Media Flashcards
What’s Stuart Halls theory?
Encoding and decoding, audience’s life affects how they interpret messages encoded within the show
What’s Levi Strauss’ theory?
Theory of binary opposites, all media texts are constructed around them
What’s Propp’s theory?
Character function, each character in the narrative plays a set role to keep the narrative moving
What’s Barthes’ theory
Action and enigma codes. Action codes propel the narrative, enigma codes slow the pace and force the audience to think
What’s Katz’ theory
Audience uses and gratification, audience use media to gain something: entertainment, information, escapism, identification, social interaction
What’s a media text
A product that has been made by an institution
What’s a media institution
Company that produces the media text
What are the three different types of media text
Audio, audio visual, visual
What’s construction?
The process where images, words and sounds are carefully selected to create Media texts
What’s ubiquitous mean
Something that is everywhere
What’s hyper masculine framing
A hard, vertical shot with many lines
What are high production values
A shot that is very visually impressive, looks expensive
What’s a polysemic text
Text that can be interpreted in many different ways
What’s unity of text
A link in the text that has meaning and links everything together
What’s antithesis
One thing that is the direct opposite of something else
Eg the antithesis between Eliot and Alice’s upbringing
What’s patriarchal
A system of power in which men are favoured
What’s composition
The overall look of something
What’s star lighting
Lighting that makes someone look important
What’s hyperbole
Extreme exaggeration
What’s semiotics
The study of signs. A way of analysing any media text to uncover the ways it creates meaning for its target audience. Looks at signs, codes, denotations and connotations
What’s verisimilitude
The level of realism
What’s a sound bridge
Non diegetic sound (music) connecting shots/scenes by continuing between them
What’s synchronous sound
Music linking to what we see on the screen
What’s Todorovs theory
The classic linear model of how a narrative should be structured
1 equilibrium, all is in order
2 disruption, of the ordered state by an event
3 recognition, that the disruption has taken place
4 an attempt to repair, the damage of the disruption
5 new equilibrium, different from when the story begins
What’s a sub genre, what’s a hybrid
Subgenres are a category within a genre
Hybrids are crossovers or two or more genres
What’s iconography
Key symbolism and its effects
What’s nuanced mean
Something is complex (characters characterised like a real person)
What does it mean if two things are juxtaposed
Two opposites out together
What does immersive mean
Audience feel as if they’re there
Give three examples of shot transition types
Shot reverse shots Cross cutting Fade in/fade out (not commonly used unless to show passing of time) Ellipsis Dissolve Long talk (most realistic) Short take
What are the two types of sound in serial tv drama
Diegetic sound: natural sound actually happening, creates realism. Captured at time of filming
Non diegetic sound: sound added in post production, additional sound. May include music, sound effects and voice over
What’s a diegesis
The world of the film
What’s dialogue and what’s voice over
Dialogue: human voice talking, drives the narrative
Voice over: narrator, gives overview of the narrative
What are the three main types of lighting
Low key, casts shadows
High key, used in studios, removes most shadows. Expensive.
Realist lighting, realistic
What are the types of narrative structure
Linear and non linear.
Open and closed endings/structures (open = storyline not resolved or ending is ambiguous)
Multi stranded structure (tells multiple stories, focuses on many characters)
What’s a narrative arc
Runs above all the sub plots, and are the main focus of the show
What’s a non linear structure
Complex storyline, not naturalistic, no continuity in time
What’s a closed structure
Storyline has an ending and is resolved, the case if episode has a self contained storyline
Describe the demographic professional scale
A = upmarket, high earning individuals
B=professionals, earn above average wage
C(123)=semi professional, earn around average wage
D=unprofessional, working with low earnings
E=students and unemployed
What’s a demographic, what’s a psychographic
Demographic = general profile, eg ‘a C2,3 and B audience’ Psychographic = individual profile, eg ‘my show will appeal specifically to those interested in technology and the dark side of the internet’
What’s mainstreamer
Like things with broad appeal. Mainstream texts are conventional, sometimes cliche, simple and formulaic and don’t deal with hard topics
TV dramas are not likely to target individualists
What are the two types of marketing
Above the line/direct marketing = payed for
Below the line/indirect marketing= not payed for
What’s synergy
Two companies working together
What’s hyperreality
When a text blurs the line between reality and fiction
What’s convergent media
Media coming together on one platform, eg ‘click through convergent links to social media pages’
Eg when you can access a text on multi platforms, this is ‘convergence of the text’
What’s curation what’s creation
Curation = gathering already existing material Creation = making new material
What’s digital marketing
Marketing using digital technologies
What’s mise en scène
What is placed within the frame
What are institutional factors
The ‘background’ of the production
What does filmic mean
It looks like a film
What’s asynchronous narrative
The narrative is out of synch. Could still be linear, but uses flashbacks etc
