CODES AND CONVENTIONS IN MEDIA PRODUCT

CONSTRUCTEDNESS:
When do we say something is constructed?

• The media employ more than words to construct a more complex reality of society.

• Film and broadcast communication use the language of the camera, tools and techniques of
editing, and power of words as dialogue and narration to capture to world of a story.

DISASSEMBLING CONSTRUCTEDNESS: CODES & CONVENTIONS

 Codes -These are systems of signs that when put together will create a message.
 Conventions - In the media context, refers to a standard or norm that acts as a rule governing
behaviour.
MEDIA CODES AND CONVENTIONS

1. Symbolic Codes - color, objects, animals, etc.

2. Written Codes - “You”, Buzzwords, Catch Phrase

3. Technical Codes - camera angles, lighting, framing and sound effects

GRAMMAR OF CAMERA

 Extreme Long Shot - A large crowd scene or a view of scenery as far as the horizon.

 Long Shot - A view of a situation or setting from a distance.

 Medium Long Shot - Shows a group of people in interaction with each other. Examples: Fight scene
with part of their surroundings in the picture.

 Full Shot - A view of figure’s entire body in order to show action and/ or constellation group of
characters.

 Medium Shot, Mid Shot, and Medium Close Shot - Shows a subject down to his or her chest or
waist.

 Close – Up - A full screen shot of a subject’s face, showing the finest nuances of expression.
  Extreme Close-Up Shot - A shot of a hand, eye, mouth, or object in detail.

Extreme Long Shot Long Shot

Medium Long Shot

Close - Up

Medium Shot

Extreme Close – Up

Full Shot

POINT OF VIEW

 Establishing Shot - Often use at the beginning of a scene to indicate the location or setting, it is
usually a long shot taken from a neutral position.

 Point-of-View Shot - Shows a scene from the perspective of a character or one person. Most
newsreel footages are shown from the perspective of the newscaster.

 Over-the-Shoulder Shot - Often used in dialogues scenes, a frontal view of a dialogue partner from
the perspective of someone standing behind and slightly to the side of the other partner, so that parts
of both can be seen.

 Reaction Shot - Short shot of a character’s responses to an action.

 Insert Shot - A detail shot which quickly gives visual information necessary to understand the
meaning of a scene. Example: Newspaper page

 Reverse-Angle Shot - A shot from the opposite perspective. Example: After an over-the-shoulder
shot.

 Hand held Camera - The camera is not mounted on a tripod and instead is held by the
cameraperson, resulting in less stable shot.
 Establishing Shot Point-of-View Shot

Over-The-Shoulder Shot

Insert Shot
Reverse-Angle Shot

Reaction Shot

Hand-Held Camera

CAMERA ANGLES

 Aerial Shot or High Angle or Overhead - Long extreme long shot of the ground from the air.

 High-Angle Shot - Shows people or objects from above, higher than eye level.

 Low-Angle Shot or Below Shot - Shows people or objects from below. Example: Lower than eye
level.

 Eye-level Shot or Straight-on Angle - Views a subject from the level of a person’s eyes.

Aerial Shot

High-Angle Shot

Low-Angle Shot Eye Level Shot

CAMERA MOVEMENTS

 Pan (ning shot) - The camera pans (moves horizontally) or vice versa across the picture.

 Tilt Shot - The camera tilts up (move upwards or tilts down (moves downwards) around a vertical
line.

 Tracking Shot - The camera follows along next to or behind a moving object or person.
  Zoom - The stationary camera approaches a subject by ‘zooming in’; or moves farther away by
‘zooming out’.

Pan (ning shot) Tilt Shot Tracking Shot Zoom

NEWS AND INFORMATION

• INFORMATION - is the resolution of uncertainty which answers the question of “what an entity is”
and that which specifies the nature of that entity, and the essentiality of its properties and associated
with DATA and KNOWLEDGE

• DATA - meaningful information and represents the values attributed to parameters.

• KNOWLEDGE - signifies understanding of an abstract or concrete concept.

• NEWS - is information about current events provided through many different media and also used as a
platform to manufacture opinion for the population.

COMMON NEWS TOPICS

• War • Health • Fashion

• Government • Environment • Sports
• Politics • Economy • Entertainment
• Education • Business • Unusual Events

WHOLE TRUTH, HALF-TRUTHS, BIASED REPORTAGE

 WHOLE TRUTH - The phrase essentially means the entire true story, NOTHING OMITTED To give all
of the facts, and ONLY FACTS.
o EX: a witness in court usually asked to swear to tell
o “THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH”

 HALF-TRUTHS - The main purpose is to make something that is really only a BELIEF- appear to be
knowledge or truthful statement to represent the whole truth and can possibly lead to a false
conclusion.

 BIASED REPORTAGE - selective revealing or suppression of information by subjects or refer to

people’s tendency to under-report all the information available.

SOURCES AND DANGER OF INFORMATION IN NEW MEDIA

 INFORMATION SOURCE - Is a person, thing, or place from which the information comes, arises, or
is obtained.
o Three (3) types of sources
A. PRIMARY SOURCE - Is a document written at the time of an event or period of
research and includes literary texts, letters, speeches, and historical documents. (e.g.
birth certificate, diaries, live news-feed)
B. SECONDARY SOURCE - Is written after an event - usually the authors have not
witnessed the event themselves. Written with reference to the primary sources and
attempt to provide an interpretation. (e.g. core texts, news story)
C. TERTIARY SOURCES - Usually acts as pointers to primary and secondary sources.
Documents that you can turn to and be guided to other - potentially relevant. (e.g.
indexes, directories, bibliographies)

TOP 4 INTERNET DANGER

 CYBERBULLYING - Includes sending hateful messages or even death threats to children, spreading
lies about them online, making nasty comments on their social networking profiles, or creating website
to bash their looks or reputation.
 SEXUAL PREDATORS - People who interacts with virtual strangers online engaging in sexual
activities. These predators entice kids online to do sexual acts in exchange for money. Sexual
solicitation and exploitation (e.g. nude photos)
 PORNOGRAPHY - Sexual activities published online and is easily accessed. Pops up mostly in
different sites. One of the participating audience are minors.
 DAMAGED REPUTATIONS - Online posts that may cause regret later. Open letters, rants,
provocative photos, etc.