Media Terminology 1

Audience: The group of consumers for whom the media text was constructed as well as anyone else who is exposed to the text.

Connotation: A description of value, meaning or ideology associated with a media text.

Construct or Construction: As a verb, the process by which a media text is shaped and given meaning. This process is subject to a variety of decisions and is designed to keep the audience interested in the text.

As a noun, a fictional or documentary text that appears to be "natural" or a "reflection of reality" but is, in fact, shaped and given meaning through the process already described.

Critical: A reflective position on the meaning, biases or value messages of a text. Critical Viewing is the ability to use critical thinking skills to view, question, analyze and understand issues presented overtly and covertly in movies, videos, television and other visual media.

Deconstruct: To take apart, analyze, or break down a media text into its component parts in order to understandhow and why it was created.

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Media Terminology- Non Diagetic and Diagetic sound

Diagetic Sounds:

  • voices of characters 
  • sounds made by objects in the story 
  • music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film's world 

Diagetic sound can be either on screen or off screen depending on whatever its source is within the frame or outside the frame. 

Non Diagetic sounds:

Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action:

  • narrator's commentary
  • sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
  • mood music

Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. 

The distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic sound depends on our understanding of the conventions of film viewing and listening.  We know of that certain sounds are represented as coming from the story world, while others are  represented as coming from outside the space of the story events.  A play with diegetic and non-diegetic conventions can be used to create ambiguity (horror), or to surprise the audience (comedy).

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