"Media is Communication" Discuss the ways that you have used media language to create meanings in one of your

media products.

Within my foundation portfolio I used several examples of media language to create meaning within my music magazine, to help communicate the ideas within my magazine to the audience. One of the first features I included in my magazine was context; I used the date and issue number on the cover to indicate context, these help the audience to understand the content and opinions within the text are relevant and/or credible at that point in time, as media, and more specifically the music industry, is fast paced. Throughout all three elements of my magazine, the cover, contents and double page spread, I also used examples of signs; these have been specifically chosen to represent or signify something, so they have a specific meaning and/or purpose. The main purpose of signs within my media product was to help the audience identify the type of media product that it is, so in this case a music magazine. This can be seen in the cover with the use of a 'masthead', which is a recognisable logo and element of branding for the magazine, therefore making it a sign with a specific purpose to draw the audience attention and create a memorable image and recognisable brand for the product. Also on the cover, the use of a barcode reminds the audience that this is a magazine, making it a sign that represents the type of product and means it will be sold in shops such as newsagents and supermarkets. Similarly, the use of a price also indicates this; the date and issue number are also both signs that indicate a time period and, consequently, context for the media product. Within the contents, signs are used again for similar reasons; for example, the use of numbers on the page all in the same typography next to text, and in some cases images, indicate page numbers for articles. These signs therefore have a specific purpose to direct the audience. Signs within the double page spread are very similar; for example, the use of page numbers here are, again, signs with a specific purpose to help the audience navigate the media product, and have been carefully selected and placed by the media producer. These signs also relate back to the contents and therefore have a specific purpose to link the different elements of the overall media product together. These sorts of signs all conform to the ideas presented by Charles Sanders Pierce (1931), which suggest that signs can be indexical, so the links are directly connected. I have also used anchorage within my media product to create implied meaning and connotations. For example, within my double page spread I used images, pull quotes, captions and headings to imply that the artist is successful and well knows, for example the quote Britains next superstar connotes ideas that Sapphire, the star in my magazine, is both British and a superstar in the music i ndustry. It also connotes that she is more famous in Britain than internationally; this connotation could help my product appeal to a British audience by appealing by using ethos to appeal to the patriotic character of the audience, and is therefore an important use of anchorage within my media product. I have used a similar idea of the cover to connote the artists credibility and success in the music industry by placing her image and name alongside the names of other, very successful and well-known, pop artists and bands; doing this connotes that Sapphire is worth of being listed with and against these artists. These two examples would support Roland Barthes theory about the signifier and the signified, suggesting that the producer of the media product places signifiers within the text to be signified by the audience through the connotations that can be attributed to the denotations and signs within the product. Overall I think that I have used my media product to communicate several messages, largely through the use of signs, anchorage, denotations and connotations. In turn, this has meant that media language has played an important part in my product when it comes to portraying a message and/or appealing to the audience.