LO:

To develop understanding of how to apply

MEDIA LANGUAGE to your coursework

What is “media language”?

• Relating key media theories to your coursework, especially:– Semiotics– Feminism– Post-modernism– Marxism– Technical language to describe

conventions you have used or not (or subverted)

Semiotics

• The study of signs and symbols

• Can you think of any examples of signs or symbols?

• How would you define a sign or a symbol?• Things that represent something else

Connotation and Denotation• Denotation?• What you actually see (e.g. a rose is a red

flower)

• Connotation?• What something might stand for or represent

(e.g. to give someone a red rose might suggest love).

• The mise-en-scene in your trailer, poster and magazine can connote complex ideas to the viewer very quickly.

• Task: Look at the following colours – what connotations do they have to you?

DangerLove

PassionWarmth

ExcitementPowerAngerShame

FireBlood

Aggression

FertilitySpringVigour

LifeGood luck

NatureGenerosity

Envy Jealousy

Inexperience

PeaceTranquillity

TrustColdness

ConfidenceConservatismCleanliness

SkyWater

Depression

PowerSophistication

FormalityElegance

WealthSadness

AngerDeath

MysteryUndergroundUnhappiness

JoyHappinessOptimismIdealism

ImaginationJealousy

DishonestyCowardice

Connotation and Denotation

• Task: Look at the film posters.

• What connotations do you get from the mise-en-scene on your poster? Consider Setting, Props, Costume, Colour and Character Position

http://www.impawards.com/2001/american_pie_two.html

http://www.impawards.com/2009/ugly_truth_ver2_xlg.html

http://www.impawards.com/2004/saw_ver3_xlg.html

http://www.impawards.com/2005/amityville_horror_xlg.html

Barthes and Myth

• Believed that images reinforced cultural myth through their connotations

• Marxist idea in that this served to empower those in economic control

• He defined first order and second order (connotations) signs

• For example, red wine in French society:– First order sign: it is a dark, red bottle signifying it is a bottle of

wine.– Second order sign: “Bourgeois” take this signifier and apply

their own (sometimes incorrect) emphasis to it, making wine a new signifier of a healthy drink.

• Task – what symbolism would your target audience “read” into the images in your media texts?

Althusser and Interpellation

• Believed in the power of ideology• He thought the recognition (interpellation)

of ideology turned individuals into subjects

• They become bound to the ideology - they do not question it because it appears real to them

• Task – what ideological values do your media texts contain?