Glossary of Terms

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Action Code
Something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience action is to follow.
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Active Audience
Audiences actively engaging in selecting media products to consume and interpret
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Anchorage
The words that accompany an image contribute to the meaning associated
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Appeal
The way in which products attract and interest an audience
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Arc of transformation
The emotional changes a character goes through in the process of the narrative
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Aspirational
In terms of media text, the one that encourages the audience to want more (higher aspirations of life)
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Attract
How media producers create appeal to audiences that encourage them to consume the product
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Audience Catagorisation
How media producers group audiences
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Audience Cosumption
The way in which audiences engage with media products
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Audience Interpretation
The way in which audiences read the meanings and make sense of media products
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Audience Positioning
The way that media products place audiences
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Audience response
How audiences react to media products
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Audience Segmentation
Where a target audience is didvided up due to the diversity and range of products
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Audio
How sound is used to communicate meaning
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Avatar
A players representation within a game
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Backstory
Part of the narrative which may be the experiences of the character
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Binary Opposites
When texts incorperate examples of opposite narratives
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Brand Identity
The association that the audience make with the brand
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Broadsheet
A large newspaper that publishes more serious news
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Camera angles
The angle of the camera in relation to the subject
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Camera Shots
The type of shot and the framing in relation to the subject
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Caption
Words that accompany an image that helps explain the meaning
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Channel Identity
What makes the channel recognisable
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Circulation
The dissemination of media products to audience/users
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Connotation
The suggested meanings attached to a sign
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Conventions
What the audience expects to see in a particluar media text
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Convergence
The coming together of previously seperate media industries
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Cover Lines
Suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers
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Cross-platform marketing
A text that is distributed and exhibited across a range of media formats or platforms
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Cultural capital
The media tastes and preferences of an audience
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Demographic Catagory
A group in which consumers are placed in terms of their age, sex, income, proffesion etc
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Denotation
The literal meaning of a sign
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Diegetic Sound
Sound that comes from the fictional world eg the sound of a gun firing
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Discourse
The topics, language and meanings or values behind them
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Distribution
The methods that media products are distributed to the audience
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Diversification
Where media organisations who have specialised in producing media products in one form move into producing content across a range if forms
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Editing
The way in which the shots transition
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Encoding and Decoding
Media producers encode messages and meanings in products that are decoded by audiences
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Enigma
A narrative device that increases tension and audience interest by only releasing bits of information
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Equilibrium
In relation to the narrative, a state of balance or instability
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Ethnocentric
A belief in superiority of ones own ethnic group or culture
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Ethos
The beliefs, values and culture of media organisation eg Sky News has its own political views whoch may be reinforced
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Fan
An enthusiast of a particluar media form
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Feature
The main stories in an edition
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Flexi Narrative
A more complex narrative structure
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Four C's
The standards for Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics
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Franchise
An entire series of the show
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Gate Keepers
the people responsible for deciding the most appropriate stories in newspapers
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Genre
Media text grouped into somewhere with similar conventions
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Global
Worldwide
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Hegemony
The dominance of one group over another, often supported by legitimising norms and ideas.
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Horizontal Integration
Where a media conglomerate is made up of different companies that produce and sell similar products
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House Style
The aspects that make a magazine recognisable to its readers every issue.
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Hybrid Genre
Media texts that incorporate elements of more than genre and therefore more difficult to classify are genre hybrids.
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Iconography
The props, costume, objects and backgrounds associated with a particular genre.
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Ideology
A set of messages, values and beliefs that may be encoded into media products.
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Independent film
Made outside of the financial and artistic control of a large mainstream film company.
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Independent Record Label
A record label that operates without the funding of, and that is not necessarily linked to, a major record label.
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Intellectual Property
A legal concept which refers to creations of the mind of which the owners rights are recognised.
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Interactive audience
The ways in audiences can become actively involved with a product
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Intertextual
Where one media text makes reference to aspects of another text within it.
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Layout
The way in which a page has been designed to attract an audience
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Linear Narrative
Where the narrative unfolds in chronological order from beginning to end.
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Mass audience
The traditional idea of the audience as one large group
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Media Conglomerate
A company that owns other companies across a range of media platform.
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Media forms
Types of media products e.g. newspaper, television, advertising
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Media Language
The specific elements of a media product that communicates meaning
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Media platform
The range of different ways of communicating with an audience
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Mediation
The way that media text is constructed in order to represent a version of reality
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Mise-en-scene
How the combination of images in the frame creates meaning
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Misrepresentation
Certain social groups may be represented in a certain way
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Mode of address
The way that a media text speaks to its intended target
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Narrative
The 'story' that is told through the media text
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News Agenda
The list of stories that may appear in a particular paper.
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Niche Audience
A relatively small audience with specialised interests
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Non-diegetic sound
Sound that comes from outside the fictional world
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Non-linear narrative
The narrative manipulates time and space
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Opinion Leaders
People in society who may affect the way in which others interpret a particular media text
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Passive audience
The idea that audiences do not actively engage with media products
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Political bias
Where a newspaper may show support for a political party through its choice of forces
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Public service broadcaster
A radio and television broadcaster that is financed by public money
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Realism
A style of presentation that claims to portray 'real life' accurately.
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Regulator
A person or body that supervises a particular industry
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Selection and combination
Media producers actively choose elements of media language
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Sign/code
Something that communicates meaning
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Simulcast
The streaming of large radio programmes from the website
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Specialised audience
A niche audience that may be defined by a particular social group
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Stereotype
An exaggerated representation of someone or something
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Sub-genre
Where a genre is subdivided
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Synergy
The combination of elements to maximise profits
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Target audience
The people at whom the media text is aimed
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Technical codes
The way that texts have been produced to communicate meanings and are part of media language
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Underrepresentation
Certain social groups may be rarely represented or completely absent
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Uses and Gratification
Active audience seek out and use different media texts in order to satisfy
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Visual codes
The visual aspects of the product that constructs meaning and are part of media language.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Audiences actively engaging in selecting media products to consume and interpret

Back

Active Audience

Card 3

Front

The words that accompany an image contribute to the meaning associated

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

The way in which products attract and interest an audience

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

The emotional changes a character goes through in the process of the narrative

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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