Media terminology

Question 1

Anchorage

Answer 1

In which captions or commentary is used to try and direct the reader to a specific reading, so named as the words anchor the image to a certain meaning.

Question 2

Arbitrary signifier

Answer 2

Arbitrary signifiers have no logical connection to their signified. The signifier does not look or sound like the signified, nor does it point to the signified in a casual or indexical fashion.

Question 3

Capitalism

Answer 3

The dominant global economic system, organised by workers selling their labour for wages, and investors making profit and economic growth.

Question 4

Closed texts

Answer 4

Describe texts that focus on a specific meaning and allow very little space or opportunity for the reader to generate their own variety of interpretations.

Question 5

Code

Answer 5

Codes are standardised formulas for communicating meaning.

Question 6

Connotations

Answer 6

An idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning. Operating on the second order of signification, connotation refers to the emotions, values and, and associations that a sign can give rise to in the reader, viewer, or listener. The connotative meaning of a sign can be expressed by quickly jotting down what it reminds you of, or makes you feel or imagine.

Question 7

Continuity editing

Answer 7

Governs how different shots should be combined in film and television.

Question 8

Convention

Answer 8

Conventions are methods of organising signs to communicate meaning in ways that become habituated and widely shared over time.

Question 9

Denotations

Answer 9

The literal or primary meaning of a word, in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. Denotation is what Barthes calls ‘the first order of signification’. It is the most obvious level on which a sign communicates and it refers to the common-sense meaning of the sign. The denotative meaning can be expressed by describing the sign as simply as possible.

Question 10

Iconic sign

Answer 10

The relationship between the signifier and the signified is based on likeness or resemblance.

Question 11

Indexical sign

Answer 11

The relationship between the signifier and the signified is one of indication, direction or measurement, sequence, or causation.

Question 12

Metaphor

Answer 12

In which the qualities of one text are transferred to another.

Question 13

Metonymy

Answer 13

In which a part of something is held out to represent the whole.

Question 14

Modality

Answer 14

A measure of the degree of certainty or realism associated with an instance of communication.

Question 15

Open texts

Answer 15

Texts that can have many possible meanings.

Question 16

Semiology

Answer 16

A method for analysing how all sign systems work (O’shaughnessy et al., 2016). “the science of signs, or the study of signs and sign systems.”

Question 17

Sign

Answer 17

Communicates meaning by standing in for or representing a thing or an idea.

Question 18

Signified

Answer 18

The thing or idea that a sign refers to.

Question 19

Signifier

Answer 19

The visible, tangible, or audible aspect of a sign that carries the meaning.

Question 20

Sign systems

Answer 20

Examples: language (words), traffic lights, road signs, navigation bars in websites, editing and photographic conventions in film and television, mathematical symbols, clothes, hairstyles, hand signals, Morse code etc.

Question 21

Symbolic sign

Answer 21

The relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary (there is no natural link) and is based culture, context, and convention.