Definitions Flashcards
Archetype
A term given to a type of character that can be noticed throughout a variety of different texts.
(Eg. Hero, Anti-Hero, Loyal Friend etc.)
Audience
Anyone who views, listens to or reads a media text.
Binary Opposites
A way in which opposites are used to bring about interest in the media.
(Eg. Good/Bad, Young/Old, Black/White etc.)
Catharsis
The idea that the use of violence and sexual content throughout the media can relieve anger and tension in the audience.
Censorship
The control over what is in and not in a media text.
Technical Codes
The way in which, for example, camera angles, framing, lighting etc. bring about certain meanings within a text.
Conventions
The way a certain thing is done in a particular genre.
Convergence
The bringing of two or more things together to create something new.
(iPad have ‘converged’ books, TV, maps and the internet.)
Demographics
Factual characteristics of an audience.
Age, gender, race etc.
Denotation
The ‘explicit’ meaning of a word or image in the media.
Connotation
A secondary meaning that a word or image carries in addition to its ‘explicit’ meaning.
Enigma
A question within a text that is not immediately answered that causes interest in the audience.
Hegemony
Where general views of everything in society is influenced by those of a higher power.
Hypodermic Needle Theory
The idea that the media can ‘inject’ ideas and messages into a passive audience.
Ideology
The ideas and beliefs that are thought to be right and acceptable by the creators of a media text.
Indexical Sign
A sign which relates directly to something it signifies.
Smoke signifies fire
Intertextuality
Where the creators of media texts use other texts to create interest in the audience.
Mode of Address
The way in which a text communicates to its intended audience. For this to be done, the creators generally have to make assumptions on what the intended audience would be to base these communications.
Moral Panic
The way in which emotions are stirred due to events or issues that appear in the media. Generally negatively.
(Muslims after 9/11)
Narrative Code
A way in which a text is generally put together. This general way is ‘Equilibrium, Disequilibrium, New Equilibrium’.
Some texts can be ‘fractured’ or ‘non-linear’, meaning that they do not follow the general pattern.
News Values
Factors which influence whether a certain news story will gain coverage over the news.
Patriarchy
A society where everything is controlled/dominated by women.
Post Modernism
Anything that challenges the traditional way of doing something.
Preferred Reading
The interpretation of a media product that was intended by the maker.
Oppositional Reading
An interpretation of a media text by a reader that conflicts with their interpretations and assumptions.
Negotiated Reading
The ‘compromise’ that is reached between the preferred reading that a media text offers and the assumptions and interpretations of the reader.
Propaganda
The way a ruling class uses the media to control or alter the attitudes of others.
Regulation
Those with the job of making sure certain media texts are not seen by the wrong audience.
(BBFC)
Signifier
Something that conveys a meaning, and the meaning conveyed.
Two Step Flow Model
The idea that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.
Uses and Gratifications Theory
The assumption that the audience is not just passive and that they interpret and interrogate the media into their own lives.
