look at and discuss codes and conventions.
Explore the term Semiotics
Answer the section on Task 1 about codes and conventions.
Different groups will
- View Semiotics section below.
- People not here last week will set up blogs and review last weeks work
- Start /continue work on Task 1
Codes and conventions
What are codes?
Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic.
Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic.
Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.
Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling.
Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and symbolic.
What are conventions?
Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.
Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.
How codes and conventions apply in media studies
Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.
Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.
For example, the technical code of lighting is used in some way in all film genres. It is a convention of the horror genre that side and back lighting is used to create mystery and suspense – an integral part of any horror movie.
First look at this
Look at this up to and including slide 23 individually and then we will look at 24 to 35
Taken from https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/MediaStudiesSaltash/semiotics-for-beginners-as-level
Key Semiotic Terms (some advanced)
Semiotics, or semiology, is the study of signs, symbols, and signification. It is the study of how meaning is created, not what it is. Below are some brief definitions of semiotic terms, beginning with the smallest unit of meaning and proceeding towards the larger and more complex:
Signifier: any material thing that signifies, e.g., words on a page, a facial expression, an image.
Signified: the concept that a signifier refers to.
Together, the signifier and signified make up theSign: the smallest unit of meaning. Anything that can be used to communicate (or to tell a lie).
Symbolic (arbitrary) signs: signs where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and culturally specific, e.g., most words.
Iconic signs: signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a picture.
Indexical Signs: signs where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., smoke signifies fire.
Denotation: the most basic or literal meaning of a sign, e.g., the word "rose" signifies a particular kind of flower.
Connotation: the secondary, cultural meanings of signs; or "signifying signs," signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning, e.g., the word "rose" signifies passion.
Metonymy: the substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant, for example suit for business executive, or the turf for horse racing
Synecdoche: a kind of connotation in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor).
Collections of related connotations can be bound together either byParadigmatic relations: where signs get meaning from their association with other signs,
or bySyntagmatic relations: where signs get meaning from their sequential order, e.g., grammar or the sequence of events that make up a story.
Myths: a combination of paradigms and syntagms that make up an oft-told story with elaborate cultural associations, e.g., the cowboy myth, the romance myth.
Codes: a combination of semiotic systems, a supersystem, that function as general maps of meaning, belief systems about oneself and others, which imply views and attitudes about how the world is and/or ought to be. Codes are where semiotics and social structure and values connect.
Ideologies: codes that reinforce or are congruent with structures of power. Ideology works largely by creating forms of "common sense," of the taken-for-granted in everyday life.
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