This is done through technical elements, codes and conventions, signs and symbols and things such as choice of fonts and even layout.
- Every medium has its own language - or combination of language - that it uses to communicate meaning. Television, for example, uses verbal and written language as well as the languages of moving images and sound.
We call these 'languages' because they use familiar codes and conventions that are generally understood.
- Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules. Each form of communication - whether newspaper, TV game shows or horror movies. These all have their own creative language: scary music heightens fear, camera close-ups convey intimacy, big headlines signal significance.
- Understanding the grammar, syntax and metaphor system of media language, especially the language of sounds and visuals which can reach beyond the rational to our deepest emotional core, increases our appreciation and enjoyment of media experiences as well as helps us to be less susceptible to manipulation.
Semiotics
Charles Sanders Peirce (1931)
"we think only in signs"
Signs we take the form of words, images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no intrinsic meaning and become signs only when we invest them with meaning.
"Nothing is a sign unless is it interpreted as a sign"
Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as a 'significant' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. it is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics.
Icon/iconic: a mode in which the signifier is perceived as a resembling or imitating the signified (recognisably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. a portrait, a cartoon, a cale-model, onomatopoeia, metaphors etc...
Index/indexical: a mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or casually) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder etc), medical symptoms (pain, a rash), measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer).
Symbols/symbolic: a mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letter, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences, national flags etc...).
Roland Barthes (1977)
Death of the audience
There is no meaning unless the audience create the meaning. No matter what meaning the author wanted to create, if nobody interprets it like that then it therefore does not have that meaning at all.
He noted, Saussure's model of the sign focused on denotation at the expense of connotation and it left to subsequent theorists to offer an account of this important dimension of meaning.
He argued that in photography connotation can be (analytically) distinguished from denotation.
Ferdinand de Saussure (1974)
He was a linguist who offered a 'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign a being composed of:
- A signifier (denotation) - The form which the sign takes
- The signified (connotation) - The concept it represents
John Fiske (1982)
He states that denotation is what is photographed, connotation is how it is photographed. Link to Barthes editing at stage of production.
The connotations of a thing reflects the ideologies and beliefs of the person that created the product.
Paradigms and Syntagms
Roman Jakobson (1956) + Claude Levi-Strauss
The meaning arises from the differences between signifiers; these differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution).
In film and television, paradigms include ways of changing shot (such as cut, fade, dissolve and wipe). The medium or genre are also paradigms, and particularly media texts derive meaning from the ways in which the medium and genre used differs from the alternatives.
In relations to My Bloody Valentine - Soon
Media language is used with My Bloody Valentine - Soon. The denotation of this video is a band simply performing a song with multiple instruments in an empty white room. However the editing and effects used create a connoted link to the bands genre and abnormal ideologies. This visual noise relates strongly to the noise and unconventional style of which this song and band create.
However, this meaning itself conforms to Roland Barthes theory as that is only the meaning as I personally have created the meaning. I have perceived this video to have that meaning, but the band themselves might have had different reasons and a different meaning behind it. This meaning that the band and creator of the video tried to create can not be the meaning if the audience dont see it as that.
The video itself is delays creating a distorted, noisy look. This could be reflecting the guitar effects that create the Shoegaze sound especially with My Bloody Valentine due to Kevin Shields huge use of effects to create the bands very unconventional sound and style which is reflected within the video.
Kevin Shields effects
The use of Fender Jaguars and Fender Jazzmasters within the bands performance within the video are very iconic semiotics of the genre. These are recognisably the instruments of choice for this genre and have become icon of it and also iconic of the band itself due to them pioneering the genre. Although, the instruments in genreal could arguably be an indexical reference to music in general and especially of this alternative rock genre.
The connotations of a thing reflects the ideologies and beliefs of the person that created the product.
Paradigms and Syntagms
Roman Jakobson (1956) + Claude Levi-Strauss
The meaning arises from the differences between signifiers; these differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution).
In film and television, paradigms include ways of changing shot (such as cut, fade, dissolve and wipe). The medium or genre are also paradigms, and particularly media texts derive meaning from the ways in which the medium and genre used differs from the alternatives.
In relations to My Bloody Valentine - Soon
Media language is used with My Bloody Valentine - Soon. The denotation of this video is a band simply performing a song with multiple instruments in an empty white room. However the editing and effects used create a connoted link to the bands genre and abnormal ideologies. This visual noise relates strongly to the noise and unconventional style of which this song and band create.
However, this meaning itself conforms to Roland Barthes theory as that is only the meaning as I personally have created the meaning. I have perceived this video to have that meaning, but the band themselves might have had different reasons and a different meaning behind it. This meaning that the band and creator of the video tried to create can not be the meaning if the audience dont see it as that.
The video itself is delays creating a distorted, noisy look. This could be reflecting the guitar effects that create the Shoegaze sound especially with My Bloody Valentine due to Kevin Shields huge use of effects to create the bands very unconventional sound and style which is reflected within the video.
Kevin Shields effects
The use of Fender Jaguars and Fender Jazzmasters within the bands performance within the video are very iconic semiotics of the genre. These are recognisably the instruments of choice for this genre and have become icon of it and also iconic of the band itself due to them pioneering the genre. Although, the instruments in genreal could arguably be an indexical reference to music in general and especially of this alternative rock genre.
No comments:
Post a Comment