Adams, Paul C.  “Television as Gathering Place.”  Annals of the Association of American Geographers.  Vol. 82, No. 1 (March 1992):  117-135.

The media has two current traditions on the theory of television; one looks mainly at psychological social effects of television on society while the other looks at “cultural materialism, linguistics, and semiotics to attempt to understand how television emerged from works to reinforce existing structures and practices in society” (119).  Adams says that culture and television affect one another.  Television has come to be seen by the media theory as a set of phenomena rather than a single one.   To describe mass media, media theorists use certain terms such as “environment,” “world,” “place,” and “space” (119). 

In discussing mass media, Adams also talks about Edward Relphs’ denunciation of mass media.  Adams discusses whether television as a place is a good or bad thing.  He says that “television” can mean more than one thing; it can be thought of as either “the box in the living room” or “the complex organization of people, technology and symbols of which the box in the living room is only a tiny part” (122-123).  Adams ends saying that there is much more to be discussed and studied than he has put forth in his article.  The audience also need to understand the concepts of “environment, world, and space” to see their relevance to television (131).

Fiske, John "The Codes of Television" Media Studies: A Reader, Second Edition Ed. Paul Marris. Washington Square, NY: NYU Press, 2000. 220-230.

Television uses a system of verbal, nonverbal, and representational codes to communicate meaning to the viewing audience. John Fiske’s codes of television are rules and conventions shared among members of a culture which are used to create meanings within the culture (Fiske 222). 
   
There are three levels to the codes of television: reality, representation, and ideology.  Level 1, reality, is already encoded by social codes such as dress, make-up, speech and gestures; it is the product of cultural codes.  Fiske gives the example of a tree reflected in a lake may be the setting for a romantic scene.
   
Level 2, representation, is encoded by technical codes to convey reality. Camera movements and the adjustments of angles, framing and focus can be used to give a desired effect. The usual camera distance in television is mid-shot to close-up, which brings the viewer into an intimate, comfortable relationship with the characters on the screen.  Villains are usually shown in extreme close-up.  The lighting of objects and people can affect the mood in which they are perceived. Villains are often shown in a harsh, white light. Heroes are shown in softer, yellowish light.  Editing is way to adjust the rhythm and continuity of a scene to give it more of a natural flow, making the average shot about 7 seconds. Music can also suggest changes in mood and emotions. For example, background music may drop from major keys showing a program’s heroes to minor keys for scenes with villains (Fiske 224-225).
   
“A script provides the setting, narrative, conflict, action, dialogue, and characters, but the actors who are cast in various roles bring the characters and plot to life” (O’Donnell 157). Casting is an aspect of encoding that is unique in that viewers may know actors and their behaviors from other programs.  Actors are real people and some bring an intertextual meaning from their public lives. For example, Donald Trump may be cast as an evil, corporate boss.
   
Fiske uses an example from a scene in the show Hart to Hart in which he compares the settings, costumes, make-up, action and dialogue used for the heroes and villains. The hero’s cabin has drapes and flowers where as the villain’s setting features sharp angles and hard lines. The villains appear dressed less tastefully. The heroine’s lips wear brighter lipstick and appear fuller than those of the villainess. The hero and heroine cooperate and display a closeness physically in scenes where as the villains tend to disagree and pull apart from one another. The dialogue is written to let the heroes joke and use metaphors. These techniques can all play on the viewers’ sympathy for the heroes.

Fiske’s third level of codes, ideology, is shaped by representation. “Representational codes are organized into coherence and social acceptability by ideological codes, such as individualism, patriarchy, class, materialism, capitalism, and so on. All the codes come together to encode a preferred meaning that supports a certain ideology”(O'Donnell 158). In the Hart to Hart example, when the criminal is caught or prosecuted, the ideology of law, and good winning over evil is coded. This means that viewers of altering social positions may interpret the programs differently

Decoding these representations and interpreting meaning can be a pleasurable process for the viewer. Using his Hart to Hart example, Fiske effectively demonstrates “popular television is both complex and deeply infused with ideology” (Fiske 229).

Milano, Paolo.  “Music in the Film: Notes for a Morphology.”  The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism.  Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 1941):  89-94.   

There are also different types of music: “neutral,” “casual,” “music as rhythmic comment,” “illustrative music,” and “music as psychological comment” (90-91).  In all of these different types, “the film’s theme has determined the visuals and the score is planned only for their adornment” (91).  Sometimes the music and film do not relate to one another.  Milano uses the example of a fight scene while peaceful music plays.  Another type of music discussed later in the essay is “counterpoint” which would show as a “sleeping face and the wild music of a nightmare” (92).  One would imagine that the music would be more peaceful while the person is sleeping rather than while someone is engaging in a vehement fight. 

After discussing different types of music, Milano breaks down the different types of images: “images of psychological comment,” “illustrative images,” “images as rhythmic comment,” “casual images,” and “neutral images” (93).  Milano says that the circle of music to image is sealed by inverse proportion.  This is because Milano discusses the different types of music beginning at one and ending at five, and he discusses images in an inverse ratio beginning at five and ending at one.