Week 6 – Lectorial

Part of today’s Lectorial was about story and narrative. Story is important in constructing media texts, as it can frame our experience of the world. It is essential to how we communicate as human beings, helping us to make sense of our lives and the world around us. This point reminded me of an experiment by Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel called ‘An experimental study of Apparent Behaviour,’ conducted in 1944. Subjects were asked to view a short video which featured a bunch of geometrical shapes moving around at varying speeds, and were then asked to interpret what had happened. Most of the subjects assigned personalities to the shapes, creating a narrative out of simple moving geometric forms. I think this relates to Brian’s point that human beings have a convulsion to make narrative sense of our lives, and how our brains are hard wired towards narrative and story.

Story telling conventions can help us to structure our own stories. Generally, all stories have a protagonist, who drives the action in the narrative, and is central to the narrative’s turning points, as well as an antagonist, who causes change and in trouble for the protagonist. Other conventions, such as the three act structure, are almost ubiquitous, particularly in Hollywood cinema. However, narrative conventions are not limited only to the cinematic medium.

Joseph Campbell’s theory on the monomyth of the ‘Hero with a Thousand faces’ (1949) is also interesting. The TED Talk by Matthew Winkler embedded above is a helpful illustration of this idea. Campbell proposes that most protagonists, or heroes, in narratives throughout history follow the same pattern of events. This mono myth exists in all human cultures, and relates back to the first point that story is essential to us as human beings, as a way of reflecting on our own lives through symbolic stories.

The Art of the Interview – Masterchef Style

In the spirit of Louise’s lecture on ‘the art of the interview,’ I decided to focus this post on the function of this ‘art’ in one of my favourite guilty pleasures – you guessed it, Masterchef.

The interviews in this show, as with most reality TV shows, are interesting because they are recorded after the action has occurred. It’s always a bit strange to see a contestant talking how much they want to win a challenge, when you already know that they already know if they won or not. It’s a prime example of interviewers asking the right questions to get the response that they want. Moreover, they have already been assured to be ‘good talent’ because the casting directors for the show have made sure that the contestants work well in front of the camera, and the other contestants.

Masterchef is the only reality TV show I can watch because of the high production quality, which also extends to the settings of the interviews. They are recorded in a controlled studio environment, where the lighting and sound is manipulated carefully, and the backdrop relates to the show (usually cooking utensils or something else relevant).

Of course, this type of interview is different from, say, interviews for a documentary, but it is still an interesting example to look at.

Week 5 Lectorial + Readings

Textual analysis was the key topic from today’s Lectorial. In order to analyse texts, as the topic suggests, we first have to realise what a text is. Texts are vehicles for the production of cultural meaning, or the evidence of the way other people make sense of the world. As Alan McKee proposes, ‘to understand the world we live in, we have to understand how people are making sense of the world,’ and it is through textual analysis that we can attempt to do so.

Therefore, textual analysis is an attempt to guess the most likely interpretations that may be made of a text by its audience. There is no ‘correct’ interpretation, just as no text is an accurate or ‘real’ representation of reality. We can use certain methodology, such as semiotics, however, to attempt to make ascertain the most likely interpretation of a text. Semiotics is the study of signs in texts, which can be visual, linguistic, aural and more. There are two parts to a sign: the signifier, and the signified. For example, the colour green is a signifier, which can signify jealousy, or nausea, or nature.

Importantly, the context in which these signifiers are place alter its meaning. Context is always needed to accurately interpret a sign. As McKee demonstrated with his example of the colour ‘brown’ not existing in Welsh, signs can mean different things to different people or groups of people. The majority of a certain society may interpret green to be related to jealousy, a different culture may more strongly associate it with something else. Similarly, placed within a different context, like a garden, it can be seen as natural and relaxing.

According to McKee there are three levels of context that can affect textual analysis:

The rest of the text
The genre of the text
The wider public context in which a film is circulated.

These must be kept in mind when analysing a text, as they are important in interpreting the signs accurately within their context.

The Power of Sound

In the spirit of our lecture on sound, I attended a gig that same night by Lord Huron, a band from the USA. Naturally, this got me thinking about the points raised today. The physicality of sound stood out to me. Not only in terms of the vibrations emitted by the speakers – which I was standing to close to, rip my ears – but also in the feeling the sound invited. Also, I especially noticed the power the combination of different sounds had on the crowd and the atmosphere in the room.

I see sound, especially music, as a very powerful, emotional medium. Certain sounds can instantly evoke memories, feelings, and nostalgia. One of my favourite sounds is torrential raining pounding on a roof, especially at night. This sound brings me back to a week my family spent camping in Belgium when I was younger, during which it rained non-stop for the entire time. A sound that I hate is the noise of a vacuum cleaner. It makes me want to make like my cat and hide under the couch; it is too constant, loud and overpowering.

Whilst most sound elicits some sort of reaction from its audience, I adore music especially for its ability to create a strong emotional response.

Listening VS Hearing: The Modes of Listening

The process of hearing is the ability of perceiving sound through the ear. One can’t consciously turn off this process; we are constantly absorbing and filtering the landscape, sorting out which sound is important and which isn’t. Conversely, listening is an active process. It requires effort and attention. If you’ve ever tuned out in a boring lecture you’ll know what I’m talking about. I certainly frequently struggle to listen.

For example, at a party, if several conversations are occurring at the same time, I constantly switch between listen to them. One conversation might be more interesting at some point than the other. Sometimes, both conversations are worth listening to but its impossible to split your attention equally between both. This last point can tie back to the modes of attention discussed earlier in the course. Just like one can’t truly multitask, doing two or more things at the same time, one can’t truly listen to multiple sources.

So how do forms of media get you to listen rather than hear? Certainly, some radio stations don’t intend to get their audience to listen closely. A lot of radio stations think they can get away with playing the same Adele song 6 times an hour – I’m looking at you, Smooth FM. After all, this kind of radio is mostly intended to be heard as background noise to kill silence in a home, office, or car.

However, podcasts for example, are intended for listening. They are often discussions, or a narrative that requires high engagement, which is created through the rich texture of the soundscape. Producers of this kind of media, for example in the Podcast “Welcome to the Nightvale.” Created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, employ the three stage plan (figure, ground, and field) to create a rich and engaging narrative.

Like most things, these modes of listening have their own uses and pros and cons. It is important to be aware of them, especially as a media practitioner.

Week Four: Sound and Its Importance

This week’s reading, by Theo van Leeuwen and Jan Roberts-Breslin, focused on sound. My interest has always more been with visuals, so the readings raised some interesting points I had not previously considered.

Van Leeuwen’s theory relates to perspective, and how this hierarchizes elements of sound. According to the three stage plan, soundtracks can be hierarchized into figure [the focus of interest], ground [the setting or context], and field [the background.] The listening exercise in today’s lecture definitely highlighted how these three stages work together and can be manipulated to stimulate an audience.

Sound is definitely a powerful tool. Our sense of hearing is constantly working; we are unable to consciously turn it off. As Roberts-Breslin outlines, it is equally important as visuals, if not more important, in film and TV. Without sound, the narrative is difficult to make out, but without visuals and just sound, the audience is inspired to create visuals in their minds, and the narrative is still relayed.

Moreover, sound is also a physical medium. You can feel its vibrations – especially obvious when standing in front of a speaker at a concert (something my poor ears have experienced too many times.) It is also intimate. We speak more softly to those within our personal distance rather than those with whom we have formal and public relationships. The quality of voice or sound can reveal emotion to the listener.

Going forward, I hope that I can learn how to utilise sound effectively in my future media practices. As I expressed in my reflection for Project Brief Two, I was disappointed with the quality of sound I was able to record, and it let down the quality of my film.

Ruminating About ‘Making’

According to David Gauntlett, media studies should be about making.

Yet, only 3 weeks into this course, I still feel anxious about my ability to make, and to be creative – most of importantly of all, to share this with others. I stopped making Facebook statuses in year 9 when I realised that everything I’d post would humiliate future me a only a few weeks later. Welcome to the world of the always self conscious. This blog is really a trial by fire in all ways, except there’s no fire. (Insert fire emoji here.)

Ironically, however, I have less qualms about Snapchat or Instagram. Sharing photos of the morning sunlight shining on my maidenhair fern seems to be almost second nature. Perhaps it is the fact that I am always aware that these images are for a public audience, and therefore carefully curated, that makes it more comfortable, as it this an awareness that I, and surely many others, did not possess in year 7.

Anyway, here’s to my next challenge.

Image

Media Is EVERYWHERE

MEDIA IS EVERYWHERE

The question that was integral to today’s Lectorial was: what is media? Media has many different forms and roles within society. It can guide public opinion in the form of news stories, tell us stories about ourselves, help us communicate with each other. Perhaps most importantly, media saturates our every day lives.

We are constantly bombarded by messages from the media. To helpfully illustrate this point, we completed an audit of the media that was present in a short trip from Building 80 to the State Library to our chosen rendezvous point. Firstly, it became immediately evident how much media there was in our environment, to the point where it became an immense challenge to try and list all of it. Without further ado, here is our best attempt:

UP HIGH

Ads on buildings x 5

Large video ad on building

Banners advertising events x 4

ON THE GROUND

Large advertisement placed on a busy walkway

MID GROUND

Flyers and brochures handed out

People holding branded coffee cups

Signs advertising businesses

Advertisements on napkin holders

Brochures placed in an easily visible and accessible place

BACKGROUND

Advertising on trams

Posters

Branding for businesses/cafes/etc

IN YOUR HAND

Taking photos on phones + using social media more times than can be counted. Somewhat sadly, and yet hilariously, our quick break involved mainly taking photos on Snapchat.

ADS EVERYWHERE

Distractions abound

Ads on the ground…

Seriously, who would walk on this beautiful face?

But I digress.

Our experience of the world is shaped by the media and the messages the media is sending out to us in our day to day lives. It is almost impossible to avoid coming into contact with the media, save moving to an uninhabited island, which – I must admit – does sound rather tempting after today. This would suggest that the media is rather powerful, having the ability to shape our experience of the world constantly. Media is all around us, all the time; it is an intrinsic part of our environment.

RMIT Media & Communication

Jasmijn van Houten

Category Archives: Lectorials