Media

Media Terms

The collected representations

illustrating a subject.

Iconography in a text echoes the genre codes of narrative, characterization, themes and setting - a familiar stock of images or motifs, the connotations of which have become fixed; primarily but not necessarily visual, including decor, costume and objects, certain 'typecast' performers (some whom may have become 'icons'), familiar patterns of dialogue, characteristics music and sounds, and appropriate physical topography. social realist filmmakers have often used the classic 'iconography' of narrow streets lined with tiny urban dwellings in establishing shots of northern industrial towns to portray economic hardship.

A Open Narrative structure is usually found in television series, in particular, ongoing soap operas such as EastEnders/Neighbours. In these narratives, the story has no apparent beginning, middle or end, in terms of the actual events. A Closed Narrative structure is most commonly found in movies. As mentioned before, movies generally exist as one unique story, and contain a beginning, middle and an ending. A story is unravelled before an audience, and then ultimately brought to a conclusion.

Feature films, especially mainstream products like Holllywood blockbusters, very often have ''closed'' narratives. Thats to say that although we can imagine strands of the story continuing, the main plot events - the sequence of cause and effect elements that have led us through a particular story focus - are brought up to a conclusion at the end of the film. By contrast, soap operas use ''open'' narratives some events may be concluded during the course of an episode but the programme will always end on a cliff hanger, leaving a key event ''open'' and unresolved enticing the audience to watch the next episode to find out what happens next

A single stand narrative is a story focused on a single character telling a story from more than one person's point of view. or two stories of two different people that intervene.

Narrative structures can be single strand, focusing on a single central character such as iron man, bruce almighty. Narratives structures can also be multi strand where several characters form the focus of the narrative, for example in x men, freinds or the wire. soap opera is a good example of a multi strand television drama. An ensemble cast portrays a variety of urban characters in something akin to a modern day populist comedie humaine. No single character is pre-eminent for an entire series. in consecutive episodes different characters or groups of characters may be the main point of focus. each episode contains multiple strands in which two or three families may receive an even distribution of programme focus

A television series that is intended to comprise a limited number of episodes is usually called a miniseries or serial. Series without a fixed length are usually divided into seasons or series, wheras a television serial is an ongoing show with no fixed amount of episodes

The term series in norh American usage, refers to a connected set of television program episodes that run under the same title, possibly spanning many seasons. British shows have tended toward shorter series in recent years. For example, the first series of long-running sscience fiction show Doctor Who in 1963 featured forty-two 25 minute episodes, which had been reduced gradually to fourteen 25 minute episodes in 1989. The rivival of Doctor Who has comprised thirteen 45 minute instalments. However, there are some series in the UK that have large number of episodes, for example Waterloo Road started with 8-12 episodes buyt from series three onward, it increased to 20 episodes, and season seven will contain 30 episodes. serials and series of television programs and radio programs that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode by the episode fashion.

Serial typically follow distinguises from traditional episodic television that relies on more stand-alone episodes. worldwide, the soap opera is the most prominent form of serial dramatic programming A soap opera, sometimes called a soap for short , is an ongoing episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format

Anchorage is a process of including specific text alongside an image to direct the viewer to a preferred reading

The french literary theorist and semioticion Roland Barthes introduced the concept of anchorage. Linguistic elements in a text (such as caption) can serve to anchorage (or constrain) the preffered readings of an image (conversely the illustrative use of an image can anchor an ambiguous verbal text).

Denotation is the literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. Conotation is An idea or feeling that a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning.

denotation tends to be describbed as the definitional, 'literal', 'obvious' or 'commonsense' meaning of a sign. in the case of linguistic sings. the denotive meaning is what the dictionary attempts to provide. so the linguistic sign ''ferrari'' on an f450 spider ''denote'' an italian road car produced by the car manufacturer ferrari. the term ''conotation'' is used to refer to the sucio-culteral and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) of the sign. These are typically related to the interpreters class, age, gender, ethnicity and so on. So the patriarchy, aesthetic over functionality ( for example a Niassan GTR R35 can outdrive a ferrari on a 0-60 speed test but a prospective buyer might stil opt for the ferrari owing to its socially perceived superior design aesthetic). signs are more 'polysemic' - more open to interpretation - in their conotation than their denotation

Linear and Non-Linear Narratives

Narrative Structures can be linear: events progressing in chronological order with one following another. Narratives can also be non-linear. A non-linear narrative is one that does not proceed in a straight-line, step by step fashion, such as where an author creates a story's ending before the middle is finished. Linear is the opposite, when narrative runs smoothly in a straight line, when it is not broken up. Soaps therefore have linear narratives. However, their narrative structure is engineered so as to build tension and keep the audience in suspence through the constant use of cross-cutting. Scenes develop to a point of heightened tension then the direction cuts to another scene, leaving us in suspence regarding what happened in the previous one and desiring to be returned to the former to find out what happens next.

Realism and Anti Realism

Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation. In general, realist create everyday characters, situations, dilemmas, and coronation street (ITV, 1960-) was the creation of Tony Warren, an actor-turned-writer who wanted to bring his vision of the north to the screen without compromise, and in doing so changed british soap forever. realism became the watchword for quality british soap, and this focus on authenticity became such a powerful yardstick that eventually coronation street would itself be condemned un-realistic; in the 1980s Brookside (Channel 4, 1982-2003) and Eastenders (BBC, 1985-) would take up the tradition of realism by explicitly addressing the breakdown of the kind of community that had featured unchanged in coronation street for the previous 20 years. As well as the purportated realism, all of these shows aspired to, and often genuinly attained, a quality that was missing from the more generic daily soaps: their writers were allowed a certain freedom; characters were more consistantly drawn; and (initially at least) storylines were low-key and believable. The terms anti realism and anti realist may be used to contrast to realism in whatever sense the latter meant, and thus surrealism in visual art is an anti realist tendency

Series and Serial

Iconography

Anchorage

Open and Closed Narratives

Single Strand and Multi Strand Narratives

Denotation and conotation