language

• What does Media Language look at?

  The means by which the media communicates with its audience. Codes, conventions, and technical elements (camera work, sound, editing, mise-en-scène).
• Codes


  Systems of signs, which create meaning. Can be divided into symbolic codes and technical codes.
• Technical Codes


  The way in which software and hardware are used to produce meaning; this includes mise-en-scene, sound, camera and editing
• Symbolic Codes


  Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see; they are the codes used to create deeper meaning
• Verbal Codes


  Written or spoken codes; codes that use words
• Non-Verbal Codes


  Codes that do not use words i.e. images/sounds/facial expressions etc.
• Conventions


  The common features of a form or genre; the expected elements of a product
• Semiotics


  The study of signs and symbols.
• Anchorage


  Media language that's used to reinforce the meaning of another set of codes i.e. a caption reinforcing what is in an image
• Call to Action


  When an audience is directed to do something by the media text
• Sassure theory - Semiotics

  Signs are split into the sign, the signified and signifier

  
  

  Sign - The understanding the audience has

  Signifier - The language used to express the concept

  Signified - The concept that is represented by the sign
• Sign


  The understanding the audience has
• Signifier


  The language used to express the concept
• Signified


  The concept that is represented by the sign
• Paradigm


  A signifier and its links to other signifiers outside the same system of signs
• Syntagm


  A signifier and its links to other signifiers within the same system of signs
• Barthes Semiotics Theory


  There are two levels of signs in media; the first level: denotation and the second: denotation
• Denotation


  What is actually present in the media text
• Connotation


  What the symbol suggests
• Myth


  The prominent ideologies that are encoded into a text's signs; the text is produced within to understand and also the way the current social constructs impact the text.
• Peirce Theory - Semiotics

  Signs can be split into those that are icons, indexes or symbols
• Icon


  A sign that physically resembles that which it signifies
• Index


  A sign that has a direct link to that which it signifies but does not physically represent it
• Symbol


  A sign that has a learned link to that which it signifies; the link is arbitrary and not actually linked to the signified in any way
• Structuralism


  The belief that a single meaning is encoded into the text and that the audience must deconstruct that singular meaning
• Deconstruction


  An approach to understanding the relationship between text and meaning; the attempt to decode the media into its intended or alternative readings
• Post-Structuralism


  Challenges many of the assumptions of structuralism, most importantly the idea that a text has one single, identifiable meaning.
• Binary oppositions


  The concept that there are two opposite concepts that drive the narrative forward such as good vs. evil, old vs. young, married vs. single etc.
• Cinematography


  Use of camera to construct meaning
• Cultural codes


  ways that audiences interpret meaning based on widely held assumptions and broadly known experiences
• Mytheme


  a fundamental generic unit of narrative structure
• Editing


  The way a scene has been pieced together from various elements; this may be editing of text and image or cutting between moving image videos
• Mise-en-scene


  Everything in the frame; all visual elements within the camera lens including lighting, props, costume and setting
• Sound


  Audio elements of a media product
• Narration


  the action or process of narrating a story.
• Diegesis


  the story that we specifically see and not the extra parts that are alluded to or suggested by the text
• Quest narrative


  a character must go on a quest to overcome an obstacle and reach their goal.
• Catharsis


  a release of pent of tension, often caused by the solution to an enigma or plot point
• Character types' - Propp's Theory

  Hero - The Protagonist of the narrative who must go on a quest to overcome an obstacle and receive the princess as a reward

  
  

  Villain - The obstacle that blocks the hero

  
  

  Princess - The reward for the hero overcoming the obstacle; it is what the hero is questing for and often the driving force of the narrative

  
  

  Helper - Someone (or something) that directly aids the hero in their quest; usually follows them on the quest

  
  

  Donor - Someone that gives the hero something to help on their quest

  
  

  Dispatcher - The individual who sets the hero on the quest and gives him the instructions to complete it

  
  

  False Hero - A character who appears at the start to be a hero and attempting to also overcome the villain, but is revealed later to be another form of obstacle or fraud
• Causality


  the relationship between cause and effect; how one part of the narrative drives the next incident