Media Language

Question 1

Barthes - Semiotics

Answer 1

• Texts communicate their meanings through signification
• Signs can function at the level of denotation (literal) or connotation (suggested)
• Constructed meanings can come to seem self evident, becoming myth through naturalisation

Question 2

Todorov - Naratology

Answer 2

• All narratives share the same basic structure which involves moving between states of equilibrium
• These states of equilibrium are separated by a period of disequilibrium
• The way in which narratives are resolved can have particular ideological significance

Question 3

Neale - Genre Theory

Answer 3

• Genres are a series of repetition and difference
• Genres change as they borrow from and overlap with each other
• Genres exist within specific economic, institutional and industrial contexts

Question 4

Strauss - Structuralism

Answer 4

• Texts can be understood by their underlying structure
• Meaning is dependence upon pairs of oppositions
• The ways these binary oppositions are resolved can have ideological significance

Question 5

Baudrillard - Postmodernism

Answer 5

• The boundaries between real and the media have collapsed so it’s no longer possible to distinguish between the two
• In a postmodern age of simulacra we are immersed in a world of images which no longer refer to anything real
• Media images have come to seem more real than the reality they supposedly represent (hyperreality)