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TEXT: A text is any piece of media that we want to examine. Here are examples:

• A television show
• A newspaper article
• A song
• A book
• An internet pop-up ad
• A magazine
• A picture

When looking at a text we can ask many questions. Here are some examples:

• What kind of people are in the picture?
• Do they look rich? Poor?
• Are they smoking?
• What kind of clothes are they wearing?
• What kind of activity are they doing?
• Where is the movie taking place?
• What are the lyrics of the song talking about?
• Why would this commercial be shown to me while I'm watching my favorite TV show?
• Is the author of the book trying to convince me to believe what they believe?

There are many more questions to be asked, but asking questions can help us to better understand the meaning of the media text and why someone would want us to see, hear, or read that piece of media.

PRODUCTION: Production refers to everything that goes into the making of a media text. Here are some examples:

• The technology (computer programs, cameras, a printing press, or radio transmissions) used to create the media
• The owners of the company making the media and the amount of money it takes to make the media
  • the money used to make a movie and distribute it to movie theaters across the country
  • the money it takes to start a magazine
• The type of people who are making the media
  • the director
  • the author
  • the editor
  • the photographer
  • the artist
  • the musician
• The legal issues that must be worked out in order for the media to be made
  • actors' contracts
  • copyrighted photographs
  • payment for the use of a song

There are many other factors that go into the production of media. Therefore, we must ask these types of questions:

• How do these things determine what we are going to see, read or hear?
• What will we never see, read or hear about?
• Who wants us to receive media and why?
• What type of messages are we exposed to and who has the ability, or production power, to give us media messages?
• How does technology determine what we see?
• How does the cost of technology determine who can make media?

What is clear is that the production of media includes a very complicated, well-thought-out process, but we only experience the end product, which is a media text with a very definite, intentional message.

AUDIENCE: Anyone who receives a media text is a member of an audience. Media is normally designed to create an audience, like advertising a type of car on TV that might have a popular song in the background with images of young people having fun, dancing in the car. The advertisers are attempting to sell their product (for example, a car) to a specific group of people. Here are some example questions to ask:

• When do you think the advertisers would choose to show this commercial on TV?
• Would it be during a show that is popular among young people or old people?
• Who has the ability to buy this car? People with money or people without money?

Advertisers try to think of ways to sell their products to specific groups of people, or an audience, who they want to buy their products. As members of an audience, we have the opportunity to think about the meaning of a media text that the producer of the media wants us to see and the meaning that we want to see.