Terminology Flashcards
what is an action code?
something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience that some action will follow- cheating partner and spouse pulls up in the driveway
what is an active audience?
audiences actively engage in selecting media products to consume and interpreting their meanings
what is anchorage text?
the words that accompany an image (still or moving) contributing to the meaning associated with the image. If the words are changed, this may change the overall interpretation.
what is appeal? (in terms of media products)
the way in which products attract and interest an audience, e.g.-through familiar genre conventions, stereotypes)
what is an arc of transformation?
the emotional changes a character goes through in the process of the narrative. the events in the story mean that they will ‘transform’ by the end of the story
what does aspirational mean? (in terms of media texts)
one that encourages the audience to want more money, up-market consumer items and a higher social position
what does attract mean?
how media producers create appeal to audiences to encourage them to consume the product
what does audience categorisation mean?
how media producers group audiences (e.g.- by age, gender, ethnicity) to target their products
what does audience consumption mean?
the way in which audiences engage with media products (e.g.- viewing a TV programme, playing a video game, reading a blog or magazine). Methods of consumption have changed significantly due to the development of digital technologies.
what does audience interpretation mean?
the way in which audiences ‘read’ the meanings in, and make sense of, media products
what does audience positioning mean?
the way in which media products place audiences (literally or metaphorically) in relation to a particular point of view. For example, audiences may be positioned with a particular character or positioned to adopt a specific ideological perspective.
what does audience response mean?
how audiences react to media products (e.g.- by accepting the intended meanings, or preferred readings)
what is audience segmentation?
Where a target audience is divided up due to the diversity and range of programmes and channels. This makes it difficult for one programme to attract a large target audience
what is audio?
How sound is used to communicate meaning- voice-over, dialogue, music, SFX, etc.
What is an avatar?
A player’s representation of themselves within a game
What is a 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.
What are binary opposites?
Where texts incorporate examples of opposite values
What is brand identity?
The association the audience make with the brand, built up over time and reinforced by the advertising campaigns and their placement
What is a broadsheet?
A larger newspaper that publishes more serious news, for example the Guardian
What are camera angles?
The angle of the camera in relation to the subject.
What are camera shots?
The type of shot and framing in relation to the subject
What is a caption?
Words that accompany an image that help to explain it’s meaning
What is a channel identity?
That which makes the channel recognisable to audiences and different from any other channel
What is circulation?
The spreading (dissemination) of media products to audiences/users- the method will depend on the media form
What are connotations?
The suggested meanings attached to a sign
What are conventions?
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text
What is convergence?
The coming together of previously separate media industries and/or platforms- i.e.- a print-based advert and the same advert on social media and on TV
What are cover lines?
These suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers and rhetorical questions.
What is cross-platform marketing?
In media terms, a text that is distributed and exhibited across a range of media formats or platforms.
What is cultural captial?
The media tastes and preferences of an audience, traditionally linked to social class/background
What is a demographic category?
A group in which consumers are placed according to:
-their age
-their sex
-their income
-thier profession
The catergoires range from A to E where categories A and B are the wealthiest and most influential members of society
What is a denotation?
The literal meaning of a sign
What is digetic sound?
Sound that comes from the scene, or fictional word, e.g.- a gun firing in a TV show, a ambulance siren in a advert
What is discourse?
The topics, language and meanings or values behind them within a media text.
What is distribution?
The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences, including the marketing campaign
What is diversification?
Where media organisations who have specialsied in producing media products in ome form move into producing content accross a range of forms.
What is editing?
The way in which the shots move from one to the other (transitions)
What is encoding and decoding?
Media producers encode messages and meanings into products that are decoded, or interpretated, by audiences
What is an enigma code?
A narrative device which increases tension and audeinces interest by only releasing bits of information, for example teaser trailers for films
What is equilibrium?
In relation to narrative, a state of balance or stability (In Todorov’s theory the equilibrium is disrupted and ultimateley restored)
What is ethnocentric?
A belief in ther superority of one’s own enthinc group or culture.
What is ethos?
The beliefs, vlaues and customs of, for example, media organisations (think BBC’s Royal Charter)
What is a fan?
An enthusiast or afficionado of a particular media form or product
What is a feature? (In terms of magazines)
the main, or one of the main, stories in an edition
What is a flexi narrative?
A more complex narrative structre with layers of interweaving storylines. This challenges the audiences and keeps them watching
What are the fours Cs?
This stands for Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics and was a way of categorising consumers into groups through their motivational needs, such as Mainstreamers, Aspirers, Explorers, and Reformers
What is a franchise?
An entire series of, for example, a film that included the original and includes all the suceeding ones
What are gate keepers?
The people responsible for deciding the most appropriate stories to appear in newspapers. They could be the owner, eidtor or senior journalists.
What is a genre?
categories containing media texts that all share similar conventions
What is global? (in terms of media products)
Worldwide, a media product that has a global reach and is distributed around the world.
What is hegemony?
The dominance of one group over another, often suported by legitimating norms and ideas.
What is horizontial integration?
Where a media conglomerate is made up of different companies that produce and sell similar products, often as a result of mergers.
What is a house style?
The aspects that make a magazine recognisable to it’s readwers every single issue. It coould use some of the following:
-colour
-layout
-design
-font
-content
What is a hybrid genre?
Media texcts that incorporate elements of more than one genre and are therfore more difficult to classify.
What is the hypodermic needle model?
It is generally acknowledged to be an out of date media effects thoery which suggests that an audience will have a mass response to a mieda text.
What is iconography?
The props, costumes, objects, and backgrounds associated with a particular genre
What is ideology?
A set of messages, values, and beliefs that may be encoded into media products
What is an independant film?
A film made outside of financial and artists control of a large mainstream film company. Can sometime sbe privatley concieved and funded.
What is an independant record label?
A record label that operates without the funding of, and that is not necessarily linked to, a major record label.
What is intellectual property?
A legal concept which refers to creatons of the mind for which the owner’s rights are recognised.
What is an interactive audience?
The ways in which audiences can become actively involved with a product
What does intertextual mean?
It’s where one meida text makes references to apsects of snother text within it. (Taylor Swift’s Bad Blood music video has intertextual links with Pulp Fiction, this would be classed as intertextuality)
What are layout and design?
The way in which a page has been designed to attract the target audience, this includes:
-font style
-positioning
-texts and images
-colour
What is a linear narrative?
Where a narrative unfolds in chronological order
What is ludology?
The study of games and those who play them
What is masculinity?
The percieved characterisitcs generally considered to define what it is to be a man.
What is a mass audience?
The traditional idea of the audience as one large, homogenous group
What is a media conglomerate?
A company that owns other companies across a range of media platforms. This increases their domination in the market
What are media forms?
Types of mefia products, E.G.- TV, newspapers, advertising, magazines, video games, radio, etc.
What is media language?
The specific elements of a media product that communicate meanings to the audience
What is a media platform?
The range of different ways of communicating with an audience
What is mediation?
The way in which a media text is constructed in order to represent a version of reality
What is mise-en-scene?
the combination of images in the frame, and how they create meanings
What is misrepresentation?
Cetain social groups (usually minority groups) may be represented in a way that is inappropriate and not based on reality
What does MMORPG stand for?
Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game
What is a mode of address?
The way in which a media text ‘speaks to’ it’s target audience.
What is narrative?
The ‘story’ or storyline that is told by a media text
What is news agenda?
This list of stories that may appear in a particular paper
What is a niche audience?
Arelatively small audience with specialised interests, tastes and backgrounds
What is non-diegetic sound?
Sound that comes from outside the fictional world; voice-overs, music, end credit sound, etc.
What is a non-linear narrative?
The narrative manipuloates time and space. It has a non-chronilogical layout and may include a lot of flashbacks, flashforwards, etc.
What is an open world?
In a computer game, it’s a world where players can move freely and is not restricted by levels and other barriers to free roaming.
What are opinion leaders?
People in society who may affect the way in which others interpret a particular media text
What is a passive audience?
The idea, now regarded as outdated, that audiences do no actively engage with media products, but just consume and accept the messages that producers communicate without any thought.
What is a patriarchal culture?
A society or culture that is male dominated
What is plurality
In media context, this refers to a range of context to suit many people
What is political bias?
Where a newspaper may show support for a political party through it’s choice of stories, style of convergence, cartoons, etc. It may be subtle and implicit or explicit as in the case of tabloids on election day.
What is a priviledged spectator position?
Where the camera places the audience in a superior position within the narrative. The audience can then anticipate what will follow
What is production?
The process by which media prodcuts are constructed
What are products?
Media texts, including adverts, magazines, radio, video games, newspapers as well as online, social and participatory platforms
What is a public service braodcaster, or PBS?
A radio or television programme that is financed by public money and is seen to offer a public service
What is realism?
A style of presentation that claims to portray ‘real life’ accurately and authentically
What is a regulator?
A person or body that supervises a particular industry, like the BBFC for films and IPSO for newspapers
What is the repertoire of elements?
key features that distinguish one genre from another
What is representation?
The way in which key groups or aspects of soceity are presented by the media
What is selection and combination?
Media producers actively choose elements of media language and place them alongside others to create specific representations or versions of reality
What is sexual objectification?
The practice of regarding a person as an object to be viewed only in terms of their sexual appeal and with no consideration of any other aspect of their character or personality
What is a sign/code?
Something which communicates meaning. The meaning of the sign changes according to context
What is a simulcast?
The streaming of live radio programmes from the website at the same time as they are broadcast on the radio
What is a specialised audience?
A non-mass, or niche, audience that may be defined by a particular social group or a specific interest
What is a splash?
The story that is given the most prominence on the front page of a newspaper
What is a stereotype?
An exaggerated representation of someone or something. It is also where a certain group are associated with a certain set of characteristics
What does stripped mean?
A technique used in radio and television whereby a certain programme is broadcast at the same time every day
What is a sub-genre?
Where a genre is sub-divided into small categories each of which has their own set of conventions
What is a subject-specific lexis?
The specific language and vocabulary used to engage the audience
What is synergy?
The combination of elements to maximise profits within a media organisation or product
What is a tabloid?
the term refers to the dimensions of a newspaper, it’s smaller and more compact in size
What is a target audience?
The people at whom the media text is aimed
What are technical codes?
These are the way in which the text has been produced to communicate meanings and are part of media language
What is textual poaching?
The way in which audiences or fans may take particular texts and interpret or reinvent them in different ways
What is underrepresentation?
Certain social groups may be rarely represented or be completely absent from media products
What is the uses and gratification theory?
Suggests audiences seek out media products in order to satisfy:
P Personal identity
I information
E entertainment/escapism
S social interaction
What is vertical integration?
Vertically integrated companies own all or most of the chain of production and distribution for the product
What are viewpoints?
Different perspectives in relation to values, attitudes, beliefs or ideologies
What is viral marketing?
Where the awareness of the product or the advertising camaign is spread through less conventional ways including social networks and the internet
What are visual codes?
The visual aspects of the product that construct meaning and are part of media language
What is the ‘window of the world’ ?
The idea that media texts, particularly those that present aspects of reality, are showing the audience the ‘real’ world as it happens.
What is technical convergence?
is where a product can be accessed on multiple devices, such as phones, tablets, laptops, tv, game consoles and smartwatches
What does Dominant ideology mean?
attitudes, beliefs values and morals shared by the majority of people, - things sometimes that aren’t questioned and that receives general acceptance in a society and is supported by it’s elected governors and religious leaders.
What is pre-production?
the planning stage, where things such as budgeting, scripting/storyboards, research, forming a concept and hiring a crew take place
What post-production?
the editing and ‘coming together’ stage, where editing, and previews to critics and testers
What is distribution?
Where a project is released, for example cinemas and streaming services, or to shops for newspapers and magazines
What is consumption?
this stage includes data collection, interaction with the project and potentially sequel planning
What is cinematography?
How the camera is used (angles, etc.)
What is multi-modality?
-using a range of ‘codes’ to communicate meaning, visual codes, linguistic codes.
What is hyper-modality?
-digital links to other pages and sites
What does ‘above the fold’ mean?
-Content that appears at the top of a webpage that you see BEFORE you begin to scroll
What does ‘below the fold’ mean?
-Content on a webpage that you see AFTER you begin to scroll down
