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The purpose of this unit is to enable students to further develop practical skills in the production of media products and to realise a production design. Organisational and creative skills are refined and applied throughout this process. In this unit students also analyse the ways in which media texts are shaped by social values and the influence of social values in the representations and structure of a media text. The role and influence of the media is also critically analysed in this unit.

AREA OF STUDY 1: Media process

This area of study focuses on the production of one media product based on a media production design plan. Each medium has a specific production process and set of work practices which are both appropriate to the particular medium and to the nature of the type of product being produced within that form. The specific production process for a television fictional program is very different from that required for a television current affairs program. Similarly, a radio talk show involves a different production process from that of a radio documentary.

Each type of media product, however, requires the integration of a variety of skills and degrees of collaboration to move from a written planning document (for example, script or treatment) and supporting visual representations (for example, rough, storyboard or navigation plan) to a completed media product.

The transition from production design to product completion requires management and organisation. The management and organisational skills applied will vary depending on the nature of the product. The product will involve the application of conventions and stylistic considerations appropriate to the selected medium and for specific audience(s).

The media production design plan should be related to one of the following media products and include audio, visual and/or text components as appropriate:

• an animation, audiovisual and/or video or film sequence or sequences; for example, a short narrative, documentary or experimental film, an extended advertisement or series of advertisements or a segment or segments for inclusion into a magazine or current affairs type program, a music video clip, clay animation, digital animation;
• a radio or audio sequence or sequences; for example, a soundscape, narrative, documentary, opinionative or experimental sequence, sequences or program;
• a photographic presentation, sequence or series of images; for example, a sequence of images for display in a gallery, a photographic essay, a series of images that explore a theme or idea, a photomontage, a series of images designed to illustrate a book or an advertising sequence;
• a print production; for example, a magazine or newspaper, a booklet, series of posters, catalogue, magazine or newspaper insert; a multimedia production; for example, a webpage, CD-ROM, interactive CD or DVD;
• a product that crosses boundaries between the media forms described above; for example, a video production with an animated titles sequence, a series of photographs or images with text, a webpage including video and/or audio sequences.

While students may incorporate pre-existing material in media productions, the use of such material may detract from the student’s capacity to develop an individual and/or distinctive product.

The production of the media product should be undertaken individually. However, the implementation of the production design plan may, in some audio and audiovisual productions, require the collaboration of others to realise the student’s intentions as developed in the media production design plan. Group production work and group media production design plans are not appropriate.

Outcome 1

On completion of this unit the student should be able to produce a media product for an identified audience from the media production design plan prepared by the student in Unit 3.

To achieve this outcome the student will draw on knowledge and related skills outlined in area of study 1.

Key knowledge

This knowledge includes

• production practices and processes associated with adapting a production design plan for a given medium and product; for example, shooting a script and a storyboard;
• equipment and materials used in media production; for example, camera, sound tape, lighting, editing facilities, film stock, black and white and/or digital processing;
• technical operation of, for example, camera, sound, editing, lighting, software;
• roles and responsibilities in media productions, and their interrelationships;
• conventions and styles appropriate to the selected medium and product, and their relationship to specific audience(s).

Key skills

These skills include the ability to

• operate equipment and use materials as appropriate to the selected media form;
• complete practical tasks at each stage of the production process;
• apply conventions and demonstrate stylistic awareness appropriate to the selected medium and
• product;
• manage and organise the production of a finished media product from a production design plan.

AREA OF STUDY 2: Social values

This area of study focuses on an analysis of social values represented in media texts and the relationship between social values, media texts and society. One media text is analysed in detail during the analysis of the ways in which media texts in general are shaped by social values. Media texts reflect the society in which they operate in terms of their subject matter, organisational structure and values. The widespread acceptance of common social values in a society seems to suggest that these values are natural and unchanging. Despite its appeal, this suggestion denies the fact that social values are the product of a specific history and culture. Furthermore, the values of a society are in a state of constant evolution, and tension always exists between the dominant set of values and different or emerging social values.

For the purposes of this study the term ‘social values’ refers to particular values or general attitudes held in society. Such values or attitudes may be linked to particular moral, political or other world views. For example, attitudes held about or directed towards particular individuals or groups of individuals (for example, specific professions, unemployed people), forms of social organisation (for example, the family, political and social structures), institutions or organisations (for example, financial institutions), constructed objects (for example, buildings, alternative forms of transport), the environment or features of the environment, forms of behaviour (for example, those associated with community service or substance abuse), types of behaviour attributed to age, class, gender, region and ethnicity, or events in which individuals, particular social groups or nations are involved or participate in (for example, sporting occasions, hostile actions).

The social values which shape the content and construction of media texts are likely to be common across a range of texts and text types within and/or across construction periods and places. The knowledge and skills acquired through examining a range of texts or text types will be demonstrated in the particular study of one text.

Outcome 2

On completion of this unit the student should be able to discuss the ways in which social values shape the content of media texts and analyse how social values are reflected in a text.

To achieve this outcome the student will draw on knowledge and related skills outlined in area of study 2.

Key knowledge

This knowledge includes

• the production context of media texts including year and country of production, and, as appropriate, production source(s), distribution and/or exhibition process(es), production personnel involved in the making of the media product and other factors;
• attitudes in the form of social values held in society during the production period of media texts; for example, attitudes about characters/individuals, institutions, behaviour, social issues, objects, social relations;
• ways in which social values of the production period shape the content of media texts; •    the nature and structure of representations in media texts, such as the depiction of characters/individuals, institutions, behaviour, social issues, objects, social relations;
• representation of a range of social values of the production period within media texts; •    social values and how they are reflected in the representations in media texts;
• the extent to which media texts support and/or challenge social values including dominant values and/or emerging, alternative or oppositional values.

Key skills

These skills include the ability to

• substantiate arguments about the relationship between social values, the production of media texts and representations in, and structures of, such texts;
• analyse a media text in detail in the context of the ways in which media texts are shaped by social values;
• apply the concept of social values in the analysis of media texts;
• describe social values held in society during the production period of media texts;
• analyse the relationship between representations in media texts and the social values of the production period;
• analyse the extent to which media texts support and/or challenge social values.

AREA OF STUDY 3: Media influence

This area of study focuses on an analysis of media influence and debates in assessing this influence. Media texts in more than one form are analysed.

The relationship between the media, its audiences and the wider community is a complex one. Discussion of the media’s function and influence is informed by a range of historical and contemporary developments and research. Arguments and evidence have been advanced over this time presenting a range of perspectives as part of the debates about the effects and characteristics of media influence. One position sees individuals actively making sense of a media product within the context of their daily lives and community values. Alternatively, it is argued that individuals and mass audiences passively absorb meanings in media products, which makes them susceptible to manipulation and encourages them to adopt specific forms of behaviour.

The role of the media in our culture, their rights and responsibilities and those of audiences are the subject of ongoing discussion. Audiences and the community in general are often unsure about how to understand the dichotomy they see between the media as a source of information, pleasure and relaxation in their lives, and the proposition that it is the source of a range of social problems. Expectations and responsibilities are placed on the media which are manifested in a variety of measures designed to control aspects of the media’s operation, production and influence. These include codes of practice, government legislation or regulations, or self-regulation from within an industry. Such codes or regulations may define standards, set limitations or place ethical parameters on the media. Developments in society and technology, together with new media genres, texts and forms of communication, result in different ways of using and thinking about the media and the nature and extent of its influence.

Outcome 3

On completion of this unit the student should be able to discuss theories of media influence and analyse debates about the nature and extent of media influence.

To achieve this outcome the student will draw on knowledge and related skills outlined in area of study 3.

Key knowledge

This knowledge includes

• a range of media forms and texts;
• communication theories and/or models including
  –    linear models (which see meaning inherent within a text, waiting to be uncovered)
  –    semiotic constructivist models (which see meaning as arising from the interaction of a text
  with a reader);
• theories of audience, including those that arise out of
  –    linear communication theories (including hypodermic and uses and gratifications models)
  –    semiotic models (such as reception studies);
• understanding and evaluation of the arguments and evidence surrounding the proposition that
  individual media texts and the media in general have particular (both positive and negative)
  effect(s) on individual(s), audience(s) and society;
• arguments and evidence surrounding the proposition that the media in general, and individual
  media texts, are actively used by different individuals, audiences and society for a range of different
  purposes;
• arguments and the evidence surrounding the regulation of media content by, for example, codes
  of practice, government legislation and regulation, and self-regulation in the interests of protecting audiences.

Key skills

These skills include the ability to

• compare and contrast communication theories and/or models;
• identify and describe key viewpoints about the nature and extent of media influence;
• analyse arguments and evaluate evidence about the nature and extent of media influence;
• discuss the relationship between audiences and a range of media forms and texts;
• analyse the rationale for, and effectiveness of, measures designed to control media content;
• discuss issues in assessing media influence.