2. What is media language?
• How the media through their forms, codes, conventions and
techniques communicate meanings.
3. Conventions: are what you would typically expect
to find in a media text.
• There are conventions of the format: e.g. website, magazine, trailer
etc – mostly focusing on technical signs such as layout, types of shot
used etc.
• There are conventions related to genre: a trailer for a horror film
would have different conventions to a romcom. Eg sound, camera
work, lighting.
4. Conventions are important because:
• They help us to identify a text.
• Audiences like to know what to expect from a text.
• Conventions change over time – new media texts are enjoyed
because of the way they break or play with conventions.
• Producers of media texts can see what has been done before and is
successful
• They help to establish GENRE
5. GENRE HYBRIDITY
• When a media text uses conventions from multiple genres it becomes
a HYBRID GENRE.
6. Intertextuality
• When one media text references or alludes to another text .
• Intertextuality essentially means for a type of media
(film,television,music etc) to pay homage to another media text or genre.
7. Semiotics= The study of signs
Write down words, phrases, ideas
associated with this image.
8. The basics….
• Denotation (The signifier)- literally what we see
• Connotation (The signified)- what it means or symbolises
9. Metasymbol
• A symbol whose meaning transcends the tangible realm of simple one-
to-one relationships. History, culture, and tradition all play a role in
creating metasymbols, such as the dove with an olive branch as a symbol
for peace. For certain audiences, religious and magical signs and symbols
take on these properties.
11. JEAN BAUDRILLARD: SEMIOTICS
What other examples of
HYPER REALITY
can you think of?
Key words:
Simulacrum (an image or
representation that has been created)
Postmodern (known for playing with
genre conventions- signifies the end of
tradition, often hybridizes, uses
intertextuality, creates blurred
boundaries of what is real)
Hyper reality (appears more real than
reality)
12. How does this painting illustrate Baudrillard’s
theory?
13. Genre Codes (Genre tropes)
• A common pattern, theme, or motif within the genre (e.g. a spaceship in
science fiction films).
• What genre tropes might you find in;
• An urban crime drama?
• A Hip-Hop music video?
• A chick flick?
• A Nike advert?
• A Nordic Noir?
15. Kenzo advert 2016
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABz2m0olmPg
• How has media language been used to engage the audience?
• Consider;
• Codes and Conventions used
• Hybridity
• Postmodernism (Baudrillard)
• Intertextuality
• Semiotics (connotations and denotation) Barthes
• Neale’s theory
