We started our first few weeks back in school learning about media theories including Barthes Media theory, Todorov's Narrative theories and Neale's Genre theory.
What I learned from Barthes Media Theory:
ROLAND BARTHES was a French social and literary critic and was the leading structuralist thinker of the 20th Century.
Barthes theory on genre concluded that there are 5 important codes in a media text, this includes:
1) Enigma Codes
2) Action Codes
3) Symbolic codes
4) Semantic Codes
5) Cultural Codes
Enigma codes,
Enigma comes from the word mystery. This codes refer to the mysteries that had been put in a media text. The purpose of this codes is for the audience to keep questioning the meaning of the images and make the audience curious to watch the films or reads the book to figure out the mysteries. This codes are often use to make audience more interested and indulge themselves in the media text.
For example in the film poster of Donnie Darko, the audience might question what is the correlation between the bunny with the whole story plot? who are all these people reflected on the bunny? Is the bunny the villain or the protagonist? What does 2806.42.12 on the bunny's ear refers to? Who is Donnie Darko? Why is there a reflection of the American flag, is there a political elements in the film?. Basically all these elements in the media texts that sparks questions are consider as the enigma codes.
Action codes,
This codes consist of the narrative signifying that there are events that are going to happen following up of the action codes. this codes are important in keeping the development of the narrative alive and are often used in a media text to alert the audience with what is about to happen. Action codes can be in the form of facial expressions, action preparations or even quotes. For example when someone pull out a gun from a bag, audience will understand that there are going to be a shooting scene. If the text shows a women wearing a wedding gown with a veil on, it shows that there is a scene of wedding being held somewhere along the narrative.
Symbolic codes,
This code refers to the element in the media text that show a symbolism which can easily be seen and understood on the surface level. For example if u see a cross sign ✝️ you will automatically think of christianity, a heart shape ❤️ means love, the sun ☀️ means daytime etc. This codes are used to contrast ideas to the audiences. Another form of symbolic codes can also be simplified to a term called the 'mise-en-scene' which includes the setting, costume, props and color. Setting refers the location of the scene. Costumes are the clothing worn by the characters to portray their personality and status. Props refers to the items owned by or belong to the characters in the the film. The usage of the color is to emphasize the current mood in scene and often have a literal meaning.
Example, the Star Wars (1977) film poster, From the mise-en-scene, you can know that it is a sci-fi film because it was set in a fictional galaxy with quantum armor planets and spaceships surrounding it, the color of the film poster are very saturated red and blue and attention grabbing to the audience. The characters are wearing neutral tone modest clothing such as robes while other fictional creature are robots and wookiee warrior presented in their own form. They use lightsabers, blaster pistols, helmet as props. All these elements combine together to create a pictures of a corrupted galactic universe.
Semantic Codes,
this codes refer to the abstract components in the media text that often involves a deeper meaning behind it, similarly with the term Connotation. Semantic codes can be presented in many forms such as color, facial expression, pattern etc. For example the color blue may only be understood as a type of color, but for some people, they associate the color blue with the feeling of sadness and so it be "feeling blue". Semantic codes can only work for the people who understood such a reference or implication in the media text.
Cultural codes,
this codes are used as a reference which can only be understood by the people among the cultural group. This codes is used in order for the narrative to make a sense for the culturally or socially aware audience. It challenges the audiences’ wider cultural knowledge, morality & ideology. This codes can be found in what people wear, their language, their mannerisms, their cultural heritage and many other things.
For example, audience who are passionate about Opera shows will most likely understand that a picture that portrays a white eye mask and red rose is a reference to The Phantom of The Opera musical play.
or among people who watched films directed by Wes Anderson can most likely distinguish his movies because they are familiar with his cinematography style from the conventional parallel shot, choice of camera angle, choice of film color, his choices of music and even the presence of awkward vibe in each film narration.
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