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Media Concepts Theories You Need to Learn ...
Concept A Basic Description^ Theorists Audience The uses and gratifications of media texts and the ways in which texts are designed to be read by a specific audience. Barthes Dyer Hall Representation An image and an idea. Barthes Dyer Hall Media Language The signs and symbols used that encode meaning in a media text The conventional features of media texts which are categorized in broad families. Barthes De Saussure Altman + Hall Industry The ways in which ownership of media concentrates power The conflict between freedom of expression and media regulation. Curran & Seaton Livingston & Lunt
Table of Contents:
- Barthes...
- De Saussure
- Dyer
- Hall
- Lacey
- Altman
- Curran & Seaton
- Livingston & Lunt
Barthes Narrative codes, describe how meaning is made in fiction texts by the use of these five codes:
Glossary of Terminology you should use to analyse texts using Barthes ideas: ● Structuralism : Approach to media analysis which borrows its principles from linguistics (the study of language). Structuralism considers the relationships (structures) between signs to be more important than what a sign may mean on its own. ● Myth : Artificial representations and invalid beliefs about society that circulate in cultural products, such as the mass media. ● Paradigm : A group of similar signs from which a selection is made to make a text (i.e. a selection may be made between a paradigm of colours, a paradigm of fonts, and a paradigm of sizes to produce red point 12 typography in Times New Roman). a. Syntagm : The combination of signs selected from different paradigms. In the example above, red point 12 typography in Times New Roman is a syntagm. ● Semiotics : The study of signs a. Sign : A unit that makes meaning (Media Language) i. Icon (Denotation through close resemblance) : A sign which visually corresponds to that which it represents.
- The thing looks like the thing it represents ii. Index (Denotation through cause & effect) A sign which refers in some way to that which it represents.
- Smoke is an index of fire. An echo is an index of space. Footprints are an index of a person walking ahead. iii. Symbol (Connotation) : A sign which is used to represent something to which it bears no logical relationship.
- For example, there is no reason why green should symbolise jealousy. A rainbow may be symbolic of hope. 1 The enigma code a.k.a. the hermeneutic code Narratives set up puzzles to be solved; these enigmas delay the end of the narrative & maintain the audience's interest & anticipation. The answers to the puzzles are satisfyingly resolved later in the text For example, the origin of Harry Potter’s lightning scar is not made clear until later in the series. 2 The events and actions code a.k.a. the proairetic code Relates to progression in the narrative and involves codes of behaviour or actions that lead us to expect consequences. Barthes asserts that each action could be named giving a series of titles to the text. These action codes often made very explicit on the DVD – the chapter titles are generally based on events or significant actions. 3 The symbolic code The process of representing an object, idea or feeling by something else (a visual metaphor). Often used to symbolise opposition which exists in the narrative (ref Levi-Strauss) For example, a fence between two characters may symbolise their emotional distance / conflict. 4 The semic code Refers to the use of connotation to give the audience an insight into characters, objects or settings that we learn to read through our understanding of narratives. Media Language For example the colour red is often used to suggest danger or passion; therefore a red dress worn by a female character is likely to suggest her sexuality and/or danger. 5 The cultural code Concerns the culturally specific knowledge from outside the text which is used to make meaning in a text. Media Language & Audience For example Big Ben at the beginning of the news references the heart of political power in the UK.
De Saussure
Ferdinand de Saussure was a linguist and a semiotician, this means he studied language and how language
communicates meaning. Media Studies has borrowed many of his ideas, to try to describe how the media, as a type of language, also communicates meaning. De Saussure was primarily interested in written language; however his analytical tools can also be used to describe texts, which use images, editing and sounds as well as the written word. THE BASICS De Saussure considered language to be a series of signs, which refers to real world objects, places, feelings, thoughts... (the referents). Language encodes complex meanings and ideas by combining signs to build up layers of denoted and connoted meaning. A sign, de Saussure suggested, was made up of two parts:
- The signifier is the physical sign in the text.
- The signified is the implied meaning it carried. De Saussure was trying to explain how human beings, through language, describe their world, their experiences & their ideas. He enabled the study of and literature to become more formalised and scientific. It is important however to remember that whilst we use semiotics to study distinct and individual features of a text, de Saussure was clear that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that we need to look at how signs combine to communicate ideas. ● So for example the colour green doesn’t always mean envy, we need to look at other elements of the sign to consider what the overarching meaning is (Barthes called this syntagm).
Hall
Stuart Hall is a cultural theorist who tries to explain how society interacts and how individuals in society have
different interpretations and responses to media texts. He tried to understand a very simple question; ‘Why do some people like one media text and dislike another? ’ Furthermore he tried to understand the ideological underpinning of media texts & media audiences and he moved media theory away from a model, which assumed that the audience was a ‘mass audience’ which responded en-masse and interpreted a text in the same way. His ideas are part of ‘Reception Theory’. Reception theory states that the way in which an audience has individual interpretation of a media text and that reading is a two stage process.
- The producer encodes ideology into a text and wishes it to be read in a particular way.
- The audience then decodes the text, but they also bring their own ideology to the text. A preferred reading is made where ideologies meet. .. Hall suggested that media texts could be read in three possible ways :
- Preferred or dominant reading
- Negotiated reading
- Oppositional or aberrant reading
The factors which cause people to read media differently, he explained by saying there are four areas which have an impact on our interpretation. What factors affect your reading? Demographic Who you are Psychographic Values, Opinions and Beliefs Situated Culture How & where you consume the text Cultural Competence Your cultural understanding and experiences
Altman
Rick Altman has written widely about film, his most well known book is called ‘Film/Genre’. His ideas can
be applied to any media text defined by a generic label. In writing he tries to explain the uses of genre and suggests that there are four distinct uses that genre is put to by four different groups concerned with film production, distribution and consumption.
1. The Producer (Blueprint) a. A media producer uses genre to minimize their risk, by understanding what is currently popular / selling. b. The producer also uses genre as a blueprint for production. 2. The Distributor (Label) a. Will use genre to communicate the nature of the media text that are selling; they will use well known generic codes and conventions in marketing materials in order to communicate the genre of the product or artist to an audience. 3. The Audience (Contract) a. Use their understanding of genre to decide which media to consume as they seek predictable pleasure. b. The audience will also use genre to shape their expectations of the text, which if met will give them enjoyment. However if their expectations are not met they may reject the text because their expectations are denied or subverted (it’s too different); the generic contract is broken 4. The Student (Structure) a. Will use genre as a comparative system in order to study media texts. i. They will use the repertoire of elements to group texts into a corpus which may be defined by a generic label.
ii. They will also use similarities & differences between texts to explore the characters, themes, visual style, sound,
iconography, performance and narrative of a genre.
Curran and Seaton
Curran & Seaton's Power & Media Industries Theory A political economy approach to the media – arguing that patterns of ownership and control are the most significant factors in how the media operate. Media industries follow the normal capitalist pattern of increasing concentration of ownership in fewer and fewer hands. ● This leads to a narrowing of the range of opinions represented and a pursuit of profit at the expense of quality or creativity. The internet does not represent a rupture with the past in that it does not offer a level playing field for diverse voices to be heard. It is constrained by nationalism and state censorship. News is still controlled by powerful news organisations, who have successfully defended their oligarch.
