ABSTRACT
In the Introduction we explain some of the ways in which you need to move up a gear in your approach to the media in converting your AS approach to new A2 thinking. The purpose of this chapter is to help you make that important transition. Note that the title is ‘Developing textual analysis’, not replacing or abandoning but developing. That means that textual analysis is still important. Media products, or ‘texts’ as we will call them when we are talking about analysis, are important forensic materials in any discussion of the media. Just as a biologist relies on working with laboratory specimens to support more abstract hypotheses, so a media student needs to work closely with the actual output of the media both to begin any critical investigation and to support any hypothesis that may emerge from such a study. What this chapter should show you is how you can take a text or group of texts as a starting point and then move to a broader understanding by considering some of the wider contexts that make media productions the way they are. This is an especially important skill that will help you in tackling the first part of the MEST3 exam paper where you will be asked to make a comparison of two texts the starting point for further investigation. (See Chapter 4, p. 178).
