Media Language

G325 - Question 1b

Preface

This is an odd area in that it actually involves all of the others (narrative, genre, audience and representation) and is in turn used in all of them as well.

This means that you can use the other theorists we have already studied as they are all about how meaning is created.

You can also use the theorists discussed in this ppt with all those other sections as well.

What is Media Language?

Media language effectively means, what are you doing to communicate a specific thing with the audience.

Just like we use words in conversation to communicate, or images on signs, we use specific media techniques to communicate meaning in our products.

Key media language theorists

Ferdinand de Saussure - The signifier and the signified

Roland Barthes - denotation and connotation

Stuart Hall - encoding and decoding (preferred reading)

Saussure

This is very similar to connotation and denotation. It discusses the idea there are two levels of meaning in a text.

First there is the signifier - What is there in front of us, what we see/hear.

Then there is the signified - the idea that we associate with the signifier in our ehads, the concept it represents.

A sign or symbol does not make sense without the actual object and the meaning it creates, both must be present.

Example

If characters in a film are talking about a bank, the audience must determine which bank they mean

A grassy slope ora place to deposit money

3 types of signs

Signifiers can be broken down into 3 different types.

Iconic signs - signs that look like what they mean (eg a picture of a cowboy)

Indexical signs - signs that show a connection (eg smoke -> fire, sweating -> heat/exertion)

Symbolic signs - where the sign is completely disconnects (visually) from the meaning (eg a heart -> love, white dove ->peace)

Barthes - denotation and connotationAgain, very similar to Saussure’s theory.

It looks at how an audience will interpret meaning from a text.

The interpretation is influenced by society and audience member’s own experience of the world.

Denotation - an object placed within a media text.

Connotation - the meaning the audience draws from their own cultural, social and historical knowledge.

The main difference here to signier/signified is that a connotation may not always be intentional.

A media producer intentionally tries to communicate meaning with their signs.

But sometimes they may unintentionally communicate something because an item in their product has an alternate connotation.

example

Is this just a red flower (the denotation)?

It also has connotations of war, violence, death and remembrance.

But it also has connotations of drugs, heroin, the middle east, etc

Stuart Hall (him again)

This is a part of his reception theory that we have already looked at.

A text will always have a preferred reading that a producer intends.

This is done by encoding meaning into the text.

These meanings are then decoded by the audience so they can interpret it.

Often refers more to values and messages than literal signs and connotations.

Again, the audience can decode the meaning in three ways.

Fully accepting the producers intentions with a preferred reading.

Agreeing with some but not all of the intended meaning and therefore taking a negotiated meaning.

They may understand the intended message but reject it in favour of their own which is an oppositional reading.

exampleThis music video for Macklemore has very specific messages and values.