Media terminology Flashcards
What is an ACTION CODE?
Something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience
that some action will follow, for example in a scene from a soap
opera, a couple are intimate in a bedroom and the camera
shows the audience the husband’s car pulling up at the front of
the house.
What is an active audience?
Audiences actively engage in selecting media products to
consume and interpreting their meanings.
What is anchorage?
The words that accompany an image (still or moving) contribute
to the meaning associated with that image. If the caption or
voice-over is changed then so may the way in which the
audience interprets the image. An image with an anchor is a
closed text; the audience are given a preferred reading. A text
without an anchor is an open text as the audience can interpret
it as they wish.
The same image of a school in a local newspaper could include
a negative or a positive headline, which may change the way in
which the same image is viewed by the reader.
What is appeal?
The way in which products attract and interest an audience,
e.g. through the use of stars, familiar genre conventions etc.
What is the arc of transformation?
The emotional changes a character goes through in the
process of the narrative. The events in the story mean that they
will ‘transform’ by the end of the story.
What is aspirational in terms of media?
In terms of a media text, one that encourages the audience to
want more money, up-market consumer items and a higher
social position.
What is audience categorisation?
How media producers group audiences (e.g. by age, gender
ethnicity) to target their products.
What is AUDIENCE
CONSUMPTION?
The way in which audiences engage with media products (e.g.
viewing a TV programme, playing a video game, reading a blog
or magazine). Methods of consumption have changed
significantly due to the development of digital technologies.
What is audience interpretation?
The way in which audiences ‘read’ the meanings in, and make
sense of, media products.
What is audience positioning?
The way in which media products place audiences (literally or
metaphorically) in relation to a particular point of view. For
example, audiences may be positioned with a particular
character or positioned to adopt a specific ideological
perspective.
