Media & Society Lecture 1 PDF

MEDIA & SOCIETY AASTMT LECTURE #1 MEDIA TEXT Why texts are important ? -There is a belief that they contribute to the production of our common sense -understanding the world MEDIA TEXT May not be noticed Always there May be music in background or TV at home Media Texts...

MEDIA & SOCIETY AASTMT LECTURE #1 MEDIA TEXT Why texts are important ? -There is a belief that they contribute to the production of our common sense -understanding the world MEDIA TEXT May not be noticed Always there May be music in background or TV at home Media Texts subject to change (street posters) produced and renewed ROLE OF MEDIA TEXT Engage people Convey information Create reactions Active not Passive WHY IS MEDIA TEXT CONSIDERED ACTIVE? Media text is Active by producing meanings either consciously or unconsciously. Production of meaning what makes media study very important. WHAT IS TEXT? Anything may be described as a text if people can engage with it to produce meanings about themselves, their society, their beliefs. Media texts are objects produced with the intention of engaging audience such as (Series, magazine, DVD, Broadcast, Live programs) Flood of meanings WHAT IS TEXT? Media texts have a variety of forms(Publishing – Newspaper - Novels, front page of a website) Media text is all about production of meaning and the process of influence. The text lies at an intersection between producer and Audience (Stimulas to produce meaning).  Graddol (1994) discusses the nature of text material signifier like a model smile can lead to immaterial factors. Tolson (1996) talks about the reader of texts and the process of making sense of them The text itself works to structure these meanings but the reader comes to the text with all sorts of prior knowledge and expectations. CONSUMER OF THE TEXT The Modern consumer of the media is a reader of many kinds of text which interrelate and feed off one another. THE CONSTRUCTED TEXT Text are made objects this is important because one must ask questions about who made the Text? And with what intentions? TEXTS AND MEANINGS Relationship texts to meanings is like relation bet. Media &Audience. The text is a vehicle to meaning The text carries messages which are either conveyed into the consciousness of the audience or do something to the receiver. TEXTS AND MEANINGS Another kind of Model sees the text as a kind of stimulus between producer and Audience to achieve certain kind of response. Meanings are ideas which exist only in the minds of people. WHAT KIND OF MEANINGS APPEAR IN THE READERS MIND AND WHY? Text creators produce any kind of meaning TEXT AND CONTEXT Any Media text exist in the context of all the other media texts example (Readers use their knowledge to make sense of the text, TV program in all context) There is an Environmental context like reading outdoors differs from reading at home we can discuss with the family members.  TEXT AND CONTEXT A News article is a text which is part of longer text (the whole newspaper) A TV program may be a part of a flow of programs in an evenings viewing. The social context will affect what is attended to and how (like coviewing TV or reading articles) TEXT AND CONTEXT The ideological context is the dominant values held by the culture which produces and consumes the text (context of ideas) TEXTUAL ANALYSIS The analysis of texts is deconstruction, the way they produce meanings. Methods of analysis are various: May focus on different features of texts their conventions of realism. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS Linguistic analysis: potential effects of style of address Content analysis: frequency of features Ideological analysis: concentrate on meanings Narrative analysis: has its own kinds of inflection and concern Discourse analysis: seeks out uses of languages TEXTUAL CODES Written language: less in TV Spoken language: dominant in radio Non-Verbal language: dominant in case of all representations Visual language: Image media, photography, Film, TV SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS Regards text as collection of signs and possible meanings The Signifier: The connection between them is context like a picture of a happy family in a holiday. Signs work on two levels –specific General: We work for meanings in word or string of word bound by grammar. INVISUAL CODES The use of color or camera angle may act as a sign. Incase of TV image would be a shot works in relation to another shots. IMAGE ANALYSIS 1- Position: refers to signs which tell us where we are placed in relation to the content of the image(placing of the camera) which becomes location from which the spectator is forced to view the content. 2- Treatment: refers to those primary signs about how the image is made(color/focus/lighting) 3- Content: refers to objects represented with in the image may refer to power DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Linked to ideology and representations produce particular meanings about the subject Communication full of discourses: shape how we understand world deal with others, make sense of everyday experience Discourses differ from culture to other Dominant beliefs and values Such as war referred to by different meanings DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Is the analysis of a text through identification of language so as to reveal its discourses and to comment to their meanings Revelation of the ideology behind the text it is about certain understandings of the subject The way we think about any aspect of our society creates a kind of truth and reality about the subject (death, heaven affected by social practices) TEXTS AND NARRATION Media texts tell stories :they have a narrative they are about story telling and story meaning. Features of text: present order, form which give shape to that thing called “narrative” DIFFERENT MODES OF NARRATIVE CREATES ILLUSION OF REALITY Modes like (flashbacks, jumps in actions) Set of ideas the way that they are put together sets up an imagined relationship with the reader, viewer. Narratives may be factual as well as fictional material. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES This is related to order of events and the arrangement of dramatic episodes. The classic way is characterized by progression of events through time conflict between characters, it has a closure at the end. NARRATIVE STRUCTURES Mainstream Narrative: imitates our lived sense of things moving forward, our beliefs the linkage between events in our lives. Circular Narratives: in which the beginning of a story is its end (main body is flash back) Parallel narratives: Two or more plot lines are dealt with alternately READER POSITIONING The Narrator (story is told by an invisible narrator such as the producer wants to moderate the possible effect of emotionally charged material Its all about positioning camera Modes of realism, kinds of category: Documentary, Fiction, Fantasy, etc.. TEXTS, REPRESENTATIONS, IDEOLOGY, IDENTITY The idea of Representation is central to understanding the production of meaning through text. Texts are nothing but representations in both material and an ideological sense Material is product of technology, image on screen Ideology is text do indeed represent ideas THANK YOU