This document discusses language and media from a sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspective. It defines key terms like language, media, media language, semiotics, and provides examples of seminal theorists like Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes. De Saussure's concept of the sign as consisting of the signifier and signified is explained. Barthes' idea of media texts having denotative and connotative meanings is also summarized. An example image from an advertisement is analyzed to demonstrate semiotic concepts.

1. Assignment
on
Language and Electronic Media
Course Title : Sociolinguistics and Psycholinguistics
Course ID : LE -616
Prepared by:
Faysal Ahmed
Roll No. : 15-1-377
M.Ed. (Evening), IER,
University of Dhaka
Submitted to:
Dr. Mohammod Moninoor Roshid
Associate Professor, IER,
University of Dhaka

2. Language and Media
• Language:
• The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting
of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. The system of
communication used by a particular community or country.
• Richard Moore, “Language is a field of battle, the media is the artillery,
and vocabulary is the ammunition.”
• Media:
• Communication channels through which news,
entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated.
• Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such
as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone,
fax, and internet.

3. Media language:
• The way in which a text is constructed to create meaning for a reader or
viewer of the text is called media language .
• Media language is the way in which the meaning of a media text is
conveyed to the audience. One of the ways Media Language works is to
convey meaning through signs and symbols suggested by the way a scene
is set up and filmed.

4. Key Term: Semiotics
• Definition:
• The study of SIGNS (and the role of the sings in social life)
• Semiotics examines how signs construct meaning ( i.e. how
the use of mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing and sound
construct meaning in teaser trailer, poster or magazine cover)

5. Ferdinad de Saussure
(1857-1913)
Ferdinand Mongin de Saussure was a Swiss linguist and semiotician. His ideas laid a
foundation for many significant developments both in linguistics and semiology in
the 20th century. He is widely considered one of the founders of 20th-century
linguistics and one of two major founders (together with Charles Sanders Peirce) of
semiotics/semiology

6. Ferdinad de Saussure
• Ferdinand de Saussure provided the following equation to
Semiotics:
The Sign= signifier + signified

7. CAT
When we read the word “cat”, it creates an image of a small four-legged
furry animal in our brain and we visualize the animal in our brain. So here
the word “cat” is a signifier which helps to visualize ……………………..

8. …… this animal which is commonly known to us as “cat”. Here the image of
the animal is signified . That’s how the semiotic works.

9. Ronald Barthes
(1915-1980)
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist,
philosopher, linguist, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse
range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory
including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design
theory, anthropology and post-structuralism.

10. Ronald Barthes
He considered that all cultural forms are essentially made up of a system of
signs that could be deconstructed to reveal how cultural meanings are
constructed. He analyzed the denotative and connotative level of signs in a
media text.
Denotation which is similar to Saussure’s Signifier and Connotation as the
Signified. So basically both denotation and connotation are similar to
signifier and signified.

11. Ronald Barthes
• According to Ronald Barthes all media texts have 2 layers of
meaning. They are -
1. DENOTATIVE LEVEL:
What we actually see/hear
2. CONNOTATIVE LEVEL:
What we associate with the image

12. To understand the term Semiotics, here I have chosen an image from a creative
and recently made TVC which promotes the brand WALTON, a Bangladeshi
manufacturing company which manufactures electronic products.
The following image portrays a gorgeous beautiful lady who is wearing a very
fashionable dress which is also vey much trendy and vibrant in colour. In
addition, it is seen that the lady is walking through a hot sandy land i.e. desert and
the way she is walking through it seems nothing can bother her i.e. the hot sandy
environment and it is also very visible that a kind of fine chill wind is flowing
around her. In fact, the beautiful lady, the trendy dress, the vibrant colour of the
dress, the hot sunny environment, the chill wind all are signifier and the object
they signified is a …………………………………………………………………..

13. ……….. a refrigerator. The soul purpose of the TVC portraying within the above
mentioned signifiers is to represent the WALTON refrigerators which are
the very fashionable, trendy, vibrant in colour, and it keeps everything
fresh, chilled inside of it. So here the refrigerator is the signified object.

14. • Conclusion
Thus how the language which is actually the signifier is
presented in the electronic media and each and every of them
has a purpose to make. Most of the time it is seen that the
language which is selected for the media is not chosen
carefully and they fail to be tangible to the all class of viewers
and they become distracted. Whatever the purpose of the
language shown on electronic media, it must be tangible,
reasonable, effective, and attractive depending on the age and
class of the viewers.

15. References
Media Language . (2010). Retrieved from SlideShare website:
http://www.slideshare.net/lilyjones/media-language-ppt
Ferdinad de Sassure. (2016). Retrieved form Wikipedia website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure.
Roland Barthes. (2016). Retrieved from Wikipedia website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes.
PriceBD .(2016). Retrieved from
http://www.pricebd.net/walton-refrigerator-w585-2n5/
BHRAT INTERNATIONAL. (2016). Retrieved from
http://www.bharatint.com/cats-grooming/c
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITINNICA. (2016). Retrieved from
https://global.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-de-Saussure
Natok24. com. (2016). Retrieved from
http://natok24.com/video/walton-fridge-tvc/hV1b2bP73oc.html