key terms

• Active audience theory suggests that media audiences engage with or interact with media products by contributing, participating or creating their own meanings.
• Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is a self-regulatory body set up by the advertising industry, covering press releases, broadcast, film, and internet advertising as well as posters and leaflets.
• Agenda setting theory suggests that the media have a powerful and influential role in telling politicians and the public what they should be thinking about.
• Ambiguous/Ambiguity refers to a sign or a media product with several possible meanings which could be confused.
• Anchorage is the text (copy) that fixes (anchors) an image and its meaning.
• Antagonist in a plot, the character whose function is to disrupt the protagonist – often, but not always, a villain.
• Archetype is an original on which many copies are based, often used in relation to characters in fictional works.
• Audience is the people who consume a media product by watching, listening and reading it.
• Audience positioning technique is used to persuade the audience to interpret a media product in a particular way.
• Augmented reality is a technology combining computer-generated images with the users of physical environment.
• Austerity refers to government policies that reduce spending on public services so that the country doesn’t have to borrow as much money.
• Avatar is a picture, icon or character that represents a digital media user – eg a game-player.
• BARB Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board is the organisation that measures and collects television viewing data in the UK.
• Bias is a prejudice for or against a particular idea, place, group or individual, and can be demonstrated by tone or style, but also by selection or omission.
• Blockbuster films are usually produced by Hollywood studios with very large production budgets.
• Brand is an identity imposed on a product or range of products in order to encourage consumer awareness and loyalty.
• By-line is the printed line of text in a newspaper/magazine that names the writer of an article.
• Camera movement is the way the camera is moved during filming to add depth, interest and variation for the viewer, such as pan and track.
• Carriage costs are the monthly sum of money paid for a DAB transmission service which can be very expensive.
• Censorship is the controls and regulations that exist about media content, and can be held by governments or regulatory bodies.
• Cerebral pleasure refers to pleasures of the mind rather than the body.
• Citizen journalists are non-professional people who post news and other information to social media, blogs, vlogs and websites.
• CGI is the application of computer graphics to printed or moving image media, often used for special effects in film sequences.
• Click bait is eye-catching web content or headlines designed to entice the viewer to click on a link to a webpage with questionable value.
• Code is a communication system which includes signs, rules and shared understanding, examples include the English language, non-verbal codes, print codes and editing codes.
• Cold opening is a short scene occurring before the opening credits or title sequence, which hooks the viewer by plunging straight into the story, also known as a cold open or teaser sequence.
• Colour palette is the suite of colours that are used in the creation of media texts, such as websites and magazines, to reflect a brand and appeal to its audience.
• Signposting is the technique of establishing the location of a scene from the beginning.
• PEGI is an organisation that judges what the age ratings should be for games and produces guidance for consumers (mainly aimed at parents) so that they can decide if a game is suitable.
• Shot is a single image taken by a camera, or a single take of video footage.
• Polysemic is a sign or message that can have many different meanings.
• Royalties are payments paid to performers and song writers when their music is played on radio (or television or video games).
• Product placement is a marketing technique in which products or mentions of products are embedded within, for example, a film or a television show.
• Skyline is a line of text, with or without a coloured strip background, that runs across the top edge of a magazine page, poster or other printed product, containing important information to appeal to the audience.
• Producer is the people who plan, coordinate and create media products.
• Social construction is the belief that masculine and feminine behaviours, values and beliefs are constructed by society and not by nature.
• Prejudice is the preconceived ideas or opinions that have no basis in reason or evidence.
• Regulation refers to rules or sets of standards that are expected to be adhered to.
• Patriarchal attitudes are the views and beliefs that justify this inequality.
• Unlike statutory regulators, these do not have legal powers, but they rely on companies within the industry to accept a code of practice.