Eduqas Glossary Flashcards
Action code
Something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience that some action will follow.
Active audience
Audiences actively engage in selecting media products to consume and interpreting their meanings.
Anchorage
The words that accompany an image (still or moving) contribute to the meaning associated with that image.
- A text without an anchor is an open text as the audience can interpret it as they wish.
Appeal
The way in which products attract and interest an audience
Arc of transformation
The emotional changes a character goes through in the process of the narrative.
Aspirational?
In terms of a media text, one that encourages the audience to want more money, up-market consumer items and a higher social position.
Attract
How media producers create appeal to audiences to encourage them to consume the product
Audience categorisation
How media producers group audiences to target their products.
Audience consumption
The way in which audiences engage with media products eg. viewing a TV programmed, playing a video game.
Audience interpretation
The way in which audiences ‘read’ the meanings in, and make sense of, media products
Audience positioning
The way in which media products place audiences (literally or metaphorically) in relation to a particular point of view.
Audience response
How audiences react to media products, eg by accepting the intended meanings (preferred reading)
Audience segmentation
Where a target audience is divided up due to the diversity and range of programmes and channels.
Audio
How sound is used to communicate meanings - voice over, dialogue, music, SFX, etc.
Avatar
A players representation of themselves within a game
Back story
Part of a narrative which may be the experiences of a character or the circumstances of an event that occur before the action or narrative of a media text.
Binary opposites
When texts incorporate examples of opposite values (good vs evil)
Brand identity
The association the audience make with the brand, for example Chanel or Nike, built up over time and reinforced by the advertising campaigns and their placement.
Broadsheet
A larger newspaper that publishes more serious news, for example The Daily Telegraph.
Camera angles
The angle of the camera in relation to the subject. (eg a high angle shot may make subject appear more vulnerable)
Camera shots
The type of shot and framing in relation to the subject, eg close up shots often used to express emotion.
Caption
Words that accompany an image that help to explain its meaning.
Channel identity
That which makes the channel recognisable to audiences and different from any other channel. Presenters, stars, programme genres all contribute to a channel’s identity.
Circulation
The reach of media products to audiences/users - the method will depend on the media form.
Connotation
The suggested meanings attached to a sign
Conventions
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text.
Convergence
The coming together of previously separate media industries and/or platforms; often the result of advances in technology when one devices contains a range of different features.
Cover lines
These suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers and rhetorical questions. These relate to the genre of the magazine
Cross platform marketing
In media terms, a text that is distributed and exhibited across a range of media formats or platforms. (films, tv, print, radio and the internet)
Cultural capital
The media tastes and preferences of an audience, traditionally linked to social class/background.
Demographic category
A group in which consumers are placed according to their age, sex, income, profession, etc.
Denotation
The literal meaning of a sign
Diegetic sound
Sound that comes from the fictional world, for example the sound of a gun firing, the cereal being poured into the bowl in an advert.
Discourse
The topics, language and meanings or values behind them within a media text. The discourse of lifestyle magazines for example, tends to revolve around body image.
Distribution
The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign. These methods will depend upon the product.
Diversification
Where media organisations who have specialised in producing media products in one form move into producing content across a range of forms.
Editing
The way in which the shots move from one to the other (transitions) eg fade cut, jump cut etc.
Encoding and decoding
Media producers encode messages and meaning sin products that are decoded, or interpreting, by audiences.
Enigma code
A narrative device which increases tension and audience interest by only releasing bits of information.
Equilibrium
In relation to narrative, a state of balance or stability (in Todorov’s theory the equilibrium is disrupted and ultimately restored)
Ethnocentric
A belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group or culture.
Ethos
The beliefs, value and customs of, for example, media organisations.
Afrofuturism
A movement in literature, music, art, etc, featuring futuristic or science fiction themes which incorporate elements of black history and culture.
Fan
An enthusiast or aficionado a particular media form or product
Feature
In magazine terms, the main, or one of the main, stories in an edition. Generally located in the middle of the magazine, and cover more than one or two pages.
Flexi narrative
A more complex narrative structure with layers of interweaving story lines. This challenges the audience and keeps them watching.
Four Cs
Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics and was a way of catergorising consumers through their motivational needs. The main groups were Mainstreamers, Aspirers, Explorers, Succeeders and Reformers.
Franchise
An entire series of, for example, a film including the original film and all those that follow.
Gate keepers
The people responsible for deciding the most appropriate stories to appear in newspapers. They may be the owner, editor or senior journalists. They will only let the stores most appropriate for the ideology of the paper ‘through the gate’.
Genre
Media texts can often be grouped into genres hat all share similar conventions.
Global
Worldwide - eg, a media product with global reach is a product that is distributed around the world.
Hegemony
The dominance of one group over another, often supported by legitimating norms and ideas.
Horizontal integration
Where a media conglomerate is made up of different companies that produce and sell similar products, often as a result of mergers.
House style
The aspects that make a magazine recognisable to its readers every issue. Established through the choice of colour, the layout and design etc.
Hybrid genre
Media texts that incorporate elements of more than one genre and are therefore more difficult to classify are genre hybrids.
(eg KOTV romance (?) and vampire/horror)
Hypodermic needle model
The idea that the media product injects and idea into the mind of an audience who are assumed to be passive and as a result will all respond in the same way.
Iconography
The props, costumes, objects and backgrounds associated with a particular genre.
Ideology
A set of messages, values and beliefs that may be encoded into media products.
Independent film
A film made outside of the financial and artistic control of a a large mainstream film company.
Independent record label
A record label that operates without the funding of, and that is not necessarily linked to, a major record label.
Intellectual property
A legal concept which refers to creations of the mind for which the owners rights are recognised.
Interactive audience
The ways in which audiences can become actively involved with a product, eg posting a response to a blog or live tweeting during a TV programme.
Intertextual
Where one media makes reference to aspects of another text within it.
Intertextuality
Where one media product intertextually references another.
Layout and design
The way in which a page has been designed to attract the target audience.
Linear narrative
Where the narrative unfolds in chronological order form beginning to end.
Ludology
The study of games and those who play them, relevant to video games.
Masculinity
The percieved characteristics generally considered to define what it is to be a man. These can change according to sociological and cultural variations.
Mass audience
The traditional idea of the audience as one large, homogenous group.
Media conglomerate
A company that owns other companies across a range of media platforms. This increases their domination of the market and their ability to distribute and exhibit their product.
Media forms
Types of media products eg television, newspapers, advertising.
Media language
The specific elements of a media product that communicate meanings to audiences, eg. visual codes, audio codes, technical codes, language.
Media platform
The range of different ways of communicating with an audience.
Mediation
The way in which a media text is constructed in order to represent a version of reality; constructed through selection, organisation and focus.
Mise-en-scene
In analysis of moving image products, how the combination fo images in the frame creates meaning;how individual shots in a film or photograph have been composed.
Misrepresentation
Certain social groups (usually minority groups) may be represented in a way that is inappropriate and not based on reality.
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role playing game
Mode of address
The way in which a media text ‘speaks to’ its target audience.
Narrative
The ‘story’ that is told by the media text. All media texts, not just fictional texts, have a narrative.
News agenda
The list of stories that may appear in a particular paper. The items on the news agenda will reflect the style and ethos of the paper.
Niche audience
A relatively small audience with specialised interests, taste and backgrounds.
Non-diegetic sound
Sound that comes from outside the fictional world, for example a voiceover.
Non-linear narrative
Here the narrative manipulates time and space. it may begin in the middle and then include flashbacks and other narrative devices.
Open world
In an open world computer game the player can move freely through the virtual world and is not restricted by levels and other barriers to free roaming.
Opinion leaders
People in society who may affect the way in which others interpret a particular media text. With regard to advertising, this may be a celebrity or other endorser recommending a product.
Passive audience
The idea that audiences do not actively engage with media products, but passively consume and accept the messages that producers communicate.
Patriarchal culture
A society or culture that is male dominated.
Plurality
In a media context, this refers to a range of content to suit many people.
Political bias
Where a newspaper may show support for a political party through its choice of stories, style of coverage, cartoons, etc. it may be subtle and implicit or explicit as in the case on the tabloid newspapers on election day.
Privileged spectator position
Where the camera places the audience in a superior position within the narrative. The audience can then anticipate what will follow.
Production
The process by which media products are constructed.
Products
Media texts, including tv programmes, magazines, video games etc.
Public Service Broadcaster
A radio and television broadcaster that is financed by public money (license fee in UK) and is seen to offer a public service by catering for a range of audiences and providing information, as well as entertainment.
Realism
A style of presentation that claims to portray ‘real life’ accurately and authentically.
Regulator
A person or body that supervises a particular industry.
Repertoire of elements
Key features that distinguish one genre from another.
Representation
The way in which key groups or aspects of society are presented by the media.
Selection and combination
Media producers actively choose elements of media language and place them alongside others to create specific representations or versions of reality.
Sexual objectification
The practice of regarding a person as an object to viewed only in terms of their sexual appeal and with no consideration of any other aspect of their character or personality.
Sign/code
Something which communicates meaning. The meaning of the sign changes according to the context.
Simulcast
The streaming of live radio programmes from the website at the same time as they are broadcast on the radio.
Specialised audience
A non-mass, or niche, audience that may be defined by a particular social group or by a specific interest.
Splash
A story that is given the most prominence on the front page of a newspaper
Stereotype
An exaggerated representation of someone or something. It is also where a certain group are associated with a certain set of characteristics.
Stripped
A technique used in radio and television whereby a certain programme is broadcast at the same time everyday. In radio this attracts an audience who associate a particular programme with their daily routine.
Subgenre
Where a genre is subdivided into smaller categories each of which has their own set of conventions.
Subject specific lexis
Th specific language and vocabulary used to engage the audience.
Synergy
The combination of elements to maximise profits within a media organisation or product.
Tabloid
Refers to the dimensions of a newspaper, a tabloid is smaller and more compact in size. But also refers to a newspaper whose content focuses on lighter news.
Target audience
The people at whom the media text is aimed.
Technical codes
These are the way in which the text has been produced to communicate meanings and are part of media language.
Textural poaching
The way in which audiences or fans may take particular texts and interpret or reinvent them in different ways eg fan fiction.
Underreprentation
Certain social groups (usually minority groups) may be rarely represented or be completely absent from media products.
Uses and gratifications theory
Suggests that active audiences seek out and use different media texts in order to satisfy a need and experience different pleasures
Vertical integration
Vertically integrated companies won all or most of the chain of production and distribution for the product.
Viewpoints
Different perspectives in relation to values, attitudes, beliefs or ideologies.
Viral marketing
Where the awareness of the product or the advertising campaign is spread through less conventional ways including social networks and the internet.
Visual codes
The visual aspects of the product that construct meaning and are part of media language, for example clothing, expression and gesture.
“WINDOW ON THE WORLD”
The idea that media texts, particularly those that present aspects of reality, for example news programmes, are showing the audience the ‘real’ world as it happens.
