Key Terms: Media language Flashcards
Action Code
Something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience that some action will follow.
Anchorage
The words that accompany an image (still or moving) and contribute to the meaning of that image.
Arc of transformation
The emotional changes a character goes through in the process of the narrative. The events in the story mean they will ‘transform’/ have changed by the end of the narrative.
Audio
How sound is used to communicate meaning.
E.g - voice-over, dialogue, music etc
Avatar
A players representation of themselves within a game.
Back Story
The experiences of a character or the circumstances of an event ( of which happened before the narrative) explained in/ as part of the narrative.
Binary Oppositions
Where texts incorporate examples of opposite values to move forward the narrative.
E.g - good versus evil
Broadsheet
A larger newspaper that publishes more serious news.
Camera angles
The angle of the camera in relation to the subject.
Camera shots
The type of shot and framing used in relation to the subject.
Caption
Words that accompany an image that help to explain its meaning.
Connotation
The suggest meanings attached to a sign.
Conventions (in media not generally)
What the audience expects to see in a particular media text.
Cover lines
These suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers and rhetorical questions.
Denotation
The literal meaning of a sign.
Diegetic sound
Sound that comes from the fictional world/ from within the diegesis.
E.g - the sound of a gun firing, cereal being poured into a bowl.
Discourse
The topics, language and meanings or values behind them within a media text/ the thread of the conversation, text etc and how it changes.
Editing
The way in which the shots move from one to the other.
Encoding and Decoding
Media producers encode messages and meanings in products, that are decoded, or interpreted 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.
Ethos
The beliefs, values and customs of media organisations (in this case).
E.g - In television, what a channel believes in and what it sees as its role.
BBC = role is to educate etc
Feature
In magazine terms, the main/ one of the main articles in the magazine.
Flexi - Narrative
A more complex narrative structure with layers of interweaving storylines.
Genre
Media texts that all share the same conventions fit under one genre.
Hegemony
Hegemony is the dominance of one group over another.
House Style
The aspects of a magazine (in every issue) that makes that magazine recognisable to its readers.
Hybrid Genre
Media texts that incorporate elements of more than one genre.
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.
Layout and Design
In which way a page has been designed to attract the target audience.
Linear Narrative
Where the narrative unfolds in chronological order from beginning to end.
Ludology
The study of games and those who play them.
Media Language
The specific elements of a media product that communicate meanings to audiences.
Mediation
The way in which a media text is constructed in order to represent a version of reality.
Mise-en-Scene
How the combination of images in the frame creates meaning.
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.
News Agenda
The list of stories that may appear in a particular paper.
Non-diegetic sound
Sound that comes form outside the fictional world/diegesis.
Music, voice-over.
Non-linear Narrative
Where a narrative manipulates time and space.
It may begin in the middle for example.
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.
Patriarchal culture
A society or culture that is Male dominated.
Privileged Spectator Position
Where the camera places the audience in a superior position within the narrative.
Production
The process by which media products are constructed.
Products
Media texts, such as tv programmes, magazines, video games, newspapers.
Realism
A style of presentation that claims to portray ‘real life’ accurately.
