Reading Media Images

Chapter 2“Media Studies: Texts, institutions and Audiences”Lisa Taylor and Andrew Willis

Presented by: Belal Doufesh

Reading Media ImagesIt is the close textual examination of the

meanings that media output generates.

Two approaches to understanding the textual construction of visual media products:

mise-en-scène analysisSemiotics

mise-en-scène analysisUsed to describe stage direction, “the fact of

putting into the scene” - Bordwell and Thompson (1986).

In film: the way of understanding the director’s input into the construction of the film frame.

Bordwell and Thompson: “is a system of staging elements” divided into:

Setting Costume and make-up Lighting and figure expression Movement

mise-en-scène analysisSetting

mise-en-scène analysisCostume and make-up

mise-en-scène analysisLighting and figure expression

mise-en-scène analysisMovement

mise-en-scène analysisVideo: http://youtu.be/Qz8UBPWhTdU

Semiotic is the science of signs. The study of how signs communicate.

Ellen Seiter (1992): “The study of everything that can be used for communication: words, images, traffic signs, flowers, music, medical symptoms, and much more”.

The sign is made up of two elements: The signifier (Home) The signified (Comfort, ..etc)

Ronald Barthes: differentiate between first and second signification – (Red rose):

Denotation (Flower) Connotation (Romance) Culturally Constructed (Video: http://youtu.be/ftuWPVXXmsw)

Semiotic Analysis

Semiotic AnalysisCosmopolitan

Magazine June 2012

Semiotic AnalysisCosmopolitan

Magazine September 2012

Semiotic AnalysisCosmopolitan

Magazine October 2012

Semiotic AnalysisCosmopolitan

Magazine November 2012

Semiotic AnalysisSingular / definitive reading of a text is impossible.

Signs have the ability to carry multiple meanings

Sign meaning change according to context.

Sign meaning is affected by the social position of the reader.

Semiotic analysis is a “powerful tool to understand how sign system in mass media can evoke emotions, associations, fears, hopes, fantasies and acquiescence”. Van Zoonen (1994).

Semiotic AnalysisVideo: http://youtu.be/THWrno6lBUQ