Production
Start Date : 12th November 2019
Production studies are ‘the study of how media texts get made and who stamps their authorial imprint on them’. It involves studying the people who produce, distribute and market content as well as those who control media. This ranges from people who create content in their free time to larger transnational corporations who create high budget productions.
Production studies are used when analysing the processes behind the production and uses concepts of cultural studies such as hegemony to understand the practices that are involved in production. Production studies involve using some of the methodologies that we had previously looked at in this module. These include political economy which involves looking at the benefits and profits that come with production practices and also looking at the labour that is involved with them.
Another methodology that can be used when analysing production is narrative. This involves looking at the processes that were used during the production of a specific media text as well as looking at the resources and materials that were used to have an understanding of the viewpoints and ideas that are included in the production.
Using these methodologies and others, it is clear to see how you could analyse the topic of minorities within the media. Narratology can be used to look at the cultural influences that have affected the topic and historiography can be used to look at how minorities have been shown in previous productions.
I think that analysing production is good because it involves using a lot of different methodologies which means it is possible to look at production from different aspects within media.
References –
Havens, T. (2018) ‘Production’. in The Craft of Criticism. Ed.by Kackman, M., Celeste Kearney,M. New York: Routledge, 268 – 278
