key terminology

Question 1

Target Audience

Answer 1

a particular group at which a media product is aimed

Question 2

psychographic

Answer 2

A psychographic target audience would be an audience that has similar attitudes, values, or lifestyle.

Question 3

demographic

Answer 3

characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, race, education and income level.

Question 4

katz and Blumler uses and gratifications theory

Answer 4

Audiences use media for reasons such as:
Escapism
Entertainment 
interaction
identification 
information

Question 5

Hypodermic Syringe theory

Answer 5

The theory that audiences are passive and can be manipulated by the media, and that the media can effect an audiences attitude and behaviour

Question 6

Two step flow theory

Answer 6

1. opinion leaders get information from a media source
2. They then pass this information and their personal interpretation on to others.

When opinion leaders spread the word about ‘cool’ ‘worthwhile’ media texts and people share information and the texts through web, social networking, print media etc.

Question 7

Preferred reading

Answer 7

Audiences respond to a media text in the way they are expected/intended to

Question 8

oppositional reading

Answer 8

Audiences reject the preferred meaning of the media text, taking an oppositional approach

Question 9

negotiated meaning

Answer 9

audiences can see both the preferred and oppositional meaning

Question 10

What is a niche audience?

Answer 10

a small audience with a unique interest

Question 11

What is the jicnars scale?

Answer 11

a scale used by mass media producers to separate audiences:
Group A) upper middle class

Group B) middle class

Group C1) white collar lower middle class

Group C2) blue collar skilled working class

Group D) semi/unskilled manual workers

Group E) unemployed

Question 12

Tokenism

Answer 12

When the media includes a person/item just to please society

Question 13

Which group of people are targeted by advertisers the most?

Answer 13

people with ‘disposable incom’

Question 14

Who do advertisers target when advertising a product?

Answer 14

aspirational middle class (C1 and C2)

Question 15

Marxist Theory

Answer 15

the view that the institutions, like society and the media are owned and controlled by the bourgeoisie ruling classes, the minority elite. The masses are dominated buy this group who force ideals and ideology upon us. Marxist theory refers to power of any kind not just political.

Question 16

Mulvey and the male gaze

Answer 16

media (film) is created with a white, heterosexual male viewer in mind and so women are always present to be ‘gazed’ at by men.

Question 17

media induced moral panic

Answer 17

an escalating sense of anxiety over an issue reported on through the mass media. Modern examples include the dangers of social networking, virus’

Question 18

Action code

Answer 18

When something happens in the narrative that indicates to the audience a moment of action is to follow. For example a women is having an affair at her home and the audience see her husbands car pull up.

Question 19

Active audience

Answer 19

Audience actively engage in seeking out and interpreting media texts.

Question 20

Anchorage

Answer 20

When words provided with a media text provide the audience with a preferred meaning, the words have an impact on how the image (moving or still) is interpreted .
Eg: a picture of school a school in a newspaper may have a negative or positive headline, changing the way the reader views the image.

Question 21

Arc of transformation

Answer 21

The emotional changes a character goes through during the development of the narrative. The events in the plot mean they will ‘transform’ by the end.

Question 22

Aspirational

Answer 22

In terms of media texts, one that encourages audiences to want more money, up-market consumer items and a higher social status.

Question 23

Audience position

Answer 23

The way in which media products place the audience (literally or metaphorically) in relation to a particular point of view. For example audiences may be positioned with a certain character or positioned to adopt a particular ideological perspective.

Question 24

Audience segmentation

Answer 24

When a target audience is divided up due to the diversity and range of programmes and channels. This makes it difficult for one program to attract a large target audience.

Question 25

Binary opposites

Answer 25

When texts incorporate examples of opposite values. For example; Good vs Evil, Hero vs Villain.
This can be apparent in characters, themes and narrative.

Question 26

Broadsheet

Answer 26

A larger newspaper that prints more serious news, for example The Daily Telegraph has maintained it’s broadsheet status.

Question 27

Cross-platform marketing

Answer 27

a product that is distributed and exhibited amongst a variety of media formats or platforms. May include Film, TV, radio, print and the internet.

Question 28

Cultural Capital

Answer 28

The taste’s and preferences of an audience, traditionally linked to social status/background

Question 29

Encoding and Decoding

Answer 29

media producer encode messages and meaning in a text, audiences then decode and interpret these meanings.

Question 30

Enigma Code

Answer 30

A narrative device that increases tension and audience interest by slowly revealing bits of information, for example teasers in a film trailer or narrative strands set up in the beginning of a film that makes the audience ask questions, part of a restricted narrative.

Question 31

Equilibrium

Answer 31

in relation to narrative, a state of balance or stability (in Todrovs theory the equilibrium is disrupted then ultimately restored.)

Question 32

Ethnocentric

Answer 32

A belief in the superiority of ones ethnic group or culture. For example tabloids and reptops tend only to cover international news if it is directly related to the reader an their concerns.

Question 33

Flexi narrative

Answer 33

a more complicated story line with layers of interweaving plots. This keeps the audience challenged and engaged.

Question 34

Gate keepers

Answer 34

The people responsible for choosing the most appropriate stories to appear in newspapers. They may be the owner, editor or senior journalist. They will only let through stories appropriate for the ideologies of the newspaper ‘through the gate’.

Question 35

Hegemony

Answer 35

The dominance of one group over another. Often supported by legitimating norms and ideas. For example the dominate position in society is taken by men, and the subordinate one by women.

Question 36

Iconography

Answer 36

The props, backgrounds and costumes associated with a key theme in the media text