What is a media code?

• Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning
• They are divided into two categories: Technical and Symbolic

TECHNICAL

-specific

-equipment

-camerawork

-editing

-lighting

-sound

SYMBOLIC

-vague

-multiple/hidden meanings

-represents something

-what the audience gets out of it (eg use of colour)

Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text.

Symbolic codes have a focus on the audience's point of view and what they take from the use of symbolism, for example a fade to black could signify a character dying- it's about what the audience interpret from it until it is shown to them. It is the signs contained in the narrative that we decode as being significant and having meaning. Mise-en-scene is a huge part of symbolic code.

Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre- it is not enough to discuss a technical code used (eg sound technique), without saying how it is conventionally used in a genre.

For example, the technical code of lighting is used in some way in all film genres.

MEDIA PRODUCERS ENCODE MEANINGS

MEDIA CONSUMERS DECODE MEANINGS