Connotation and Denotation

Denotation- if the audience sees a table and the director wanted the audience to know it was a table that would be denotation.

Connotation- the audience sees a table and understands it is table but also have their own thoughts of the table like past experiences usually the director intends to do this 

When we see a knife we think for chopping this is denotation, but if we ad some dark music and have thunder and lightning and have two people having a massive fight in the kitchen and cut to the knife we think its a murder weapon, this is connotation.

Denotation refers to the basic interpretation of the light hitting our eyes 

Connotation what you associate the image with 

If you make the connotations that the producer of the media text meant you to make, then this is called a preferred reading 

if you make different connotations form those which the producer intend you to make. then this is called  an oppositional reading.


Take a kitchen knife as an example- 

This kitchen knife could be seen to be used for chopping up vegetables (denotation) or it could be seen as weapon to hurt people by the audience (connotation)