Titanium - Media Language

 

Titanium - Media Language

Recall

  • What is media language? 
  • How do producers encode meaning?
  • How do producers encourage a preferred reading?












Critical Reviews


The full video premiered online on 20 December 2011. Neither Guetta nor Sia appear in the video.

 Jason Lipshutz of Billboard magazine noted that "the supernatural scene and suburban setting" in the video recall the science fiction film Super 8 (2011), in which Lee stars. 


Becky Bain of Idolator.com wrote that, "The video is beautifully shot, and is courageous enough not to answer all its mysteries."



A writer for Capital FM called it a "very cinematic video".

Synopsis 

In a deserted and destroyed school hallway, Lee's character is shown huddled on the ground. He slowly stands and walks down the hallway. He sees a female teacher in a classroom, who is horrified at the sight of him and closes the door. As the boy makes his way outside the school building, a police car arrives and the teacher rushes outside to tell the policeman about the boy, who rushes home on a bicycle to pack his things. At home, he sees a news report about the incident. Several policemen then appear outside the front door of the boy's house, while he tries to escape through the back door. The boy realizes that the door is locked, so he uses his telekinetic powers to grab the keys from the kitchen bench. The police breach the house to find two teddy bears floating in the air. The boy escapes into the woods, pursued by a SWAT team. An officer catches him and throws him to the ground. Surrounded and held at gunpoint, the boy gathers himself before using his supernatural powers once again to push the men away in a burst of power.









Task 1 - Textual Analysis

Create a table in your books with 3 columns - landscape - just like the one below. Leave a third of a page for each section. Watch the Titanium music video on your own and identify as many different denotations as you can, along with their connotations.

Link this to theories listed below when applicable.

We will then go through Titanium together and combine our notes.

Links to Theory:

Semiotics - meaning is created by signs through connotation, which may naturalise dominant values and ideologies

Genre - codes and conventions are established and evolve through repetition within media products and intertextual relay

Narratology - how story is communicated, often through a three-act structure and disruption of equilibrium, alongside action and enigma codes

Structuralism - identifying binary oppositions can suggest the ideology of a text




Task 3

Now we will continue to consider the media language of Titanium through a series of questions.
  • What type of music video is Titanium? Identify as many conventions as you can.
  • What is the song about?
  • What message is embedded within the lyrics?
  • What imagery is encoded in the video?
  • What themes are connoted through media language?
  • How are narrative conventions used to create meaning and audience engagement?
  • How are genre conventions used to create meaning and audience engagement?





INTERTEXTUALITY

Postmodernism, as a cultural movement, encouraged more stylised and innovative productions that are different to mainstream representations (which is why you are comparing Titanium (your alternative) to Heaven (your mainstream))

Q:// Why do producers encode intertextuality in their texts?

What intertextual references can you identify in 'Titanium'? Look out for ones that help to encode the theme of Science fiction, the supernatural and American popular culture.





Which statements do you feel are the most relevant?

Intertextual references help to engage the audience

Intertextual references help to make the product look more exciting and less like similar products of the same genre

Intertextual references can help to change the meanings in the media product

Intertextual references can help to create a greater number of meanings and message in a product

Intertextual references in media products require audiences to have lots of cultural knowledge so they can spot the references

Intertextual references can be fun to spot

Intertextual references can make a media product more likely to appeal to an audience who might not otherwise be interested in the product

Intertextual references can distract the audience from the real meaning in the media product

Intertextual references mean that media products that use them are no longer original

TASK


Answers

What is media language? 

When analysing media language, you must consider SEMIOTICS, GENRE, NARRATIVE, POSTMODERNISM.

How do producers encode meaning?

Through the construction of media language, specifically micro features such as:
Cinematography
Editing
Mise-en-Scene
Editing

How do producers encourage a preferred reading?

Through the process of mediation = construction, selection & omission



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Theory Drop: Semiotics

Image
  Theory Drop: Semiotics Semiotics is the science of signs that allowed the rapid increase of a number of perspectives and paved the way to other cultural phenomena that raised the study of signs through its denotative and connotative meanings.  When decoding a media text, it is important to remember that they are 'constructs', never 'real'.  Some media texts have the ability to appear entirely believable and realistic, but they are never the same as 'reality'.  This appearance of being believable is called  verisimilitude  and a realistic media text can be said to possess a ‘high degree of verisimilitude’. STARTER: The Treachery of Images is a 1929 painting by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. The painting shows an image of a pipe. Below it, he painted, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", French for "This is not a pipe". Magritte painted it when he was 30 years old. It is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art....
Read more

Intersectionality and Gender Performance

Image
    Intersectionality and Gender Performance RECAP What were Gauntlett's 4 concepts of identity? What did van Zoonen say about representations of women in the media? Intersectionality Previously we discussed broad representations of women in the media through time, but bell hooks developed feminism even further. bell hooks and Intersectional Feminism An Oppositional Gaze Questions What did hooks mean by intersectional feminism? What is the dominant hegemonic ideology that intersectional feminism wishes to disrupt and how does it seek to do this? What did hooks by an oppositional gaze? Can we apply this to some of the images from last lesson?   TASK - Intersectional Media Find a media text that you feel provides evidence of individuals fighting for equality and that disrupts patriarchal norms, thus fulfilling hooks' desires for  intersectional media .  Analyse your media text in relation to  media language  (how meaning is created through image, text, c...
Read more

Ideologies

Image
  Ideologies  Social and Cultural Contexts Recap Who believed  that audiences acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through  modelling (copycat behaviour)? Describe the process through which ideologies are communicated by media producers to their audience. Ideology Ideologies are systems of beliefs, values, and ideas that shape how individuals and groups understand, interpret, and interact with the world. Ideologies are usually seen as reinforcing the position of power in society. They often provide a framework for political, social, economic, or cultural thinking, guiding people's views on issues such as government, society, justice, and individual rights. Beliefs   = consciously held sets of ideas about the world Values   = whatever the individual person thinks and feels are important Attitudes   = individual's ideas and feelings about something, which will ultimately affect their behaviour Question :  Do we ...
Read more