Print media terminology Flashcards
Anchorage
Fixing of meaning e.g. the copy text anchors (i.e. fixes to one spot) the meaning of an image
Banners
Typically found at the top or bottom of a print media text.
Broadsheet
Large format newspapers that report news in depth, often with a serious tone and higher level language. News is dominated by national and international events, politics, business, with less emphasis on celebrities and gossip. Examples: The Independent, The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph
Byline
A journalist’s name at the beginning of a story
Captions
Text below an image that describes the image or informs the audience who took the image.
Copy
Main text of a story
Coverlines
Captions on a magazine front cover
Emotive Language
the use of language to generate specific emotional reactions in the target audience
Headlines
The text highlighting the main story being given priority by the producers of the print media text. Often designed to be eye-catching
Inverted pyramid structure
Newspaper stories start with the main events. Then they give more details and eyewitness comments in short paragraphs. The paragraphs at the
end of the story are less important than those at the beginning. This allows sub-editors to shorten stories by cutting paragraphs from the end.
Layout
How the print media text has been designed and formatted.
Masthead
The top section of a newspaper which gives the paper’s title, price and date
Sans Serif font
font type which does not have lines perpendicular to the ends of letters e.g. Comic Sans – often seen as more contemporary. Think of Apple’s advertising
Serif font
Font type which does have lines perpendicular to the ends of letters e.g. Times New Roman – generally seen as more traditional or higher class.
Splash
The front page story
Sub-headings
Smaller, typically one line headlines for other stories.
Tabloid
Smaller newspapers aimed at a large audience. News is reported in less depth and emphasises human interest stories. The language level is lower, paragraphs and stories shorter, with more use of images. Content often includes more celebrities, media news and gossip. Examples: The Sun, The Mail, The Mirror, The Express
Text to image ratio
This involves considering how weighted the print media text is with regards to text and image – you need to ask yourself why the ratio exists.
Typography
The collective term when considering elements of print media relating to the style of the text such as the font, colour, serif, sans serif etc.
