Digital Media Within Society Week 4

This week's lecture deals with Structuralism & Narrative Codes.
We first took a look at how colors are represented in culture.

The same color can represent different meanings in different parts of the world.

The Color Green -
In China green hats indicate that a man's wife is cheating on him.
In Ireland the color green represents St. Patrick and the whole country.
Most western countries the color green can have several meanings such as health (pharmacy's usually have green text). It can also indicate spring, birth, nature and 'go'.

The Color White
In Japan white represents death.
Most asian countries white is worn at funerals.
In Western countries white represents peace, angels, good guys, weddings.

The Color Black
In China black represents a color for young boys.
In Western countries it represents death, funerals and evil.

The Color Orange
In Ireland orange represents the protestant religion.
In Western countries it represents halloween.

The Color Red
In China red represents good luck, celebration and summoning.
In India it represents purity
In South Africa it represents death and mourning.
Many asian countries red is worn by brides.
Most western countries the color red can represent several things including excitement, danger, love, passion and stop.

Structuralism

Structuralism emphasizes that the elements of culture must be understood in terms of their relationship to a larger, overarching system or structure.

I had great difficulty understanding what the above means so googled a simple definition or explanation for it. I came across this webpage http://archaeology.about.com/od/sterms/g/structuralism.htm which helped me to understand it a bit more.

'Structuralism started out as a theory of language and ended up impacting most of the social and historical sciences including archaeology during the second half of the 20th century.  Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure believed that there are subconscious yet identifiable structures in our language.
Anthropologist claude Levi-Strauss believes that there are subconscious yet identifiable structures in our behavior that are binary such as  left/right, night/day, hot/cold and magic/science etc. Structuralism is a scientific way to look at peoples behavior

I also looked up a dictionary and it says that structuralism is 'an approach to social sciences and to literature in terms oppositions, contrasts,  and hierarchical structures as they might reflect  universal  mental characteristics or organizing  principles.  It is also an approach to linquistics  that analyses and describes the structure of language, as distinguished from it's comparative and historical  aspects.'

Psychological Structures
That all human social order is determined by large social or psychological structures with their own logic, independent of human will or intention.

Denotation & ConnotationThrough this we learn that signs signify, name or Denote different aspects of our experience of the world.

Denotation refers to the direct meaning of a word or expression. E.G. the colour RED.

However the colour Red can be associated with many things such as danger signs, blood, romance, royalty and many other things. This is Connotation which is imagery that people associate with a colour, word or object.

e.g. home can connotate feelings of warmth, relaxation, comfort, family.

Our method of connotation may come from past experiences, repeated references, cultural value etc.

The video below demonstrates the meanings further.

Colour brings large connotation references in society today and can be used to great effect in business and advertising. The Link below brings us to a webpage which tells us what a specific colour connotates.

http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/02403/english/colors.html

Examples of Connotation in Advertising:

 

Intertextuality

This refers to the mixing up and cross referencing of media.

Definition:
Link: http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/Intertextuality.htm
The interrelationship between texts stand in relation to one another to produce meaning.

e.g. The intertextuality between two novels with the same setting.
In advertising it can be used to carry a similar theme in design from advert to advert under the same brand.

 

 

Bricolage

Bricolage is a process of borrowing signs, text, media from a diverse range of things that are available. An example could be taking a fashion style from the past and re-introducing it today as a piece of modern clothing. Another example would be taking sections of music from the past and overlaying it into a new song or music genre. As a cultural practice, bricolage refers to the activity of taking consumer products and commodities and making them one's own by giving them new meaning.

Many use's and examples of Bricolage can be found
in this link: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-bricolage.htm

More examples from : http://students.smcm.edu/ampugay/bricolage.html

In the above example, cupcakes are shown in an untraditional way to present video game icons from Super Mario World.

Multimodal Texts

Multimodal texts use a wide range of media such as fonts, text, images, video, music etc and mixing them from one medium to another.

e.g. the transformation of a book or magazine from print form to a digital download or 'app'.

Narrative Codes

All forms of media tell some kind of story where the narrative is the way the process of telling stories is organised. From this we see how stories are shaped, structured and understood.

Stories should follow a typical pattern:

Equilibrium - things are as they should be
Disequilibrium - disrupted by an event

There are two key codees involved in the sequencing of narratives:

Action Code - used for advancing narrative
Enigma Code - explains narrative by controlling what, whre, when and how much information is given to the audience.

Certain moments that resolution of equilibrium can take place.

 Vladimir Propp used fairy tales as a basis for his model of character types.

Character roles
The Villain - struggles against the hero
The Hero - a seeker character
The Donor - provides an object with some magic property
The Helper - aids the hero
The Princess/Heroine - reward for the hero and object of villain's schemes.
Her Father - validates the hero
The Dispatcher - sends the hero on his way.
False Hero - appears near the end of a story in order to trick the hero.

 His model of character roles is a form of structuralism, which is the view that all media is in the form of fixed structures. These structures are culturally derived and form expectations in our minds.

e.g. fairy tales always have happy endings or the bad guys always lose out in the end and the hero saves the day. e.g. Bruce Willis in the 'Die Hard' movies.

Digital Media Within Society Week 3

This weeks lecture deals with how we decode and understand media texts. We gain a stronger understanding of semiotics.

What is Semiotics?
Semiotics is defined as the study of signs, the meanings and pleasures by sign systems or the study how how things have significance. This study later became known as 'social semiotics'. This study is based on the work of linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce and literary theorist Roland Barthes. They claim that we only think in signs and that nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign.

Semiotics can be broken into a two part model:

A Sign consists of a physical signifier (gestures, words on page, music)

An immaterial signified (the idea associated with this gesture, word etc)

Semiotics through Photography

A photograph involves a process where the image is transferred on to photographic paper but there is also an expressive, human and cultural process that involves the selection and interpretation of such elements as:

Camera Angles, framing, lighting techniques and focus.

Decoding media/photography

According to Barthe's media texts can be either:

Polysemic - open to many interpretations

Open Text - Can have many different meanings, the photography does not give us a clear understanding of what exactly is happening or the reason for it being taken.

Closed Text - the photograph/media text gives us a clear understanding what is going on or what is meant by the image.

Model for analysing forms of media:

Encoder: author or production team of a film, website etc.

Decoder: It's receiver or audience

There are so many ways we can decode media texts:

Technical: Camera angles, lens choice, framing, shutter speed, Depth of Field, Lighting, Exposure.

Symbolic: Objects, Setting, Body Language, Clothing, Colour.

Written: Headlines, Captions, Speech bubbles, style.

We can clearly see from the above photography that there is a wedding taking place, We can tell from the clothing that its set in modern times. The quality of the colour production, image sharpness and lens used suggests that it was taken with a modern camera. This is a closed text/image.

The above photograph was taken in 1992. It is security footage from a shopping mall in Manchester showing the kidnapping of Jamie Bulger who later died. We can tell that this photograph was taken using old security technology due to the fuzzyness/bad image quality and the overall lack of colour. Security systems today take highly detailed shots that look almost through to life as good as any decent camera.

The above is an example of polysemic image, we can make out 2 people on a street but we cant really see who they are and why they are there. They could be going shopping, walking home or going out to a restaurant, pub or cinema.

Anchorage

This is a process where words are used to direct or 'anchor' the meaning of an image to the reader encouraging them to a certain reading. This process is used in newspapers and magazines all the time to draw the viewers eyes to a particular article of interest. The British tabloid press use this process extensively to highlight headline news.

The front page of newspapers is a complex text made up of several segments with main headline (masthead), intro text, main article and photographs which all combine to contribute to it's overall impact and meaning.

The Design layout.

For best impact two main typefaces are used to draw the viewer in.

Serif fonts - used to comment and analysis headlines that 'subliminally' relax the reader.

Sans Serif - used for no nonsense news headlines and reporters by-lines.

During this weeks lab we looked at many different photographs from various artists.

The photograph above is from photographer Lewis Hine and it depicts child labour in a coal plant in Pennsylvania published in 1911. It is a well shot photo but you can clearly see the sadness on all the children's faces. I find it hard to belief that child labor was once perfectly accepted in society as it is clearly wrong. Unfortunately child labor was commonplace across the world for along time and still exists today in parts of Asia and Africa. Wal-Mart in USA has been accused of still selling items in their stores where child labor is used to manufacturer some of their low cost goods.

Digital Media Within Society Week 2

This weeks DMWS lecture focused on the Mass Media...
by Barry McCaffrey B00035922

The Influence of Mass Media
Mass media is Communication over many different forms such as written, spoken, broadcasted which reaches a large audience. We now have traditional as well as modern/new forms of media.

Traditional Media
Television, Radio, Newspapers, Advertising, Movies, Magazines, Music Cds.

Modern/New Media
Internet, Digital Television, 3D/HD Television, Video On Demand, WAP Based Technology.

Diversity of Mass Media

Media Organisations: Is the goal purely for profit or is it informative?

Media Games: Online Games e.g. MMORPGS such as World of Warcraft, Second Life.

Media Games Platforms: Xbox Live, Playstation Network, Origin, Steam, Browser based games.

Media Genres: News, Soaps, Movies, Music, Sport, Games, Fashion, Reality, Documentarys.

Media Texts: media products such as a TV Program, books, posters, songs, music videos, movies, newspapers, magazines, blogs, forums, websites, social networks, RSS Feeds etc.

Media Audiences:
Active or Passive? Age? Culture? Religion? Language?
  

Affects of Mass Media

Significant force in modern culture that effects us from a very young age.

Mediated Culture - Where Media Reflects and creates Culture

Mass media has a direct affect on our culture where the attitudes of our society are influenced by messages delivered through the mass media channels. Mass media and advertising affect our actions, thoughts, and values. We are at the point where mass media creates and reflects our culture–a mediated culture.

E.G Advertising influences and controls what we buy through popular and regular branding & awareness (Coke, McDonalds, Fashion labels, Toys for children, Technology for everybody)

Celebrity Culture

Celebrity culture is the culture of popularizing certain people with attributes that society deem exceptional. People sometimes attempt at becoming famous by various means such as entering reality TV, try to become famous through YouTube or dating someone with a high status.

With constant media exposure, they become role models for adolescents and teenagers. Interest in celebrities creates,  a business with celebrities worth billions. Quite often this has raised issues, many controversial with negative impacts on our society. The appeal of drug and alcohol abuse has increased due to images of intoxicated celebrities spread across today’s various forms of media such as tv, advertising, movies, magazines and internet etc.

The media are able to control what our children see and because of this many very young children have stopped behaving like children. Sex and sexual clothing and attitudes is now common place targeting young children through magazines, music videos, songs and even movies.  E.G Kids want to behave like their role-model celebrities and have sex at a younger age as well as dress inappropriate. The media has portrayed sex, drugs, alcohol as cool, this celebrity culture has become a highly profitable business and as long as society continues to take notice and make decisions based on it, this will continue for a very long time to come.

Defining Mass Media

Mass media consists of the various means by which information reaches large numbers of people, such as television, radio, movies, newspapers, and the Internet. Mass media can effect people's values, beliefs, perceptions, and behaviour.

The mass media is often controlled, it tells us what they want us to hear, see, read and influence. This is achieved through the various news and information channels across the world where much of the information is controlled by a few individuals who have significant power.

It effects many of our decisions in life such as what we should buy, how we should behave.

 

 

Conceptualizing The Mass Media

The roles of Mass Media in everyday life

• means of communication between 'senders' e.g. tv stations, newspapers, producers and the 'receivers' e.g. us 'the audience'.
• To reflect and create culture 'mediated culture'.
• Create industries or companies e.g. fox news, Canal+, Sky, News International
• media as commodities and cultural products.
• Agents of social change and globalization.
• Agents of socialization and sources of social meaning.

Roger Silverstone states that media are:
A constant presence in our everyday lives, as we switch in and out, on
and off, from one media space, one media connection, to another. From
Radio, to newspaper, to telephone. From television, to hi-fi, to internet. In
Public and in private, alone and with others….

 

 

 

 

Impacts of Media on our society and culture

 

 

 

Types of Audiences

• Market Driven
• Concerns about morality e.g. sex, violence
• Response to technology developments
• Questions about culture, politics and identity.

The Effects Model

Approaches that emphasize what the media do to their audiences.

• Raise Awareness
• Inform us /knowledge
• Convince us to like
• Choose our preferences
• Conviction
• Our ultimate goal to buy or purchase into something or product.