Media terms Flashcards
Cultural Blueprint
Brands use this to integrate themselves into our culture and position the product with an ‘idealised life’.
What is Media
the main means of mass communication
Ideology
the beliefs or values that are common sense- cover social contradiction in hegemony
Communication + Medium + Reciever
linear model of communication, Laswell and Shannon
Semiotics
Study of signs, signifiers and signified- reliant on shared cultural codes
Algorithmic culture
The use of machine learning systems to recommend and a society the lives to inform algorithms.
The “work” of being watched
Being watched generates value through metadata. When users put their lives on media platforms or when users submit reviews
Labour Theory of Value
labour always produces a surplus of value that generate profit for someone else
Immaterial jobs
Immaterial labour refers to labour that requires not only material and mechanical skills like operating a machine, but also skills and abilities connected with our intellect, identity, imagination, and values
Mass journalism
Mass journalism refers to media outlets that aim to reach a broad, general audience. It includes newspapers, television news, and online platforms that target the general public.
Elite journalism
Elite journalism refers to media outlets that are considered high-quality, authoritative sources of news and analysis.
Government at a distance
A method of governance where authorities exert control and influence indirectly, using policies, standards, technologies, and incentives to shape behaviours and outcomes without direct intervention
Collaborative filtering
A recommendation system technique that suggests items to users based on the preferences and behaviours of similar users.
false consciousness
The concept where media perpetuates the dominant ideology, leading individuals to adopt beliefs and values that maintain existing power structures and obscure their own exploitation.
disavowal
individuals acknowledge certain realities or truths but simultaneously deny their significance or impact, often to avoid discomfort or cognitive dissonance.
Hegemony
A set of ideas, practices and values taken as common sense
Encoding/Decoding Theory
1) Dominate
2) Negotiated
3) Resistant
Signs
The image or the word
Signifiers
The actual image
Signified
The idea or concept we associate with the sign
Platforms
A method to deliver media to an audience
Participatory culture
a culture in which media consumers are able to annotate, comment on, remix, and otherwise respond to culture.
Audiences
A group of individuals who consume media information
Relations Identities
Who we are makes sense only because of another.
Brands/ Brand Culture
Social processes to integrate into our social lives and identities.
Social Identity
How we build ourselves with influence from society.
Cultural resources
Elements from a culture that media producers use to create content, including symbols, narratives, traditions, and practices that reflect and shape societal values and identities.
The “work” of watching
Consuming media that shapes our identities and integrates brands into our lives.
Labour in media
labour is the main source of value in capitalist societies
What is meaning
A persons interpretation of a piece of media
Mass culture industry
The mass production and dissemination of cultural products, such as movies, music, and television shows, designed to appeal to large audiences and driven by commercial interests.
Content based filtering
A recommendation system technique that suggests items to users based on the features and attributes of items they have previously liked or interacted with
Platform capitalism
Platform capitalism is an economic system where digital platforms—such as Amazon, Uber, and Facebook—dominate the market by leveraging network effects, data collection, and user engagement to create and capture value.
Connotation
The broader meaning of the sign
Denotation
The literal meaning of the sign
Life cycle of platforms
Inception, Growth, Maturity, Saturation, Decline or Renewal
How do brands claim to be meaningful and ethical
Ethical consumptions makes us feel responsible for social and economic injustice in the world, and is marketed towards consumers values
Similarities and differences of media platforms to mass media
media platforms focus on interaction and audiences whereas mass media focuses on broadcasting information and is a one way source.
Culture industry
The culture industry refers to the sector of the economy that produces and distributes cultural goods and services, such as music, film, television, literature, and art. This concept, introduced by theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, critiques the mass production and commodification of culture, arguing that it leads to standardized, homogenized content designed to maximize profit rather than promote genuine creativity or individuality.
How is meaning made and controlled
Meaning in media refers to how messages, values, and ideas are constructed, conveyed, and interpreted through various forms of media, including television, film, news, social media, and advertising. This process is influenced by both the creators of media content and the audiences who consume it.
Control and exercise of power through meaning.
The control and exercise of power through meaning refer to how media and communication systems shape, manipulate, and influence public perception, opinions, and behaviours by constructing and disseminating specific meanings and narratives.
The concept of representation in media
Representation in media refers to how individuals, groups, events, and ideas are portrayed, depicted, or presented in various forms of media, such as television, film, advertising, and news. It encompasses the selection, framing, and portrayal of subjects, influencing how audiences perceive and understand the world around them.
Relationship between representation and power.
It highlights how dominant groups control and shape representations to maintain authority, while marginalized groups may challenge and resist these representations to reclaim agency and visibility.
Role of information and communication in global capitalism
how media and communication technologies facilitate the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services on a global scale, contributing to the expansion and consolidation of capitalist systems worldwide.
Impact of algorithms on cultural lives
how algorithmic systems used by digital platforms influence and shape the production, distribution, and consumption of cultural content, impacting individual experiences, social interactions, and cultural practices.
The labour of audience
being a fan, ubiquitous listening, debating a text
Identities’ role in meaning circulation and power dynamics
refers to how individual and collective identities, shaped by factors such as race, gender, sexuality, and class, influence the creation, dissemination, and reception of meaning within society, consequently impacting power relations and social hierarchies.
Power dynamics in news making.
Power dynamics in news making refer to the complex interplay of influences, interests, and hierarchies that shape the selection, framing, and presentation of news stories by media organizations
Discourse
refers to the ways in which language, communication, and representations construct and convey meaning within a specific socio-cultural context. It encompasses not only the words and images used but also the underlying ideologies, power dynamics, and social norms that shape how information is produced, interpreted, and circulated within media texts.
Unsupervised algorithmic culture
Unsupervised approach recognise recurring patterns from the latent properties of input data: text, colour, animals, food, audio, images (pixel grouping) only possible because of vast data created by users.- platforms use this approach but it does not share our cultural codes
Supervised Algorithmic culture
Supervised approach trains algorithm to recognise pre-defined features: humans are need to label the data and the machine learning process learns
