DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

TYPES OF MEDIA
 PRINT MEDIA- This type of media paper and ink is reproduced in a printing process that is
traditionally mechanical such as books, newspapers, magazines, journals, newsletters, and
brochures. Print media may include text, graphics, or a combination of both.
Examples: Magazines, Newspaper, Flyers, Newsletter
Text Media- a type of print media which is a simple and flexible format for conveying ideas, whether
handwritten or printed. Not all text media are print media. Text media may also be displayed on-screen
as part of broadcast media, multimedia, or new media.

An important feature of text media is typography. Typography is the art and technique of arranging the
visual component of the written word. It features textual designs with optical illusions that improve
readability and help convey meaning. Fonts and alignment are parts of typography.

Visual Media- a type of print media that refers to pictures, photos, images, and graphics used to channel
communication using the sense of sight. Visuals combined with text are also considered as visual media.
Like text media, visual media are not limited to print media, however. “Visual media” is a general term
for any medium that mainly makes use of sight as a channel to receive the message.
An important feature of visual media, in print or elsewhere, is graphic design. It is the process of visual
communication that organizes and presents information developed through a creative process for a
particular purpose. Graphic design is part of your daily life. From things like candy wrappers to huge
things like billboards to the T-shirt you are wearing, graphic designs inform, persuades, organizes,
stimulates, locates, identifies, attracts attention, and provides pleasure.
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

Examples of Visual Media

Informational Graphics (Infographic) – is a visual representation of information to understand the
high-volume and complex data easily, e.g., graphs, charts.
Cartoons – a sketch or drawing intended as satire, caricature, or humor, e.g., comic strip, editorial
cartoons in newspapers and magazines.
Photography – A photograph is an image created by light captured on a light-sensitive surface, which
is usually photographic film. Nowadays, few people use photographic film. The advent of digital
photography via digital cameras and cellular phones has made taking photographs easier and less
expensive.

 BROADCAST MEDIA- Describes the traditional forms of media that include television and radio.
It is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via radio and television.

Radio broadcasting is a one-way sound broadcasting service transmitted over a radio wave.
Television broadcasting is a medium use to transmitting moving images in monochrome or color.

 NEW MEDIA OR ONLINE MEDIA- Is a medium which use internet to send information. A term
used to integrate the different technologies emerging on one digital platform to organize and
distribute content. Some examples are podcasts, augmented reality, video games, blogs, and
wikis. There are two common characteristics of new media: disseminating the information to
several receivers which is theoretically infinite, in customized ways, depending on the
specification for endorsed categories.
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

Media Convergence
According to Flew (n.d,) Media convergence is a phenomenon involving the interconnection of
information and communications technologies namely computer networks, and media content. It is a
direct result of the digitization of media content and the popularization of the Internet. It modernizes
established industries, services, and work practices and enables entirely new forms of content to
emerge.
Technological Convergence
The emergence of World Wide Web, smartphone, tablet, computers, smart televisions, and other digital
devices, has been possible for billions of people around the world to access media content that once
tied to a specific communication media (print and broadcast) or platforms (newspapers, magazines,
radio, television, and cinema). As a result, media organization and media content producers have
developed a cross-media content.

For example, news organizations like GMA no longer simply provide just audiovisual content but are
portals like their website, YouTube channels and the like that make material available in forms such as
text, video, and podcasts, as well as providing links to other relevant resources, online access to their
archives, and opportunities for users to comment on the story or provide links to relevant material.
Social Media
Social media refers to technologies, platforms, and services that allow users whether individual or group
to actively participate in communication, It is the new leading force of media convergent sector which
through internet allows individuals to participate media not only as a consumer but also as a producers
like social network Facebook, the microblogging service Twitter, the video sharing website YouTube,
blog software such as Blogger and WordPress and many others.
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

Media Personalities
Media convergence also paves the way for media and information personalities. Thus, the terms Tri-
media, Multi-media, Queen of all Media is created. These individuals become the media content
producers who like to share to their viewers that they are like the latter by sharing relatable sometimes
embarrassing experiences in media. Nevertheless, they are under obligation to follow a code of ethics
that prohibits the use of abusive or discriminatory material on race, age, gender, physical ability or
marital status.
Style and Language of News Presentation across Media Format
The media convergence has dramatically changed the way people consumed their daily news and
information. The usual morning and evening reading and watching habit of newspapers or television
and radio broadcasts has been outdated. Together with the change of media habit is the change in ways
news and information presented. How?
According to Kavanagh, et al. (2019) the RAND Corporation report in 2018, Truth Decay cited four trends
in emerging news presentation in Digital Age. These are increasing disagreement about objective facts,
data, and analysis; a blurring of the line between fact and opinion; an increasing relative volume of
opinion over fact; and declining trust in government, media, and other institutions that used to be
sources of factual information.
Furthermore, team of researchers studied change in News Presentation Print Journalism, Broadcast
Journalism, Pre-Cable Journalism, and Online Journalism.
Styles of News Presentation

Types of
Media Era of Journalism
Post 2000
Pre-2000 Post 2000
Language use are more heavily More storytelling;
event and context based, Emotion laden;
More reference to time, official Emphasized interactions;
Print titles, and positions and Personal perspective
institutions; descriptive,
Journalism elaborative language
Online journalism tended to be
Print
more conversational; with more
Journalism
emphasis on interpersonal
interactions and personal
perspectives and opinions;

Appeals are less narrative and more

argumentative with an eye toward
persuading readers

News stories use precise and More subjective; unplanned

Broadcast concrete language; turned to speech, expression of opinions,
Journalism public sources of authority interviews, and arguments.
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

Cabled programs dominated; more

subjective, abstract, directive, and
argumentative language; content
based more on expression of
opinion;
Source: RAND (2019) News in a Digital Age: Comparing the Presentation of News Information over Time
and Across Media Platforms.
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

Language in Media
Anywhere we look, we are surrounded by a system of signs and symbols called codes. These
help understand the messages being conveyed. Also, the people in the community has come up with a
generally accepted ways of constructing these codes in order to provide appropriate meaning. This will
now be called convention.
Experts in the media say that in every medium – visual (print), sound (radio), and moving media
(TV or Film) carries own ‘language’ or ‘combination of language’ that they use to communicate meaning.
What do they mean?
Basically, when we study media language, we are first learning how to interpret other people's
signs and symbols. After which, we then use this understanding to make our own signs and symbols
better. Just like in the signs and symbols around us. They are part and parcel of media language
What is media language? Media Language uses an interplay of codes (e.g. sounds, spelling and
grammar), agreed systems for communicating (e.g. names of things and of actions, logos, camera
angles, tone of voice, etc. and conventions or shared and habitual ways of using these systems (e.g.
paragraph structure, genre, framing of images, dramatic gestures, etc.
Another, it is the way that meaning is made using the conventions of the particular medium and
type of media product. For example, in print media like magazine advertisement, it uses verbal and
written language to send message. On the other hand, Television and Film uses verbal and written
language as well as moving images and sound. These verbal, written language and moving images and
sound are media language using codes and conventions that are general understood.

Analyzing these languages, we can come to a better understanding of how media make meaning.
Study the example below.
Example 1: Images in Advertising

Advertisers use images

and graphic design to say
what is unique and valuable
about their product. For
example, they use colors and
lighting to create a mood;
unusual camera angles to add
drama; and typefaces to give a
sense of style. The people in
the ads are carefully dressed
and posed in order to show
how the product makes them
more powerful, or more
intelligent.
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

Example 2: The Codes of TV News

TV news generally has

very strict rules and
conventions. The
newsreaders are smartly
dressed; they generally sit
behind a desk, shot in
medium close-up; they rarely
show emotion; and they look
straight into the camera -
although nobody else is
allowed to do this. News
begins with ‘serious’ stories,
and ends with light-hearted
ones; it often focuses on
dramatic or unusual events;
and it tends to show politicians and celebrities rather than ordinary people.

Example 3: The Language of Editing

Film-makers take great

care to select and combine
shots in order to tell a story, and
to create the effects they want.
Most feature films use
‘continuity editing’, which has
definite rules. For instance,
when we see a shot of a
character looking out of the
frame, and then we cut to
another shot of an object or a
person, we automatically
assume that this is what they
are looking at.

https://media.codes/media-codes-and-conventions
c03423c06aa8
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

So, what are codes and conventions? As a student you have to identify these codes that
may be used to convey meanings in media messages.
Codes and conventions are the building blocks of media. Codes are system of signs,
which has an agreed meaning, or connotation, to their audience. Codes can be divided into
three categories – symbolic, and, written.

SYMBOLIC TECHNICAL WRITTEN

CODES CODES CODES
Setting Camerawork Printed language
Mise en scene Editing Spoken language
Acting Audio
colour lighting

Technical codes are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a media text, for
example the camera work in a film.
Symbolic codes show what is beneath the surface of what we see. For example, a character's
actions show you how the character is feeling.
Written codes in the form of headlines, captions, speech bubbles and language styles.
On the other hand, conventions are the generally accepted ways of constructing form and
informing meaning in media products including story principles, form and structure, generic
structures, character and story arc, cause and effect, point of view, the structuring of time,
elements of page layout, paper stock for print, titles and credits sequences, hyperlinking and
mounting and framing of images. There are general conventions in any medium.
DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

References:
Kavanagh, Jennifer, et al. (2019). Facts Versus Opinions: How the Style and Language of News
Presentation Is Changing in the Digital Age, Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, RB-10059-
RC, 2019. As of September 22, 2020:
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10059.html.
Wilson, Carolyn; et al. (2011). Media and Information Literacy: Curriculum for Teachers.
UNESCO Press ISBN 978-92-3-104198-3 (EN); 978-959-18-07; 978-959-
18-0787-8 (ES)
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https://bbamantra.com/media-types-characteristics/. Accessed 23 Jul. 2020.
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(n.d.). Types of Communication Medium - Communication Toolbox. Retrieved July 23, 2020,
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(n.d.). The Media: Types of Media | SparkNotes. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from
https://www.sparknotes.com/us-government-and-politics/american- government/the-
media/section1/(2019, September 27). 5 Types of Media. Media is the biggest source nowadays
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(2016, February 15). What Is New Media? | Southeastern University Online. Retrieved July 24,
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(2020, February 24). What is New Media? | SNHU. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from
https://www.snhu.edu/about-us/newsroom/2020/02/what-is-new-media
(n.d.). Media convergence | Britannica. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/media-convergence
(n.d.). Current Problems in the Media - The Daily Source. Retrieved July 24, 2020, from
https://www.dailysource.org/about/problems
Wilson, Carolyn; Grizzle, Anton; Tuazon, Ramon; Akyempong; Kwane; Cheung, Chi- Kim (2011).
Media and Information Literacy: Curriculum for Teachers. UNESCO Press ISBN 978-92-3-104198-
3 (EN); 978-959-18-07; 978-959-18-0787-8 (ES)
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(n.d.). Media codes - helveticamediuma.com. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from
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(n.d.). Codes & Conventions & Characteristics of Media | MEDIA. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from
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(n.d.). Module 4: Languages in Media and Information. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from
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DHSBNHS-SENIOR HIGH MEDIA AND INFORMATION LITERACY

(2017, September 29). Media Codes and Conventions. Retrieved July 13, 2020, from
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(2017, September 29). Media Codes and Conventions. Retrieved July 15, 2020, from
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