Media codes and conventions
Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic. Some codes fit both categories – music for example, is both technical and symbolic.
Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific.
Technical codes
Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for example the camera work in a film.
Symbolic codes
Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's actions show you how the character is feeling.
Denotation
Denotation refers to the literal meaning of a sign, the 'dictionary definition'.
Connotation
Connotation represents the various social overtones, cultural implications, or emotional meanings associated with a sign.
Mise-en-Scène
Borrowed from a French theatrical expression, meaning roughly “put into the scene”. In other words, mise-en-scène describes the stuff in the frame and the way it is shown and arranged.
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