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Media Content: Studying the Making of Meaning
- Explain why mediated representation or re-presentation is always subjective.
- What does it mean to say that a sign is polysemic?
- How does the denotative meaning of a sign differ from the connotative meaning?
- Describe the key influences on the encoding and decoding of a message.
- Select a social media post by a Canadian politician or celebrity and conduct a semiotic analysis of the content.
- Why are agency and structure of central importance to understanding media and communication theories?
- Using the structuralist ideas of Vladmir Propp, identify some of the narrative structures of your favourite genre of television or film.
- Compare and contrast the theories of structuralism and post-structuralism as they apply to media content. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach?
- List and explain the five reasons Herman and Chomsky provide for arguing that the news works in favour of political and economic elites.
- “The diet of violence fed to us through movies and television is steadily eroding Canadian society.” Discuss this statement in relation to the theoretical lessons of this chapter.
- Explain some of the main concerns about advertising and its role in media, including an explanation of “false needs” and the effects of advertising on culture.
- The textbook identifies common media genres such as soap operas, music videos, and reality television that can be understood through genre analysis. Do these genres reflect your own media consumption, or do you consume other genres (or media forms) more frequently?