Today we had a lesson explaining different elements of the media AS course ahead of us. We learnt many different terms which will be key in aiming for a high results in media studies.
The first thing we were told was 'diegetic sound' means the same and natural sound. Un-diegetic sound are noises such as music being played over a scene. Diegetic sound is the noises made naturally in the scene such as voices of characters, sirens on cars, and babies crying for example.
We then looked at conventions of media and read "conventions are usually described as the ingredients of a particular form or genre."
The term 'ingredients' in media was then described as the base of all forms of media. The ingredients in a piece of media is everything that makes the scene how it is meant to look.
I also learnt about a theory called semiotics - the study of signs. This involves connotations and denotations which depend entirely on the audience and the context of which they are written.
For example, for the image, the denotation is a skull and crossbones, but the connotation will differ depending on the audience. If a cleaner was cleaning a chemical cupboard and saw this sign, she would automatically refer to it as a sign of poison or danger. But for a pirate-obsessed child would probably look at it as a sign from pirates.
"The basic meaning of the sign that most people can recognize and agree on is known as the signifier (denotation). The more complex individual meanings that people give to signs are known as the signified (connotation)".
I also learnt that 'secondary audiences' is an important key term to use in exams to score higher marks. It means to not only look at the obvious target audience for a piece of media, but look further into who else it may interest. An example of this would be "Fantastic Mr. Fox" which tells the story of a puppet fox's life and the troubles he faces with people. Its obvious target audience is children as the story is puppet-made, and the content (including the story-line) is simple for children to understand. However, its sense of humour and a lot of the words used could be mainly aimed at adults. Although the story is obviously fiction, there are 'one-liners' and comical phrases that an adult would genuinely find funny.
I also learnt about micro and macro elements, and that every small detail (micro elements) such as the style of jewellery a character wears, the shoes they wear, and the pictures they have in their room all add up to a macro appearance - a whole outlook of the scene so viewers can get an idea of the lifestyle of the character, what era they are in and what is happening in their life at that time.
Today was full of new information to learn including what the form and style of a media text is, how important the small details are along with an explanation of different audiences.
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