MEDIA LANGUAGES / CODES AND CONVENTIONS

By Laura Pound and Beatrice Fatusin

Media Languages

Media Languages can be...

1. Written2. Verbal3. Non – verbal4. Visual5. Aural

(Personal responses: We felt that the task of the music

video linked to the media language of being mainlyvisual based out on the five)

Written Language

Written language is found within print-based media such as newspapers and magazines which include a particular style and presentation of language to match their audience and genre. Written language can also be found in silent films and is used to anchor the audiences reading of the visual elements in the same way that a caption does, for example in a newspaper.

Verbal Language Verbal language is used in many areas of media such

as; film, radio, television programmes and music videos. The ways in which this language is delivered to the audience and it’s context of the language used are important factors in the way meaning is generated for the audience.

For example, a television news item will be delivered using language that creates a sense of the importance of the story in the mind of the viewer.

Non – Verbal Language

Non verbal language is often defined in terms of body language such as gestures. These gestures help the audience to understand a feeling of the actor when acting.

For example, this media language works very well in silent films as it is essential to show expression of thoughts and feelings to the audience as a replacement of verbal speech.

Visual Language

Visual language is used mainly in films, television programmes and music videos. It is an important media language as it involves many technical areas allowing the audience to understand. These areas involve camera work and mise-en-scene, linking to the creation of denotation and connotation.

For example, in a film a point of view shot will allow the audience to experience thoughts and emotions of a particular character.

Aural Language Media texts often include a mixture of sounds, all of

which help to generate meaning of text. This includes spoken language, but also any sound within the world of the chosen media (diegetic sound) or on the soundtrack (non- diegetic sound).

This language also needs to linked to other media languages such as visual so that it makes sense in the piece of media in which it is being used with.

How does these link to our work?

Non Verbal Language: Non verbal language is used in our music video to present a relationship between music and visual. We did this by doing gestures of the description in the lyrics.

Visual Language: This media language is used the most out of the

five in the music video as it was based on the visuals. Within these visuals we included a variety of different camera shots and mise-en-scene. These included a variety of different locations in the music video so that the audience were able to follow a narrative, as well as it being a convention of a pop/r ‘n’ b music video.

Roland Barthes [Semiotics]

Roland Gérard Barthes (12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, anthropology and post-structuralism.

Semiotics

The term semiotics is used to describe the ways in which signs and symbols create meaning or messages, both literally and potentially. Barthes developed this term in his semiotic theory, by analysing the ways in which signs work in culture. He believes that these messages, created through semiotics are constituted in two ways. These are through denotation [literal meaning and reference of a sign] and or through connotation [the meanings that are suggested or implied by the sign]. Barthes’ (1977) theory, ‘The Photographic Message’ describes the multiple messages rooted within images through the co-existence of denotation and connotation.

An example of this using Roland Barthes semiotic theory is Hitler. He denotes an historical figure. As well as this Hitler connotes evil, racism and so on.

Linking to coursework task

 The literal meaning of this is that Amy is pushing him onto the car. The connotation of this is that Amy has control and power over him leaving him submissive.

Levi- Strauss Born 8 November 1908 Died  30 October 2009 Was a French anthropologist and ethnologist Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary

oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL – we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL.

Levi –Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binaryoppositions which are created by the narrative:

Hot Cold Good Evil Day Night Past Present Normal Strange Known Unknown