Media Studies 101 Midterm Exam
Spectator
is identified as the looker
Three messages
linguistic message: coded through language denotative + connotative non-coded iconic message (what is this an image of?) literal/denotative/pre-ideological coded iconic image (what is the image telling me?) symbolic connotative ideological
**Semiotics**
method of studying texts that involves separating images or words from the mental concepts to which they correspond - ultimate goal of separating images and words
***Barthes Myth***
"a sum of signs" produced at the secondary signification (naturalize our culture, just the way it is) - Ideological values and beliefs that are expressed through connotation - Myth, controlled by media makers, reinforces "bourgeois" -doesn't take users into consideration.
Visual technologies
- Easy access to mass reproduced media characterizes our social, economic, and political environment HELPS US IDENTIFY: - Who we are - Our history
**McLuhan's "global village"**
- Electronic transmission fosters: · Global-scale information dissemination. Rapid increase in production & circulation of information. Mass production of newspaper, TV-satellite then internet. · "heightened human awareness"- Information is more accessible - Oftentimes applied to Utopian ideas of global unified community -Fosters a sense of closeness. I.e. natural disaster etc.
Shot scale
- Extreme Long Shot= people tiny à introduce setting, sense of smallness/vastness - Long Shot= human figure fills frame à who, what, where, when, relationship between character - Medium Shot= cuts off at waist à gocus on dominant subject - Close Up= face fills frame à show emotion, pure subject, dramatic moments - Extreme Close Up= portion of the body or an object (plot or symbolic significance) à something play major role in story later (Long to close to raise drama)
Virilio BIg/Small optics
-Argues that visual technologies lessen physical distance - Technologies disrupt familiar patterns of perception "Big optics" real-time transmission of visual information across vast distance. "Small optics. Normal human perception (near vs. horisontal etc) This has resulted in 3 NEGATIVES - No time for critical reflection - Makes distance meaningless - "Destructive touch"
Critics of Imperialism
...Homgenization of cultural products will result in homiginazation of culture. ability to share culture of other nation through western corporate media messages in ways that conflict with local values
Three negatives Big/Small optics
1 No time for critical reflection.. Disruption of space means less time to think and response. Reduce time 2. Makes distance meaningless. Disrupts our understanding & appreciation of space. 3. Destructive touch" Illustrates that people can use satellite to have destructive power. we can destroy things from vast distances.
Work of Art (Positives)
1. Change physical distance · Frees are from distance, control of ownership · Consumption becomes direct, intimate, unlimited · RESULT: democratizes art by putting it in reach of the general public 2. Changes perceptual distance · Replication can "take image apart" · Alters human perception: except/macro/micro
**Mechanical reproduction's changes in distance***
1. Change physical distance · Frees are from distance, control of ownership · Consumption becomes direct, intimate, unlimited · RESULT: democratizes art by putting it in reach of the general public 2. Changes perceptual distance · Replication can "take image apart" open for interpretation · Alters human perception: except/macro/micro
Five ways to complicate imperialism
1. Cultural imperialism doesn't distinguish between different types of media & their impact 2. Assumes a passive audience 3. Cultural imperialism underestimates the role & popularity of local media. People can consume both foreign/local media 4. (See 3 pronged corporate strategy) 5. New media technologies alternate content. readily available.
***Appadurai's five "scapes"***
1. Ethonoscapes: (people) Detorrialization of diaspora 2. Technoscapes: (machines) can be electronic or mecanical 3. Finance scapes (money) 4. Ideoscapes (politics & ideology) 5. Media Scapes (images) texts genres, styles etc
**Mechanical reproduction's two negatives**
1. Loss of aura · Allows more people to consume more art · BUT: authenticity and aura will be eliminated - As it TURNS OUT: aura has intensified. Opens up access but does not diminish value 2. "Anesthetization of politics" · Mechanical reproduction can serve a propaganda function · Benjamin witnessed this in Nazi Germany
Five ways to complicate imperialism 3 pronged corporate strategy)
1. Market international superstars/blockbusters 2. Produce hybrid version of popular media. forms 3. Local customized media products is often better.
**Barthes' three ways to interpret photos***
1. Myth creators= symbol of French imperialism · Start with a concept and seek a form. media makers create sense. 2. Myth consumers= depiction of reality · Not a symbol, just "is" · "Goes without saying" 3. Analyst= uses "structural description" to denaturalize the connection between first and secondary level · A myth is always motivated; always stand in for something · Analyst draws attention to how practices of production and looking are tied to production of ideology
Objects of study
1. Political campaign and 2 Pieces of news and photo journalism 3 Advertising 4 Entertainment media a Are profound and popular b Cone 5 Documents of and from everyday life.
How the "Male Gaze" Occurs
1. Spectator identifies with the male protagonist and his GOALS. --> Story: He is the primary character, drives the plot forward. --> Camera / Editing: POV shots, reaction and emotion shots 2. Spectators identify with the male protagonist's desire for the female character (who is primarily presented as an erotic object) --> Story: Arm candy / damsel in distress --> Camera / Editing: Positioned as an object of desire for character / camera / spectator. This is done: a) Voyeuristically = pleasure of controlling gaze (afforded only to men) b) Scopophilia = sexual objectification, e.g. framing on body or body parts, and camera movement encouraging to gaze
Criticisms of the public sphere
1. idealizes & nominates what is traditional privileged & exclusionary sphere. 2. separates "public" private matters. Some discussions are worthy while others are not 3. people argue that there are more than one sphere but many different sphere "counter sphere" 4. simplistic/dystopian assessment of media nevertheless; research is useful it shows the value of an accessible media system to help interpretation/criticism the ruling structure.
*The interpretation frame pt 2*
4. Level of detail a. More detail means more real b. Media makers go to extent lengths to create and make their media as real. c. Sense of fidelity. Packing the image with information makes it feel authentic d. If a set feels real of its respective time and place then the audience will believe it to be more real e. Faith will extend to the larger story.f. If the small things are real than the bigger things will also be or seem more real. Takeaway: Visual media always makes the real world smaller and in doing so we need to keep in mind that what is being portrayed or shown is constructed and not an actual representation of reality.
Autobiographical recording
A form of documentary recording focused on the filmmakers experience and feelings
Vlogging
A form of publishing composed as a series of posts, updated ordered in reverse chronology. Combination of video/weblog Look & tone generally meant to connote conversational intimacy. often made from home. generally short form. content focused on: 1. area of interest/expertise 2. account of personal history of perspectives in either case a form of mediated speech that provides users a sense of agency public voice
Genre
A label for categorizing media texts widely understood to share similar genre conventions such as characters, narratives, iconography, settings etc)
***Benjamin's "aura"***
A special quality that seems to emanate from unique works of art that gives them authenticity, which cannot be reproduced. Aura is not a quality the work materially holds but one that is imputed to the work by a culture that holds it in high regard. One of kind art work that has a unique presence in time & space Aura is feeling of awe & reverence
home mode: film vs. video
Acknowledges constraints of technology may facilitate new practices. 1. content production film.is expensive special events and short takes video cheaper recordable longer recording time Result: more recording events & greater length. 2. Distribution film: was hard to copy so movies stayed with film maker video : can dub copies Result: moran argues recordings can be shared beyond home. 3. exhibition film: delay for processing & production senn video: no delay+vcr Result: recordings more easily revisited. Video facilitates the greater range + diveristy of depictions of "every day life" Thus: opens up the events & relationship we see captured video can in part faciliate recording & opens up events we can be seen.
aesthetics, content
Aesthetic: Pans & zooms no structure/ story line subject acknowledges & patterns and performers for the camera, prompting/ narration from filmmaker Content: milestone & happy moments recorded as part of a family record & memory aid. Domestic private life.
The Panopticon
Architectual machine that allows the spectator to observe the subject without being seen. It was originally designed as a circular prison with a guard tower in the middle. The subjects disciplined themselves because they didn't know they were being observed.
**Photographic Truth "Barthes"**
Are effective tools in expressing ideas and values. "Seeing is believing" we consider the photo a record of vision
Images
Are presented all at once and discontinuous (don't have to be consumed in order)
Bargain media (miller)
Argues that bargain media is cheaper but its not inferior. it's an alternative aesthetic. 1. being cheap forces you to be effcicient 3. props/effects adds emphasizes 4. greater immediacy/turn around of produciton in comparison to mainstream media 5. doesn't have to be "well-behaved" no signal code. take risk that other media forms stay way from
***Cultural Imperialism***
Argues that power to produce mass media remains concentrated in relatively few hands U.S media products dominate the global market. Targets a global audience. large volume of products go from west to underdeveloped countries. U.s Programs 60% of european audience.Thus if developed
Mis-en-scène & its key aspects
Art of how elements within a shot are composed and placed - Audiences reads these as signs that denotative and conotate · Set design (where characters are and what it conotates · Lighting · Costumes and props · Blocking (movement) GOAL: - Tell us where we are - Gives us a sense of place - Create a mood - Tell us about the character
Cable & sports
B-cast=ratings for sports events decreasing Cable=popularity & diversity of sports increase Logic NarrowCasting: Charge more $$ per person, NC is for smaller audiences.
****Digital divide definition & fear*****
But consumption requires money for technologies content & success. Hardware/software. Technology literacy/Time. And patterns of consumption follow same patterns of economically inequality. Technological limitations. So Internet connectivity is limited.Fear: is that developed nations take advantage leading to further imbalance. Ex: one laptop per child.
Fashion
Clothes fulfill a practical function but also serve as a visual communicator. We are making semiotic decisions about how we want others to see us. we consciously make choice about what to wear. different clothing for different identify/roles. Semiotic function. Ex. ties, Tshirt, make a statement of who we are.
Normalization
Constructing and self-regulating idealized norms of behavior under culture of monitoring. e.g. Wii Fit It homogenizes bodies who attempt to conform to media images --> "thin and muscular is the idealized norm, and people attempt to regulate their bodies to that norm"
Continuity
Continuity= temporal and spatial unity à illusion of continuous time - Way to unite individual shots in a way that gives the illusion of a unified, coherent time, and space - GOAL: maintain perceptual invisibility - Coverage= principle of shooting a scene with multiple scales and angles to provide many editing options for a) conveying action and by hiding continuity errors - Cutaway= shot away from the main action to condense action or hide an error - Reaction shot= (close up) a type of cutaway that gives a sense of other characters' emotional response - Establishing shot= long shot or medium long shot that defines the area for the rest of the scene - Eyeline match= sequence that starts with a person looking and then cuts to what that people is looking at - Shot/reverse shot= once established, we assume two opposite-facing characters are looking at each other - Screen direction= maintain left/right orientation
**Denotative & Connotative ***
Denotative meaning = purely descriptive, value-free (verb = denote) Connotative meaning = suggests specific values or associations can be individual or cultural we interpret denotation and connotation simultaneously polysimic = texts open to multiple interpretations
"Home mode" as "special reality"
Depicts a "special reality" through a process of selection that aspires for maximum idealization. Depicts not reality but special reality. home movies aspire maximum idealization. Common: milestones special performers. annual events. poets new stuff etc. process of selection. Absent negative moments are never recorder. obscene "patterned elimination" of the bad umpleasant gross etc. family quarrels. demostarte & reinforce bonds as "visual representations kinship networks" illustrates immidiate & extended rul also people can be eliminated.
Development of Sports on Tv
Early development of sports programming was limited (technological) Franchise slow to sign b/c of fear of losing event attendance Turns out wasn't true for national Pro leagues
**Muybridge's horse**
Example of moving pictures. Studied animal & human locomotion. Photographic images of movement set the stage for the development of cinema.
**Lumière Bros. "The Sprinkler Sprinkled"**
First film with plot/script/story. But rise of film as a mass medium=technologies of recording and exhibition and appeal to audience through construction narratives.
YouTube memes & home mode YouTube memes
For family/friends: fulfills home mode function of displaying & reinforcing social bonds. For anonymous viewers playful participation in a large cultural experience. Made meaningful through explantion of the through addressing the more des targeted with keywords meant to make it more easily searchable provide additional info. that may encourage clicks Moral argues that video opens up relationship Takeaway: home mode you tube memes are an illustration of immersing range of media makers & events recorded sharing life at home. But also participatory culture" where people feel they can contribute to the shape media & culture Remix: people make their own adaptations network: connections people share videos online
Foucalt and Discourse
Foucault argued that truth and knowledge, far from being universal, were specific to certain times and spaces. e.g. Until the 17th century, people thought the world was flat, that was their "truth". Afterwards, when it was discovered the world was round, that knowledge became "truth". Thus "truth" in this case was specific to a time period.
Globalization & Satellite
Globalization: Is overlapping & interconnected. Is complex & overlapping ...1. Facilitates instantaneous communication & interconnection 2. provide a new way of looking through "remote sensing' informational space extends our senses
***Denaturalization***
Goal of semiotic analysis is to denaturalize seemingly naturalized images by driving a wedge btw coded and non coded image - to isolate codes and signs to see how they build larger narratives and meanings - to reveal the constructedness of media texts
"Home mode recordings" & audience,
Home movies (on film) photo snapshots, other forms of familiar documentation . illustrates connections between generations/families 1Audience: by family/friends for family/friends. depicts family for family uses
**Iconic Sign***
Iconic sign = based on resemblance. Cave paintings
***Realism****
Identify a style of image creation Used as praising a show Defined as everyday and concrete reality rather than myth and fantasy But realism is an artistic convention. · Easier said than done to compare emotion to text · Individuals judge to be real depends on circumstances (political, geographical, etc, cultural) · What individuals see as real depends on bias factors. Visual Texts aren't mirrors, just lenses
Ocularcentric
If we can't see it then it isn't real. · Privileged vision over other sense. · We are limited to what our eye can see. · Humans have been communicating their lives over printing for over 35,000 years or more · This was a common activity.
***Presentational & discontinuous***
Images: presentational (presented all at once) discontinous (don't have to consume in order)
***Rise of narrative films as a mass medium***
Increased focus on: - Camera tricks. - Staging and controlling films (silent films) - Special effects and camera tricks. - Rather than recording reality Tv. Planned & controlled Editing - Provides ellipsis (condenses time/space) -"Continuity editing" (making editing between shots invisible) -Focus on story & not story telling.
**Indexical Sign**
Indexical sign= based on physical causal relationship. Ex. Sundial , speedometer, thermometer. Smoke is an index of fire.
The redactor
Is a perceived who redacts/produce new material by editing existing content we compose eour experience by filtering Tv content (remote) fan fiction recording etc negotiating participate in community/local
Modernity
Is an extension of the Enlightenment era a philosophical movement of the 17th century industry society and rationalism. reason and ordenitiy. Out of capitalism and developed with the rise of industrialism optimistic belief in the power of technology and progress and science Believe that objective knowledge can be discovered But some challenged its neatness
Fiction Filmmaking
Makers work to integrate and developed ideas. Externalizations-sharing emotions Acting performances show how an "idea" is always changing Method: use vivid personal experience Technologies designed to sound realistic change over time Designed to sound realistic Pursuit of realism In the 60's face shots were common N the 70's overlapping dialogues Results: our expectations are changed a lot and cinematic realism change too. But its not just the text that evokes realism but context as well that can frame our interpretation.
Impact of Sports on Tv
Mass Media related to sports. Viewing is not limited to status, location. 1939 TV & Sports are culturally & economically linked. TV replaced radio. since early years low budget high profit. Sports provided a steady supply of drama, spontaneity, spectacle, (winning losing) thrill/agony of defeat.
Broadcast strategy & flow
Mass media produced for large audience. not local. 100% ad supported. Tv is part entertainment/appliance Collect largest audience and sale to advertisers. Attempt to control flow. continuous viewing across programs. don't want audience to turn off Tv. Cliff hangers, Hot switching (one show after the other) It has become more difficult to lure audience back b/c of internet TV. Thus: B-cast goal still invest in live viewing.
Interpretive Strategy
Meaning is conditioned through culture · How do you know what you know o Ours surroundings seem natural. Meaning for everything is conditioned. Our culture trains us how to interpret our world. o Interpretation does not come naturally. o It is culturally constructed. · Meanings attached to objects and spaces can all apply to ideas and concepts
Documentary
Meant to be the opposite of fiction but can also be edited · Tension between dramatic and factual · Fact Vs. Profitable · Media makers attempt to hide their presence · POV · Camera never lies
Productive power of Realism
Media makers are active producers of meaning · Visual texts create mirrors. They are lenses · Every tense distorts the world Ex. Maps · Communicating meant to be transparent and direct · Represent what they're standing for. · Maps are also highly edited representations that stress different dynamics.
***Goal of myth & depoliticized speech***
Naturalizes primary and secondary signification through "depoliticized speech" - Ignores political/ideology (does not explain or deny) but just presents the image as that · Example: Che Guevara political figure becomes Che Guevara t-shirt - Turned people into politicized symbols - Treats history/culture as nature and status quo as natural/inevitable
The networked public sphere
Network of spaces where we have our cultural and political lives public & natural spaces. professional and non professional media maker. Thus: media is essential central to ideas about freedom of information & expression. exchange ideas,political without fear of consequences.
Definition of alternative media & what it can do
Outside mainstream producive and gate keeping. so Alternative media can differ in content & style modes of production & relationship with audience. can express attractive perspective & ideologies. are uncharged/untained the documents produced are offered "raw" rather than priviledge as a a story can be recorded at happenings in which traditional journalism were not present porponents say it increases: 1. diversity of content 2. participation by members of the public (as journalist) 3. participation by audience (who spread it)
Photography VS TV
Photo=Static, permanent, transportable, cheap, close, Digital photography multiple copies. In mass produced form it is cheap viewing TV Is always moving changing impermanent not transportable except DVD. Tv Compensates. Images only lasts as long as it is paused but then press play. TV is valued for instantaneous sense of immediacies Lesson: different Media compliment rather than eliminate each other
***Realism and the photographic image***
Photography captures an image automatically. An automated process · More accurate forms of representations · Acts of framing developmental process · But photos are the result of the active process of selection · Choosing what, when and how to share · Editing shot · Photos are not an assimilation of the real world. · Only happy events not sad events are captured or recorded. photos are not assimilation of the real world. Shots are selective.
Motion Pictures
Photography increase number of images and imagemakers. Medium develops with technologies + inventors + economics + audiences "Motion pictures" is a form of photography concerned with creating the illusion of motion 1824: thaumatrope (two sided cards, picture on both sides) 1834: zoetrope (roll) 1878: Muybridge photographs/animates a galloping horse 1888: Le Prince makes first :motion picture" (story acted before camera, Sprinkled Sprinkler) 1895: Lumiere Brothers "script" reality (plot and story) BUT: rise of film as a mass medium= technologies of recording AND exhibition AND: appeal to audience through constructing narratives
**Definition of motion pictures**
Pictures (stills) that create a sense of motion. Is a form of photography concerned with crafting mobile fast illusion of motion.Film is 30 frames per second.
Media provides us with:
Pleasure (commercial media is produced b/c people consume them) · Models for behavior · Meaning (values, messages etc) - meaning is conditioned through culture - we are trained to recognize and understand culturally constructed meanings
Camera Angles
Point of view shot= represents what a character is looking at à angle used to convey something, someone's vantage point - Over-the-shoulder-shot= behind the head/shoulder from one person facing another person à read message by body movement, conversation - High angle= shot facing down from below the human eyeline àvulnerability - Low angle= shot facing up from below the human eyeline à power - Canted shot (AKA dutch angle): shot angled sideways so that the horizontal skews vertical
Governmentality
Power comes from potential surveillance, not just actual surveillance.
Signification
Primary level of signification: sign= signifier+ signified Secondary level of signification: the sign then becomes the signifier for a layer sign
Myth and Paris Match (1955
Primary signification= saluting flag (signifier for secondary) Secondary signification= French imperialism (positive image) - Produced by mediamaker and activated through codes (shared culture knowledge) - Interpretation would differ in another culture or time
Truthiness
Real World means different things to different people. Is a feeling of something being real and this depends from individual to individual. And standards for realism shift over time and cultures.
Reality TV & genre mixing
Reality TV- genre of Tv programming that nurtures non-actors in unscripted situations But like reality Tv its crafted through the practices of planning shooting, editing, material processed through traditional media. Storytelling (protagonists, antagonist, cause & effect) And reality Tv often times hybridizes with other genred by adopting their genre conventions ex. the Osborne, Thus: reality Tv is at once real while also fulfilling the entertainments functions by filtering this through the conventions of other genres
Live viewing
Reality contests (vote etc) continued investments in sports least time shifting Sports is most likely to be watched Live Sports has been and will continue to be a Tv Staple
Documentary transformation of reality
Reality is transformed through 1. the planning process (what/who/how/shoot) 2. the recording process (how things ger recorded what people say) 3. the editing process (what's selected & cut how things are ordered) 4. the audience meaning meaning making process (how they interpret/understand it)
***Naturalization***
Result: non-coded message naturalizes the coded message - coded and non-coded messages perceived simultaneously - THUS: the non-coded message makes the coded message appears "real" and "like it was really there" - AND: in confusing the coded and non coded messages, the viewer confuses ideology for reality
Rule of thirds
Rule of third= composition is especially interesting when places at the intersection of vertical and horizontal lines
***Criticisms of Barthes***
Selective in his analysis - Calls semiotics a science, but he always fins what he is looking for - Do myths always serve the bourgeois ideology? - Are myths always political, bad?
Hosley's "Clear seeing"
Sense: letting enough light into your eyes to see object (Eyes are perception tools) Eyes Selecting: act of focusing. (Zooming in on one thing and paying attention) Brain+Eyes Perceiving: Attempt to make sense of what your selecting. We make sense of what we're seeing compared to what we have already seen (experience) It's using our brain to make meaning. Main point: convey idea of seeing is a result of thinking clearly not the eye but the brain. "The more you know, the more you see."
Semiotics
Separating image from meaning. Examines what image means and how it means it. Ideologies beliefs that can be communicated.
**Signifer***
Signifier = the material form (the letters, sounds, symbols)
Tv & Super Bowl
Single most viewed program every year #1 sporting event. Advertising spectacle! Ex. Budweiser commercial Source of network (promotion) Cultural experience (party gathering) Superbowl punctuates its role (bonding etc)
Definition of "myth of viral success" & its results
Some media critics celebrate democratization while others invent production standards Participatory paradox. we can't turn people to produce better work w/o reinforcing production Enabling professional standards reads large audiences (which are desirable) Result: that this perpetuates traditional production encourages well established conventions instead of innovation.
Media & citizneship
Someone who assumes the right to political participation in a society modern citizenship in a society. modern citizenship requires media to communicate ideas, information, opinions all have to be transmitted in order to be connected into knowledge holds the state accountable
Industrial utility of sports on TV
Sports on Tv Attracts: 1. Large audiences 2. It also attracts demographically desirable (specific) Result: It can change high rates for either or broad or niche (1&2) Sports is also attractive b/c it increases the Chs brand/prestige So bidding is high between networks. competition is fierce.
****Globalization & Media****
Spread of Media Products & Stories experience media as interconnected with blur boundaries
**Symbolic Sign***
Symbolic Sign= arbitrary/abstract. Ex. Company logos symbols more than any other types of signs have to be taught, no reason why green means go or red means stop a reflection of our specific culture and histories
Hartley & TV
TV can function as positive force in culture. Broadcast brings large audience & not just a source of distribution. hart of everyday life. primary vehicle to express ideas. source of pleasure used to inform works at level of news/culture. reaches media citizenship. (political & cultural self determined) place to learn about news/events ideas & representations but also publicizes a diversity of events. Media is not just one way. "reading" and writing. the amount of diversity in content allows us to chose our own identity. Thus Tv is a form of literacy rather than a behavior. (ex. reading a book)
**Image Icons**
Textbook: iconic photos - Well-composed (good form) - Captured at the "right moment, right time" - "Simplicity" - Captures an historical/cultural/political moment while representing a "universal" issue
Mulvey's "male gaze" & how it occurs
The "male gaze" is the default in classical Hollywood cinema. Three linked gendered gazes construct pleasure for male filmgoers: 1. Character point of view 2. The camera 3. The Spectator RESULT: We experience the film through the male gaze.
Foucault's Panopticism
The extension of this system of surveillance into everyday life. Foucault believed that the "panoptic" style of architecture could be used in other institutions with surveillance needs, i.e. schools and hospitals. Now, it can be referred to everyday surveillance in pop culture (reality TV), or celebrity gossip media.
Protagonist
The main character who drives the plot forward. The most effective means to affect the audience by developing bonds of identification. • Protagonists are active 1. (a) somebody who wants something (b) very badly (c) is having trouble getting it 2. protagonist has a goal to achieve that is known to the audience 3. the stakes are clear and they get raised 4. obstacles / conflict block the desired goal Conveying Emotion • Protagonists compel drama • Preparation = observe characters' emotions before a big scene • Aftermath = observe consquences / characters' reactions after a big scene
Circle of Literacy
The more you know the more your brain selects the more you select the more you will perceive the more you perceive the more you remember. The more you remember the more you learn and the more you learn the more you sense. Objective of visual literacy: sense and select but most importantly is to perceive. Goal: is to increase visual literacy by examining image creation manipulation consumption, interpretation, and impact.
Citizen journalism on YouTube
The site is popular b/c it offers a centralized public storehouse of content.Publication is open for public use & easily share able Provides access to videos w/o the gate keeping mediation of the mainstream media. Users voice their judgement on a videos significance through comments, shares. A video can be picked up by professional news & entertainment outlets. this can further increase its visibility for examination as part of public sphere Ex. public protests crimes, political gafts, rights abused. disasters. relief.
*The interpretation frame pt1*
The way a visual text is framed impacts our interpretation 1. Truth claim (is based on a true story) A. Inspires faith in the key points of the story b. Words like "this is based on a true story" make us interpret it differently. 2. Trust in media makers and their knowledge (ex. 60 minutes) a. Believably based on our previous experiences b. Reputation and standards of journalism c. We are more likely to believe something we thing is true Ex. Michael moore 3. Trust in the medium itself a. Photography, TV more realistic than others. It's more easily to instill trust and faith b. The depicted images are or seem to be more real than other forms of media.c. Camcorders or security cameras are more accurate than individual d. Makes it easier to believe.
Screenplay Structure
Three Act Manual ACT 1 (~30 MIN.) • Establish a routine (introduces the setting and relationships). Presents a status quo that it will disrupt. • Inciting incident (breaks the routine; initiates the main drama) • "Locking the conflict" (goal/plan solidifies) ACT 2 (~60 MIN) • Series of struggles (delay, suspense, plot twists) • "Darkest Moment" (where things cannot get any worse; looks like protagonist won't succeed) ACT 3 (~30 MIN) • "Third Act Twist" (scene where we get the opposite of the expected outcome; maybe protagonist can succeed) • CLIMAX (where the protagonist will either succeed or fail)
Surveillance
To be seen without seeing, to see without being seen.
TV & Football
Tv changes viewing experience through: Close ups, instant replays, superimposed line & animation, commentators that provide context. enormous video screens that help spectators in attendance. The live experience of football is mediated. all sports need to conform to Tv model: commercial model: Breaks for ads, and ads are celebrated.
Impact of Tv on Sports
Tv coverage of $ supports more franchise allows more attendance Illustrates a symbiotic relationship. Thus: national sports orgs thrive or fail depending on TV deals Ex. Baseball being carried nationally is extremely important. TV has financial/technical requirements & sports need to accommodate action replay & ad breaks. Results: sports orgs alter when & how they are playd. Ex. Baseball moved from day to night airing.
Representation
Use of language and images to create meaning about the world around us. · We are constantly surrounded · They display the world in a particular way · Media produce representations of things · The act of reproducing is not fixed.
ESPN
Used powerful brand Rise of cable sport channels Success of ESPN is satellite which provides global transmission 1. Increase popularity of U.S sports abroad 2. Brings international sports to u.S (Olympics)
Visual Literacy
We are increasingly mediated time surround by sophisticated images. i.e. products, TV,fashion, tattoos, memes, etc We spend more time looking at visual images than reading words. We learn through looking at pictures rather than words. Visual images are "texts" that we can read and "write." We learn how to read images and techniques used by authors
Paleolithic paintings
Were widespread meaning they were found all over the world. Were communicative used to send messages or represent things. Produced in a collaborative and understood by others How were they used? Archives Educational purposes Training Totems/ Religious There exact purposes are not are not concrete. Regardless: We have been generating visual representations for millennial.
Moving Shots
Zoom in/out= zoom lens gives the impression of moving closer/farther - Pan= camera stationary; swivels across horizontal axis - Swish pan= blurs everything between start and finish - Tilt= camera stationary; swivels across vertical axis - Tracking shot= moves across horizontal axis - Crane shot= moves across vertical axis
***Sign***
a sign is anything that stands in for something else A word, image, or object, and its specific meaning in a particular context. A sign is made of signifier(word/image/object)+signified (mental concept of the referent) to make a sign (meaning) Ex. Cigarette might signify friendship/romance but it can also signify disease & death.
The public sphere and four descriptions of it
a space to form opinion and act group of individuals come together in public spaces to engage in official debate. Ex. England France (critically) response to the rise of the middle class, free trade & the printing process. Allows society to develop outside arestocracy Result: led to support for free assembly free press free speech. Argues capitalism was provided economic incentive to produce news & culture outside gov't control public to discuss them. Private spaces owned privately not by gov't Four descriptions 1. public sphere is not an institution . It's not a thing but a network/ a process you don't go to a public sphere. you are a part of a public sphere 2. sphere of social life citizen behave as public body. A sense of collectivism 3. its a sphere of public control that debates public inform 4. made possible through media without a communication public sphere can't be possible
Revelation vs. recognition
a. Revelation = when a story point is revealed to the audience b. Recognition = when a story point is revealed to the character i. Revelation and recognition together = surprise ii. Recognition before revelation = audience curiosity 1. Something whispered iii. Revelation before recognition = suspense
Fourth estate
actions of state/represented debated. media watchdog that represents the public sphere. But contemporary mass culture has dissolved the public shpere in order to serve the political & economic interest of the elites manipulation we are denied by massive massive corporations that want $$ from those who consume it. foster monetary maximization as a result: mass media has replaced political engagement with entertainment. media distracts us from issues sedates us & keeps us compliant
"RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE" (BARTHES, 1964)
attempts to expand the study of signs to popular culture tests applicability to non-linguistic sign systems verbal language = linear
Spectatorship
capacity to consume images at our leisure for as long as we want whenever we want It is "our choice" Examining the act of spectatorship allows us to recognize the ways in which media helps construct how we understand ourselves in society and the world
Code
code = a system of meaning learned culturally codes are made up of signs (Signified+signifier)
"structural description"
examines the relationships between the 3 messages
Reality Effect
perception of instantaneous capture documenting "life in real time"
Scenes
i. 2-3 minute segments 1. Every scene must have a protagonist, but not necessarily THE protagonist of the film 2. Must be motivated, we must recognize why a scene has been included a. Compositional: part of the causal chain of actions b. Realistic: helps the audience suspend their disbelief c. Intertextual: conforms to the generic expectations d. Artistic: not necessary to the narrative but add a "flavor" to the film
Ideology
ideas and representations in which people collectively make sense of the world - can be diverse, conflicting, and competing
Ideology
ideology" - "ideology"= ideas about how society is/ought to be - "Bourgeois"="dominant class" of owners (rather than workers_ - GOAL: use media texts to maintain their ideological interests (keep the rich, rich/powerful)
Screen direction & the 180-degree rule
preserve screen direction by standing on one side of an invisible line through two characters Can cross the 180-degree line by: · Character crossing during shot · Shot on the line · Camera crossing the line · Cutaway
**Signified***
signified (mental concept of the referent) to make a sign (meaning)
Punctum
the effective element of every photo; "fetish objects" The emotional impact.
Internet & the public sphere
the internet is how the primary site for distributing alternative media & message 1. increased access to ideas & debate 2. post content capable of getting a larger audience attention 3. hyperlink & embedding makes content easier to share 4. wear- instantaneous communication 5. archive of information 6 internet can reach large public not constrained like physical spaces
Stadium
truth function of every photo
Conventions
ways of organizing signs that become widely shared over time Ex. Emoticons
