Key Media Concepts

Target Audience
A target audience is the specific group of people that a media product is aimed towards. Target audiences can vary and be based upon multiple criteria. The purpose of assigning a target audience is for media production companies to specify a relevant group of people who may be interested in their particular product. Target audiences may be based upon age, gender, or other factors specific to a person's interests. An example of a relevant target audience would be that horror films, such as 'Saw', would generally be targeted towards individuals within the age range of 15-28+ (regardless of the BBFC rating), whom also enjoy the horror film genre.

Genre
Genre is the category in which a media products fits into. Every media product is assigned a genre, in some instances products can also be situated within multiple categories. There are many genres within film alone, just some of which are: Action, Adventure, Animation, Biography, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi, War and Western.

Conventions
Conventions are the key features of which collectively define a given genre. For example within an action film, the viewer would expect the film to typically feature car chases, gun fights and explosions, etc. This is as we associate these specific features with the specific genre. Similarly within a horror film the viewer would expect the film to feature, a murder, a sense of isolation and vulnerability, death and gore.

Codes (Symbolic & Technical)
Codes are essentially a way of conveying meaning to an audience, without the need to describe or explain to the audience what is happening with the use of words. There are two types of codes, symbolic and technical. One example of a symbolic code, in this instance for a horror film, would be a knife visible somewhere in shot, as this would suggest to the audience a sense of danger, as we associate knifes with danger and violence. An example of a technical code, likewise for a horror film,  would be the use of gloomy colour grading and dark lighting.