Media language

What is a media text?

In Media studies, the word ‘text’ is used to describe any media product such as television programmes, adverts, film etc. ‘Texts’ are therefore the main point of our study in understanding how media language creates meaning. An important way of understanding the meanings in the texts is through the use of codes.

Framing

Framing defines the positon from which the image was created. All frames have a shape, in terms of framing a still image you can vary:

Angle: the angle of vision refers to the cameras angle in relation to the vertical. The most common is the ‘straight on’ position. There is also the low angle, which is often used to indicate a positon of power as the audience is forced to look up at the character and high angle which means the audience has to look down on the character so often.

Height: this is the height at which the shot is taken, usually eye-level, just under 2m

Level: Refers to the camera’s horizontal angle. As with the vertical angle, usually it is “straight on” but the camera can also be tilted on its side to the left tor to the right to change the level.

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Depth of field: this is the distance between the nearest and further area from the camera which is in focus. Deep focus photography will have the whole scene in focus, whereas a conventional photography will focus on the main object with the background out of focus. Soft focus can be created by using special lenses and layers.

Content (mise-en-scene)

Lighting: Refers to how the image is lit. Three-point lighting is the commonest set up, made up of a key, fill and black light.

The key lighting is the main source of illumination and is directed on the subject, usually from 45 degrees above and to one side of the camera. It is a hard, direct light which produces sharply defined shadows.

The fill light: is the soft or indirect light that “fills” in the shadows formed by the key light.

The black light shines from behind the subject, usually to differentiate it from the background

Binary oppositions: one of the most powerful creators of a signs meaning are binary oppositions. Signs are contrasted with signs which have meanings that operate in oppositions.

They are not natural descriptions but cultural creations.

The media often use binary oppositions to structure their representations. A text that uses binary oppositions usually assigns a posivitive value to one signs against the other.

Editing

The word edit often means to ‘cut out’ but in audio-visuals texts it refers to the join between shots.

The purpose of conventional editing is to make this join as smooth as possibly.

Continuity editing: is to create a coherent cinematic space in which the action can take place. It is important the audience knows where the camera has moved to.

The 180-degree rule: by staying on one side of the imaginary axis, ‘the axis of action’, which is formed through the subjects in the scene, the audience will always have a clear idea of where the characters are in relation to one another and where they are within the scene.

Sound

Sound is important for the audience to make sense of what they are seeing.

Dialogue: the most obvious diegetic sound, this is what characters are saying onscreen.

Sound effect: non-verbal sounds, the source of which is clear to the audience.

Ambient sounds: backgrounds sounds, again diegetic, add atmosphere

Non-diegetic sounds: not originating from the on-screen space, such as a soundtrack or voice over.

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The setting: typically what you see. Denotation is what an image is actually showing and is immediately apparent,

rather than the assumption the individual reader may make about it; the everyday or common sense meaning of a sign and connotation shows the meaning of a sign which is arrived at through the cultural experiences a read brings to it.

Anchoring: fixing or limiting a particular set of meanings. One of the most common forms of anchorage is the caption underneath a photograph.

Juxtaposition: means “being placed side by side” for an example if a handsome man juxtaposed with a mansion on the cover of a novel it would suggest it was a romantic story.

Genre: provides an audience with a clear set of expectations which are used to interpret the text.

Semiotics

Is one of the key theoretical tools to help deconstruct media texts.

An attempt to create a science of the study of sign systems and their role in the construction and reconstruction of meaning in media texts.

They are the study of signs, doesn’t just refer to formal signs but any system of communication.

The signifier is the signs physical form in the real world and the signified is the mental concept evoked by the signifier.

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Syntagm: this is a chain of signs that is an element which follows another in a particular sequence.

Paradigm: a paradigm is a class of objects or concepts which are all members of defining category but markedly different in themselves.