Media Evaluation

So far in Media, I have learnt alot about the technical side of media, for example, camera, mise-en-scence, editing and sound, I have learnt about the different genres and I have also got a greater understanding of how things are represented and chosen for effect by the media to be shown on TV, in films or magazines.
I have learnt about semiology and signs eg. indexical, iconical and symbolic (Indexical is when the audience see something and immediately link it to something else, for example, if there was smoke coming out of a building, the audience would assume there was a fire. Symbolic is when a picture or object represents something else, it is something that is learnt as a 'symbol.' And finally an iconical sign is something that the audience recognises in the media, for example, Jennifer Aniston is iconic, and usually stars in rom-coms.) I have also learnt what binary opposites are and now understand that without an opposite, certain words wouldn't have a meaning, for example, how would we know what hot is if we've never experienced cold? We had to write an essay on Binary Opposites in the titanic, which really helped me to understand and remember what they were. We have been learning constantly about genre, especially thriller as this is what our coursework will be based on. I have learnt that the boundaries between genres are very blurred which is why we get hybrid genres. Hybrid genres are a mix of two or more genres in one film and are very common these days, infact it is rare to find a film with only one genre in and not one feature of another genre. I have found all of this very interesting to learn about. My strengths in media so far, are probably camera techniques, such as movement, shots, positioning etc, as we have gone over it alot in lessons and I feel like it's very easy to pick up. My weakness in media so far is probably semiology as I feel like it's very confusing and I haven't read through my notes much which would have helped me, I'm also not very good at the editing side of media because there's alot you can say about it and we haven't got over it much.  To improve, my targets are:

-When writing an essay, try to personalise your response, making your analysis perceptive and originial
-When writing an essay, make sure your notes are clear, structured and detailed.
-To gain a better understanding of signs and semiology