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1. Media Language
Media language according to the exam board:
 What are the audience expected to see in the music video
 How are the audiences knowledgeable to this?
These media specific languages will often be closely connected to other media concepts
such as genre or narrative.
Media languages: Technical Elements:
 Mise-en-scene
 Camera
 Sound editing
In media, the word ‘text’ is used to describe a product e.g. as television programmes,
adverts, films etc.
One of the keys to understanding the meanings in text is the use of codes.
CODES- Rules or conventions by which signs are put together to create meaning.
In most cases, the text will use a variety of codes- visual, audio and written- that ‘fit’
together in a certain way to create a particular meaning.
Mise-En-Scene
Everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement.
 Setting
 Performance/expression
 Costume/make-up
 Colour
 Props
 Lighting
 Composition/framing/ blocking
Camera
 Framing: Defines the position from which an image is created
 Angle: the angle of vision refers to the cameras angle in relation to the vertical
 Type: this refers to the shot type = long/medium/close
 Movement: this refers to the movement of the camera = pan/track

2. Sound
 Used to tell the audience how to react at different points
 Distinctive sound devices are used for particular genre. It is an important device in
establishing the genre for an audience and getting them in the mood for watching
something
Editing
 Refers to the joins between shots
 The purpose of conventional editing is to make us join as smooth as possible-
invisible
 The need for a narrative flow, to tell a story, led to the development of the
continuity system of editing.
Semiotics: The study of signs
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
This is an attempt to create a science of study of sign systems and their role on the
construction and reconstruction of meaning in media.
SIGNIFIER + SIGNIFIED = SIGN
But in order to work there must be a shared reference or experience.
Charles Peirce (1839-1914)
Created a categorisation of signs:
 Symbol- a sign that represents an object or concept solely by the
agreement of the people who use it. Therefore, symbolic signs have
no obvious connection between the sign and the object
 Iconic- Always resemble what they signify. There is a physical
similarity
 Index- lie between symbolic and iconic signs. Indexical signs
have some sort of direct connection with what is being ‘signified’.
The form which the sign takes:
‘Open’ sign
The concept it represents:
The shop is open

3. Roland Barthes (1913-1980)
Applied abstract ideas to daily life and culture.
He looked at how signs take on the dominant value systemof a particular society and
make the values seemnatural. The dominant value systemof a society is known as
ideology, a way of looking at things shared by the majority of that society.
Barthes showed that Saussure’s sign can become a signifier to create, not only a
connotation, but a myth.
Signs can disguise themselves, a trick that allows myths to structure the meaning of the
communication without appearing to do so. Myths position the audience in a specific
relationship with a sign and simultaneously disguise themselves.