Key Terms

Question 1

Advertising Agencies

Answer 1

Most makers of products do not make the adverts for the products themselves. They will use an advertising agency whose job it is to research the target audience and then create a campaign to sell the product.

Question 2

Anchorage

Answer 2

The words that give an image meaning.

Question 3

Annotate

Answer 3

This means labelling a design to show an understanding of the main codes and conventions. This is also a chance to use the correct media terms.

Question 4

Aspirational

Answer 4

This type of advertising makes the audience want to buy the product even though what it is selling may be out of their reach.

Question 5

Audio Codes

Answer 5

The different sounds within the media text and the connotations attached to the sound used.

Question 6

Audio-Visual Media Text

Answer 6

One that uses images and/or sound.

Question 7

Bird’s Eye View Shot

Answer 7

This is where a scene is shot from overhead. This is often used to film car chases. It allows a lot of the scene to be shown at once but not in too much detail.

Question 8

Brand

Answer 8

This is how an audience recognise a product and it is also how the product shows it is different from others. The branding may include the name, logo and any celebrity endorsers.

Question 9

Brand Identity

Answer 9

The meanings an audience will attach to a particular brand. This will be built up over time.

Question 10

Broadcasting

Answer 10

This is where a media text tries to attract as wide an audience as possible.

Question 11

Campaign

Answer 11

This is run by an advertising agency. A campaign is a sequence of advertisements for a product and links the packaging, radio, TV, print and Internet adverts.

Question 12

Celebrity Culture

Answer 12

This is where people are obsessed with famous people. These celebrities may not have accomplished much, but they have extensive media coverage.

Question 13

Challenged

Answer 13

This is where you may investigate a media text that shows a different representation or set of genre conventions to the usual ones.

Question 14

Chronological

Answer 14

This is a narrative where the events follow in the order in which they happened from beginning to end.

Question 15

Clearly Defined Roles

Answer 15

This means that everyone in the group must have a technical job to do, for example filming, editing or sound. The roles can be shared.

Question 16

Cliffhanger

Answer 16

This is where the audience is left with an enigma at the end. This encourages the audience to watch the next episode to find out what happens.

Question 17

Colloquial Language

Answer 17

This is conversational language where the words used are different from those in written speech.

Question 18

Commercial Channels

Answer 18

These are channels like ITV and Channel 4 that raise their money through advertising , unlike BBC which currently get it’s money through the license fee.

Question 19

Conform

Answer 19

This means following the rules of a particular genre and including all or most of the main conventions that are shared by similar texts.

Question 20

Connotations

Answer 20

The meanings attached to a sign.

Question 21

Construction

Answer 21

The way in which the text is put together. For example, the choice of font, headline or main image.

Question 22

Consumable Products

Answer 22

These are products we use regularly and need to replace.

Question 23

Conventional Points of View

Answer 23

This means that the representation in the text is what is expected by an audience.

Question 24

Conventions

Answer 24

What we expect to see in text belonging to a specific genre.

Question 25

Convergence

Answer 25

This is way in which one topic can be presented across different media forms.

Question 26

Cover Lines

Answer 26

These usually run down the side and give the reader clues as to what is in the magazine. Their aim is to persuade the audience to buy.

Question 27

Crane Shot

Answer 27

This shot is not as extreme as an aerial shot; here the camera is elevated above the action using a crane.

Question 28

Credit Sequence

Answer 28

This is usually the same every week and includes the name of the programme, the stars, the production company etc. Some times this will appear at the start; sometimes it comes after some of the narrative has been introduced.

Question 29

Cultural Background

Answer 29

This is what makes a person the way they are. It includes where you live, your ethnicity, what you have been brought up to believe in etc.

Question 30

Cultural Values

Answer 30

This is the idea of what is important and what is unimportant, right or wrong and is shared by a group of people.

Question 31

Decode

Answer 31

The different interpretations of messages by different audiences.

Question 32

Desensitised

Answer 32

This is where an audience is less shocked or upset by violence because they see so much of it in certain media texts.

Question 33

Diegetic Sound

Answer 33

Essentially this is sound you can see; the sound that is part of the scene and can be heard by the characters.

Question 34

Digitally Enhanced

Answer 34

This means that an image is changed on a computer.

Question 35

Direct Mode of Address

Answer 35

In an audio visual text, this means that the subject is looking straight at the audience.

Question 36

Disruption

Answer 36

This is what changes the balance in the story world; it may be a character or event.

Question 37

Dumbing Down

Answer 37

This term refers to the fact that some people think that television programmes are not challenging and that audiences are ‘couch potatoes’ who just watch programmes that are easy to watch.

Question 38

Editing

Answer 38

In the production of a film, film-makers will have a lot of footage to choose from . Editing is the way in which the shots and scenes from a film are put together.

Question 39

Effect

Answer 39

The technical code will have been included to have an effect upon the audience.

Question 40

Encode

Answer 40

The messages and ideas that producers package into the texts.

Question 41

Endorse

Answer 41

If celebrities endorse a product they say that they use it and they think it is good. In this way the advertisers hope to persuade the audience, if they like the celebrity, to buy the product.

Question 42

Enigma

Answer 42

This is a mystery or a puzzle in the narrative. Enigmas keep an audience interested in the story.

Question 43

Equilibrium

Answer 43

This is the state of the story world at the beginning of the narrative where everything is stable.

Question 44

Ethnicity

Answer 44

This is something that links you with a particular group of people who share things like customs, food or a way of dressing.

Question 45

Flagship

Answer 45

A programme that is important to the channel as it is popular and audiences recognise it as belonging to the channel.