Media Studies Key Terminology

• Active Audience

  Media audiences that engage with or interact with media products by contributing, participating or creating their own meanings.
• Binary Oppositons

  Two contrasting ideas or concepts designed to cause conflict and make the audience choose a ’side’.
• Connotation

  Hidden meanings that may be implied by an element of the text.
• Conglomerate?

  A large parent company which owns multiple other companies.
• Countertype?

  A representation that deliberately goes against a commonly held stereotype.
• Convergence

  The coming together of technologies and institutions to create new products or media experiences.
• Conventions

  Established norms, expectations, or shared understandings used in the creation of media products.
• Denotation

  Obvious and literal meaning of any element of a media text.
• What does decoding mean in media texts?

  Process of audiences making sense of the messages built into a media text
• What is the purpose of deleb in marketing?

  To promote a product by associating it with the values and ideals of a deceased celebrity
• What is desensitization in media consumption?

  The process of an audience becoming used to materials that might have previously appeared shocking
• What are enigma codes in media texts?

  Puzzles or mysteries within the text that keep the audience hooked
• What does encoding refer to in media production?

  Process of media producers building messages into a media text
• What is the female gaze in media texts?

  The use of attractive men in a media text to appeal to an audience
• What is globalization in the context of media?

  The process that has seen international flows of trade, business, media, and cultural products become speedier and more intensive
• What is guerilla marketing?

  The use of low-cost unconventional tactics to capture consumer attention
• What is grass roots marketing?

  Focused marketing targeting the traditional or expected demographic audience for a media text
• What is a hyond in media genres?

  A genre that features the common conventions of two or more genres
• What is house style in media products?

  A distinctive style used by a media product that gives it a clear identity
• What does intertextuality refer to in media studies?

  When media texts make reference to, borrow, or quote from other existing texts