Media Studies Content and Audiences

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA SEMIOTICS 4

2.1 4

2.2 4

3. QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY IN MEDIA RESEARCH 7

3.1 7

3.2 8

3.3 8

3.4 8

4. TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: NARRATIVE AND ARGUMENT 9

4.1 9

4.2 11

5. MEDIA AND VISUAL LITERACY 13

5.1 13

5.2 13

5.2.1 13

5.2.2 14

5.3 15

5.4 16

5.4.1 16

5.4.2 16

6. CONCLUSION 16

SOURCES CONSULTED 17

ADDENDUM A: SELF-ASSESMENT AND SELF-REFLECTION 20

1. INTRODUCTION

In this essay, the key areas that will be discussed are specific to the communication and media construct. The typology codes of the seven communication codes will be discussed. These codes are encored on the observation that was made on DSTV content with the aim of extracting meaning in relation to the communication subject matter. This is followed by discussing a questionnaire survey in media research, in the context of the Metro FM challenges of listenership. The work of Vladimir Propp and his contributions to the field of textual analysis and narrative study is investigated, through a literature support of the subject matter of folklore. In this process the applications of his seven character functions and the six sequential stages and his process of product analysis will be interrogated. The essay will discuss the use communication messages and their contribution to media literacy.

2. COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA SEMIOTICS

2.1

Semiotics is the study of signs. A code is a system of signs, a “framework within which signs make sense” (Chandler 2002, 245). Media literacy is largely about reading and understanding the signs that the media produce and manipulate. The media are engaged in signifying practices, “a kind of symbolic work” that gives meaning to things and communicates that meaning to someone else (Hall 1997, 14).

Mass media understands that everything can be seen as sign of something else, they carefully select what they put in their messages, objects, images, words, sounds while taking in to...