Question 1b: Media Language

Media language Media language refers to the ways in which media producers make meaning in ways that are specific to the medium in which they are working and how audiences come to be literate in ‘reading’ such meaning within the medium..

Media language For example, the ‘language of film’, print layout conventions, web design and navigation conventions and rule economies in gaming. These medium specific languages will often be closely connected to other media concepts such as genre or narrative and candidates are at liberty to make such connections to a greater or lesser extent in their answers. In the examination, questions will be set using one of these concepts only.

Media language In some cases you will be describing their productions in terms of them not relating straightforwardly to the concept. For example, a candidate producing three websites over their two portfolios might describe ways in which websites cannot be understood easily through applying conventional narrative theory.

Semiotics The study of codes and conventions within media texts

Semiotics The signifier any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image.

Semiotics The signified the concept that a signifier refers to.

Together, the signifier and signified make up the Sign: the smallest unit of meaning. Anything that can be used to communicate (or to tell a lie).

Semiotics

AUDIENCES DECODE MESSAGES

PREFERRED READING (Hall 1980)

Denotation The most basic or literal meaning of a sign, e.g., the word "rose" signifies a particular kind of flower.

Connotation: the secondary, cultural meanings of signs; or "signifying signs," signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning, e.g., the word "rose" signifies passion.

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

Paradigmatic relations Where signs get meaning from their association with other signs

Syntagmatic relations Where signs get meaning from their sequential order, e.g., grammar or the sequence of events that make up a story.

Myths a combination of paradigms and syntagms that make up an oft-told story with elaborate cultural associations, e.g., the cowboy myth, the romance myth.

Ideologies Codes that reinforce structures of power. Ideology works largely by creating forms of "common sense," of the taken-for-granted in everyday life.

Mise en scene Deconstruct your diegetic world (diegesis)- how does it create meaning? Location Setting Character Layout and page design Fonts

Camerawork Angles Shot type Movement Framing Composition

Editing (continuity) E/S Eyeline match Action match Crosscutting Shot reverse shot

Editing (non-continuity) Montage Ellipsis Flash back forward

EXPLAIN HOW MEANING IS CONSTRUCTED BY THE USE OF MEDIA LANGUAGE IN ONE OF YOUR COURSEWORK PRODUCTIONS (25 marks/30 mins)

Media language table Media text: MEDIA LANGUAGE EXPLANATION OF HOW THIS CREATES MEANING PREFERRED READING MYTHS EDITING MISE EN SCENE DENOTATION (SIGNIFIER) CONNOTATION (SIGNIFIED) CODES AND CONVENTIONS CAMERAWORK Paradigmatic relations Syntagmatic relations