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Media Triangle

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The Media Triangle below provides you with a checklist of questions for deconstructing media texts. The triangle starts from the assumption that each media text is produced in a particular way, for a particular audience. (To print this document: print horizontally)

                                           TEXT

1. In what ways does this text tell a story? Does it connect to a larger story?
2. What type or category of story is it? Does it follow a formula?
3. What codes and conventions are used?
4. What are the characters like? Are they realistic? Are they stereotypes?
Is there an expected running time for a film or song?
Are there any copyright or trademarks used to protect certain words or products?
5. How do the characters relate to each other in terms of power, age, gender, race and class?
6. What are the values and ideology of the characters? To what extent do I share these beliefs?

                                    PRODUCTION

1. Where does this text come from? Who created it?
Who owns it?
2. How is this text distributed or sold to the public?
Who profits?
3. How was the text made? What production techniques were used?
4. What rules and laws affect this text?
Is there an expected running time for a film or song?
Are there any copyright or trademarks used to protect certain words or products?
5. How could I produce a similar text?

                          AUDIENCE

1. How does this text appeal to me? What things do I like and dislike?
2. Who is the intended target audience?
3. How and why does this text appeal to its audience?
4. In what different ways do people use or consume this text?
5. How could I change the text to make it more enjoyable?

The model above was developed by Eddie Dick, Media Education Officer for the Scottish Film Council. “The model stresses analysis and practice within a cultural, political, and economic milieu. The audience component of the model acknowledges the current research emphasis on audience response theory and the active use of media by the audience. The production component examines who produces media, and how it is distributed, as well as the technical, economic and legal issues at work in producing media products. The text component reveals intended meaning and other, more hidden, meanings as well as genre, values, narrative and issues which cue the meaning of media content. The Scots also place an emphasis on production, beginning at an early age.” (Reprinted from Strategies, The Strategies for Media Literacy Inc Quarterly, summer 1989

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