Chapter 1 – How do media make meaning? Week 2 - The Creation of Meaning
Long et. Al., Chapter 1, p34-82
Three-part relationship of labelling media output:
1. physical form -> artefactual aspect (DVD, newspapers, etc.)
2. economic value -> commodity aspect (costs of media production: cinema ticket)
3. meaning value -> textual aspect (what meaning the output has for us)
Making meaning of media in three ways:
1. the work of media producers themselves
2. results from our upbringing and wider cultural, social, and historical contexts
3. our regular acquaintance with various forms of media (starts from the day we’re born)
-> media make meaning through a variety of means, as part of a relationship between producer and
consumer -> text and textual meanings are always contextualized
- media and their products are not natural -> how they operate is not necessarily consensual
Analytical tools: rhetoric
Analytical tools: rhetoric
Rhetoric = the construction and manipulation of language by the creator of a text for affective
purposes (elicit emotional, psychological, or physical responses from audiences)
Rhetorical analysis = how are media texts put together as media texts?
- media and their meanings constructed out of the use of available techniques, styles, and
conventions
The aim of media in organizing meaning: to get audiences to pay attention
-> cognition = the way we acquire AND apply knowledge (the process through which we comprehend
events and ideas in order to come to understand the world)
-> the cognition/interpretation of the media text is a mode of communication
- meaning is not mainly about information, but about how it’s presented and the particularities of the
medium (medium is the message)
(example: cover Harry grinning and Meghan looking happy)
Language = the material out of which communication is created. It provides basic units
(words, phrases, sounds, images) and rules that determine how they can be used
(grammar)
Rhetoric = the way in which language is manipulated to a particular purpose
Meaning = the interpretation of messages by the ‘reader’ of the text
Empty rhetoric = that an argument can be convincingly put, suggesting that it is very
interesting/profound, but in reality it is quite insubstantial
Rhetorical question = question designed to have an obvious answer
SUMMARY | Media Studies (Long et. Al.)
, Rhetorical media tools and techniques:
- rhetorical techniques can be learned, practiced, and understood
1. Verbal rhetoric
- WHAT is written and spoken (choice of words)
- different styles of journalism use words in different ways to generate affects (intellectual, emotional,
psychological, or physical responses to the rhetorical address of media texts)
2. Presentational rhetoric
- HOW people speak (accents, volume, emphasis, pace, pauses, etc.)
- the manipulation of delivery creates complexity and affects ‘affect’
- also about non-verbal aspects (body language) (presenter nodding in direction to a speaker who’s not
actually in the studio)
- also about the way sound can be used to create ‘space’ (birds signal that we are outside)
- also about décor and location (mise and scene -> label all the contents of the stage (setting, costume,
make-up, lighting)
3. Photographic rhetoric
- power of the photographer and the medium over which they have control
- point of view, focusing/obscuring
- 5 most common devices used in the capture and construction of media images: composition,
retouching, cropping, juxtaposition, and montage.
4. Editorial rhetoric
- the rhetoric of the moving image (film, TV, computer games)
- a set of images (e.g. different shots in different locations, but with the same person wearing the same
clothes) invites us to read them as a sequence, given our familiarity with the ‘grammatical’
organization of film.
- 3 elements in the way scenes work together
- sign value of the presented scene (in all media platforms)
- framing (also in photography)
- sticking together/juxtaposing scenes of movement (only in film)
So:
- Media communication is about more than words
- any effective use of rhetoric tends to go unnoticed: we are used to it
- without direct access, we cannot be sure about the intent of the producers
Analytical tools: semiology
Analytical tools: semiology
= literally: ‘study of the signs’
Semiology = how things mean what they mean and the various ways in which things mean what they
do: with semiology we explain the way in which meaning is created
SUMMARY | Media Studies (Long et. Al.)
Long et. Al., Chapter 1, p34-82
Three-part relationship of labelling media output:
1. physical form -> artefactual aspect (DVD, newspapers, etc.)
2. economic value -> commodity aspect (costs of media production: cinema ticket)
3. meaning value -> textual aspect (what meaning the output has for us)
Making meaning of media in three ways:
1. the work of media producers themselves
2. results from our upbringing and wider cultural, social, and historical contexts
3. our regular acquaintance with various forms of media (starts from the day we’re born)
-> media make meaning through a variety of means, as part of a relationship between producer and
consumer -> text and textual meanings are always contextualized
- media and their products are not natural -> how they operate is not necessarily consensual
Analytical tools: rhetoric
Analytical tools: rhetoric
Rhetoric = the construction and manipulation of language by the creator of a text for affective
purposes (elicit emotional, psychological, or physical responses from audiences)
Rhetorical analysis = how are media texts put together as media texts?
- media and their meanings constructed out of the use of available techniques, styles, and
conventions
The aim of media in organizing meaning: to get audiences to pay attention
-> cognition = the way we acquire AND apply knowledge (the process through which we comprehend
events and ideas in order to come to understand the world)
-> the cognition/interpretation of the media text is a mode of communication
- meaning is not mainly about information, but about how it’s presented and the particularities of the
medium (medium is the message)
(example: cover Harry grinning and Meghan looking happy)
Language = the material out of which communication is created. It provides basic units
(words, phrases, sounds, images) and rules that determine how they can be used
(grammar)
Rhetoric = the way in which language is manipulated to a particular purpose
Meaning = the interpretation of messages by the ‘reader’ of the text
Empty rhetoric = that an argument can be convincingly put, suggesting that it is very
interesting/profound, but in reality it is quite insubstantial
Rhetorical question = question designed to have an obvious answer
SUMMARY | Media Studies (Long et. Al.)
, Rhetorical media tools and techniques:
- rhetorical techniques can be learned, practiced, and understood
1. Verbal rhetoric
- WHAT is written and spoken (choice of words)
- different styles of journalism use words in different ways to generate affects (intellectual, emotional,
psychological, or physical responses to the rhetorical address of media texts)
2. Presentational rhetoric
- HOW people speak (accents, volume, emphasis, pace, pauses, etc.)
- the manipulation of delivery creates complexity and affects ‘affect’
- also about non-verbal aspects (body language) (presenter nodding in direction to a speaker who’s not
actually in the studio)
- also about the way sound can be used to create ‘space’ (birds signal that we are outside)
- also about décor and location (mise and scene -> label all the contents of the stage (setting, costume,
make-up, lighting)
3. Photographic rhetoric
- power of the photographer and the medium over which they have control
- point of view, focusing/obscuring
- 5 most common devices used in the capture and construction of media images: composition,
retouching, cropping, juxtaposition, and montage.
4. Editorial rhetoric
- the rhetoric of the moving image (film, TV, computer games)
- a set of images (e.g. different shots in different locations, but with the same person wearing the same
clothes) invites us to read them as a sequence, given our familiarity with the ‘grammatical’
organization of film.
- 3 elements in the way scenes work together
- sign value of the presented scene (in all media platforms)
- framing (also in photography)
- sticking together/juxtaposing scenes of movement (only in film)
So:
- Media communication is about more than words
- any effective use of rhetoric tends to go unnoticed: we are used to it
- without direct access, we cannot be sure about the intent of the producers
Analytical tools: semiology
Analytical tools: semiology
= literally: ‘study of the signs’
Semiology = how things mean what they mean and the various ways in which things mean what they
do: with semiology we explain the way in which meaning is created
SUMMARY | Media Studies (Long et. Al.)
