dilema as such but the players have to find something in order to travel to the next platform or area. what genres can you identify?        it is described as a social indie adventure game. it conforms to the adventure genre of games as it involves the player moving around and uncovering parts of the story line.  how are we as an audience interacting with the game?      we can customise characters and collect ad ons, the game allows for not only interaction with objects and artefacts around us but with other players also. does the game appeal to a mainstream or niche...

ALL KEY THEORIES

MEDIA LANGUAGE 1 - Semiotics - Roland Barthes (advertising, music videos, newspapers, magazines, online media) • Media products communicate a complex series of meanings to their audiences through a range of visual codes and technical codes. These codes can broadly be divided in to proairetic, symbolic, hermeneutic, referential, and so on. • After many years of codes being repeated, their meaning can become generally agreed upon by society. For example, a scar on the face of a character can function as a hermeneutic code, indicating to the audience that they are ‘the villain’. Key work –  Image, Music, Text  2 - Narratology - Tzvetan Todorov  (television) • Todorov's theory of narrative equilibrium is based around a three act structure. Firstly, a state of balance or equilibrium is established. This balance is disrupted or broken in some way, which leads to a liminal period or period of disruption. This second stage typically takes up the majority of a narrative...

Videogames 9 - fandom and active audience theory (key theory 18)

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key theory  18 - Fandom - Henry Jenkins  (radio, videogames, television, online media) • Fandom refers to a particularly organised and motivated audience of a certain media producer  franchise • Unlike the generic audience or the classic spectator, fans are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings • Fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully intended by the media producers (‘textual poaching’). Examples of this may manifest in conventions, fan fiction and so on • Rather than just play a videogame or watch a TV show, fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and utilising mass culture images, and may use this ‘subcultural capital’ to form social bonds. For example, through online forums like Reddit or 4chan. Why did 'Vaati Vidya' make such a technically accomplished and extremely well researched video? He's a hardcore  gamer who enjoys researching and understanding eve...

Videogames 8 - Assassin's Creed and reception theory

Revising the encoding/decoding model Reception theory is often attributed to Stuart Hall. It argues that producers use media language to encode meanings within media products, which audiences can then decode and negotiate in a variety of different ways. Audiences may agree with the preferred reading of the product, in other words they will agree with the ideology of the producer. The audience also may disagree with the producer's ideology and form an oppositional reading of the product. It is most likely, however, that the audience will negotiate the message of the producer, and will agree with certain ideological aspects while rejecting others.  key theory 17- reception theory, Stuart Hall (advertising, newspapers, radio, videogames, television, magazines) • To watch/read/play/listen to/consume a media product is a process involving encoding by producers and decoding by audiences. • There are millions of possible responses that can be affected through factors ...

Videogames 7 - videogames and the effects model

15 - Media effects (on audiences) - Albert Bandura (videogames) • This old-fashioned view of how media products effect audiences is associated with the Frankfurt School in Germany • The effects model suggests that media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly. It is also known as the hypodermic needle model • Audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and behaviours through media products modelling ideologies • If a media product represents  behaviour such as violence or physical aggression, this can lead audience members to imitate those forms of behaviour • This model has many issues, though it still proves popular with the general public, newspapers and politicians who should frankly read a media studies textbook or two. a flaw or issue with the effects model an issue that many would be able to see is that although it could be prtially true that we absorb behaviour and ideas that we see as it gives us almost like a sponge, there are many example...

Lockdown mock exam: Key Assessment 4

Questions Music videos - MEDIA LANGUAGE Explore how the combination of media language creates meaning for the audience in the video to Riptide [15] Riptide as a music video displays a wide array of media language. it creates meaning through merging many forms of media language and linking the visuals and the audio, to give the audience a sense of narrative and direction in where the story goes. first we have to identify the audience that this music video is targeted towards, the song fits into the indie pop category so will most likely be aimed at people aged 16-22. this is important to bear in mind as people from this age group will have different ideologies, priorities and ways of life so they will seek out media that will fit in with this accordingly.  the instrumeltals of the song are upbeat and lighthearted, a smooth and rhythmic tune. this contrasts some of the lyrics which if you look in depth have a darker meaning, commoting wanting to run away and escape from so...