When Media text is mentioned, what goes into the minds of many is the written form of information. However, media text is the verbal and non-verbal signs that combine to form the style of communication in mass media using different media channels such as print and electronic media.
One of the things every communications practitioner be it in the film industry, TV, or in PR firms is to understand the concept of media text. Analysing media text help a scholar or a practitioner to identify the form and the meaning of the media text because media and its products are not natural and are always adapting to new development in society.
First, one needs to appreciate that media text consumption produces all manner of personal emotions ranging from happy ones to sad ones. These emotions come to us so naturally because the producers of the media texts have a mastery of numerous production techniques that enable them to produce media texts to elicit certain emotions in the user. No wonder a toddler will be glued to the TV screen watching endless cartoons that do not make sense to a teenager who prefers watching action movies.
One of the major techniques for analysing media text is rhetoric. Rhetoric is the structuring and handling of language by a creator of a media text for emotional purposes. The desired goal by the creator of the text is usually to draw the attention of the user with the hope of understanding the message being communicated by the creator. Rhetoric differs from grammar in that it is organized based on the results while grammar follows a set of rules (Orel State Institute of Culture & Pastukhov, 2016).
Initially, rhetoric was only employed in verbal communication but with modern-day channels, rhetoric is used in other channels such as images, sounds and non-verbal interpersonal communication (Orel State Institute of Culture & Pastukhov, 2016). Different channels will employ specific rhetoric known to the audience of the respective medium. It is the responsibility of the communications practitioner to understand how the concept of rhetoric can be employed to ensure effectiveness in the messaging.
For example, verbal rhetoric has to do with the choice of words in both written and spoken texts such as metaphors, cliches, ellipses, alliterations, rhyme, and allusion among many others. Other rhetoric devices include presentation rhetoric, photographic rhetoric, and editorial rhetoric. These tools should be used appropriately to achieve the communication goal of any organization, industry or firm.
Media text has always held an enormous space attracting more attention as compared to the creator of the text. Consequently, the media text often dominates the media process because the audience is always interacting with the text on different social media platforms(Eleonora, 2022). The internet has changed the style of media text. There is a significant shift from the traditional press style to an informal style. There seem to be new rules of society which call for a continuous call of fresh ground-breaking information. The real-time communication occasioned by internet communication has affected the style and the way information is presented. Every media practitioner should always seek new ways of drawing the attention of the listener, viewer, and reader amidst the current challenges of creating media text. Rigidity to the formal style might feel good but might be the trajectory to the demise of communication in the modern-day context.
Today, more than ever before, the media text is undergoing radical changes. Media text creators should therefore endeavour to make the text fit in a real-world situation as much as possible. The downside of this is that it will lead to a change in the status of reality, the human being, and the culture of understanding which is an important component of media practitioners, especially considering the growth of non-verbal components in the media text (Eleonora, 2022).
References
Eleonora, S. (2022). Living Word and Audiality as a Problem of Modern Media Text. IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.103794
Fürsich, E. (2018). Textual Analysis and Communication (pp. 9780199756841–0216) [Data set]. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756841-0216
Orel State Institute of Culture, & Pastukhov, A. G. (2016). Media texts: Main structures and values from the perspectives of intercultural communication. Language and Culture, 2(8), 65–74. https://doi.org/10.17223/24109266/8/7
Vt, A., S, M., Zt, K., K, Ð., Z, T., Ka, T., & Lt, K. (2016). The Media Text in Virtual Space. Global Media Journal. https://www.globalmediajournal.com/ peer-reviewed/ the-media-text-in-virtual-space-77774.html