2481816
| Question | Answer |
| Archetype | A universal type or model of character that is found in many different texts, e.g. villain, wise old woman, hero, lover, mentor, loyal friend |
| Audience | Viewers, listeners and readers of a media text |
| Binary Opposites | The way opposites are used to create interest in media texts, such as good/bad, coward/hero, youth/age, black/white. According to Levi-Strauss, one side of the binary pair is always seen by a particular society or culture as more valued over the other |
| Catharsis | Violent and and sexual content in media texts serves the function of releasing aggression/desire in audiences that they are otherwise unable to express |
| Censorship | Control over the content of a media text by the government or a regulatory body |
| CGI | Computer Generated Imagery, special effects that enhance still and moving images |
| Code | A sign or convention through which the media communicates meaning to the audience because they have learned to read it in that way |
| Technical Codes | The way a text is technically constructed eg. camera angles, framing, typography, lighting, etc |
| Visual Codes | Codes that are drawn on our experience and understanding of other media texts and the meanings of these texts |
| Iconography | The use of visual images and how they trigger the audiences expectations of a particular genre, eg. a knife in horror films |
| Consumer | The purchaser, listener, viewer or reader of media products/texts |
| Context | Time, place or mindset that the audience consumes media products |
| Conventions | The recognised way of doing things in a particular genre |
| Convergence | The way in which technologies and institutions come together in order to create something new eg. the iPad is the convergence of books, TV, maps and the internet or cinema is the convergence of photography and moving image |
| Demographics | Characteristics of a population sample, e.g. age, gender, race, nationality, income, disability, education |
| Denotation | The everyday/common sense meaning of a sign |
| Connotation | The secondary meaning that a sign carries in addition to it’s everyday meaning |
| Diegetic Sound | Sound whose source is visible on the screen |
| Non Diegetic Sound | Sound effects, music or narration where the source cannot be seen |
| Enigma | A question in a text that is not immediately answered and creates interest for the audience eg. a puzzle that the audience has to solve |
| Feminism | The struggle by women to obtain equal rights in society |
| Gaze | The way we look at something structures the way we view the world |
| Genre | The type or category of a media text, according to its form, style and content |
| Hegemony | How controllers of the media use the media to pursue their own political interests and also where people who are critical of the establishment can air their views |
| Hypodermic Needle Theory | The idea that the media can ‘inject’ ideas and messages straight into the passive audience and become immediatly affected by these messages |
| Ideology | Ideas or beliefs which are held by the creators of the media text and could be similar with those of the dominant ruling social groups in society or alternative ideologies |
| Indexical Sign | A sign which has a direct relationship with something it signifies, such as smoke signifies fire |
| Image | A visual representation of something |
| Institutions | The organisations which produce and control media texts such as the BBC, Time Warner and News International |
| Intertextuality | The idea that within popular culture producers borrow other texts to create interest to the audience who like to share the ‘in’ joke. Examples include when TV programmes mention real current films or TV shows to create audience interest |
| Media Language | The way in which the media communicates to the audience and the forms and conventions by which it does so |
| Media Platform | The different ways that media content is delivered, via TV, laptop, tablet, smartphone, cinema, computer game, printed page etc. Most media organisations deliver their content via a multitude of platforms |
| Media Product | A text that has been designed to be consumed by an audience eg. a film, radio show, newspaper etc |
| Mise-en-Scene | Everything that appears on the screen in a single frame and how this helps the audience to decode what’s going on |
| Mode of Address | The way a media product ‘speaks’ to it’s audience |
| Montage | Putting together visual images to form a sequence |
| Moral Panic | A feeling stirred up by the media about an issue that appears to threaten the social order, such as against Muslims after 9/11 |
| Multi-Media | Computer technology that allows text, sound, graphic and video images to be combined into one programme |
| Narrative code | The way a story is put together within a text, traditionally equilibrium- disequilibrium, new equilibrium |
| News Values | Factors that influence whether a story will be picked for coverage |
| Non-Verbal Communication | Communication between people other than by speech |
| Ownership | Those who produce and distribute the media texts |
| Patriarchy | The historical domination and exploitation of women by men |
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