Media language refers to the technical elements and codes used in media texts that audiences are familiar with, such as mise-en-scène, camera techniques, sound, and editing. Semiotics is the study of sign systems and how meaning is constructed in media texts through the use of visual, audio, and written codes. Key semiotic theorists include Saussure, who described the relationship between the signifier and signified, and Peirce, who categorized signs into symbolic, iconic, and indexical. Barthes examined how dominant ideologies are naturalized through signs taking on new meanings as signifiers.

1. Media Language
Media language – what do we expect to see and how are audiences knowledgeable to this.
These media specific languages will often be closely connected to other media concepts
such as genre or narrative.
Media language – technical elements:
 Mise-en-scene
o Costume
o Location
o Lighting
o Colour
o Props
o Blocking and performance
 Camera
o Framing
o Angle
o Type
o Movement
 Sound (used to tell the audience how to react at different points in a film or television
program)
o Diegetic
o Non-diegetic
o Asynchronous
o Voice over
o Etc.
 Editing
o Attempt to make the join between shots as smooth as possible
o Needed for a narrative flow, to tell a story and led to the development of the
continuity system of editing.
In media the term text is used to describe any media product such as TV programs,
photographs and adverts. One of the keys to understanding the meanings in text is the use
of 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.
Semiotics: the study of signs
An attempt to create a science of the study of sign systems and their role in the construction
and reconstruction of meaning in media texts.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) said…
Signifier + signified = Sign
 Signifier – form which the sign takes (‘open sign’)
 Signified – the concept it represents (the shop is open)
In order for this to work there must be a shared reference or experience.

2. 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. (The word dog has no obvious link to the animal)
 Iconic – Always resemble what they signify as there is a physical similarity between
them. (People will recognise the concept of a dog from a photograph or picture)
 Index – lie between symbolic and iconic signs. Indexical signs have some sort of
direct connection with what is being signified. For example, smoke is often used as
an indexical sign of fire.
Roland Barthes (1913 – 1980)
Barthes looked at how signs take on the dominant value system of a particular society and
make these values seem natural. The dominant value system of a society is known as
ideology, a way of looking at things shared by the majority of that society. An example of this
is good luck being connoted by a horse shoe.
Barthes showed that Saussure’s sign can become a signifier to create, not only a
connotation but a myth.
e.g. a red rose once would indicate the idea of romance but now the idea of romance may
make you think of a red rose. The sign has become the signifier.
Andrew Goodwin (1992) has…
 6 key features of a music video
 5 ways to analyse a music video