COMM170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Body Language, Five Ws
COMM170 Lecture Notes Thursday 6th April 2017
Media Literacy
- Newspaper articles
- Cartoons
Encoding/decoding model of communication
- Developed by Stuart Hall
- Encoding
o The process of choosing the words, sentences and nonverbal behaviours to
form a message.
- Decoding
o The process of interpreting the messages we receive from others
- Feedback
o A message in response to a previous message indicating whether and how
the original message was understood.
o Non verbal
▪ Body language. It can sometimes tell you more than words.
o Verbal
▪ Tone of voice
- Can be spoken or written
- Errors can interfere
- Poor grammar can cause ambiguity (interference)
Core Media Literacies
- 1. Principle of non-transparency
o All media messages are constructed
o Media does not present reality like a transparent window or reflection of the
world
o They create, shape and position it in the wat that they construct it.
▪ Journalists need to:
• Write to suit the readership of their publication
o E.g. there were brief scuffles in London during a
student protest parch calling for the abolition of tuition
fees and the retention of maintenance grants. (BBC)
o A student protest over tuition fees descended into
violence on Wednesday just hours after the shadow
chancellor told demonstrators that they had been
"betrayed" by the government. (Telegraph)
- 2. Codes and conventions
o Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules
o What does the author show you?
o How do they choose what you see or hear?
o E.g. how are people of different classes, gender, races depicted and referred
to in an article?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Encoding: the process of choosing the words, sentences and nonverbal behaviours to form a message. Decoding: the process of interpreting the messages we receive from others. Feedback: a message in response to a previous message indicating whether and how the original message was understood, non verbal, body language. It can sometimes tell you more than words: verbal, tone of voice. Principle of non-transparency: all media messages are constructed, media does not present reality like a transparent window or reflection of the world, they create, shape and position it in the wat that they construct it. Newspaper writing style is: brief, economical with words, mechanically correct (proper spelling, grammar and punctuation) The 5 ws and the h: who (or what) did (or will do) something, what, when, where, why, how, the intro should contain the who and the what. The lead (or intro: contains the whole story in a nutshell.
