The Codes of Television

John Fiske's "The Codes of Television" discusses interesting aspects of filming, camera work, setting and lighting, and characters and costumes, and how they play into a synchronized story, each working in its own way to represent social codes. I thought it was neat to learn all the different ways the camera can shoot a character in order to get the audience to gain the right perception. This is something that I would have never actually realized until reading this. As a viewer, you're not paying attention to the ways in which the CAMERA is persuasive; you are watching the actors who are persuading with their acting skills. I guess it can be somewhat subliminal. Your mind is picking up on it, although, your not conscious of it. I can see how this fits in with all the other discussions of ads and the way they portray genders, classes, and races. Although we may not feel as if we are being influenced by such ads, there is always an underlying motive.

After reading about camera effects, NBC'S "To catch a Predator" popped in my mind. If you can recall, every time Chris Hansen would come out to talk with the suspect, the camera would not zoom in close to his face. Rather, the camera would be at a distance that could show the majority of his body. On the other hand, when filming the suspects, the camera would zoom into the faces of these predators into an "ECU". It is not shot this way accidentally. According to Fiske, this is an example of the camera creating an effect through the social code of interpersonal distance. "In western cultures the space within about 24 inches of is is encoded as private" (4).

Here, he explains that if not by means of intimacy, anyone entering this space is hostile. Also, Fiske describes these ECU's are effective because it implies that seeing closely means seeing better and the viewer is then capable of seeing into the villain, through his words, and thus gains power over him. These technical and social codes, he describes, manifest this ideological encoding of villainy.