Stranger things revision

3* Why do long form television dramas from different countries offer different representations?
In your answer you must:
•consider the contexts in which long form television dramas are produced and consumed
•explain how media contexts may have influenced representations in the set episodes of the two long form television dramas you have studied
•make judgements and reach conclusions about the reasons for the differences in representation between the two episodes. [30]



Media language:
Key ideas: How the media through their forms , codes, conventions and techniques communicate meanings.

Must have learned:

• how the different modes and language associated with different media forms communicate multiple meanings 
•  how the combination of elements of media language influence meaning
•  how developing technologies affect media language
• the codes and conventions of media forms and products, including the processes through which media language develops as genre
•  the dynamic and historically relative nature of genre
•  the processes through which meanings are established through intertextuality 
• nostalgia marketing- draws in an older audience
• uses well-known elements of famous 80's films-
• eg, ET, The Goonies, Alien
•  how audiences respond to and interpret the above aspects of media language.
• fans make their own parodies of different films with Stranger Things elements
• eg, fake advertising posters, videos
•  how genre conventions are socially and historically relative, dynamic and can be used in a hybrid way
•  the significance of challenging and/or subverting genre conventions 
• the significance of the varieties of ways in which intertextuality can be used in the media 
•  the way media language incorporates viewpoints and ideologies.

Theories:

• semiotics, including Barthes 
•  narratology, including Todorov 
•  genre theory, including Neale 
•  structuralism, including Lévi-Strauss 
•  postmodernism, including Baudrillard.

Media representations:

Key ideas; How the media portray events, issues, individuals and social groups.

Must have studied:

• the way events, issues, individuals (including selfrepresentation) and social groups (including social identity) are represented through processes of selection and combination 
• social groups- all groups are very stereotypical which helps with the nostalgia marketing-creates the average 80s childhood- if the stereotypes were subverted, less people could relate
•  the way the media through representation constructs versions of reality 
•  the processes which lead media producers to make choices about how to represent events, issues, individuals and social groups 
•  the effect of social and cultural context on representations
• set in 1980s America and so the representations are of those at that time
• eg, misogyny, little racial diveristy, political tensions
• how and why stereotypes can be used positively and negatively 
• how and why particular social groups, in a national and global context, may be under-represented or misrepresented 
•  how media representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world and how these may be systematically reinforced across a wide range of media representations 
•  how audiences respond to and interpret media representations 
•  the way in which representations make claims about realism
•  the impact of industry contexts on the choices media producers make about how to represent events, issues, individuals and social groups
•  the effect of historical context on representations
• Duffer Brothers wanted to create an 80s feel and so they made representations based on this point in time-
• social groups- nerds, jocks, parents
•  how representations may invoke discourses and ideologies and position audiences 
•  how audience responses to and interpretations of media representations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances.

Theories:

• theories of representation, including Hall 
•  theories of identity, including Gauntlett 
•  feminist theories, including Bell Hooks and Van Zoonen 
•  theories of gender performativity, including Butler 
•  theories around ethnicity and postcolonial theory, including Gilroy.

Contexts of media:
Key ideas:Social, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts.

Must have studied:

• how the media products studied differ in institutional backgrounds and use of media language to create meaning and construct representations to reach different audiences, and can act as a means of: 
• reflecting social, cultural and political attitudes towards wider issues and beliefs 
• constructing social, cultural and political attitudes towards wider issues and beliefs 
• how media products studied can act as a means of reflecting historical issues and events 
•  how media products studied can potentially be an agent in facilitating social, cultural and political developments through the use of media language to construct meaning through viewpoints, messages and values and representations of events and issues 
•  how media products studied are influenced by social, cultural, political and historical contexts through intertextual references
•  how media products studied reflect their economic contexts through production, financial and technological opportunities and constraints.