Aida in Action!!!
All media texts are constructed carefully. Nothing is there by accident. The media present things in the way they choose.
All media texts attempt to ATTRACT US by grabbing our attention in some way. For example, in a film this could be the title sequence, including loud sounds and fast moving action. Media texts then need to keep our INTEREST by using persuasive techniques and language. They might also use enigmas to keep us puzzled so that we carry on watching/reading/listening. They try to appeal to our DESIRES, as suggested by the Uses & Gratifications theory. This says that we all have four basic needs.
Diversion (the need for entertainment)
Surveillance (the need for information)
Personal Identity (the need to check out our own lives)
Personal Relationships (the need to share with others)
Media texts can satisfy these needs in many ways. These use many LINES OF APPEAL to draw us in – you can find these at www.mediaknowall.com in the advertising section, but they don’t only apply to adverts.
Finally, media texts try to get us to take some ACTION. This might be to buy a product, ring a phone number, tune in next week, visit a website etc… Very often they do this by telling us how urgent our actions are…. ‘sale ends Friday’ etc….
Different media texts have different signifiers to use. Audio-Visual Products (film, TV, radio, websites) use VISUAL, VOCAL, MUSICAL AND SONIC signifiers.
When you want to talk about the visuals (pictures), cover as many of the following as you can :
People
Location
Objects
Dress
Camera shots, angles, movements
Editing
Lighting
Effects
Graphics
When you want to talk about the voices, consider the following :
Volume
Accent
Tone
Speed
Pitch
Microphone (include any effects that may have been added)
Words (the actual words being used … may be significant)
When talking about the music, think about :
Is it a music bed
What is the tempo like?
Is it diegetic or non-diegetic sound (diegetic sound is sound that is part of the plot – can actually be heard by the actors). Non-diegetic sound is ‘outside’ the story, for example music beds/incedental music)
The other sounds include :
Silence
Ambience – background sounds
Actuality – sounds from the event, played on their own to set the scene.
Sound effects – can be either diegetic or non-diegetic.
Print Products rely on use of IMAGE, VISUALS AND COPY (writing).
When talking generally about the images, consider :
Size
Angle
Colour
You can cover everything about the visuals by using the above list (plodcamedleg)
The ‘copy’ means the writing. Consider :
The fonts – serif or sans serif?
The words – why are certain words used?
So… now you can identify the actual signifiers but how can you talk about them? It is no good just listing them. You must say how they are used together (create the mise-en-scene) to create certain representations for the target audience. What are the connotations of these signifiers? The following words can help you to cover important media areas, but you don’t need to use them in any specific order. Tick them off as you use them in a piece of writing.
Preferred reading – the actual meaning intended by the producer of the media text.
Primary/secondary target audience.
Juxtaposed/juxtaposition – how and why are opposites placed together (eg. light & dark)
Anchor – how is the meaning fixed, or is it?
Connotation – what is suggested by the signifiers?
Mode of address – the style of the text (comic, serious, formal, informal, direct, indirect)
Polysemic – not anchored or fixed, but open to many different interpretations
Enigma – a puzzle to keep us involved
Single/Multi strand – how many storylines the text has….
Representation – the ways in which people/places/events/reality are presented to us (positive, negative, biased, realistic, stereotypical…….)
Genre – it is always a good idea to say which genre you are looking at. (sci-fi, horror, news etc…) Every genre has its own conventions (typical things that always appear)
Include a mention of Vladimir Propp’s characters – hero, villain, helper, damsel in distress
… and Todorov’s narrative structure – equilbrium (balance in the story), disruption (upset) and resolution (the way in which the puzzle is sorted out).
You might also want to talk about how images have been cropped to change the meaning.
REALISM
‘Verisimilitude’
‘Generic verisimilitude’
‘Cultural verisimilitude’
A text with a high level of verisimiltude, is a text that is realistic in comparison with real life, as we know it. Many gernres cannot form representations which are 'real' as they are founded in a genre which by its very nature is 'unreal' . A text can however be realistic to the conventions of a genre, for example Science-Fiction, this is called generic verisimilitude.
A text can also have a high level of cultural verisimilitude. This is when a text portrays a particular culture in a way that is recogniseable as a realistic representation of a specific culture.
A detailed breakdown media language
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