John Fiske 1978In relation to my own short film

John Fiske (born 1939) is a media scholar who published a series of books in the late 1980's and early 1990's examining how cultural meaning is constructed . One of the first scholars to apply "semiotics" in his analysis. (Semiotics being the study of signs, signifiers, metaphor etc).Fiske's Theory suggests that people naturally categorise events that take place in reference to media texts they have experienced in the past. This means that we all create a context for what we are seeing through intertextual referencing. People tend to believe that genre is based on real life, however, the human mind tends to give real life events context and genre based on those created in texts which in turn, can be applied to any genre.

In relation to my own short film Fiske’s theory states that I myself, in creating my short film, are heavily influenced on various media texts that I have seen in the past. This being the case then hopefully my audience will recognise some of the influenced features from other mockumentary sources and find entertainment in spotting them or even subconsciously enjoying my short film more because of it.

However as well as myself being influenced by previous selected media texts so to will the audience. In this sense the audience will acknowledge the fact that the media text that I am focusing on is a mockumentary due to the recognisable camera angles and the way in which the characters are fully aware of the cameras presence and will therefore create judgements on my short film based on the knowledge that they previously had about any media texts referencing momckumentaries.