A Media text can be defined as any sort of media upon which we can perform an analysis. These texts include articles, films, advertisements, plays etc. Media texts can also be interpreted as any form of media that conveys meaning and ideas.
Why are they important?
Media texts are extremely important because they can be considered as ‘artefacts’. These artefacts become pivotal in analysing the social context from where the artefact comes from. These texts reflect the social and cultural views of the society at the time; they become a timeless, cultural representation of a particular social and historical context.
Media texts are easily analysed because they are littered with powerful images, sounds and words (Thoman 2015). This abundance of powerful elements allows for poignant concepts and ideas to be communicated from the media text, to the audience. However, these elements can vary from being something as small as singular words spoken throughout a commercial, to being entire soundtracks of a film. Regardless of the length or ‘size’ of text, after analysis, the foils are unwrapped and the raw meaning of the text is unveiled.
How are they analysed?
Media texts are analysed through the audience’s ability to observe and notice both consciously and subconsciously (Zhang 2012). Our ability to identify and recognize patterns, as media consumers, is what allows us to draw meaning from these texts. We are able to identify motifs that occur throughout films, and themes that are present within articles and texts. For example, we assimilate the ‘We’re Off to See the Wizard’ song that occurs throughout The Wizard of Oz with key points of the film (whenever Dorothy meets a new companion). These motifs, themes, ideas and concepts that occur within media texts all fall under the category of symbols; and our analysis takes the form of semiotics.
What is Semiotics?
Semiotics can be described as the study of signs or symbols; it is essentially the study of all things that can stand for something else (Berger 2013). Semiotics is not limited to the analyses of texts – we, as people, are constantly sending out and receiving messages through things such as gestures and words (Berger 2013). Semiotics is not a ‘natural’ thing – we do not, by instinct, recognise symbols or signs – it is learnt. This learnt behaviour is due to semiotics’ relationship with society and it’s culture. The different institutions within society are what teach us how to decipher these signs and form connections between the sign itself and what the sign represents (Culler 1916).
Semiotics becomes pivotal when conducting semiotic analysis. Semiotic analysis regards media texts as not solely one thing, but rather as a plethora of signs or paradigms, concepts and meanings (Briggs & Cobley 2002). This multifaceted concept of a text proves to be extremely important when conducting a textual analysis as we observe each independent sign and the relationship between the signs. This allows us to beg a question: ‘How does this generate meaning?’. This cluster of signs and paradigms also allows the text to have an array of meanings – generating different meanings for different readers and in different social contexts (Briggs & Cobley 2002).