Key terms:

Sign/ Signifier:
Anything that communicates a meaning (a sound, image, object, camera shot, prop.)

Signified:
The meaning which is created by the signifier: meaning which is divided into two.
Denotation & Connotation.

Denotation:
The obvious, literal meaning of an object e.g. flower.

Connotation:
What you can interpret from the object.
E.g. from a flower/rose the connotation would be love and passion.

Encoder and Decoder:
Encoding/ encoder:
The person producing the product, created by the media producers.

Decoder:
The media messages consumed by the audience.

Preferred meaning:
The message intended by the encoder.

Anchorage:
The process of reinforcing the preferred meaning.
A way of “tying down” the meaning of the text.
Usually done by captions, voice over or images that accompany a text and anchor it’s meaning.

Diegetic sound:
Sounds that are in the frame, happening in the narrative, able to be heard by the characters, source of the sound is on the screen.

Non- diegetic sound:
The audience don’t know where the sound is coming from as it is not in the frame.
Outside of the frame.

Mise-en scene:
Can describe anything that can be seen in a single frame e.g. props, costume, performance.