HA10 Task 1 - Glossary

Media Text

Media text means any media product. It not only relates to newspapers or other written work, but also to films, music and games. The possible explanation of this that before you make film/game you have to write it's scenario etc.

"Anyone who receives a media text, whether it is a book read alone or a film viewed in a theatre, is a member of an audience. Texts are frequently designed to produce audiences, which are then sold to advertisers." http://www.medienabc.org/page5/page40/page40.html

All the media texts have their meaning and no meaning is purely neutral or indifferent. The meaning however, is determined by the individuals and their personal taste, which is determined by their age, gender, ethnicity. area they live in, etc.

Semiotics


"Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and how meaning is communicated." http://www.signsalad.com/semiotics-explained/

Semiotics are symbols conveying meaning. They can be an icon, word, gesture, even clothing and audiences decode these codes, information sent and processed through brain associating them with the thing they represent. In games for example, red bar represents the player's or monsters' health.

Sometimes the exact same symbol means different things and that - the thing we associate it in a given moment - depends on the situation or even a way the symbol is presented to and received by the audience.

"When we play a game, we subconsciously (or consciously) recognize all of these things.  We call good games "intuitive" and bad games "confusing" but really this is a matter of the designer's fluency in the language of games, and also the designer's ability to create novel language for new features that is immediately understood by players." http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DaveWilliams/20131030/202147/Designing_the_Design_the_Semiotics_of_Choice.php

Genre

Genres are in other words categories or classifications for media, such as games or music, consisting of the similar content/features. "A text is classified in a genre through the identification of key elements which occur in that text and in others of the same genre." http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=genre

These features follow the specific patterns, that characterise each genre. This way of division helps audience when it comes to choose a product, since they know which genres appeal the most to them.

"Audiences:
  • select texts on basis of genre
  • have systems of expectations about the content and style of a text, according to its genre.
  • identify with repeated elements in generic texts and may shape their own identity in response (eg. the dresscode)
Producers:

Selection and Construction of Content

 Selection of content includes everything what media texts contain. "We can think of selected content as elements such as:

Construction of content is a way of how selected content is combined. "Construction is concerned with elements such as:

Both selection and construction are important when choosing the right content to any media text, as it determines what kind of audience will it attract. Companies in order to meet tha audience's expectations will select the content based on the genre and set genre codes. For example a game for children will have bright and colourful content with simple narrative, whereas game for intellectuals will contain more developed storyline.

Codes and Conventions

Codes are the technical or symbolic terms, more specifically; the aspects that are used within every media. They either show the use of equipment/methods of creation of the certain media, or "what is beneath the surface of what we see". http://media-studies.tki.org.nz/Teaching-media-studies/Media-concepts/Codes-and-conventions

Conventions however, are the ways on how codes are used, and the usual way of them being used. In different genres and types of media, the different conventions are applied. For example in the first person shooter the conventions are the 1st - person perspective and the graphical interface showing used weapon.

"Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre – it is not enough to discuss a technical code used such as camera work, without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre." http://media-studies.tki.org.nz/Teaching-media-studies/Media-concepts/Codes-and-conventions

Modes of Address

They determine how a media product presents itself to the audience and in what way the audience is involved while consuming the information (whether is playing a game or watching a movie, etc.).

"It simply means how the text speaks to the audience, and involves them. It also involves how atext influences an audience to respond to a text in a certain way, and that depends on: 
Modes of address can be divided into two groups: Formal/Informal and Direct/Indirect. The first one sets the formaity of the text, and that is based on the target audience as well as the genre of the product. The second group sets the way in which the audience receives the text, either the text is involving them directly using personal pronoun or treats whatever character as the third person.
https://prezi.com/wi_rcabwob60/modes-of-address-video-games/