Week 3: Media Producers and their Products & Introduction to Sitcoms

Within Media Studies I have continued learning about media producers and the products they create. A different aspect which I have learnt is what elements are used by media producers to create products which appeal to a specific audience. Over all forms of media, there are many different aspects which media producers consider to create a product appealing to a target audience, these include:

• Sound
• Images
• Words
• Sequences
• Colours
• Fonts
• Celebrity Endorsement within Adverts in magazines and newspapers.
• The font and Layout (amount of pictures:text)- This is important as the older generation may like to read spreadsheets, which includes more text than images. Whereas people who read newspapers such as The Daily Mirror, would like more images than text.
• Content included : Design and Colours.

Constructing Content: when constructing content for a product it always has a narrative structure. This is the structure of how the story is being told or the point being made. When creating a product the construction relies of codes and conventions of the product. This is when a product is created with common element which the audience are familiar with.

Sitcoms Codes and Conventions: Traditional and Non-traditional.
I have started researching into the codes and conventions of Sitcoms. This includes traditional and non-traditional Sitcoms. As a class we discussed the codes and conventions of a traditional sitcom, these include:

• Canned Laughter
• Humiliating Situations
• Small group of main characters
• Catchphrases
• Studio Filmed
• Catchy Theme Tune
• Linear Narrative

These codes and conventions are used within traditional sitcoms such as:
-Friends
-One Foot in the Grave
-Only Fools and Horses
-Fawlty Towers
-The Vicar of Dibley
-My Family
-Absolutely Fabulous
These are all traditional sitcoms which used the codes and conventions listed above.

Some of the non-traditional Sitcoms which also follow these codes and conventions are:
-Outnumbered
-Extras
-The Inbetweeners
-Peep Show
Although, the non-traditional sitcoms tend not to follow every code and convention, for example, Outnumbered doesn't contain canned laughter.

I have started to complete the worksheet in relation to sitcoms and their codes and conventions. For task 1 I am looking at the codes and conventions used within traditional and non-traditional sitcoms and comparing these. The sitcoms I am comparing are The Vicar of Dibley and Outnumbered.


Vicar of Dibley




Outnumbered

For task 2 I am researching into either the horror or soap genre and identify the codes and conventions of this genre.