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Media Studies · Media Studies: Reading, Questioning and Creating Media

Overt and Implied Messages: Reading Between the Frames

1.2About 70 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can distinguish overt and implied messages in media texts, including complex texts.
  • I can use denotation and connotation to explain how signs create implied messages.
  • I can support each interpretation with specific evidence from the text.

Words to know

overt message
A message a media text states or shows directly.
implied message
A message the text suggests through its choices, which the audience must infer.
sign
Any element that carries meaning: an image, word, colour, sound or object.
denotation
What a sign literally is or shows.
connotation
The ideas and feelings a sign suggests beyond its literal meaning.
value message
An implied idea about what is normal, good, successful or desirable.
juxtaposition
Placing two things side by side so the audience connects them.

Hook: what is this ad really saying?

An invented 30-second TV ad: a pickup truck drives through a snowstorm on a country road. It stops, and the driver, a man in a work jacket, uses a tow strap to pull a neighbour's car out of a snowy ditch while his grown son guides the car out. Warm guitar music. The neighbour waves. The narrator's deep voice says: Built for here.

The ad never says Buy this truck and you'll be a better person. So why do so many viewers walk away feeling exactly that?

Overt and implied messages

  • An overt message is stated or shown directly. In the truck ad: This truck is strong and handles winter. (and, as with any ad: Buy it.)
  • An implied message is suggested but not said. You infer it from images, casting, setting, music, camera work, and even from what is missing.

Implied messages often carry values: ideas about what is normal, good, successful or desirable. In the truck ad, implied messages might be: real Canadians are rugged and rural, owning this truck makes you a helpful neighbour, and (because every helper in the ad is a man) helping and toughness are masculine.

Implied messages are not always bad. A public-health ad might imply people like you get vaccinated. Your job is to notice them and explain how they are created.

OVERTOvert (stated or shown):"This truck is tough.Buy it."IMPLIEDreal Canadians arerugged; owning thismakes you a goodneighbour; helpersare menBelow the surface:suggested by images,casting, setting, musicand what is missing
The message iceberg for the invented truck ad. The overt message is above the waterline. The implied messages, which are often more powerful, sit below it.

Denotation and connotation

To find implied messages, read each sign (an image, word, colour, sound or object) in two layers:

  • Denotation: what is literally there. A red maple leaf.
  • Connotation: the ideas and feelings it suggests. Canada, home, pride, trust.

Words have connotations too. Cozy, cramped and compact can all describe the same small apartment. An ad will always choose cozy.

Then ask: Put together, what do these connotations want me to believe, feel or do? That is the implied message.

DENOTATIONwhat is literally there:a red maple leafon a cracker boxCONNOTATIONwhat it suggests:Canadian, local,trustworthy, "ours"IMPLIED MESSAGE"Buying this supportsCanada" (check: whereis it actually made?)From what you see, to what it suggests, to what it wants you to believe
Reading a sign in three steps: denotation (what is literally there), connotation (what it suggests) and the implied message. The last box reminds you to check the claim the image hints at.

Where implied messages hide

  • Casting: who appears (age, gender, body type, culture, ability) and who doesn't.
  • Setting: a cabin, a downtown condo, a hockey arena: each suggests a lifestyle.
  • Narrative: what problem is solved, and by whom? Who is the hero?
  • Technical choices: angle, lighting, music, voice. A deep, calm voice-over suggests authority.
  • Juxtaposition: placing two things side by side so we link them (the truck beside the grateful neighbour).
  • Absence: what the text leaves out (cost, fuel use, people who live in cities).

With complex texts such as films, series and games, implied messages can build up across a whole story: which characters are rewarded, which are punished, and whose point of view we share.

Worked example

Let's interpret overt and implied messages

Interpret this invented ad. A 20-second video for Snowline hot cocoa: a family comes in from building a snow fort, cheeks red. A parent pours cocoa into four mugs at a big wooden table near a fireplace. Everyone laughs. Text on screen: Snowline. Warm up together. Identify the overt message and at least two implied messages, with evidence.

  1. Overt message: Snowline cocoa warms you up after winter fun. Buy it. (Evidence: the slogan and the product shown in mugs.)
  2. Denotation to connotation: the fireplace and wooden table denote a home; they connote comfort and togetherness. Red cheeks connote healthy outdoor play.
  3. Implied message 1: This cocoa creates family closeness. (Evidence: the slogan together, the four matching mugs, everyone laughing at once. Juxtaposition links the drink with the happy moment.)
  4. Implied message 2: A "normal" Canadian family has a big house with a fireplace and time to play on snow days. (Evidence: the setting; no parent leaves for work; no apartment or small kitchen.)
  5. Absence: sugar content and price are not mentioned; families who don't fit the picture are not shown.
  6. Effect: viewers may feel that buying the cocoa brings them closer to that ideal picture.

The overt message sells cocoa as a warm drink. The implied messages link the product to family closeness and present one lifestyle as normal. Each message is supported by evidence from the text.

Make it a sentence

Write implied messages as full sentences in quotation marks or italics, such as "Owning this truck makes you a good neighbour." A single word like family is a topic, not a message.

Just for fun

Connotation in action: a real-estate listing might call a house "charming" (small), "full of character" (old) and "close to transit" (you can hear the trains). Same house, carefully chosen words.

Hands-on activity

Message iceberg poster

You need: paper, coloured pencils or markers, and one ad (a TV or online video ad, a magazine ad, or a flyer).

  1. Draw a large iceberg with a waterline.
  2. Above the line, write the overt message in a full sentence.
  3. Below the line, write at least three implied messages as full sentences.
  4. Around the iceberg, list the evidence for each: casting, setting, music, words, angles, what is missing. Draw arrows from the evidence to the message it supports.
  5. Explain your iceberg to someone at home. Do they agree with your implied messages? If they read it differently, add their reading in another colour.

What to look for: messages written as sentences, at least one piece of evidence per message, and at least one message about values (what the ad treats as normal, good or desirable).

Your turn

1

What is the difference between an overt and an implied message?

2

In the truck ad, what implied message comes from the fact that every helper is a man?

3

Give the denotation and one connotation of a fireplace in an ad.

4

Why is the slogan Built for here effective for a Canadian audience?

5

Name two places implied messages can hide in a media text.

6

In the Snowline ad, what is absent, and why does that matter?

More practice: warm-up

1

Is the narrator says the cocoa is warm overt or implied?

2

What is a sign in media analysis?

3

Which word has a more positive connotation: cozy or cramped?

4

What does juxtaposition mean?

5

True or false: implied messages are always harmful.

More practice: on your own

1

A sports-drink ad shows a sweaty athlete winning a race, then drinking the product. Identify one overt and one implied message.

2

A phone ad shows teens laughing together while looking at one phone. Explain an implied message about friendship.

3

Why do advertisers often prefer implied messages to overt claims?

4

Explain how a deep, calm voice-over contributes to an implied message.

5

Interpret this headline's connotation: Teens flock to new skate park.

Challenge

1

Choose a film, series or game you know. Explain an implied message that builds up across the whole story (for example, through which characters are rewarded or punished).

2

Two people disagree about the truck ad. One says its message is "Help your neighbours." The other says it's "Buy a truck to prove you're tough." Can both be right? Explain.

3

Write a 30-second ad concept for a snowboard that deliberately avoids one implied message you think is harmful in typical sports ads. Explain your choices.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

An implied message is one that...

2.

The denotation of an image is...

3.

In the Snowline ad, which is the strongest evidence for the implied message "this cocoa creates family closeness"?

4.

Which word would an ad most likely use for a small apartment?

5.

What does absence mean as a source of implied messages?

6.

Which is written as a proper implied message?

For parents and teachers

What this lesson teaches: expectation 1.2: interpreting media texts, including increasingly complex texts, by identifying and explaining the overt and implied messages they convey. Students use denotation and connotation and look for implied messages in casting, setting, narrative, technical choices, juxtaposition and absence.

How to help at home:

  • During an ad, ask: "What does it say? What does it want you to believe without saying?"
  • Play a connotation game: find three words for the same thing (thrifty, cheap, stingy) and rank them.
  • Discuss family-life ads: "Does this look like most families we know?"

Common difficulties:

  • Stopping at the overt message. Ask for at least two implied messages.
  • Interpretations without evidence. Every message needs a specific detail from the text.
  • Over-reading. An interpretation must be supported; if there's no evidence, it's a guess.

Facts used: the truck ad and the Snowline cocoa ad are invented examples.