Semiotics

Stuart Halls theory - he believes media texts are encoded and decoded, and different audiences can have different reactions to media text, whether it be film, newspaper or image.

Semiotics: the study of signs, also anything that stands for something else.

Denotation: what we see when we look at an image

Connotation: what we understand from images ( the other meanings)

e.g.

red = blood

blue = medical

yellow = happiness

green = jealousy

Preferred reading: how the creator wants the audience to view the media text

Oppositional reading: when the intended meaning of the text is totally opposed by the reader