Media Language and Media Representations.

Question 1

Socialisation

Answer 1

the process an individual experiences to become a unique individual and an active member of society

Question 2

Factors impacting socialisation

Answer 2

family, school, peers, mass media

Question 3

Standardisation

Answer 3

mainstream values and norms in society – the more we see of these the more they become accepted and embedded

Question 4

Enculturation

Answer 4

the adjustment of people’s values to mesh with the culture and society they inhabit

Question 5

Bardic function

Answer 5

the nature of the media as a story-teller/information provider within the culture.

Question 6

Representation

Answer 6

how media texts deal with and present gender, age, ethnicity, national and regional identity, social issues and events to an audience.

Question 7

Construction

Answer 7

the way a media text is put together.

Question 8

Mediation

Answer 8

the process everything goes through before it reaches an
audience

Question 9

Semiotics

Answer 9

the study of signs in our culture and how they communicate meaning, deconstructing and questioning ‘common sense’

Question 10

Ferdinand de Saussure

Answer 10

theorist: signifier + signified = sign

Question 11

Signifier

Answer 11

the sign itself (e.g. a police badge)

Question 12

Signified

Answer 12

what meaning the sign represents to the audience (e.g. authority)

Question 13

Types of signification

Answer 13

denotation and connotation

Question 14

Connotations can be…

Answer 14

polysemic, culturally determined or personally interpreted

Question 15

Polysemic

Answer 15

no fixed meaning, up to interpretation

Question 16

Culturally determined

Answer 16

interpretation based on culture

Question 17

Personal interpretation

Answer 17

interpretation based on personal experiences

Question 18

Roland Barthes

Answer 18

he was suspicious of denotation, suspected there was more ideology than people think

Question 19

Ideology

Answer 19

system of beliefs, values and ideals

Question 20

Dominant ideologies

Answer 20

those often promoted by the mass media

Question 21

Hegemony

Answer 21

the control of the current society by the government through social and cultural expectations, as well as through the media

Question 22

Myths

Answer 22

a group of shared cultural connotations that reflect the dominant ideology- Barthes.

Question 23

Arbitrary/Symbolic Signs

Answer 23

where there is no physical relationship between signifier and signified e.g. red and the meaning stop

Question 24

Iconic Signs

Answer 24

look like their signified, making the relationship between the two very easy/obvious e.g. a portrait.

Question 25

Indexical signs

Answer 25

where there is a casual relationship between signifier and signified e.g. footprints and the idea that someone has been there.

Question 26

Dress Code

Answer 26

the clothing worn by anyone. can be used to signify status, age, lifestyle etc.

Question 27

Todorov’s 5 stages (Narrative Theory)

Answer 27

Equilibrium
Disruption
Recognition
Attempt to repair
New Equilibrium

Question 28

Claude Levi-Strauss

Answer 28

theory of binary oppositions