Codes, conventions, formats, symbols and narrative structures that indicate the meaning of media messages to an audience.

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The idea being tested is how media texts convey meaning through a system of signs, known as media languages. This encompasses codes, conventions, formats, symbols, and narrative structures—the tools media creators use to encode messages and guide how audiences interpret them. For example, technical codes like camera angles, lighting, and sound shape mood and emphasis; conventions reveal or subvert genre expectations; formats organize how a story is presented; symbols carry cultural meanings; and narrative structures control pacing and the delivery of messages. Media languages is the best fit because it names the whole set of signs and rules that carry meaning across different media, not just a generic concept of language or a specific cultural framework. Indigenous Knowledge and Indigenous Communication describe particular cultural knowledge or practices, and the general term Language is too broad to capture the specialized sign system used in media texts.