Media language

1. MEDIA LANGUAGE
WHAT IS MEDIA LANGUAGE?
MEDIA CONVENTIONS, FORMATS, SYMBOLS AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURES WHICH CUE THE AUDIENCE TO MEANING.

2. Media language can be divided up into four different sections:
 Camera
The positioning and framing of the camera is important as it defines the position from which the
image is created.
 Editing
This involves continuity editing, transitions, duration of clip and special effects.
 Mise-en-scene
This refers to anything that goes into the shot, this includes sets, props, actors and costumes. The
three main components of mise-en-scene include subject, lighting and setting.
 Sound
This includes diegetic/non-diegetic sound, dialogue sound effects, ambient sounds and
narration. Sound can also described through three different types of narration; voice-over,
epistolary voice and subjective voice

3. KEY TERMS:
 Denotation: what an image actually shows and is immediately apparent, rather than the
assumption the individual reader may make about it; the everyday or common sense
meaning of a sign.
 Connotation: the meaning of a sign through the cultural experiences a reader brings to it. For
example, the colour white follows connotations of innocence and purity.
 Anchoring: fixing or limiting a particular set of meanings.
 Semiotics: the study of signs. It looks at how signs and symbols are used to communicate and
develop interpretations.

4. THEORISTS
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 – 1913)
 Swiss linguistic who created the term ‘semiotics’,
 He distinguished the differences between signifier and signified.
 Signifier: the image or sound that gives a meaning e.g. the
colour blue
 Signified: the concept or meaning that the sign refers to e.g.
blue is often associated with sadness or the sky.
Signifier Signified
Dolly in Focus
Fade in/fade out Start of end
Pan down Power/authority
Pan up Small/weak
Wide Conclusion
Signifier and signified in camera
movement:

5. THEORISTS
Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980)
 French literary theorist, critic and like Saussure was also interested in semiotics.
 He came up with the idea of denotation and connotation.
 Denotation: the literal meaning of a sign
 Connotation: the suggested meaning of a sign and the cultural conventions associated with
the sign.

6. MEDIA LANGUAGE IN MUSIC VIDEOS
Beyoncé – If I were a boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh8q0M&safe

7. MES
 Beyoncé + boyfriend wearing vests – Bey = white, boyf = black – links the two together whilst
being different – ties in with black and white video
 Role reversal – Boyf making breakfast whereas Bey is portrayed as manly from police uniform –
connotations of strength and bravery
 Aviator sunglasses – typical police style – hiding eyes – sinful
 Boyf at desk – workaholic – more willing to work at relationship to make it work
 Female worker – sexual connotations – chest out, leaning over boyf – he is focused on earrings
(present for Bey) – loyal
 Shots of Bey using gun – reinforces role reversal
 Bey’s hand on policeman’s arm – shows she is instigating the adultery
 Weather shot of rain – reinforces unhappiness
 Queuing to get into club – Bey wearing earrings – policeman whispering in her ear – right next
to present
 Dim lighting in bedroom – gloomy and unhappy

8. SOUND
 Dialogue at beginning of
song – “intimacy” “honesty”
“commitment” “you” “me”
“us”
 Non-diegetic music of song
 Diegetic sound of bullets
 Diegetic sound of thunder
I’d listen to her
'Cause I know how it hurts
When you lose the one you
wanted (wanted)
'Cause he’s taken you for
granted (granted)
And everything you had got
destroyed
You don’t listen to her
You don’t care how it hurts
Until you lose the one you
wanted
'Cause you’ve taken her for
granted
And everything you had got
destroyed
The lyrics portray a narrative
throughout the song which is
followed by the music video.
The characters are shown in
role reversal with the artist
acting in the place of her
boyfriend. The video follows a
day in the life of the couple,
with the lyrics reflecting the
behaviour of the man when
he’s not with her. Towards the
end of the video, it is visually
revealed that the characters
are acting in reversed roles,
whilst the lyrics change to
how the artist believes the
male should act to how she
understands how he feels
when acting against her.

9. EDITING
 Through use of editing, the lyrics of the song are reinforced as stereotypically masculine shots
of Beyoncé are placed next to stereotypically feminine shots of her boyfriend – thus
reinforcing the “role swap” narrative.
 Edited into black and white – highlights simplicity and laid back mise en scene and reinforces
the artist’s genre, also suggests their relationship is a re-occurring problem
 Continuity editing
 Role reversal at end is shown by the same shots of boyfriend walking downstairs as the
audience had seen Beyoncé doing, earlier in the video.

10. CAMERA
 Beginning – close up shot of Beyoncé
 Close up of husband - shot reverse shot to fit
diegetic voice over “You, Me Us”
 Scene of kitchen – husband preparing
breakfast. Beyoncé quickly eats her breakfast,
whereas man sits down to eat. Role reversal –
symbolic because of the song ‘If I were a boy’
 Mid shot of Beyoncé coming out of her front
door dressed in a man’s police outfit – very
smart and masculine
 Mid shot of Beyoncé in a group with other
police men. She fits in with the group and is
treated like a man.
 Mid shot of husband at his desk – becomes
preoccupied by female colleague walking up
to him. She also leaves over his desk with her
breasts on show – Laura Mulvey theory
 Over the shoulder shot of husband looking at
the website ‘Bome & Roulette’. He is shopping
for his wife – looking at jewellery
 Close up shot of Beyoncé firing a gun – the
object is very masculine. She also places her
hand on other police man’s arm while teaching
him how to fire. Seen as a romantic gesture.
Role reversal, a man usually helps his female
partner.
 Scene of the changing rooms – mid shot of her
getting dressed – has no privacy.
 Close up of husband on phone, he is unable to
contact Beyoncé as she is out with her friends.
Facial expressions – worried. Role reversal as
women are stereotypically shown to worry more.
 Tracking shot – Beyoncé arresting a man –
shown to be quite angry and aggressive. Men
are seen to be aggressive than women.
 Fade of couple together
 Husband refuses to kiss her
 Mid shot – diegetic voice – repeated words
 Roles reversal again – Beyoncé making
breakfast – husband leaves early. This
foreshadows what previously happened earlier
in the video.
 Throughout the video, there are quick cuts of
Beyoncé from a close up shot leaning against a
wall – shows her emotions and feelings.

11. CAMERA
 1:45 – the colleagues are seen looking at each other in a CU shot, which increases the
intensity of the male and female’s relationship as they are seen looking at each other making
the audience guess what the two of them are thinking.
 2:08: CU shot of boyfriend’s reaction when Beyoncé ignores his call. This reinforces the
audience’s knowledge of his position and again the audience questions how males and
females act in relationships, stereotypically.

12. EXHIBITIONISM
 The male gaze is shown through the female character in the music video, who is also the artist
 The video may get her more male fans, or even more women seeing her as their ‘idol’.
 Furthermore at as part of the music video where it is seen that a man is looking at the artist in an
objectifying manner, it suggests that men cannot keep their eyes off of Beyoncé.