Media Series - TV
DVD cover


Media audiences Pages 5 - 7
EDUQUAS

Analyse the DVD cover (consider media language, genre, narrative, audience, industry).
Choose an image to analyse.


  • 2 step flow – Mail on Sunday/The Independent act as opinion leaders and their testimonial attracts audiences
  • Beauty of cropped female face – perfect hair and skin – unreal. Post-modern simulacrum – a copy of a copy? Cropping half-face signifies duality – is she what she seems?
  • Genre – “drama” – contemporary relevance. Colour codes connote sci-fi – blue/green palette. Artificially green eyes connote something alien.
  • Objectified through gaze – she is the only image on the cover – “to-be-looked-at-ness”.
  • Font of title and branding “A” – a world turned upside-down. It’s identifiable, but alien.
  • TA – 15 certificate – teen + audience
  • C4 brand as mark of quality
  • Joe and Laura are divided by curtain in frame – a foundering relationship? Creates enigmas.
  • The perfect family image in top left thumbnail – but mother Laura is replaced by synth Anita.
  • “suburban sci-fi with a dark underbelly – Steve Neale – repetition and difference. Blurb – “action-packed thriller” offers escapism.
  • Testimonials continue with comments and star ratings
  • Cast and previous work – targets audiences – “Game of Thrones”, “The IT Crowd”
  • DVD extras – “Being a Synth” suggests immersive experience; “Making of..” offers audiences exclusive insight.
  • Website – www.channel4.com appeals to interactive target audiences
  • Images have strong family focus with hierarchies implied through foregrounding etc. Creates enigmas.
  • Kudos and aMC – branding and quality marks (reputation emphasised – “from the makers of Utopia and Broadchurch”)

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