G235: Critical Perspectives in Media

Theoretical Evaluation

of Production

1b) Media Language

Aims/Objectives

• To reinforce the basic media language that create meaning in texts.

• To have a basic understanding of how to evaluate your coursework against the media language that you used.

What is meant by media language?

• For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning

• Basically, how did you create meaning in your music video (this encompasses narrative, genre, representation and audience)

Importance of media language • Every medium has its own ‘language’ – or

combination of languages – that it uses to communicate meaning. Television, for example, uses verbal and written language as well as the languages of moving images and sound.

• We call these ‘languages’ because they use familiar codes and conventions that are generally understood.

• Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication-- whether newspapers, TV game shows or horror movies-- has its own creative language: scary music heightens fear, camera close-ups convey intimacy, big headlines signal significance.

Codes and Conventions in Music Videos

• Andrew Goodwin – Thought Beats– Narrative and Performance (repeatability)– Star Image (also Dyer)– Relation of visuals to a song (illustration,

amplification, disjuncture)– Technical aspects (camera, editing, effects etc)

Codes and conventions in Music Videos

Carol Vernallis (2001) • Vernalis’ theory centres around 4 key

concepts that all relate to the way the music video is constructed (how it creates meaning). They are:

• 1. Narrative• 2. Editing• 3. Camera Movement and framing• 4. Diegesis

Carol Vernallis

• Editing– Jump cuts – Juxtaposed shots– Breaking 180 degree rule

• Narrative– Disjointed/fragmented narrative– May not be clear resolution– Video may pose question it doesn’t answer

Full information on Carol Vernallis is on G325 blog

Carol Vernallis

– Camera movement and framing• Camera moves in time with the music• Close ups and master shots often used

– Diegesis (the world of the music video)• Diegesis revealed slowly • Character or objects move in time with the music• Some frames more important than others• There may be gaps in the audience’s understanding

of the diegesis – in time and space,music, performance and narrative

Full information on Carol Vernallis is on G325 blog

Back to Basics - Semiotics• According to philosopher Charles Sanders

Peirce (1931), “we think only in signs” .• Signs take the form of words, images,

sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning.

• Definition: using ‘media language’.• “Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as

a sign” (Peirce, 1931). • Anything can be a sign as long as someone

interprets it as 'signifying' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. It is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics.

Basically this essay is a lot like TV Drama– what is your

preferred macro meaning (your preferred meaning –

Hall, 1980) and how did you create it using micro

elements?

Link?• Evaluating media language is an

evaluation of all the micro elements and how they have created meaning to inform us about genre, narrative, representations/ ideology, targeting of audiences (through micro elements).

• This therefore requires us to use semiotic terminology to explain our encoding of elements and codes and conventions within our texts.

1. Stuart Hall – Reception Theory (1980).

• Everything creates a meaning/ preferred meaning .

• This means that media language of specific mediums is encoded in texts for audiences to decode/read/understand.

Task 1.

• Detail what the macro meanings were within your text (preferred meanings and ideologies behind representations, or about genre, narrative).

• What micro signs do you think you used in terms of the codes and conventions of your medium to create meaning? Make a list for each of the macro meanings you can think of.

2. Umberto Eco (1981)

• Texts can have open meanings (ambiguous, not easy for the audience to understand).

• Texts can have closed meaning (easy for the audience to understand).

• WHICH ONE IS YOURS? AND WHO IS IT AIMED AT?

Task 2.• Identify how you created an open or

closed meaning for your audience.• How did you use the micro elements

and to create structure and create this for your audience?

3. Medium Specific Theory

• With this question it would then be wise to identify that you understand the meaning of the form you have created:

• 1. Music video – postmodern text (Goodwin, 1992 + McDougall, 2009)

• 2. Goodwin – 5 aspects to a music video

• 3. Carol Vernallis (2001)

Task 3.

• Using some of the theory – how does your product conform to the theorists assumptions?

• What meaning is created?• What other texts have you based this

on?

Terminology: Charles Sanders Pierce (1931) – Three types of

sign...• Icon/iconic: a mode in which the signifier is

perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a scale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors, 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack, imitative gestures;

• Index/indexical: a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes, non-synthetic odours and flavours), medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level).

• Symbol/symbolic: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags.

Using terminology - Denotation, Connotation and Myth: Roland

Barthes (1967) • In semiotics, denotation and connotation

are terms describing the relationship between the signifier and its signified, and an analytic distinction is made between two types of signifieds: a denotative signified and a connotative signified. Meaning includes both denotation and connotation. Myth are the ideologies behind it.

• Barthes (1977) argued that in photography connotation can be (analytically) distinguished from denotation.

• As John Fiske (1982) puts it “denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed”. Link to Barthes’ editing at stage of production we discussed.

• Related to connotation is what Roland Barthes (1977) refers to as myth. For Barthes myths were the dominant ideologies of our time. The 1st and 2nd orders of signification called denotation and connotation combine to produce ideology - which has been described as a third order of signification by Fiske and Hartley (1982).

NOTES: Micro Elements: Mise-en-Scene

• Mise-en-scène constitutes the key aspect of the pre-production phase of the film and can be taken to include all aspects of production design and Cinematography.

• Mise-en-Scene creates the diegetic world/diegesis - the fictional space and time implied by the narrative, i.e. the world in which the story takes place.

Aspects of Mise-en-Scene – music video

1. Location - settings, set-design and iconography2. Character – Costume, Properties and Make Up,

Actors and Gesture3. Cinematography - Lighting and Colour

Micro Elements: Camerawork

• There are Four aspects to camerawork that you need to understand:

1.Shot Types 2.Camera Composition 3.Camera Movement4.Camera Angles

Summary • How does your music video construct

meaning for the audience?• Think about

signs/connotations/ideologies• Also consider how you used/challenged

typical codes and conventions of music videos to construct meaning? (did you play with genre/narrative conventions? )

• If any genre/narrative/audience/representation theory is applicable then use it!

Essay Question

• Analyse one of your media productions in relation to media language.

• Structure• -Intro• -P-D-Q format with the focus on the ‘D’- Aim to use at least 5 theories in your answer.- For each theory there may be 2-3 examples from your

production. • - Conclusion