Key concepts in Media

1) Symbolic:

-objects
-key signifiers/images
-lighting/colour
-positioning
-setting/locations
-facial expressions & body language
-clothing, hair & make-up

2) Written

-slogan
-type face
-headlines
-captions
-style
-choice of words
-emphasis of words

3) Technical

-camera angles
-framing (extra long shot, long shot, etc)
-cropping
-juxtaposition (two separate signs that together make contrasting meaning)

Semiotics is the study of signs:

-text- pictures, etc
-sign
-denotation
-connotation
-codes
-signified

Signifier = The physical for that which we can see or hear; the words; pictures; the sounds.
Signified= The meaning of the sign what we understand it to represent.

Signifier = denotation
Signified= connotation

All media texts have two layers of meaning:

1) Denotation level: what we actually see.
2) Connotation level: what you associate this way - signified.

There is also a 3rd order of meaning which is the ideology & myth.