Lesson Media and Information

7 Languages
‘The medium is the message, ‘now a famous quote was written by Marshall McLuhan
in 1964. By which the medium may be affected how messages are received, the
users’/audiences’ own background/experience may have also affected the interpretation of
messages. An important first step in becoming media and information literate is to
understand how information, ideas, and meaning are communicated through and by various
media and other information providers, such as libraries, archives, museums, and the
Internet. Each medium has its own ‘language’ or ‘grammar’ that works to convey meaning in
a unique way. ‘Language,’ in this sense, means the technical and symbolic ingredients or
codes and conventions that media and information professionals may select and use in an
effort to communicate ideas, information, and knowledge.

What I Need to Know

Learning objectives
In this lesson, you will:
1. Discuss concepts of codes, codes, and other media languages
2. Produce and assesses the codes, convention, and messages of a group presentation
(MILI11/12MILA-IIIf-16).
3. Present an issue in varied ways to disseminate information using codes, convention,
and languages of media

Genre, Code, and Conventions

All media messages are constructed using a particular set of codes and conventions.
When we say media messages are constructed using codes and conventions, we mean that
every media product we encounter is a coherent body with its own rules. Take a look at the
previous exercise you had done. You are tasked to illustrate the description of the movie and
how this description is illustrated in the set of codes you may observe in the film.

In this lesson, we engaged with the thought that media messages are constructed.

We have established that the meaning is something that comes out as an interaction
between the message sent and its receiver, both of which are surrounded by a context that
bears on how the process of reading and receiving the encoded message is decoded.

Every medium has its own codes and conventions.

GENRE – It is a French word which means “kind” or “class.” The original Latin word is
“genus” and means a class of things that can be broken down into subcategories. It tends to
be understood to constitute particular conventions of contents and to follow a distinctive
style in terms of form and presentation.

The primary genres that media creators and producers invoke are the following:
entertainment, news, information, education, and advertising. These sample of the
subcategory of some of the given primary genre

1. News. These are stories that have critical importance to community and national life.
News stories are also told following the basic structure of beginning, middle, and end.
Journalists, people trained to report the news to an audience, are expected to be objective,
comprehensive, and bias-free. They work for newspapers, radio stations, televisions, and
lately, online or web-based news services.
Major Division for News stories: Hard or straight news; Feature, Soft News, Investigative
News, Opinion

2. Entertainment. It is derived from the French word “entretenir,” which means “to hold the
attention, keep busy, or amused.

This a comprehensive movie genres list:

(a) Action movies require stunts, set pieces, explosions, guns, and karate. They are
usually about a clear hero and a clear villain. Action movie stakes are huge, like saving
the world or the universe. They’re often bombastic and move quickly. Their pacing and
structure are built around scenes like car chases, and their climaxes often have the
biggest set-pieces.
(b) Adventure movies are usually built around a quest. They take place in faraway
lands or jungles. Many adventures may be period pieces, although more contemporary
adventure stories are coming back to the forefront. They can be swashbucklers or
treasure hunts.
(c) Comedy films usually are written with a few laughs at a scene. The stakes are
usually much smaller or interpersonal. Comedy films can vary in their darkness and the
way they deal with life and death. They tend to be shorter films, spoofs and can have
broader casts.
(d) Drama is regularly mashed up with other genres because most movies and TV rely
on character-driven stories to keep the audience involved. These are serious stories
that hinge on events that regularly happen in everyday life. They usually focus on
character and how these people arc over time.
(e) A horror film focuses on adrenaline rides for the audience that dial in the gore,
scares, and creative monsters. Horror is always re-inventing old classics, like adding
fast zombies, and CGI creatures. It also is seen as the most bankable genre with a
huge built-in audience. Ghouls, ghosts, slashers, creatures, and body disfiguring are
some of its settings
(f) Romance movies are about people coming together, falling apart, and all the
hurdles in between. Love is a universal language. They can be paired with comedy and
ram, but a straightforward romance focuses on two characters or an ensemble falling in
love.
(g) Thriller movies. What would you do when you were over your head? This is
usually linked with horror, action, and drama, but thrillers are about exciting situations
that have constant danger. They’re about stressed characters, corrupt investigators,
and criminals living on the edge.
(h) War/Conflict movies are about POWs, men in foxholes, tanks, and planes.
They’re about people finding commonalities, differences, and sacrificing their lives.

CODES – These are a system of signs that, when put together, create meaning.

Type of Codes

1. Technical Codes
The way in which equipment is used to tell the story (camera techniques, framing,
depth of fields, lighting and etc.)
 Close- up
A full screenshot of a subject face

A two-shot is a type of shot in which the

frame encompasses two people. The
subjects do not have to be next to each
Two Shot
other, and there are many common two
shots that have one subject in the
foreground and the other subject in the
background.

It is the interruption of a continuous shot by

inserting a shot of something else. Usually,
you then cut back to the first shot. These
Cut Away
can be done within the same scene, cuts to
other scenes, or even as one continuous
shot as the camera pans across to
something else.

Over the shoulder, the shot is a camera

angle used in film and television, where
Over the the camera is placed above the back of
Shoulder the shoulder and head of a subject. This
shot is most commonly used to present
conversational back and forth between two
subjects.

Also known as POV shot, is an angle that

shows what a character is looking at.
Point of View Typically POV shots are placed in
between a shot of a character looking at
something and a shot showing the
character’s reaction.

Using a shallow depth of field, the subject

can be rendered in sharp focus with the
rest of the image blurring into the image
Selective Focus foreground and background. This
technique isolates the subject within the
image, drawing the eye of the viewer to
the exact point which the photographer
wishes to be observed.

It refers to when the level of your camera

is placed at the same height as the eyes of
Eye-Level the characters in your frame. It also
simulates standard human vision and thus
present visual information through a
familiar viewpoint.
 The setting is the time and place of the
narrative. When discussing the setting,
you can describe the setting of the whole
Setting story or just a specific scene. A setting
can be as big as the outback or space,
or as small as a specific room. Setting
can even be a created atmosphere or
frame of mind.

It is a French term that means ‘everything

within the frame.’ In media terms, it has
become to mean the description of all the
objects within a frame of the media
Mise en product and how they have been
scene arranged. An analysis of the mise en
scene includes:
 Set Design
 Costume
 Props
 Staging and Composition

2. Symbolic Codes
It shows what is beneath the surface of what we see (objects, setting, body
language, clothing, color, etc.)

It is a cinematic technique where the

camera looks down on the subject from a
high angle, and the point of focus often
High Angle
gets “swallowed up.” High-angle shots can
make the subject seem vulnerable or
powerless when applied with the correct
mood, setting, and effects.

It is a shot from a camera angle positioned

Low Angle
anywhere below the eye line, pointing
upward.

A shot in which the camera shoots a scene

from directly overhead. It usually has an
Bird’s Eye View
extreme long shot to establish a setting.
We use this angle to look down at the
scene from a higher point.

is a shot that is looking up from the

Worm’s Eye ground and is meant to give the viewer
View the feeling that they are looking up at the
character from way below, and it is meant
to show the view that a child or a pet
would have.
 Actors portray characters in media
products and contribute to character
development, creating tension, or
advancing the narrative. The actor
Acting portrays a character through:
 Facial expression
 Body Language
 Vocal qualities
 Movement
 Body contact
Colour has highly cultural and strong
connotations. When studying the use of
color in a media product, the different
Colour
aspects of being looking at are:
 Dominant color
 Contrasting foils
 Colour symbolism

3. Written Codes
These are the formal written language used in a media product. It can be used to
advance a narrative, communicate information about a character or issues and themes. It
includes printed language, which is the text you can see within the frame and how it is
presented, and also spoken language, which includes dialogue and song lyrics.

CONVENTIONS – These are the accepted ways of using media codes. These are closely
connected to the audience’s expectations of a media product.

Types of Conventions
1. Form conventions. These are certain ways we expect types of media’s codes to be
arranged. For instance, an audience expects to have a title of the film at the beginning and
then credits at the end. Newspapers will have a masthead, the most important news on the
front page and sports news on the back page. Video games usually start with a tutorial to
explain the mechanics of how the game works.
2. Story Conventions. These are common narrative structures and understandings that are
common in storytelling media products.
Examples of story conventions include:
 Narrative structures
 Cause and effect
 Character construction
 Point of View
3. Genre Conventions. It points to the common use of tropes, characters, settings, or
themes in a particular type of medium. Genre conventions are closely linked with audience
expectations. Genre conventions can be formal or thematic.

Today the capacities of the human mind aided by technology enable the process of construction
of media and information messages. The media employ more than words to construct a more
complex society. Film and broadcast communication use the language of the camera, the tools,
and techniques of editing and the power of words – as dialogue and narration – to capture the
world of a story, deliberately making choices on what not to include, what to highlight, and what
should serve as a backdrop. It is very important to keep in mind: every media, every media form
or, media text whether it is a printed advertisement prominently lining on the streets we pass
through to the television we watch every day.
 What I Have Learned
Generalization

Complete the sentence stem below. Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

1. Genres are defined as

2. Codes are illustrated as the

3. There are three types of codes which are:

4. Conventions, on the other side, is defined as

5. Of which, classified into three types: