Media Studies - TV
DVD cover


Media audiences Pages 8 - 10
EDUQUAS

Analyse the DVD cover (consider media language, genre, narrative, audience, industry).
Choose an image to analyse.


  • Chiaroscuro lighting creates enigmas.
  • Dark cloudy skies – sense of foreboding (Nordic noir generic convention)
  • Bridge dominates setting and looms over Saga, trapping her beneath it. Bleak and isolated setting – a woman alone
  • Australian classification and DVD – global release and success
  • Direct mode-of-address draws audience (the ‘Saga stare’). Stance is uncompromising and rejects classical representations of femininity – almost a Western hero
  • Costume – masculine, military boots and coat, leather trousers and jacket underneath
  • Split font is reminiscent of the bridge itself joining two different cultures
  • Audience 15+ - violence and sex scenes – gritty and pulling no punches.
  • Font –metallic, hi-tech, modern. Split by bridge.
  • ‘Critically acclaimed’ – testimonial, backed by superlatives from The Observer (ABC1 liberal readership) – “greatest, “coolest”. “Saga” = pun to attract attention. Two-step flow with newspaper as opinion leader
  • Box set – modes of consumption – binge watching
  • Blurb – reveals themes – domestic v professional dichotomy, the power of the past, family ties
  • New colleague – enigma and narrative links to previous series. Railway tracks suggest narrative journey
  • Crime drama conventions – partnership, murder, serial killer, career at risk
  • Chiaroscuro lighting, bizarre murder set-up, iconic Porsche, torchlight investigation, isolated setting – stance with gun

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