Media Studies: Key Concepts We are learning to: Understand the relationship between the sign and signified. Interpret the messages of particular colours and the mise-en-scene for a range of images. Use this information to identify target audience.

Key vocab Mise en scene The arrangement of everything that appears in the framing – actors, lighting, décor, props, costume. It comes from the French term that means “placing on stage.” The frame and camerawork also constitute the mise-en-scène of a movie. We use this term to deconstruct how these things are used to help us infer the narrative behind the image.

Signifiers and Signified We seem as a species to be driven by a desire to make meanings: we make meanings through our creation and interpretation of 'signs'. Signs can take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no true meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning. ‘Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign’. Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. Saussure offered a two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of: – a 'signifier' (signifiant) - the form which the sign takes; and – the 'signified' (signifié) - the concept it represents.

For example…

Romantic Love Human Heart

Perception Our perception of reality is structured and shaped by the words and signs we use. We don’t simply label the world. We give it meaning through our words and therefore ‘construct’ it. We give things their meaning, they do not have it implicitly. A flag means things to people but only because they agree that, it has no implicit meaning.

New Idea: Words are like bits of a car… If you found a carburetor from a car how could you work out what it did? You could examine it in great detail. But you could not understand its’ function unless you knew about the other parts of an engine and a car and what an engine was intended for.

Signs are similar… It is like-wise with signs. A sign makes sense only when it is in a system of other signs. It achieves meaning in relation to other signs. How do signs make meaning though?

Strategy No. 1 Denotation - the first level of meaning ‘Denotation’ is about making meaning by association. Comes from the Latin ‘to make a mark’. We have agreed to link certain signifiers with signified meanings. Those signifiers borrow meaning. Signifieds or concepts are ‘denotated or linked to various signifiers.

Denotated meaning Thus: Human Heart = The image, its shape and colour denote the human organ the heart.

Strategy No.2 - Conotation While denotation allows us to make a direct link between a signifier and its referent we often have other influences that modify the meaning of a sign. For example while the image of a heart may indicate the organ, through association (not to mention the greeting card industry’s pursuit of profit using a minor saint’s festival) it has become associated with the idea of love. This development of a second level of meaning is known as connotation.

Connotation Romantic Love Human Heart The, signifier - image of the heart - no longer refers only to the organ but to the concept - the signified - of romantic love.

Connotational codes and cultural difference Not only must we examine the sign itself, but we must look at where it is placed. Meanings are determined by the place, time and purpose of their position. Indeed a sign in one place can mean something completely different for one placed in another.

Kaos!!! For an example if I saw the word ‘Kaos’ in an essay I would point out the spelling mistake. If the word is used in another context, a promotional poster for a club night for example, the misspelling takes on a different meaning, one of non-conformity and youthful rebellion.

Context Context is thus highly significant in determining the meaning of a sign. Signs must be understood in their context, to remove them and analyse them in the abstract will rob them of their meaning. What means something in one place may mean something completely different in another. Electrolux used the strap line “Nothing sucks like an Electrolux“ this worked well in Scandinavia but not so well in the US.

Symbolic (unmotivated) signs Signs in which the relationship between the sign and its meaning are totally arbitrary, such as the word dog that has no link to the idea dog beyond our agreement that it means the animal, are called symbolic signs. Most language belongs to this group, as do agree signs like colours: red = danger or stop.

Iconic (motivated) Signs Signs that resemble their meaning in some way, such as the picture of the queen on a coin, are called iconic signs. They attempt to look like an intended concept – more or less.

Take a look at this iconic image … What is the meaning or intended concept we can take from this? How does the mise-en-scene support this? What kind of target audience could we suggest for this?

How does the text anchor the image and what is the specific meaning we are directed towards?

Deconstruct this advert What is the meaning or intended concept we can take from this? How does the mise-en-scene support this? lighting costume actors How does the text anchor the image and what is the specific meaning we are directed towards? How does this advert construct meaning?