2. Production
PRE-PRODUCTION
This one of the most important stages of the process, and often the longest. Research needs to be
done into audience. Existing media texts that are similar in form or content have been carefully
examined. Each stage of production must be planned because, organisation is vital.
PRODUCTION
This is the easiest and most straightforward part of production process, and involves creating the raw
data (text, images, sound) that will create the final product.
POST-PRODUCTION
This consists of editing and constructing the data into the form that the audience will receive. During
this part of the process the magazine pages are proof read. This used to be quite expensive, due to
heavily specialised equipment being needed.
MARKETING & PROMOTION
When the text has been created, audiences need to be informed about it. This could also be quite
expensive because, if the media product was a magazine they would then need to pay for an
advertisement of their magazine and posters and so forth.
DISTRIBUTION
Distribution is about shipping products rather than creating them. Media production companies sell
the rights to their text to specialist distributors at this stage, e.g. HMV will take on all record
companies' CDs, rather than them trying to open up record stores themselves. However, the
distributor and the production company may be part of the same media conglomerate, so all the
profit eventually ends up in the same place. There are many different channels of distribution for
example Movies can be bought as a DVD or watched in the cinema or even on TV. Music can be
listened to via CD or downloaded onto the ICT system an put onto your phone or I Pod.
3. Audience
Audience is a very important concept throughout media. Media texts are made with an audience in mind
at all times, for example a group of people who will receive it and make some sort of sense out of it.
When a media text is being planned, conventionally the most important question the producers take notice
of is Does the media product have an audience? If the answer to this is 'no', then there is no point in going any
further. If no one is going to watch/read, the producers won’t make any money or get the media products
message across. Audience research is a major part of any media company's work. Uses of questionnaires, focus
groups, and comparisons to existing media texts, to find out if there is anyone out there who might be
interested in their idea.
Media producers would like to know:
• status
• age
• gender
• ethnicity
• location
Once they know this they can produce a media text that will appeal to that specific target audience.
