Media Language

1. Media Language The technical codes through which a media text communicates meaning. So all the analytical tools you learnt at AS.

2. So what elements did you manipulate in your coursework? Music Magazine Music Video Camera shots, angles, composition Editing – cuts and transformation Mise-en-scene • Camera shots and angles, composition • Layout • Font choice • Mise-en-scene • Language choices

3. What Meanings Did You Make? • Create star image • Create brand image (magazine) • Engaging narrative • Amplify the effect of the music • Create aesthetically pleasing product • Meet genre codes and conventions • Make people want to read the magazine • Create a need for the magazine • Create a product that fulfilled audience’s demands. (identified via research)

4. Top Shots • Log-on and watch your music video INDIVIDUALLY noting down important scenes and images. • On post-its write down the five most important images / scenes from your music video. • Join up with your group and decide on an overall top five. Be ready to justify your choices. • As a group, order them according to importance in terms of meeting codes and conventions • Now order them in terms of appealing to the audience. • Individually: narrow your top five to three.

5. Media Language Concept Map • Draw the three images you have chosen. • Stick them onto your A3 sheet and annotate each image in detail to show how you have used media language. Eg. • Mise-en-scene • Costume / make up • Colour • Foregrounding / backgrounding • Setting • Props • lighting • Editing / transition / effects • Camera angle, shot composition, shot type

6. Turning it into Grades • Focus on the shot you have been looking at. • Write an paragraph to contribute to the question: How did you use media language to create an effective music video. • If you’re stuck… • In my music video I manipulated a range of technical codes to help me meet the needs of my teenage audience and the pop punk sub-genre. One of the most important camera angles was… 7minutes

7. Barthes What do we know already?

8. Barthes – death of the author • You can deconstruct your music video by breaking it down into the different signs / symbols it uses (semiotics) and then thinking about what is suggested by the way these units of meaning are ordered (structuralism) • Semiotics: The study of signsSign: A unit that makes meaningStructuralism: considers the relationships (structures) between signs to be more important than what a sign may mean on its own.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 paradigm of camera angles etc).Syntagm: The combination of signs selected from different paradigms. In the example above, red point 12 typography in Times New Roman is a syntagm. • Media Myths myth works at the level of ideology. Representations created in the mass media, naturalise a particular view of the world. Eg. If women in adverts are always portrayed as housewives we start to think this is normal. These representations may ‘mask’ reality. Does your music video perpetuate any ‘media myths’?

9. Goodwin – Key conventions of music videos • Relationship between music and visuals • Relationship between lyrics and visuals • Sub-Genre elements (dance routines for boy bands) • Intertextuality • Voyeurism • Close-ups to build star image

10. Semiotics – the study of signs • The symbolic code: the process of representing an object, idea or feeling by something else. For example, a fence between two characters may symbolise their emotional distance. Some have suggested that the infamous ‘adrenaline shot’ in Pulp Fiction is the symbolic penetration of Mia by Vince..! • The semic code: refers to the use of connotation to give the audience an insight into characters, objects or events. For example, conventional car advertisements feature the car in an open, green landscape. The connotations created by the setting are of freedom and escape. • The cultural code concerns all the culturally specific knowledge used to make meaning in a text. For example, the Coronation Street title sequence features stereotypically ‘northern’ streets and houses, connoting traditional communities and family values. The audience must be familiar with such northern typification to associate particular meanings with the text. • Denotations and connotations: What an object is and what associations it carries with it. Poppy: war, rememberance. These are key definitions and terms, not separate theories, hence similarities

11. Links to Theory • On each mini-post-it write down a key point of the three theorists / concepts we have just recapped. Stick them on to your concept map at the relevant points.

12. Media Language – what have we learnt? • What does the term media language mean? • Why is it an important concept in analysing media texts? • What three key things could you learn about your music video by analysing the way it uses media language? • Which two theorists are the most helpful in analysing your product and why? That’s paragraph two sorted!

13. Star Image • (Quckly!) design a Facebook page for either: • The star of your music video • Your music magazine brand • Write a series of tweets they have put out for the launch of their new digipack or this week’s edition of the magazine.

14. Your Star • Flick through your video – yes AGAIN – and decide on the most iconic image of your band/artist. • Either print screen this image or draw it in detail, labelling key points of media language. • Mise-en-scene • Costume • Lighting • Colour • Make-up / hair • Camera work / shot composition

15. Dyer and Star Image A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music]).

16. Lady Gaga – What makes her a star? • Costume / make-up / ‘look’ • Publicity stunts: receiving awards in meat dress / living in egg before concert etc • Political statements – via twitter, press, through aforementioned stunts etc • Stage performances • Music videos • Press coverage • Talent

17. Link To Media Language • Annotate your print out of your star to show what image you have constructed for your star through the music video? • In a different colour add annotations that show how you have used media language to do this?

18. Dyer and Star Image “Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.”

19. Lady Gaga – What meanings are associated with her? • Standing up for minorities (her fans are ‘little monsters, she is Mama Monster) • Breaking conventions • Fighting against the mainstream • Equality for all genders and sexuality. (she is vocal on LBGT issues as well as challenging accepted ideas about femininity) • Individualism, freedom • Hedonism • Sexuality

20. Dyer and Star Image “Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.” • ANNOTATIONS – add this quote to your mind-map and note down: • What meanings are associated with your star? • How did you use media language to create a meaning for your star?

21. Star Image and Ideology • Stars provide audiences with a focus for ideas of 'what people are supposed to be like' (eg for women, thin/beautiful) - they may support hegemony by conforming to it (thin/beautiful) or providing difference(not thin but still lovable) • Does your star support hegemony? (conform to accepted ideas about how pop stars / people should be? Or challenge it? • Today’s star, Lady Gaga challenges hegemonic ideas about femininity and how female popstars should be through her aggressive and unconventional sexuality, individualistic ‘look’ and willingness to engage with culturally sensitive and ‘taboo’ issues.

22. Bonus Question: in discussing which other concept(s) would Dyer’s theory of star image be useful and why?

23. Dyer, Star Image and Representation • Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a certain ideology. Often the Ideologies drawn upon include materialism (bling) sexuality, rebellion, hedonism. • What ideology does your band / singer represent? • Stars also provide us with a focal point for our own cultural thinking — particularly to do with Youth & Sexuality. @ How does your band / singer represent youth? Gender? Sexuality? (what do they say about young people? etc)

24. Putting it into an Essay • Describe the production you are writing about • Outline what media language is and how it can be applied to interpret media texts. Explain how your product can be analysed in terms of media language giving key examples. • Outline the key points of one theorist and apply to your own work, discussing how it conforms to and subverts these ideas. Give examples. • Outline the key points of a second theorist and apply to your own work, discussing how it conforms to and subverts these ideas. Give examples • Conclusion: what key insights are gained from analysing your product in these terms

25. Underline each of these points in a different colour • How clear and concise is the explanation of Dyer’s ideas? • Have they shown where their product conforms to his theory? • Have they given a detailed example from their own work? • Have they shown where their product seems to challenge his theory? • Have they given a detailed example from their own work? What one piece of advice would you give this person? What have you learnt that you can apply to your own essay technique?