Media Language Theory

How you are communicating meanings to the audience.

Preface - How meanings in media texts are created.

Ferdinand de Saussure - the signifier and signified
The signifier is what is there to provide the meanings, signified is referring to what we associate with the signifier. For example the colour green is the signifier and to a driver it signifies that they should go.
Iconic signs are signs that look like what they mean, an obvious sign.
Indexical signs are signs that have a connection to something else, for example smoke means fire was there.
Symbolic signs are signs that have disconnected meanings where they don't have a logical connection to what they mean. For example the love heart means love but real hearts aren't loving at all. metaphorical signs.

Roland Barthes - denotations and connotations
A denotation is something that is in the media text, an object in the world of the text. Connotations are the meanings he audience tale away from that object.
Connotations are different from the signifier and signified because the signified is a singular meaning, but connotations have multiple possible meanings.

Stuart Hall - encoding and decoding
Media texts have intended messages for the audience to pick up on, the messages themselves are encoded by the author or maker, etc, the  meanings are then decoded by the audience.
This theory is more about personal values rather than literal signs and meanings.
Preferred meaning is when the audience gets the intended meanings from the text
Negotiated meanings are when the audience is partly accepted
Oppositional readings are when the meanings are completely rejected.

Chekov's Gun

Polysemy - When something has many possible meanings

Juxtaposition - contrasting meanings, for example a gift is a good thing but a bomb is inside which is bad.

Anchorage - to hold meanings to something, for example if headlines and captions anchor meanings to things, like if lady gaga were to appear on a gaming website; people would be intrigued and then see the headline that justifies her presence on the website.





Explain how meaning is constructed by the use of media language in one of your coursework productions.

Introduction: Use the language in the question to rephrase it and define your points.

1st paragraph: Mention a theorist and define the theory, apply it to something and be specific. Why does it apply? What was the effect on the audience.