Media language
Reading a text
When reading a text, the content and how content elements work together to create meaning. When reading a newspaper, the masthead of the newspaper front page will give you the name of the newspaper. If you simply look at the words, you find out the name of the newspaper e.g. The Sun. However I can find out much more about the audience, ideology and institution by analysing how the masthead is constructed, e.g. in terms of the colours used, the font used, how big the name of the newspaper is and what other images or text are also put into the masthead.
Masthead – The section of the newspaper front page which holds the name of the newspaper and associated graphics or text. It is usually very easily identified and acts as a useful recognition device.
Constructing reality
All (local) newspapers are constructed – someone has made decisions about how they should be constructed so that the form matches the content and its target audience. Mass media institutions produce texts for mainly commercial reasons. If my product is well constructed and targeted, it will reach more consumers. Audiences will consume my product within their class, age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, culture, sexuality and disability. The target audience for my product should be able to identify the ideology within the text within a glance of the front cover.
Audience
All mass media texts are made for a particular audience. Target audience literally means how my product is made for the audience. If I identify my target audience during the planning stage for my product, it will help shape the text. However, the most convenient way of achieving this is through my qualitative and quantitative questionnaires as it will create an idea of what audiences will consume or relate to my product.
Different target audiences will determine the way a text is constructed because it will be shaped differently, structured differently and have a different content.
Representation
Important that my product represents reality in some way, especially when writing about how the text or story appeals to a target audience and how it establishes ideology.
- Who or what is being represented?
- Is this a positive or negative representation?
- How is it being established (e.g. visually, aurally, use of camera, etc)
- How does this representation relate to the target audience?
- What ideologies are suggested by this representation?
- Is it a stereotypical representation?
- Is it a fair and/or accurate representation?
- Are the representations traditional or non-traditionally
Semiotics
Syntactic level
Identifies denotations of text (e.g.it describes what is in the text). For example the way the front cover of a newspaper is seen in a way the audience recognize it.
- What are the dominant codes and conventions on the page?
- How is colour being used?
- What is the overall effect of the text?
Representation level
Examines the meaning of something. My product must include key concepts, ideas and objects in the text and the relationship between them. For example, has the camera angle been used specifically to convey a difference in status for different characters. My product should create meaning through the linking elements in the layout, editing, etc. Also, how media language and representations are used to convey meaning to the audience.
Symbolic level
What hidden meanings or connotations the text carries in terms of ideology and institution. Also, a newspaper text is dependent on the context of consumption – connotations will depend on the readers own demography for example. The symbolic signs used in my product can be interpreted in different contexts and audiences. I should identify the connotations of the product and the context of the text. Therefore, help me understand the relationship between text and its target audience.
Narrative and genre
All media texts have a story in some way (enigma in my product).
- Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
- Is this a whole narrative, a section or an enigma?
- The structure of the reversed pyramid (starting with the dis-equilibrium, then equilibrium and new-equlibrium
Our responses to that are framed by the genre of the text. We expect certain things of the newspaper, depending on its genre.
- Codes give meaning to an audience
- The conventions of the genre such as themes or narratives
- These codes and conventions are important to the audience because they know they are likely to be used in a text within this genre, therefore more likely to attract.
Mise-en-scene of image
Setting and props
- Location?
- How is colour being used to convey meaning?
- Is it expected for this or unexpected?
- What props or aspects of the setting have symbolic importance?
- What ideology is established by this setting?
Costume and make-up
- What representations are being constructed by the costumes/make-up and image of the characters/presenters?
- What clues are given by the costumes about the characters’ status/behaviour/etc?
- How is colour being used?
Who or what is being presented
- What are characters wearing?
- How is their body gesture, facial expressions, appearance, etc?
- Are they open or closed to the camera?
- Are they presented as belonging in this setting or contrasted to the setting?
Lighting (trial and error)
- What is shown in the light or in the shadow?
- Is the lighting harsh or soft?
- Is it natural lighting or are special effects being used?
- What is lighting being used to emphasise?
...then explain WHY I have applied this to my product.
- Establishing shot
- Master shot
- Close-up
- Mid-shot
- Long shot
- Wide shot
- Two-shot
- Aerial shot
- Point of view shot
- Over the shoulder shot
- High angle shot
- Low angle shot
- Zoom shot
- Framing
- Rule of thirds
- Focus pulls
- Equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium of images
…then state why a certain technique of the camera was used in my product (what it connotes).
Reading images
A picture says more than a thousand words, which is true for all newspapers (especially tabloids). I should have a image construct of the text/story being constructed, identify what that is and deconstruct the reasons why I made it that way.
- What is the image trying to communicate?
- What ideology is being established?
- How is this being communicated?
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