Context and Anchorage with evidence.

The correct way to interpret a colour, for example red, is often based in the context it is shown in. Red's connotation of danger is used in many different warning signs and so the circle with the diagonal bar is the context of our interpretation. Anchorage would be the way all the elements are put together in a sign to show meaning and interpretation. For example, where red is shown as danger, if it is used in a heart shape we immediately interpret this as a sign of romance and love rather than a warning. Often, we may realise that the photographs have captions or appear close to headings and headlines, this is because it is used to attempt to ensure that the audience interpret the picture like the newspaper or magazine intended the image to be interpreted.

Below is some evidence I have found that I can use to help back up the points of context and anchorage. The pieces of evidence I have used are from different newspaper articles with their proper headline and one that I have made up that show different meanings.

The headline for this story reads:
'Dozens of protesters arrested just yards from Downing Street after violence breaks out on strike march'
This headline makes us think of the mayhem of what is really going on at Downing Street and the seriousness of what has actually happened. For example, if it was a comedic headline the story would be shown in a different context and therefore not very many people would take the storyline seriously.
If the headline of the story read this:
'Daylight vampire protests ill thought out'
This headline would be seen as comedy rather than being serious because we know that vampires don't exist and the headline would be taking the mick out of the person who is dressed up as what seems to be as a vampire. Instead of taking the storyline seriously, we would take it as a joke because the headline is put out of context. Therefore, the way that the anchor has been used to portray a different meaning can lead us into interpreting the image differently.

reference: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009645/Public-sector-strike-Riot-police-braced-violence-UK.html

The headline for this story reads:
'Sweets are 'good for children and may stop them from getting fat in later life'
This headline makes us think that it could be good to eat sugar and sweets and therefore it makes children happy because the headline is saying that sweets may stop children from getting fat in later life. Therefore, the image is portraying something happy and the context in which it's written in is positive and doesn't include chaos and mayhem like the previous example I have put on here.
If the headline of this story read this:
'Youngest pill popper ever takes bet'
This headline makes us think that is could be dangerous because of the way they have anchored this headline to the image shown above. It makes the reader think that having sweets at a young age is bad for you because  of the consequences that could happen. 'Pill popper' makes us think that they could possibly be addictive and therefore bad for childrens' health.

reference: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009972/Sweets-good-children-stop-getting-fat-later-life.html

Connotations with evidence.

Connotations are the associations made with interpreting the sign. This is what the connotative level would best be described as. For example, if I'm looking at pictures of famous people's faces, their facial expressions and their appearance can tell viewers a lot about the character that they are portraying. This is why casting is so important and that is people who cast actors for a specific role need to get it right otherwise what the viewer associates them with isn't very good then the film/programme wont make much success because the general public wont like what they have been associated with. However, if they are associated with something good and therefore the film/programme that producers are making will have great success.

Below are some examples I have done that help give evidence for connotations. I have picked 5 famous people's faces because even if it isn't their whole body there is still quite a lot you can write about them. The way they look, what they are wearing and their face expression. All these things can be associated with either good or bad things.

1. (top) Old age could be associated with retirement and it could help explain the scruffiness.
2. (top right) Scruffy hair can be associated with people who are untidy and don't care about their appearance.
3. (middle right) Bags underneath the eyes indicate tiredness and can be associated with age.
4. (bottom right) Staring directly into the camera is associated with intimidate and interrogation. It could show that there is something hidden about this character and he doesn't want to show it.
5. (bottom) Lips are small and expressionless. Could be associated with old age and could help provide evidence for the glum expression.
6. (bottom left) Dark and glum expression can be associate with depression and the fact that these may be something hidden about him.
7. (middle left) Scruffy beard could be associated with poor appearance and untidiness.

1. (top - top right) No bags underneath the eyes show that he might not be tired and this can be associated with energy.
2. (top - top left) Receding hairline could also be associated with old age and therefore can contribute to it.
3. (top right) Blonde hair is normally associated with being light and therefore could show he is more open than we thought.
4. (middle right) Glum expression could be associated with a dark side and depression. Maybe there is something more to this character than we assumed.
5. (bottom right) Black coat over the top of white can be associated with colour contrast especially against the blonde-ish hair.
6. (bottom) Small lips are associated with age and therefore, as well as other contributing factors, shows age in an old way. Also, it can be associated with stress.
7. (bottom left) Eyebrows over the eyes could be associated with old age and can also provide evidence for the glum expression.
8. (top left) Tidy hair can be associated with with care of appearance therefore making him smart.

1. (top - top left) Having a dark shirt on could be associated with being bad rather than innocent.
2. (top - top right) Skin head can be associated with being rebellious and therefore he might not be a very good person.
3. (top right) Barely any wrinkles, can be associated with young age.
4. (middle right) Bags underneath the eyes are associated with tiredness and therefore it could show he works too hard or he is stressed.
5. (bottom right) Gold chain can be associated with being rebellious and therefore, as well as the bald head, he could be a bad person.
6. (bottom) Biting his lip can be associated with trying to be seductive and therefore dangerous.
7. (bottom left) Black shirt on could make us think he is a dark person as we associate black with being dark.
8. (top left) Looking directly into the camera and using the 'seductive-biting-lip' thing could be associated with temptation which then leads onto the association with seduction.

1. (top) Very light skin tone could be associated with being wealthy and innocent.
2. (top right) Skin head could be associated with being rebellious.
3. (middle right) Dark eyebrows which covers his eyes could be associated with being dark as well as having male facial features.
4. (bottom right) Slightly open mouth could be associated with trying to look innocent or lack of intelligence.
5. (bottom left) Dark shirt on top of a white shirt could be associated with being a dark person and trying to use a different colour to contrast to show more about this character.
6. (middle left) Half shaven face could be associated with untidiness and poor lack of appearance.
7. (top left) Light coloured eyes means he might not be from a mediterranean country.

1. (top - top right) Light skin tone could be associated with wealth and innocence.
2. (top right) Dyed hair could be associated with old age as she has to dye her hair to cover up grey hair.
3. (middle right) Quite plumpy lips could also be associated with young age.
4. (bottom right) Barely any make-up on shows she isn't trying to hide who she is and can be associated with innocence.
5. (bottom left) Quite a strong jaw line and bone structure can be associated with male facial features.
6. (middle left) Light coloured eyes can be associated with people who don't live in mediterranean countries.
7. (top left) No wrinkles can be associated with young age and therefore not tired or 'frayed' out.
8. (top - top left) Not very scruffy hair could be associated with tidiness and care of appearance.

Denotations with evidence.

An important part in semiology is that the signs hold different levels of meaning - the denotative level and the connotative level. In this post, I will talk about the denotative level and what denotations means as a whole. 

Denotation like I said in one of the previous posts is about the literal meaning or description of a word or object. For example, if there is a picture of a old fashioned room with people dressed of a different time period, you are to say what you see. So you could end up writing that there is an old fashioned TV. That would be a denotation and these can be very important as they are the first thing that a viewer would see on a TV programme or film and therefore they need to send the right messages.

An example to help explain what I have mentioned above is shown below.

This is the picture of what I was trying to describe in my example. It shows a family in the 60's (probably!) watching TV together. The notes around the edge show the denotations that I have written. The denotations around the edge just describe what's in the picture. There are closer pictures taken and shown below of what I have written down in the picture.

This shows the top right hand corner of the image. Here I have said that it's a small room, it's in black and white and that there it an old fashioned radio on the shelves.

This shows the top right hand corner of the image. You can clearly see what it says but some of them wont make much sense unless you can actually see the object in the image. I have written down 'concentration faces' down as a denotation as the people in the image will have this face expression because they are watching the TV.

This is the bottom right hand corner of the image. I have written much in this part just because I can't find anything to write without being really obvious and without repeating myself again. These denotations can be used to write connotations which is what I will do in the second post but use different pictures.

This is the bottom left hand corner of the image. I have written picture of family with a question mark next to it because it could be a family but it could also be children being cared for by two adults because their parents have had them adopted or they could have been put into care for other reasons.

Another example could be taken from the Brokeback Mountain film poster which is illustrated below.

The denotations of this film poster would include the following:

1. The background is that of a blue sky and white clouds.

2. A mountain range and the forest on the horizon across the centre of the image.

3. Reflections of the mountains and the forest in a lake or river.

4. 2 young men in denim jackets and cowboy hats looking down to the ground and facing away from each other.

Signs and Signifiers with evidence.

Signs and Signifiers is an important part of semiology and can explain the meaning of certain things through images, gestures and sounds. Therefore, these key terms are vital in explaining semiology.

There are many different ways in which signs can be used and how different institutions use signs. For example, in paper-based media both text and images are signs and in moving image media, text all aspects of mise-en-scene, camera work, editing and sound can be seen as signs. Signs, like I said in my previous post, are everything that are seen or heard on the screen or seen on a page. It doesn't have to be the way we see it written down but also the by all the other ways mentioned above - essentially all the ways of which information can be communicated within a media text. An example of this could be the femme fatale's cigarette as this is a sign that she is seductive and dangerous. A picture of this example can be seen below.

This is shown below. The signifier in this image would be the cigarette, like I said previously, and this makes the viewer see the character as someone who is dangerous and rebellious as women in this time period would not have been stereotypically seen as people who smoke because it was seen as something bad and not the norm for females in this time period to have done.

This sign shows that you should stop to give way at a crossing when you are driving. It's in red because the red colour shows that danger and the stop sign in white on a red colour background makes the white writing stand out and therefore it is easier to see and grabs the drivers attention.

Signifiers and signs come in lots of different ways and can be represented in good and bad ways and in safe and dangerous ways. For example, if we see something as being red it can be shown to represent danger or it can be shown to represent romance and love. In film noirs, this colour would normally be shown on the femme fatale because they are dangerous characters but also seductive and need to show the romantic side because that is how they get their way out of certain situations. However, if we see a gun as a signifier it can be shown to represent danger and death as this is a weapon that when used can injure someone badly and therefore is not seen as a good thing unless the person who is using the gun is a good character in which case the representation of the gun (signifier) being good and potentially life saving.

Today's Lesson - 28/06/2011

Today, we learnt about Semiology which is also known as the theories of semiotics. Semiology is an approach that can be used to understand how media texts make meaning for their audiences. This approach can be applied to all sorts of different media texts from newspapers and magazines to documentaries and soap operas. This approach provides a way of thinking about media texts which can help you consider how media texts show meaning.

Key terms that are used in Semiology are the following: Signs and Signifiers, Denotations, Connotations and Context and Anchorage. In the posts that I will make after this one, I will talk about all of the following key terms in much more detail and show my understanding of them with some examples of evidence in the media where it has been shown. In this post, I will make a brief summary of what these key terms mean.

Signs are everything that seen or heard on screen or that can be seen on a page. Signs aren't limited to words - but also include images, gestures and sounds. Signifiers is something very similar to signs but it means the sign which conveys something. For example, the cigarette that a femme fatale may use would be the signifier of the femme fatale because the character is supposed to be dangerous and seductive and having a cigarette shows this because the women of that specific time period were seen as non-smokers and if they did smoke they were seen as rebellious people.

Denotation means the literal meaning or description of a word or object. For example, if a sign with naked flame is shown with a red circle and a diagonal line running through it. We then say what it is. That is what denotation means.

Connotation means the associations that are made when interpreting the sign. For example, if the colour of the sign is red we can associate this with danger.

Context is the way we see a colour that we can associate with danger. The context of the colour would be the way we interpret it. Anchorage is a term used to describe how the combination of elements work together to fix meaning and interpretation. Print based media will use anchorage to help readers to interpret they use to illustrate their stories and articles.

These are the small summaries of what they mean. I will make some more posts explaining in detail what they mean and give some examples of these key terms.

Harry Potter and Audience Theory.

Okay, so the next bit I'm going to talk about is how 'Empire' magazine use audience theory to promote the newest Harry Potter movie which is coming to the cinema on July 15th!

Audience theory can be best explained by saying it is an idea of how audience will consume media. In this case, the audience of Harry Potter can consume the media in many different ways. They could read the 'Empire' magazine, read the books, look at the official website and of course, watch the movies.

'Empire' magazine has multiple pages in it that just go on about the latest Harry Potter movie. Not only have the producers of Harry Potter, Warner Brothers, caught the attention of the already Harry Potter fans which watch the movies 24/7 and read the books religiously, but also the attention of those who read the 'Empire' magazine. This has been done deliberately so that there can be a wider market and therefore more money can be made for the movie producers. Pictures to show this are being displayed below.

This page above shows the double page spread with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) on the front. They are showing this image because it shows in a very obvious way that it is about Harry Potter because we can clearly see Daniel Radcliffe is in the image.

This double page spread shows the readers the location and the interviews of the different cast and crew members. It also has images of the enemy and the hero of the books/movies. These images would probably have been put up there because members of the public who like to watch Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldermort) in films which he has been in, will probably end up watching the Harry Potter films because Ralph Fiennes is in the films. This is another way audience theory could have been used to increase the target market.

This is, again, another page on the interviews with cast and crew members. This helps promote the upcoming movie in the Harry Potter series.

This shows the last bit of the interviews with cast and crew members as well as an advert for the Harry Potter movies from 1-7. This would have been inserted just after the interviews because as the target market consume this type of media they might want to buy the films and therefore the advert for the boxset of films has been placed specifically to help make more money.

All the pictures above show the interviews with the cast and crew on making the final instalment of the Harry Potter series. The type of audience theory shown here is the Two-Step flow. The Hypodermic Syringe effect has also been used but not as strongly as the Two-Step flow. The Two-Step flow can be explained by people using a certain piece of media for their own personal gain and then passing the positive comments about the type of media they have just watched to other people. Personally, I think that this is what the magazine is trying to do. The magazine is trying to do this because it will increase the amount of people going to watch the series by a considerable amount and decreases the amount of money spent on the movie by not having to pay distributors much money to distribute the movie effectively.

However, Warner Brothers will have to pay 'Empire' to produce the advert in their magazine. This is because they need to pay the magazine to have them put an advert for showing that the boxset is available to purchase.

To summarise, I have attempted to talk about how the movie stills in the magazine and the magazine itself have tried to increase the target audience.

Empire magazine + Harry Potter + Intertextuality = good research for presentation.

So, the 'Empire' magazine had a Harry Potter special and I had to get it not because of the fact I wanted to read it but also because there is a good amount of research in there. This method of media genre is using intertextuality because of the fact that it is talking about the Harry Potter phenomenon which is shown on the big screen but in the magazine which is talking about the newest Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2.

The picture shown above shows the packaging to the 'Empire' magazine and what the magazine provides. As it says above the most recognised famous faces in the world, it shows that this edition is a special Harry Potter edition. This shows intertextuality because Harry Potter producers are showing off the product in a magazine made for movies. They are cross referencing two different media genres in an effective way that gets the target markets attention to watching the movie. Media genres used here would be the magazine and the movie which they are talking about which is to be released in approximately a month.

Preparation for the first presentation.

So, the artefact I have chosen to research about is the world wide phenomenon that is Harry Potter. I have chosen to do Harry Potter simply because there is so much to talk about and there are so many different related media products in different media genres in which I could talk about.

Anyway, the preparation for the presentation that I have to present to the class will be taken from the internet and magazines which end up talking about the Harry Potter series. Recently, I bought the 'Empire' magazine which is jam packed full of Harry Potter interviews and cool stuff like that. This is where I will be getting any intertextual references or ideas about how other films/programmes use Harry Potter in their own programmes/films.

Audience theory should come into this quite easily as the fan base and target audience for Harry Potter is massive. This could be due to a number of things which I will research about and end up putting on my blog for all of you to see. The 'Empire' magazine and other magazines which I shall trek out to find about Harry Potter will target the audience in a specific way. The same goes to the websites as well, because different websites will market the information about it in different ways. Research to do with this will follow shortly.

Leading on, the two-step flow concept is all about how one person who has either read the books or seen the movies will end up telling friends or family about the media they have just seen/read. This will be put up in a more detailed way in another post where I will explain to everyone what the two-step flow concept is about in detail and how Harry Potter has used this in a very successful way.

In the last final post about the first presentation, I will talk about how exhibition and distribution has been used in a positive and effective way for the film company who produced, distributed and exhibited the film. The film company is called Warner Brothers and I will put a separate post about Warner Brothers on my blog as well so that I have more research about the way they do all those things successfully.

So, to summarise, I am going to write a separate post about intertextuality, borrowed interest, audience theory, the two-step flow concept and the exhibition and distribution processes used and talk about how Harry Potter has used them in the 3 or more related products in different media genres which I have chosen to talk about.