Media Texts
Any products that are discussed in media is known as media texts. In result, it does not mean it has to be a print with writing on it, for example, magazines, adverts and film are known as media texts.
Media Studies Tool
LIAR
- LANGUAGE
- INSTITUTION
- AUDIENCE
- REPRESNTATION
Language: Codes & Conventions
Media texts remain the same rules depending on the platform they use.
- TV/Film follow the rules of visual media.
- Shot Types
- Mise-en-Scene; the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play, the settings or surrounding of an event.
- Product Design; location, studio, set design, costume, makeup, props, lighting and colour design.
- Editing
- Sound
Institution
Institutions are the ones who make media products, so they are the ones that have a large company and conglomerates to small independent companies within it, for example, Conde Nast is a big conglomerates with a small independent companies such as Vogue and Glamour.
Audience
An audience is a group of people who listen, watch, read or use media texts. Audiences are grouped together by age, gender and interests. Institution's main focus is to make their media texts appeal to their audience. For instance, when making a horror film, you have to make sure that you have an appropriate audience because children would not be an appropriate approach.
Representation
Representation is a way real life is presented in the media. Groups of people, based on things such as age, gender, society and race are represented in a certain light so that people begin to believe that all people in the group are like that. This is a stereotype.
Product Design
The overall look of a film that illustrates the setting and visual style of the story. This includes the designs of sets, location choices, choice and supervision of props.
Todorov's Narrative Theory
Todorov in 1969 produced a theory. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. He believed that he could apply this to any film.
Equilibrium - Where we first meet the characters.
- Disruption - Where something happens to effect the characters lives
- Realisation - Where the characters realise they need to fix the situation.
Dis-Equilibrium - The characters have to deal with the situation and often try to fix it.
New Equilibrium - Everything is restored back to the way it was or in a better place than when it started.
For Example:
Equilibrium: Where we meet the characters. In Lion King this is when Simba is born and he is shown to the kingdom.
Disruption: Where something happens to effect the characters lives. This is when Scar killed Mufasa to become King of Pride Rock.
Realisation: Where the characters realise they need to fix the situation. Here Simba is grown up and is realising he needs o return to Pride Rock and help his family.
Dis-Equilibrium: The characters have to deal with the situation and often try to fix it. Simba and Scar are fighting to have Pride Rock.
New Equilibrium - Everything is restored back to the way it was or in a better place than when it started. In the end Simba and Nala rule Pride Rock.
Barthes - Enigma and Action Codes
Roland Barthes was a semiologist, he was paid to look at texts and decipher how they were put together. If you imagine a text is like a ball of string - can it be unravelled in more than one way.
His idea was that texts could be;
Open - Unravelled in different ways.
Closed - There is only one way the thread can be pulled.
Barthes decided that the threads you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called Narrative Codes. These include Action and Enigma Codes.
Action Codes
Action codes are significant events which move the narrative on in a particular direction. so an action has a direct result, for example, in a western film if a character pulls out a gun you as the viewer know he is going to shoot.
Enigma Codes
Enigma codes pose questions to the audience which are then answered shortly after or later on in the film. They refer to any element in a story that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma for the audience, raising questions that demand explanation. For example, who is she? Where is she going? Why is she doing that?
Strauss - Binary Oppositions
Levi Strauss believed that the world was split into series of binary opposites, essentially meaning that one thing can only be defined in relation to something it isn't. For example, A hero isn't a hero unless there is a villain too. Batman and the Joker.
Propp - Character Codes
Vladimir Propp developed a character theory which indicates that there are 7 different character types which could all be applied to media.
Character Types
Hero
In every story there is a major character with whom the reader will normally associate most strongly and who is the key person around which the story line is told.
Villan
The sharpest contrast against the hero is the villain, who struggles directly against the hero. The villain typically is morally bad highlighting the goodness of the hero.
Princess
She may be the object which deliberately sought by the hero perhaps finding where the Villain is hiding.
The Helper
The Hero's sidekick who supports them on their quests and appears at critical moments to provide support.
The Donor
The person who gives the Hero something on their quest for example, wisdom, or a magical thing.
The Dispatcher
The person who sends the hero on their mission, often an earlier told on the film.
The False Hero
A variant of the villain and a potential complication within the plot. whilst their intention seem good at first it becomes clear they have villainous traits.
The Princess's Father
The character who constrains the princes or who may dispatch the Hero on his mission to save the Princess.
