reading media texts journal

we talked about langue and parole in both lecture and tute this week. this idea came from the structuralists.
langue is defined as a system, and parole is defined as the way the system is used. we also thought that “langue” may be ale to be used interchangably with “conventions”.
for example, the langue could be the english language and the parole would be grammar, pronounciation etc.
we worked on an example in class where we took a film genre and described its langue, and then took a film and examined how it used the langue (the parole).
im gonna try this again with something different, something perhaps closer to my area of study, a corporate brochure. the langue for a corporate brochure includes the following:
folded a4 or a3 paper
heading/s
sub heading/s
informational text
logo
imagery (not always but common)
contact details

it is the way in which the designer uses these conventions that makes the brochure interesting or not. depending on the combination and relationships with all the other signs the brochure may be anything from a black and white word printout to a full on superslick production. here we get back to the semiotics- the brochure depends on all the signs working with or against each other to create a full system (the brochure).

similary, food packaging displays a langue and parole:
something that encloses the food
the name of the food
a description of the item (an example from my fridge- rev, low fat milk)
a clear area where the food can be viewed
the nutritional information
the ingredients
the use by date
the company who produces the food

however, i can think of a few situations in which the langue is not used in the parole.
imported food often does not have the same types of information printed on it- some does not have nutritional information, some do not have description of the item.
also, some food stuffs do not have a peephole where you can see the food. for example, a type of muesli bar that i often buy is completely enclosed in card and cannot be seen (you can see the pic of the package here, on the products page). i am not sure if this means that “a clear area where the food can be viewed” is not in fact part of the langue, or if it means the langue is being subverted.
actually, no i come to think of it, i can think of a number of foods that do not have a peephole in them. my milk, my muesli bars. i am not sure how common something has to be to be defined as part of the langue.

EDIT 18/3
i showed this to jenny and she said

I am not entirely sure that you understand the lange/parole distinction. Parole is an instance of langue. Langue is a system. Eg the langue of English includes the vocabulary, grammar, syntax, everything that goes into the system. This email is parole, an instance of langue.

so i need to think about it again at some time