The conventions of a media text can be analysed through the use of the acronym LIIAR - standing for language , institution, ideology, audience and representation. In a music promotion context these conventions can be seen through these by the following:
Language: This could be portrayed in a number of ways through a promotion video. The most obvious for me would be the actual language of the song - what is the context of it and what is the overall purpose of the song? Is it purely for entertainment and enjoyment or is it more of an emotional/possible soundtrack to be used along with visuals for an emotive effect? Elements such as the meaning of the song could be included; is it aimed at a particular audience or is the song generally about a certain subject such as love/life/personal experiences? Using my own interpretation of semiotics within the lyrics could potentially help me to determine these features.
Institution: This would primarily be the record label that the band is signed up to. Research can be sourced to determine what similar/contrasting artists are signed to the same company and what kind of audience do these labels seem to entice. Popular labels that are present at the moment would be names such as Universal, EMI, Sony, Warner Brothers, The Orchard and Merlin. More specificity to me, however, would be the producers, directors and cast of the production which all make the promotion process come together, not forgetting the use of distributors to make the promotion a success.
Ideology: These are the values that a particular group or society use to create there own interpretation and eye-sight into a certain subject. In this case it will be the values of the song and the visual aspects - will the song connotate ideas of religion, social aspects, society itself or pure emotion and how will the presentation of the song help these individuals to make their own interpretation of the text. I will need to decided whether the visual elements of the video will enhance these values or whether it's the song itself that does so as to produce an ideologically stable product.
Audience: These are the consumers of the product and a specific target audience will determine the exact people that will use the product for their own personal interest. Groups will differ through the contrast in age, gender, location etc and each group will consume a product differently to each other. To help determine my target audience I will have to take into consideration the current audience of the artist and see how I can adapt my visual qualities of the video to this.
Representation: This is the process of how the visual, lyrics or sounds of the product are used to indicate or create issues or debates over what the raw material literally means. Usually the subjective notion of both positive and negative representations are formed through social groups where the ideas and values can be analysed to a personal standard.
