Unit 2: Media Language
Media Studies · Semester 1 Plan · Unit 2 of 6 · ← Unit 1 | Unit 3 →
Concepts: Media Language · Technical Elements · Media Vocabulary · Narrative
What this unit does
This unit covers the micro end of media language: semiotics, sign types, the four code families, genre, camera, and narrative — the vocabulary you will use under pressure. Alongside this, the C1 production strand starts: you commit to a media area in week 2, lock your planning to a shootable standard before the National Day break, and shoot your first footage during it. Everything here feeds into A1.
Dates & span
W2–W6: Mon 2026-09-07 → Fri 2026-10-09 — 15 teaching days. There is no session on Fri 2026-09-25 (Mid-Autumn Festival). The National Day break falls between Wed 2026-09-30 and Fri 2026-10-09. Week 6 has a single session on Fri 2026-10-09, which is part of L05.
Lessons
- L02 Semiotics — How Images Mean — Saussure, denotation/connotation, modes of address, anchorage; the theory-card spine begins; you commit to your media area on Wed 2026-09-09.
- L03 Sign Types and Codes — Peirce’s triad, the four code families, cold-reading unseen stills.
- L04 Genre and Camera — Altman/Neale’s industry–audience contract plus camera vocabulary at speed, practised on unlabeled clips.
- L05 Narrative and the Planning Lock — Todorov/Propp; your C1 planning is peer-reviewed and locked; HW1 is set here, before the break.
Assessment
| Item | Date | What | AO |
|---|---|---|---|
| CS2 | Fri 2026-09-11 | Annotated media text from daily life, ≥6 code labels | AO1 |
| CS3 | Fri 2026-09-18 | Vocabulary quiz, 20 items, 20 min | AO1 |
| CS4 | Wed 2026-09-23 | Genre + camera analytical paragraph — direct practice for A1 | AO2 |
| LB1 | Tue 2026-09-29 | Blog punctuality, posts 1–5 | — |
| HW1 | set 09-30 → due Fri 10-09 | Break task: A1-format analysis of a self-chosen 2–3 min sequence | AO1+AO2 |
| LB2 | Fri 2026-10-09 | HW1 returned on time; glossary current | — |
One assessment is announced on Wed 2026-09-30 and sits on Wed 2026-10-14, inside Unit 3. See the full register.
Key content
- Theorists: Saussure (signifier/signified), Peirce (icon/index/symbol), Altman and Neale (genre as agreement), Todorov (equilibrium), Propp (character functions).
- The four code families — technical, symbolic, written, audio — as your two-year analytical checklist.
- C1 milestones: commit to your media area; lock your planning suite against the shootability checklist on Wed 2026-09-30; shoot in the break production window (3–4 h); sound and editing vocabulary are introduced on your own footage.
- ESL support: EN/ZH connotation-by-culture examples are built in, and the lexicon grows toward CS3.