Media Glossary

• Active audience 


  Audience that actively engage in selecting particular media products to consume and interpreting their meanings
• Appeal


  The way in which products attract interests of an audience

  Example: through use of stars, familiar genre conventions
• Audience categorisation


  Media producers group audiences to target products

  Example: by age, gender, ethnicity
• Audience response


  How audiences react to media products

  Example: by accepting preferred meanings
• Audience segmentation


  A target audience divided due to diversity of programmes and channels

  Makes it difficult for one programme to attract a large target audience
• Audio


  How sound is used to create meaning

  Example: voice-over, dialogue, music
• Brand identity 


  Association the audience makes with a brand, reinforced by advertising campaigns and their placement

  Example: Nike swish
• Camera angles


  Angle of a camera in relation to the subject

  Example: high angle shot suggests vulnerability
• Camera shots


  Type of shot and framing in relation to the subject

  Example: close-up shot used to express emotion
• Channel identity


  How a channel is made recognisable to audiences and different to other channels

  Examples: frequent similar presenters, genres, stars
• Circulation


  Dissemination of media products to audiences

  Example: circulation of print products, broadcast of television programmes
• Conventions


  What the audience expects to see in a particular media text

  Example: particular characters, iconography, narrative related to a genre
• Convergence


  The merging of previously separate industries or platforms

  Example: mobile phones allow streaming music, viewing videos, phone others in one portable device
• Cross-platform marketing


  Text that is distributed and exhibited across a range of media formats or platforms

  Example: films can be bought and streamed on channels, streaming services and the internet
• Cultural capital


  Media tastes and preferences of an audience traditionally linked to social class/background
• Demographic category


  Group in which consumers are placed according to age, sex, income, background

  Categories range from A to E
• Discourse


  Topics, language and meanings behind them within them within a media text

  Example: lifestyle magazines revolve around body image and narcissism
• Distribution


  The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences including marketing campaign

  Example: distribution of films are organised by release date and their promotion
• Ethnocentric 


  The belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic group or culture

  Example: tabloid papers only tend to cover international stories if they can relate them specifically to their readers
• Ethos


  Beliefs and values of media organisations

  Example: what a television channel believes in and what it sees as its role