Roland Barthes: Case Study

Born in 1915, Roland Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician (study of cultural signs and symbols).

He describes text as “a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signfieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilises extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable”. This suggests that text is like a tangled ball of threads that need to be unravelled; once unravelled, we encounter a wide range of potential meanings.

Although there are differences between individual narratives, they all have a limited number of organisational structures that affect our reading of texts; these are called ‘Narrative/Enigma codes’.

Enigma Code: Any text, such as television, film, or a poster, makes the audience question something and intrigue the audience to draw them in; making them ask questions. Barthes' theory of the 5 codes is a way of grouping signifiers according to the role they play in the media text, categorised as:

It is important for me to acknowledge and incorporate the ideas of Barthes into my own work as it suggests my music video will be read by my audience in many different ways; despite there being a variety of codes, including cultural and symbolic, he explains that "none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one", and so I need to make sure that all aspects of my music video and its codes are strong. 

Risk Assessment

This is my risk assessment which I created to consider when filming my music video.

Genre Theory

Here is a powerpoint, created by Sophie Christophersen and myself, to aid us in our presentation of genre theory. Through the research and analysis of different theorists and ideas we now understand the importance of genres, as well as audiences, as a result of theory investigation.

My Chosen Song - Lyrics

For my music video I have chosen to use the song 'Lonely Road' by Emma Lauran, my older sister, as I really love how relateable the lyrics are to my narrative. I have briefly annotated these, above, highlighting their relevance to the type of shots I could use. 

Audience Profile

I have created my own profile to portray someone within my music video's target audience of the Country Pop genre. I would like it to appeal to others that fall into the older teenager/young adult category, whilst although here shown appealing to a female audience, could engage with male audiences also.