Media Language

The way in which a text is

constructed to create meaning for

a reader or viewer of the text

For the exam you need to be

able to:

Write a coherent analysis of the media language in your teaser trailer including:

Reference to theory - Semiotics

Examples of the denotative and connotative levels of meaning within your music video.

Appropriate use of key terms (e.g. denotation and connotation, signifiers and signified, codes and conventions).

Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication-- whether newspapers, TV game shows or horror movies-- has its own creative language: scary music heightens fear, camera close-ups convey intimacy, big headlines signal significance.

KEY TERM: Semiotics

Definition: The study of SIGNS

(& the role of signs in social life)

Semiotics examines how signs construct meaning

(i.e. how the use of mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing and sound construct meaning in your music video, digipak or magazine advert).

Semiotics – The Study of Signs

Saussure (a founder of semiotics)

summarised it in the following equation:

The Sign = signifier + signified

the form which

the sign takes

the concept it

represents

So meaning is not fixed, the sign can be different

depending on the signified, i.e. the reader’s interpretation

of the signifier.

Terms you MUST use: Denotation, Connotation

In semiotics, denotation and connotation are terms describing the relationship between the signifier and its signified.

As John Fiske (1982) puts it “denotation is what is filmed, connotation is how it is filmed”.

Aspects of Mise-en-Scene –video and print style

1. Location - settings, set-design and iconography

2. Character – Costume, Properties and Make Up, Actors and Gesture

3. Cinematography - Lighting and Colour

4. Layout and Page Design – colour, juxtaposition of elements.

How to read the signs and

signifiers within a Media Text

All media texts have 2 layers of meaning:

DENOTATIVE LEVEL:

What we actually see/hear

CONNOTATIVE LEVEL:

What you associate with this image

Roland Barthes and semiotics

Barthes was an influential theorist who

explored the way in which media texts make

meaning.

(Saussure was more interested in how meaning was created

in language, Barthes was more interested in the cultural

significance of Semiotics.)

He considered that all cultural forms, are essentially made up

of a system of signs that could be deconstructed to reveal

how cultural meanings are constructed.

He analysed the denotative and connotative level of signs

in a media text.

This image denotes a tropical

island

The image connotes peace,

tranquility paradise, holiday,

summer to some readers.

…but think about the film

‘Castaway’, the victims of the Bali

bombings or the recent tsunami - in

this case the image may connote

isolation, fear or even death

It is important to note that images

have different connotations

depending on the reader of the

image/text

Denotation & Connotation within a

Media Text – A Movie Poster

The Mission Impossible Poster

denotes a MATCH and a

GLOBE OF THE WORLD

What are the connotations of

a) The match?

b) The globe?

What are they communicating to

an audience? Why?

Semiotics – codes and

conventionsWe interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating

them to familiar systems of codes and conventions (e.g.

genre conventions, cultural conventions, etc.).

e.g. low key lighting which casts dark shadows in a film scene can

symbolise mystery or sinister characters.

But it all depends on context!

What made the shadows mysterious or even

sinister in the last slide?

What different meanings are created in the

images on this slide?

Shadows as symbolic codes

Shadows are not mysterious in themselves.

I am tapping into cultural ideas that connect

darkness with the unknown or hidden.

Also, expectations based on our understanding

of thriller/horror film codes and conventions,

which associate low key lighting and dark

shadows in a scene with mystery or sinister

characters.

Semiotics

Signs can be polysemic (have many possible

meanings)

Why do viewers interpret certain meanings over

others?

– Context is important – how signs work in combination will

lead us towards particular readings over others.

– Dominant cultural ideas will lead us towards certain

interpretations over others.

– We understand the conventions of particular media forms.

Over to you

Analyse your own media product. Pick 5

elements from your Music Video and analyse

the connotations – 3 should be mise en

scene. 1 should be editing, 1 should be

camera angles

Use the key terms denotations and

connotations (or signifiers and signified)

In your connotations, try to link to genre,

narrative, audience and representation where

relevant.

Roland Barthes and semiotics

Barthes argues that the organisation of signs encodes

particular messages and ideologies and that these

ideologies can be revealed as constructed through textual

analysis.

He described these constructed messages and ideologies as

myths.

Over to you

Go back to your analysis.

Summarise any overall messages it

connotes or cultural myths it reinforces.

For those of you who want to really

stretch your academic muscles…

‘Semiotics is important because it can help us not to take 'reality' for granted as

something having a purely objective existence which is independent of human

interpretation.

It teaches us that reality is a system of signs. Studying semiotics can assist us to

become more aware of reality as a construction and of the roles played by ourselves

and others in constructing it

…Meaning is not 'transmitted' to us - we actively create it according to a complex

interplay of codes or conventions of which we are normally unaware. Becoming aware of

such codes is both inherently fascinating and intellectually empowering…

In defining realities, signs serve ideological functions. Deconstructing and contesting

the realities of signs can reveal whose realities are privileged and whose are

suppressed.

The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To

decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings which we

inhabit.’

Daniel Chandler (2005)

“Media is communication”. Discuss the ways that you have used media language to create meanings in one of your media products.

Question