Steve Neale states that genres all contain instances of repetition and difference, the difference is essential to the economy of the genre. Neale states that the film and its genre is defined by two things: How much is conforms to its genre’s individual conventions and stereotypes.
Genre Theory is a collective term used to describe theoretical approaches that are concerned with how similar situations generate typified responses called genres, which serve as a platform for both creating an understanding based on shared expectations and also shaping the social context.
The word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘kind’ or ‘class’.
Genre is important for both consumers and media producers. Consumers can make choices about media texts they wish to consume and media producers can create a media text for a specific audience. Audiences will also expect certain audio codes such as tense, dramatic music.
The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations of its customers. Since it is also a practical device for enabling individual media users to plan their choices, it can be considered as a mechanism for ordering the relations between the two main parties to mass communication.
Dennis McQuail 1987, p. 200
Introduction
A key theoretical area that underpins Media Language is the study of GENRE. Genre is a way of thinking about media production (INSTITUTIONS) and media reception (AUDIENCES). Overall, genre study helps students to think about how media texts are classified, organised and understood, essentially around SIMILARITIES and DIFFERENCE. In that media texts hold similar patterns, codes and conventions that are both PREDICTABLE and EXPECTED, but are also INNOVATIVE and UNEXPECTED. The ideas of codes and conventions are the starting point to think about MEDIA LANGUAGE and has been discussed in earlier posts, remember each MEDIA FORM has its’ own language. Please note that although genre is often considered in terms of the Film Industry (as it is here) it is a concept that could be applied to all other media forms – music, radio, TV, newspapers & magazines, on-line/social media etc
Genre as ‘Textual Analysis’
Ed Buscombe notes that the ‘kind’ or ‘type’ of film is usually recognised “and largely determined by the nature of its conventions” (1986 p. 15). In other words, the textual nature of the media production. To understand the way in which textual analysis is used to define the genre of a media product, look at any extract from any film. In the extract provided on this blog post, from the Ballad of Buster Scruggs, you could ask students what they expect just from the title of the film and then by looking at just the first frame of this clip, discuss expectations. Get students to predict particular elements around: characters, setting, lighting, dialogue, music, sounds, mise-en-scene etc. From this excercise you should be able to elicit key characteristics (codes and conventions) that identify this as a Western.
Watch the extract and then talk about how students respond – identity any surprises – differences in expectations. It should show that although this clip follows generic expectations, it also shows how expectations can be altered, adapted, challenged, changed. In this way it might be possible to understand the notion of CREATIVITY. The way in which new ideas (creativity) emerge from the predictable and expected. It is also possible to identify this clip as something more nuanced than simply a Western. In some ways it hold conventions of other genres, as such it could be considered as a SUB-GENRE film (a genre within a genre) or a HYBRID GENRE (a combination of two genres). However, overall, it could be said that “genre is a system of codes, conventions and visual styles which enables an audience to determine rapidly and with some complexity the kind of narrative they are viewing” Turner p.97 ‘Film as Social Practice
Thomas Schatz: Only 2 Genres?
GENRES OF INTEGRATION
GENRES OF ORDER
Example
Western, Gangster, Sci-Fi
Musicals, Comedy, Romance, Melodrama
Lead character
Hero – single / male / white /Western / straight / Christian
Couple / Family – focus on family or community – often Female
Setting
Contested Space / somewhere which is argued over (often an ideological battleground)
Civilised space, perhaps recognised community space (often ideologically stable)
Conflict
Externalised, against others (expressed through violent action)
The hero takes upon himself the problems,contradictions of his society and saves us from them. Usually through a macho code of behaviour, such as, isolated self reliance, either through his departure or death. The hero does not fit in with the values and lifestyles of the community and retains his individuality.
The romantic couple of family are integrated into the wider community their personal antagonims resolved. Follows a maternal and / or familial code of community co-operation
Genre as Institutional Practice
Schatz also presents a four part schema for the way in which genres develop
As Strinati puts forward, ‘genres are commodities shaped by the pressures of capitalism’ (1990, p. 44). Or as Neale puts it, there are ‘financial advantages to the film industry of an aesthetic regime based on regulated difference contained variety, pre-sild expectations adn the re-use of resources in labour and materials (1990, p 64). In other words, to understand genre is really to understand the structures and models that frame the media industry. As an example, Martin Scorcese, in his 1995 documentary A personal Journey through American Cinema talks about the way Hollywood was organised around large corporations who could be defined by recognisable styles. This shows the extent to which institutions can become genres in themselves – think for example, of Disney, Pixar, Working Title, Momentum, etc etc. While Scorcese recognises the innovation and creativity of many of the ‘tudio directors’, for others, it illustrates the extent to which ‘genres are dependent upon profitability and exemplify the standardisation associated with Hollywood cinema’ (Strinati, p. 48) which could equally applied to other media forms.
. . . saddled with conventions and stereotypes, formulas and clichés and all of these limitations were codified in specific genres. This was the very foundation of the studio system and audiences love genre pictures . . .
Scorcese, A personal Journey through American Cinema (1995)
Genre as Audience Recognition
However, if we only recognise the institutional impact of genre creation and ‘the somewhat dubious assumption that genres shaped by the film industry are communicated completely and uniformly to audiences‘ (Altman 1999, p. 15) we may fail to recognise the impact that individual audiences have in both creating and producing new forms of generic expression and development. The work of Steve Neale is often referred to when discussing genre. One area he looks at, is the relationship between genre and audiences. For example, the idea of genre as an enabling mechanism to attract audiences based around predictable expectations. He argues that definitions and formations of genres are developed by media organisations (he specifically discusses the film industry), which are then reinforced through various agencies and platforms, such as the press, marketing, advertising companies, which amplify generic characteristics and thereby set-up generic expectations. For example, he suggests that genres are structured around a repertoire of elements which creates a corpus or body of similar texts, which could all belong to the same category (ie genre). Expectations are based not only on key textual elements (as highlighted above) but also around overarching generic structures such as the idea of verisimilitude which involves a clear understanding and knowledge of’various systems of plausibility motivation, justification and belief'(1990 p.46) This brings up quite an important point in relation to the way in which cultural production – in this instance, the generic mass production of film – is able to structure our understanding around realism or how we understand andcognise the construction of reality.
However, Neale also promotes the idea that genre is a process, that genres change as society and culture changes. As such, genres are historically specific and reflect / represent changing ideas, attitudes, values and beliefs of society at any particular moment in history. This may explain, why genres are often blurred across different conventions and expectations, creating sub-genres, or hybrid genres, that mix-up, shape, adapt and adopt familiar ideas and expectations, but which essentially create something new (different) which is reconisable (familiar). This again suggests a close link between audience expectations, generic codes and conventions, institutional practice. In other words, as new forms of production become available (digital special effects, platforms that now look to specialise in specific production, for example, long form drama direct across new digital delivery systems, so new types of genres will develop and emerge. Once again creating what Buscombe suggested as ‘familiarity’ and ‘novelty’.
In general, the function of genre is to make films comprehensible and more or less familiar.
Turner p.97 ‘Film as Social Practice’
Sources:
Film as Social Practice, Graeme Turner (2000) Routledge
An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture, Dominic Strinati (2000) Routledge
‘The idea of genre in American Cinema‘ Ed Buscombe (1986) in Film Genre Reader B. Grant (ed)
A personal journey through American Cinema, Martin Scorcese (1995) Miramax/BFI
Hollywood Genres, Thomas Schatz (1981) McGraw-Hill
This post looks at the key concept of REPRESENTATION from the perspective of IDENTITY. Ultimately, identity is about the idea of KNOWING and UNDERSTANDING – particularly knowing and understanding THE SELF in relation to OTHERS. One way to think about representation therefore is to consider ideas around identity or ‘the self‘.
EARLY IDEAS ABOUT IDENTITY & THE SELF
Many academics have written extensively about this, for example Erving Goffman raised the concept of The Presentation of The Self in Everyday Life (1956) which proposed an idea of ‘the self’ as divided between the ‘front’ and ‘back’ regions, in essence this means that individuals present an idea of themselves in different moments of interaction. This is useful in terms of Media Studies, because media representations of the self – think for example of ‘the selfie’ alongside a whole host of social media platforms – provide spaces to play out and perform representations of the self.
From this perspective it identity could be thought of as composing both a ‘FRONT REGION’ which could be argued to be that presentation of the self that we all want people to see as an identity presented of ourselves. As set against, or perhaps working with a representation of a ‘BACK REGION’ which is a representation that we might want to keep hidden. How we keep it hidden may be another discussion, but for now think about images that we edit, or delete – in other words, images that we don’t want to recognise or present as a representation of our ‘self’.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL US ABOUT THE MEDIA?
That different media forms look at different presentations of the self? (think tabloid/broadsheet)?
That different media forms deliberately focus on the division between the front and back regions (think advertising/marketing, but also film, television, the internet, music . . . in fact all media forms offer the opportunity to engage with ideas of the self ‘front’ & ‘back’)
That particular media platforms (technologies) allow us to create our own sense of self ‘front’ and ‘back’ (think social media)
Why we form different representations of the/our ‘self’ may be explained by the theory of the Johari Window, students like this kind of enquiry because it makes us think about ourselves, which is arguably more significant when you are just forming your ‘adult’ or ‘professional’ identity, as opposed to the identity which is placed upon you by family and relations, school and so on
Johari Window
The ‘Johari Window‘ developed by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955, presents a grid model of four distinct elements that form a representation and identity of ‘the self’, which suggests that we form multiple understandings of our ‘selfs’ primarily in four main contexts:
ideas about our/the ‘self’ that are known, recognised and understood
ideas that are presented to others about our/the ‘self’
ideas that we want to keep hidden from others about our/the ‘self’
ideas that we do not know, recognise or understand as relating to our/the ‘self’ – that perhaps others do
The model (illustrated above & below) is a useful tool to examine identities and representations, particularly those that are found on social media which usually show identity as ‘fluid’ – that is open to change, through: contradiction, juxtaposition, distinction, difference, alteration, anomaly and so on.
As a small task – create a Johari Window and choose a well know celebrity. Cut and paste a range of images (20+) and arrange them in your Johari Window. It is a short creative exercise that should show the multi-dimensional modes of personal identity.
A useful classroom exercise is to get students to populate this grid model with images of themselves, or of well known media celebrities that show images of them in different contexts that could be identified and placed as: how they like to present themselves; how they perhaps don’t see themselves; how others see them etc. Overall, the picture should become complicated, messy, overlapping, confusing, contradictory etc. Which in essence is how identity can be seen – AS A FLUID, DYNAMIC, CONTESTED AND CHANGING CONCEPT THAT IS POSSIBLE OF MULTIPLE INTERPRETATIONS.
GIDDENS AND THE IDEA OF THE SELF
Anthony Giddens in his Modernity and Self-Identity (1997) reasserts the idea that the ‘self’ is ‘fluid’ and often contradictory and suggests that this is a illustration of how the modern world (MODERNITY) “radically alters the nature of day-to-day social life and affects the most personal aspects of our experience” (p1).
In other words, we now live in a very different world where, because of changes in society, ‘conditions of life become transformed’ (p. 138). This period of social existence is often termed ‘modernity’ -and presents “new mechanisms of self-identity” (p2) – think for example, of how new personalised forms of technology can be used:
mobile phones (hardware),
social media platforms (connectivity),
image editors (software)
When you think about this it shows how our modern world is very different from ‘pre-modern’ times. It also points to the way in which our identity can be made, developed, altered, re-imagined, deleted, contradicted, reinforced at any moment that we wish. It shows how much power we have in terms of how we are able to re-present ourselves to the world and overall, it recognises that identity or ‘the presentation of the self’ is no longer a fixed concept and that our identity is no longer just subject to the forces of others.
Giddens is recognised as developing STRUCTURATION THEORYthis basically recognises the way in which STRUCTURES in society – the family, school, companies, the government etc – exist and operate alongside individual AGENTS – people, like you and me! Important for this topic is the way in which AGENTS are able to exert and maintain power, particularly in terms of their own lives. In some ways this is a positive aspect of this type of thinking, the idea that we are able to exist and ‘be’ without interference or pressure from external structures – family, work, advertising etc (although this may not always be the case!)
As Giddens puts forward, the purpose allows individuals to secure increasing social control over their life circumstances, a moment where ‘individuals will be free to make informed choices about their activities’ (p214)
MODERNITY & THE REFLEXIVE SELF
For Giddens, ‘the self, like the broader institutional contexts in which it exists, has to be reflexively made’ a task ‘accomplished amid a puzzling diversity of options and possibilities’ (p.3) In this sense living in a time of modernity (in contrast to what Giddens terms ‘pre-modern times’) reflexivity is generally orientated towards continual improvement or effectiveness. In other words, we present a representation of ourselves but we are then able to reflect and evaluate upon it and then perhaps change it in light of new understandings, aims or demands.
“The reflexive project of the self, which consists of the sustaining of consistent, yet continuously revised, biographical narratives, takes place in the context of multiple choice as filtered through abstract systems. In modern social life, the notion of lifestyle takes on a particular significance. The more tradition loses it hold, and the more daily life is reconstituted . . . the more individuals are forced to negotiate lifestyle choices among a diversity of options. Of course there are standardising influences . . . Yet because of the ‘openess’ of social life today, the pluralisation of contexts of action and the diversity of ‘authorities’, lifestyle choice is increasingly important in the constitution of self-identity and daily activity.”
Overall, this means that it is much more difficult to think about society as a number of dissected and clear categories – male/female, young/old, gay/straight, black/white, religious/non-religious, rich/poor, eductated/not-educated and so on. This is because we are now able to take up a range of individual and interconnected (plural) identities, so individuality itself is broken up like “an incessant shower of innumerable atoms” Virginia Woolf (On Fiction)
In summary, this presents a theoretical framework for understanding how we can discuss isses of representation and raises big questions when trying to talk about traditional ideas of the audience, which can be distilled into the following series of bullet points that may help revision or for students to re-cap (alternatively feel free to take this information and adapt into your own work?)
In the first instance, you need to recognise the relationship between the media (which we can call symbolic representation ie the use of symbols to represent things – like movies, adverts, TV programmes, social media, newspapers etc) and individual identity. Ok? Have a re-read . . .
From this perspective, what is really important is identity.
So therefore the arguments would be:
Is our identity constructed by others (eg the media) Constructed Identity
Do we construct our own identity? Individual identity
Does our identity fit into a wider pattern that holds similarities? Collective Identity
Is it a process of all of these? Negotiated Identity
Is identity constantly open to change? Reflexive Identity
The theory that we have looked at mostly is provided by Anthony Giddens.
His theory is called structuration theory which basically runs like this . . .
We have an objective world
ie we are born into a set community, let’s say Jersey, which is in the UK, which is in Western Europe, which in itself is going to have a direct impact on our identity
ie we are born into a western style nuclear family
ie we are born into a type of religious belief
ie we are born into a set of beliefs around gender, sexuality, class and status
The objective world is seen by Giddens as a set of structures and can be seen as creating sets of collective identities – ie Jersey people, British people, males/females, Christians/Muslims, Rich/Poor etc etc.
We can see how the media is used to do this, because it is usually speaking to masses ie huge number of people, so it has to create what Benedict Andersen would call imagine communities – communities that aren’t real, but are Think about any of our media products and you can see how this works: ideas of male/female (Tomb Raider/Men’s Health/Maybeline/Hidden Agenda), Black/White (Letter to the Free/Hidden Agenda), Christian/Muslin (The Missing), Left Wing/Right Wing Politics (The i)
Overall, this is the concept of representation and you can use the tools of semiotics to seek to discover how signs around representation (and therefore identity) are put together to construct a set of collective identities. However . . .
The individual in this world (ie us) is seen as subjective and Giddens calls the individuals: agents
Giddens suggests that our individual identities are actually constructed through a process of negotiation in which the subjective agent works against and within the objective structures of society.
This is a process of reflexivity whereby individuals construct their own identities. Think therefore about the role of social media (Teen Vogue) or the way in which audiences construct their own meaning from particular texts (War of the Worlds). In other words, the idea of the individual agent constructing their own identity and meaning in a reflexive process suggests that we do not have to act as a mass, but rather act as individuals . . . but
You cannot ignore the objective structures that inform the construction of our own identity. In other words, being male/female, white/black, straight/gay, old/young, first world/third world etc etc
This process where the individual agent engages with the object structure to find their own meaning and identity is Giddens theory of structuration.
Reflexivity is in this sense the act of making sense of the world, your own identity and the choices you want to make.
As mentioned in previous posts, the way to approach any new subject is to think about different forms which each have a different languages. So for example, there are different forms of literature, music, painting, photography, film and so on. An earlier post looked at the LANGUAGE OF PRINT, this post looks at NARRATIVE and is linked to my post on the LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE. In other words, I am primarily linking narrative as a way of thinking about moving image, but it is possible to link narrative to print products, on-line products, audio products and so on.
Narrative Theory
Structuralism has been very powerful in its influence on narrative theory. Its main virtue is that it is most interested in those things that narratives have in common, rather than in the distinctive characteristics of specific narratives.
Turner p.85 ‘Film as Social Practice’
When looking at moving image products, it is therefore possible to look for patterns, codes, conventions that share a common features. In other words, narrative theories look at recognisable and familiar structures, that help us to understand both how narratives are constructed and what they might mean.
For example, it is clear that narratives are a combination of many individual elements (sound, image, text etc) which are edited (connected) together. Narratives are organised around a particular theme and space and are based in an idea of time. So for example, many narratives (Film, TV, Radio) are usually LINEAR and SEQUENTIAL, in that they start at 00:00 and run for a set length. This means that they normally have a beginning, middle and end. However, as with all creative work, it is possible to break, alter or subvert these rules.
Narrative theory can be applied to moving image texts but in many ways, narrative theory transcends a specific media form, such as, film and television and is able to take on a much greater significance in terms of how we organise our lives, our days, our weeks, our years, how we interact with each other, how we organise our memories, our ideas, aspirations and dreams.
So once again, looking at theory allows students to think beyond a particular subject and beyond the learning framework into their own existence! For now, we will stick with looking at some theories that will help students to understand, discuss and construct narrative structures.
Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function)
Hero
Villain
Victim
Princess
Dispatcher
False Hero
Father
You do not need to recognise all of these characters, but it is a good way to understand the way in which characters function to provide narrative structure: The villain. struggles against the hero. The donor. prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object. The (magical) helper. helps the hero in the quest. The princess and her father…The dispatcher…. The hero or victim/seeker hero….False hero
Tztevan Todorov (Tripartite narrative structure):
Equilibrium
Disruption
New equilibrium
Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary Oppositions)
This theory encourages students to understand key themes that underpin action and dialogue to develop a set of messages that the audience are able to decode and understand. It helps to create the dominant message (ideology) of a film, TV programme, advert, animation etc so in this way students could make a judgement as to whether an individual media text supports the dominant ideology of society, which would make it a reactionary text or challenges and undermines the dominant ideology of society, in which case it could be seen as a radical text.
However, as mentioned in previous posts, the way in which individual students / audience members decode specific texts, is also contingent on their own individual ideas, attitudes and beliefs (ie their own individual ideology). So de-coding a text is not necessarily the same thing as agreeing on its’ fixed meaning. These ideas are explored further on posts about audience.
For now, get students to think about individual texts as a set of binary opposites, for example, you could construct a scale chart (as below) around key themes and concepts that the media text plays upon and get students to rate the text that they are looking at. This way they can discuss ideological stances on gender, race, class, age etc etc. Use any number of polarising concepts.
CONCEPT
strongly agree
agree
neutral
agree
strongly agree
OPPOSITE CONCEPT
GOOD
BAD
EAST
WEST
FEMALE
MALE
STRAIGHT
GAY
WHITE
BLACK
URBAN
REGIONAL
POOR
RICH
EDUCATED
STUPID
RELIGIOUS
SECULAR
Seymour Chatman: Satellites & Kernels
Kernels: key moments in the plot / narrative structure
This theory allows students to break down a narrative into 2 distinct elements. Those elements which are absolutely essential to the story / plot / narrative development, which are known as KERNELS and those moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed, known as SATELLITES. Think about the way satellites orbit something bigger like a planet. Satellites are therefore used to develop character, emotion, location, time and so on. In this way they are really useful elements but could be seen as not essential to the story.
Roland Barthes: Proairetic and Hermenuetic Codes
Proairetic code: action, movement, causation
Hermenuetic code: reflection, dialogue, character or thematic development
Although the words proairetic and hermenuetic may seem very complex, it is easy for students to grasp in that moving image products are either based around ‘doing’ / ‘action’ or ‘talking’ / ‘reflection’. Look at this sequence from Buster Scruggs (Dir J Coen E Coen 2018), which is basically divided into ‘some talking’ which leads into ‘some doing’!
As with other MEDIA FORMS, there is a specific language associated with radio production. In other words, there are a number of codes and conventions that radio productions follow. You will need to be aware of these codes and conventions if you are going to produce your own radio productions for your course or if you have to write about radio in your exam.
What strikes everyone, broadcasters and listeners alike, as significant about radio is that it is a blind medium.
Crissell, Understanding Radio 1995 p3
A good source of information about radio can be found in Andrew Crissell’s Understanding Radio who seeks to ‘determine the distinctive characteristics of the radio medium’. For instance, there is a proximity with radio communication, in that it appears almost interpersonal, using speech as the primary mode of communication and yet it is a mass medium broadcasting from a few to many. It is of course essentially and primarily auditory, consisting of speech, music, sounds and silence. A really good account of how radio communicates to individuals is provided by Crissell in chapter 1 ‘Characteristics of Radio’, for instance, the relationship between radio and individual imaginations.
This appeal to the imagination gives radio an apparent advantage over film and television
Crissell p 7
The Semiotics of Radio
When analysing media languages in specific texts, you are usually adopting a semiotic approach, identifying and de-coding a number of signs and symbols. As such, you are looking to connect the signifier (the thing you hear) and the signified (what it means): Ferdinand de Saussure. Or, put another way, you are trying to understand signs as they operate as denotations, connotations and myths: Roland Barthes.
As a more interesting exercise try linking auditory signs to the three cateogries provided by C. S. Pierce: icon, index and symbol. In that, an ICONIC SOUND will actually sound like its’ object – a person, a mode of transport, elements of nature etc etc. An INDEXICAL SOUND, will create an association to it’s object – the sound of somebody moving, thinking, or the sound of a particular location or geography. Think for example, the use of acoustics in creating a sense of space (indoor/outdoor, big room/small room etc) which can be achieved by microphone placement, or sound processing such as, reverb. Finally, a SYMBOLIC SOUND is one that is more arbitrary, random and vague. A sign that is understood usually by agreement, often through a specific culture, time or place – think for example, of the ‘crackle’ sound of old radio productions. Or any number of sound effects – echo, reverb, distortion, phase etc.
Remember that a sign could be operating in more than one category at the same time.
A discussion around War of the Worlds: interesting insight into how meaning is created through a radio broadcast.
CATEGORIES
Crissell sets out FOUR main categories to understand the language of radio: WORDS, SOUNDS, MUSIC & SILENCE. As such, the most important factor is understanding how sound is recorded, so think about and practice with sound recording technologies, particularly microphones and the ability to maximise sound to noise ratios by appropriately recording your sounds by setting the correct input and output levels on your recording device.
SOUNDS
Unlike words, which are human intervention, sound is ‘natural’ – a form of signification which exists ‘out there’ in the real world.
Crissell p. 44
Sounds are the ‘field’ where auditory (radio) work is developed. As mentioned above, sounds can be understood as recognisable (iconic) or suggestive (indexical), sounds can also be used to create an abstract, arbritary (creative?) auditory framework. A good task is to just close your eyes and reflect on all the sounds that you are able to pick up on. Following this try listening to any radio production and identify the separate elements into different categories.
MUSIC
A clear range of recognisable sounds heard through radio productions can be categorised in terms of MUSIC. Music is often used to construct whole texts of radio production – ie a specific radio programme – where the music that is played forms a paradigm of signifiers that provide anchorage that is fixes the meaning of a particular programme or section. However, music is also used to ‘frame‘ particular elements. For example, the use of a jingle or ‘ident‘ can be used as a sound bridge that , when edited over other material, create a seamless flow between different sections of a broadcast; or even to connect different programmes together. They can also be used as adverts and trailers to flag up and announce other programmes.
Music can be broadly thought of in terms of tone, volume, rhythm, melody, harmony etc. It could also be discussed in terms of technical codes, think for example of the processess that music goes through to be recorded and mixed together, such as sound balance, relative volumes and the use of digital processing, use of reverb, effects, frequency equalisation, compression, limiting etc. It is also possible to analyse elements that are connected to each piece of music, for example, instrumentation, performer, genre, history, culture, etc.
SILENCE
One of the most powerful and thereby rarely used signs in radio production is silence. The absence of sound can suggest a range of ideas – high drama, breakdown, comedy, pause for thought etc.
WORDS
words are signs which do not resemble what they represent’ as such, ‘their symbolism is the basis of radio’s imaginative appeal
Crissell p.43
The key code in the language of radio is verbal and to understand the meaning of words, it is necessary to pay attention to what words are used in a radio production: vocabulary and grammar as well as the way in which specific words are used: dialect, accent, stress, intonation etc. For many students, this is a recognisable approach to understanding ‘language’ that they will have picked up in English Literature and Language classes. However, the language of radio considers more than just the spoken word and requires an understanding and critical analysis of a range of technical and cultural codes that are significant in terms of constructing meaning. For example, the way in which sound is recorded and edited is crucial in terms of both creativity and meaning.
In both the recording and editing of words and sounds, there is a priority, foregrounding important elements over less important elements. This can be recognised as the technical construction of auditory signs – which is essentially the processes of recording and editing.
Recording & Editing
Radio, like moving image, is LINEAR and SEQUENTIAL, in that it moves in a chronological order, from (a) beginning to (an) end. In this respect, it is important to refer to NARRATIVE THEORYwhen trying to understand and de-code radio meaning. Radio is also reliant on sequential editing techniques (unlike print or on-line media). As such, basic grammar around the cut, the fade and the dissolve are important elements in constructing meaning. You can also apply a range of sound processing techniques in a post-production audio editing programme such as Adobe Audition. This way you can build up a number of audio files to create a mix of sounds and you can process each sound to alter equalisation, tone, timbre, dynamic. Editing can transform the raw material that you gather in the production stage into multi-track (multi-layered) final production that you would generally export as a .WAV file to either broadcast or embed in a multi-media production (eg moving image product, on-line media product etc). Your multi-track allows you to make choices (thereby create meaning) around sound levels / volumes and relative sound balance between individual sound files. The priorities that you give each file is a way of creatively constructing meaning.
Audiences
Although I talk about audiences in other sections of this blog, it is worth just ending this post by considering the distinctive character of radio audiences, as this will help to understand the language of radio and also raise some ideas on nature of radio as a distinctive media form.
While radio is seen as a mass medium, the appeal to the imagination of each person makes it a very personal experience. The process of listening to the radio is ‘inward’ and intimate – like reading a book.
Media and Meaning p. 356
The intimacy of radio is created by the language of radio – the close proximity of the voice recording, the direct address of the presenters, the selective use of pronouns – ‘I’ ‘you’ ‘we’ – the casual conversation, the connections developed by listeners to stations, presenters or styles of music, the two way interactions – song requests, shout outs, messages, dedications – the interviews and so on.
Radio is also a flexible medium. It provides diversity and choice and can be seen as both a broadcaster (to many) or a narrowcaster (to a few / niche). Think for example, about the way BBC radio is enshrined in the constitution as a national broadcaster, think of radio news broadcasts, the role of Radio 4 as a way of engaging with government and politics. At the other end of the spectrum community radio is part of an independent tradition of media production that spans from hospital radio to pirate radio stations.
Radio is considered an undemanding medium. In this respect think about radio consumption – listening to the radio while at work, or school, while travelling, exercising or relaxing. It can be consumed as a peripheral form of entertainment, or can be used for knowledge about the world, society and the self. In this way it is possible to apply a range of audience theories to specific radio texts, which will allow for both an individual textual analysis as well as a broader recognition of the codes and conventions that constitute the language of this particular media form.
As ever, any comments, questions, ideas or suggestions please get in touch – you can use the twitter handle next to this post. If not please feel free to adapt, adopt, use or ignore.
Further Reading:
Understanding Radio, Crissell, A 1995 Routledge
Chapter 5 Radio in Media and Meaning Stewart, C. Lavelle, M, Kowaltzke, A 2001 BFI
Anthony Giddens in his 