Mainstream
You may have also heard of ‘The Media’ or ‘Mainstream Media’. This is a blanket term that refers to all the different ways we can receive our news, entertainment and information: radio, internet, television, cinema, video games and published material like books and newspapers. Media students study these platforms too, and their audiences, but for now we will focus on the basics of how any multimedia text communicates its message.

Elements of an image

To understand ways a picture can communicate, think about colours. 
Blue is a colour we often use to show water, even though water is actually clear and colourless, so we might associate it with the sea.
Blue can also mean cold, such as on a tap.
Blue can be associated with sadness – “feeling blue” – but it might equally be used for some positive energy or emotions – “blue sky thinking”.
We might also be encouraged to think of something in blue packaging as being for boys, in the way pink is often used for girls.
Having “blue blood” is an old-fashioned term for royalty.

As you can see, the different messages we can take from the colour blue are almost always nothing to do with the colour itself. Think about crisps – what flavour of crisps do you associate with a blue packet? Are any of the ingredients in that flavour actually blue in colour? Probably not, but we still know what we’re going to get when we choose that colour of crisp packet.

Media language is the way in which the meaning of a media text is conveyed to the audience¹²³. It works by conveying meaning through signs and symbols suggested by the way a scene is set up and filmed¹². Media language comprises all elements that work together to create meaning, including text, still images, color schemes, sounds, and motion images⁴. Creators, producers, and audiences share an understanding of media codes, conventions, and technologies that are selected and sequenced depending on the media form, the intent of the product, genre, style, and the making of meaning⁵.