Key Terminilogies Flashcards
Whip Pan
When the camera moves at speed creating a blurred shot. It is used to show passages of time, movement between locations and to suggest frenetic action.
Myth
Dominant ideas and beliefs that are not necessarily true but have been accepted by a culture.
Social Construct
An idea or concept that is created, developed and accepted by society. These ideas are reinforced through repetition and practice.
Iconic Representation
A sign that has a physical resemblance to the thing that it stands for or represents. For example, marketing materials often feature iconic representations of products they advertise or promote.
Arbitrary Signs
Signs that bear no obvious resemblance to the thing signified, the meanings of which have been accepted through repetition over time.
Structuralism
A critical approach used to analyse the underlying structures or patterns of meaning within a text or culture.
Binary Oppositions
When people, ideas, concepts or values are set up in conflict with one another.
Lexis
The specific words used in a product which may relate to the genre of the product and includes terminology that is understood by the target audience.
Idiom
A well-known phrase with a figurative, not literal, meaning.
Repertoire of Elements
The key features or conventions that are recognisable to an audience and as such distinguish one genre or sub-genre from another.
Interpretive Communities
Initially used by Stanley Fish, a literacy critic, to explain how different groups of people, i.e. readers or audiences, interpret texts similarly due to their shared social and cultural positions and their experiences.
Semantics
Relates to the branch of linguistics concerned with how meanings are created. In a study of the media this applies to the meanings of words or objects contained within a product.
Simulacra
Postmodern concepts used to describe signs that simply refer to another sign rather than anything ‘real’. Simulacra are commonly understood as copies of copies. The singular is simulacrum.
Hyperreality
Images or simulations that, grouped together, create a distorted version of reality which may be accepted as ‘real’ by an audience.
Dominant Ideology
Refers to how those in positions of power present, repeat and reiterate a particular viewpoint that then appears to be ‘dominant’ or the norm. This is then accepted by the audience.
Ethnocentrism
The attitude that one’s own ethnic group, culture or nationality is superior to others.
Opinion Leaders
Those in position of power, for example newspaper owners and editors, who aim to persuade an audience of their point of view.
Prosumers
Derives from the marketing term ‘production by consumers’ and is used to describe those individual who comment on, create or adapt existing content and then distribute it through the internet and social media.
Masculinity
The state of ‘being a man’, which can change as society changes. It is essentially what being a man means to a particular generation. This will then be reflected in the contemporary media.
Ethnicity
A person’s cultural identity, which may be indicated through customs, clothing or food. Your ethnicity suggests an identity that is based on a sense of place, ideology or religion.
Mass Communication
The process of transmitting messages to a large audience through media, usually with the purpose of influencing public opinion or behavior.
Representation
The ways in which people, events, and issues are depicted in media texts, reflecting and shaping cultural, social, and political perspectives.
Stereotype
A widely held but oversimplified and generalized belief or idea about a particular group of people or things, often reinforced through media portrayals.
Media Language
The specific techniques, codes, conventions, and symbols used by media texts to convey meaning and communicate with the audience.
Audience
The group of people who receive, interpret, and respond to media messages, often influenced by their demographics, preferences, and prior experiences.
Ideology
A system of ideas, beliefs, values, and norms that shape the way individuals and groups interpret and understand the world, often conveyed through media texts.
Media Effects
The impact or influence that media messages, content, or technologies have on individuals, society, attitudes, behaviors, and perception of reality.
Media Ownership
The concentration of media organizations and outlets in the hands of a few major corporations or individuals, influencing the diversity and control of media content.
Framing
The process of selecting, emphasizing, and presenting certain aspects or perspectives of a story or issue in media coverage, shaping public perception and understanding.
Misrepresentation
Presenting a person, group, or situation in a misleading or inaccurate way in media texts.
Hegemony
The dominance or control of one social group over others, influencing how they are represented in the media.
Othering
The process of portraying a particular group as different, exotic, or outside the norm in media representations.
Media Bias
The unfair or unbalanced presentation of information or opinions in media texts, often favoring certain political or social perspectives.
Proairetic/Action Code
Something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience
that some action will follow, for example in a scene from a soap
opera, a couple are intimate in a bedroom and the camera
shows the audience the husband’s car pulling up at the front of
the house.
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. If the caption or
voice-over is changed then so may the way in which the
audience interprets the image. An image with an anchor is a
closed text; the audience are given a preferred reading. A text
without an anchor is an open text as the audience can interpret
it as they wish.
The same image of a school in a local newspaper could include
a negative or a positive headline, which may change the way in
which the same image is viewed by the reader.
Appeal
The way in which products attract and interest an audience,
e.g. through the use of stars, familiar genre conventions etc.
Audience Positioning
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.
Audience Response
How audiences react to media products e.g. by accepting the
intended meanings (preferred reading).
Binary Opposite
Where texts incorporate examples of opposite values; for
example, good versus evil, villain versus hero. These can be
apparent in the characters, narrative or themes.
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 has maintained its broadsheet
format.
Camera Angles
The angle of the camera in relation to the subject. For example,
a high angle shot (shot of a character from above) may make
them appear more vulnerable.
Camera Shots
The type of shot and framing in relation to the subject, for
example, close-up shots are often used to express emotion.
Caption
Words that accompany an image that help to explain its
meaning.
Circulation
The dissemination of media products to audiences/users - the
method will depend on the media form e.g. circulation of print
magazines, broadcast of television programmes etc.
Connotations
The suggested meanings attached to a sign, e.g., the red car in
the advert suggests speed and power.
Conventions
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text, for
example the conventions of science fiction films may include:
aliens, scientists, other worlds, gadgets, representations of
good and evil, etc. Useful headings to discuss conventions are:
characters, setting, iconography, narrative, technical codes and
representation.
Convergence
The coming together of previously separate media industries
and/or platforms; often the result of advances in technology
whereby one device or platform contains a range of different
features. The mobile phone, for example, allows the user to
download and listen to music, view videos, tweet artists etc. All
this can be done through one portable device.
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. This may include film,
television, print, radio and the Internet.
Cultural Capital
The media tastes and preferences of an audience, traditionally
linked to social class/background.
Denotation
The literal meaning of a sign, e.g. the car in the advert is red.
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, etc.
Discource
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 and narcissism.
Distribution
The methods by which media products are delivered to
audiences, including the marketing campaign. These methods
will depend upon the product (for example, distribution
companies in the film industry organise the release of the films,
as well as their promotion).
Editing
The way in which the shots move from one to the other
(transitions), e.g. fade, cut, etc. Fast cutting may increase the
pace and therefore the tension of the text, for example.
Encoding and Decoding
Media producers encode messages and meanings in products
that are decoded, or interpreted, by audiences.
Hermaneutic/Enigma Code
A narrative device which increases tension and audience
interest by only releasing bits of information, for example
teasers in a film trailer or narrative strands that are set up at the
beginning of a drama/film that make the audience ask
questions; part of a restricted narrative.
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.
For example, a newspaper will be more concerned to cover
stories that are closely related to the reader and their concerns.
Tabloid and local papers only tend to cover international news
stories if they can relate them specifically to their readers.
Ethos
The beliefs, values and customs of, for example, media
organisations. In television, for example, what the channel
believes in and what it sees as its role. The ethos is usually set
out in the channel’s charter.
Fan
An enthusiast or aficionado of a particular media form or
product.
Flexi-Narrative
A more complex narrative structure with layers of interweaving
storylines. This challenges the audience and keeps them
watching.
The 4 C’s
This stands for Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics and
was a way of categorising consumers into groups 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 Keeper
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 stories most
appropriate for the ideology of the paper ‘through the gate’.
Genre
Media texts can often be grouped into genres that all share
similar conventions. Science fiction is a genre, as are teenage
magazines, etc.
Hegemony
This derives from the theory of cultural hegemony by Antonio
Gramsci. Hegemony is the dominance of one group over
another, often supported by legitimating norms and ideas. For
example, the dominant social position in society is taken by
men and the subordinate one by women.
Horizontal Integration
Where a media conglomerate is made up of different
companies that produce and sell similar products, often as a
result of mergers. For example a company with interests in film,
TV, magazines newspaper.
Hyrbid Genre
Media texts that incorporate elements of more than one genre
and are therefore more difficult to classify are genre hybrids. Dr
Who, for example, is a science fiction/fantasy television drama.
Hypodermic Needle Theory
Generally acknowledged to be an out of date media effects
theory which suggests that an audience will have a mass
response to a media text. The idea is that the media product
injects an 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; for example, in a police series you would
expect to see, uniforms, blue flashing lights, scene of crime
tape and police radios.
Independent Film
A film made outside of the financial and artistic control of a
large mainstream film company. A truly independent film will be
privately conceived and funded. However, few films made are
really ‘independent’. This more commonly refers to a film that is
made by a smaller film company on a low budget.
Interactive Audience
The ways in which audiences can become actively involved
with a product, for example by posting a response to a blog or
live tweeting during a television programme.
Intertextual
Where one media text makes reference to aspects of another
text within it. For example, referencing a scene from a film in a
television advertisement. Audiences enjoy recognising
intertextual references.
Intertextuality
Where one media product intertextually references another.
Linear Narrative
Where the narrative unfolds in chronological order from
beginning to end.
Masculinity
The perceived 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 Conglomorate
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 Language
The specific elements of a media product that communicate
meanings to audiences, e.g. visual codes, audio codes,
technical codes, language.
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 of
images in the frame creates meaning; how individual shots in a
film or photograph have been composed.
Mode of Address
The way in which a media text ‘speaks to’ its target audience.
For example, teenage magazines have a chatty informal mode
of address; the news has a more formal mode of address.
Narrative
The ‘story’ that is told by the media text. All media texts, not just
fictional texts, have a narrative. For example, magazines have
a clear beginning, middle and end. Most narratives are linear
and follow a specific structure (see Todorov).
Niche Audience
A relatively small audience with specialised interests, tastes,
and backgrounds.
Non-diegetic Sound
Sound that comes from outside the fictional world, for example
a voiceover, romantic mood music etc.
Non-linear Narrative
Here the narrative manipulates time and space. It may begin in
the middle and then include flashbacks and other narrative
devices.
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.
Patriarchal Dominance
A society or culture that is male dominated.
Passive Audience
The idea (now widely regarded as outdated) that audiences do
not actively engage with media products, but passively
consume and accept the messages that producers
communicate.
Pick n Mix Theory
Suggested by British sociologist and media theorist, David
Gauntlett. He asserted the autonomy of the audience and
challenged the notion that audiences are immediately affected
by what they read. He maintains that audiences are more
sophisticated than this and will select aspects of the media
texts that best suit their needs and ignore the rest.
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 of the
tabloid newspapers on election day.
Public Service Broadcaster
A radio and television broadcaster that is financed by public
money (e.g. the licence fee in the 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.
Representation
The way in which key groups or aspects of society are
presented by the media, e.g. gender, race, age, the family, etc.
Literally, a re-representation or constructed version of that
which is shown.
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.
Stereotype
An exaggerated representation of someone or something. It is
also where a certain group are associated with a certain set of
characteristics, for example all Scotsmen are mean, blondes
are dumb, etc. Stereotypes can be quick ways of
communicating information in adverts and dramas, e.g. the
rebellious teenager in a soap opera, as they are easily
recognisable to audiences.
Sub-genre
Where a genre is sub-divided into smaller categories each of
which has their own set of conventions. For example, the
television drama genre can be sub-divided into teen drama,
hospital drama, costume drama, etc.
Synergy
The combination of elements to maximise profits within a media
organisation or product. For example, where a film soundtrack
sells the film and the film sells the soundtrack.
Tabloid
Refers to the dimensions of a newspaper; a tabloid is smaller
and more compact in size. However, there are further
connotations attached to the term and it also tends to refer to a
newspaper whose content focuses on lighter news, for example
celebrity gossip, sport and television.
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.
Textual Poaching
The way in which audiences or fans may take particular texts
and interpret or reinvent them in different ways e.g. by creating
fan fiction.
Underepresentation
Certain social groups (usually minority groups) may be rarely
represented or be completely absent from media products.
Uses and Gratification 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 own all or most of the chain of
production and distribution for the product. For example, a film
company that also owns a chain of multiplex cinemas to exhibit
the film and merchandise outlets.
Visual Codes
The visual aspects of the product that construct meaning and
are part of media language, for example clothing, expression,
and gesture.
