User:Guystanley

KEY MEDIA TERMINOLOGY

A.R.G: Alternative Reality GAME

C.G.I: Computer Generated Imagery

AUDIENCE EXPECTATION: Usually concerned with GENRE films but referring to any product – it is what the AUDIENCE wants/expects to see happen; good triumphing over evil, the guy getting the girl etc. GENRE PRODUCT must conform to this in some fashion in order to keep the AUDIENCE HAPPY (see USES & GRATIFICATION)

CODES: Coded constructions are the basis for all media product – these are viewed/experienced by the audience and deconstructed automatically to ‘fill in’ gaps. The audience ‘read’ the text based on these codes.

CONNOTATION: A description of value, MEANING or IDEOLOGY associated with a media text.

CONGLOMERATE: A media conglomerate describes companies that own large numbers of companies in various mass media such as television, radio, publishing, films, and the Internet. For example Time Warner is a media conglomerate that is also horizontally integrated. Also referred to as MEDIA INSTITUTIONS.

CONVENTIONS: Rules (in media) which concern the way things should be done – titles in films, narrative having a BEGINNING – MIDDLE – END 3Act structure. It refers to any aspect of media which is normal and therefore CONVENTIONAL. Once established, these conventions or rules can then be UPHELD (or obeyed) or SUBVERTED (changed or disobeyed) as long as the AUDIENCE understands the changes.

CONSTRUCT OR CONSTRUCTION: As a verb, the process by which a media text is shaped and given meaning. This process is subject to a variety of decisions and is designed to keep the audience interested in the text. As a noun, a fictional or documentary text that appears to be "natural" or a "reflection of reality" but is, in fact, shaped and given meaning through the process already described.

DECONSTRUCT: To take apart, analyse, or break down a media text into its component parts in order to understand how and why it was created.

DEMOGRAPHICS: Recognizable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, ethnicity, education and income level.

DENOTATION: A description of a media text indicating its common sense, obvious meaning.

DOMINANT IDEOLOGY: (see also HEGEMONY) A system of beliefs held by the majority and accepted as right or true. The concept of monogamy could be considered a Dominant ideology.

EXHIBITION: The term used for a FILM (PRODUCT) being shown at a CINEMA.

GENRE: A category of media texts characterized by a particular style, form or content.

FRANCHISE: A film that builds on the success of the original by making multiple sequels. Examples of this are Star Wars and Batman. They are both franchises as they feature tie-ins to other media such as toys, comics and games and have instantly recognisable characters.

FRONTLOADING: The art of loading a film heavily through a widespread saturation MARKETING campaign, opening it in as many screens as possible hoping to create a BUZZ – enabling the film to take more at the box office than its quality deserves. An example of this is Snakes On a Plane released with no press preview and only a teaser trailer. The film took 65million in two weeks before leaving the cinemas creating a healthy return for the studios 35 million outlay.

FORMULAIC: A term that applies to a film that features a plot that is instantly recognisable from being similar to other films. Taken is an example of a formulaic action film that is similar in plot to the Die Hard series.

HEGEMONY: (hegemonic): Theorised by Antonio Gramsci – when a society recognises a system of beliefs (IDEOLOGY) so completely it becomes ‘fact’ or truth. It transcends from being merely a belief by being so dominantly reinforced.

HIGH CONCEPT: A style of film-making modelled by economic and institutional forces’. This means the film includes, Successful pitching, especially via market research into audience interests and pre-sold marketability and a Successful saturation advertising designed to make people see the film and make money for the institution

HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION: The idea of owning many media outlets, which run almost the same content, is considered to be very productive, since it requires only minor changes of format and information to use in multiple media forms. For example, within a conglomerate, the content used in broadcasting television would be used in broadcasting radio as well, or the content used in hard copy of the newspaper would also be used in online newspaper website. Horizontal integration refers to a CONGLOMERATE that owns different areas of media production for example radio, film, tv etc. What emerges from this are new ways of development and distribution designed to increase the “SYNERGY’ between the different divisions of the same company and make more money for the conglomerate.

IDEOLOGY: How we as individuals understand the world in which we live. This understanding involves an interaction between our individual psychology and the social structures that surround us. Mediating between these are the individual processes of communication, as well as the technological processes of the mass media.

INDUSTRY: The agencies and institutions involved with the production of media texts. The term is also used in a more narrow sense to describe the commercial production of media texts for the purpose of making a profit.

JOLTS: Moments in a media text that are generated by a broad comedy, a violent act, movement within a frame, a loud noise, rapid editing, a profanity or a sexually explicit representation—all of which are calculated to engage an audience's excitement.

LOSS LEADER: A term used in business where a product is provided at little or no profit to invite consumers to take advantage of other more profitable product. In cinema terms this means the cinema exhibition is merely an advert for the DVD product and associated Film merchandise.

MAINSTREAM AUDIENCE: The largest possible target audience. Targeting either gender, multiple age ranges and hopefully varied ethnic backgrounds

MASS MEDIA: MEDIA EDUCATION: the process by which individuals learn the technical production skills associated with creating media texts. Traditionally, it has not included the intellectual processes of critical consumption or deconstruction; however, modern interpretations often include these processes.

MEDIA LITERACY: The process of understanding and using the mass media in an assertive and non-passive way. This includes an informed and critical understanding of the nature of the media, the techniques used by them and the impact of these techniques.

MEDIUM: The singular form of media. This term usually describes individual forms such as radio, television, film etc.

MEDIA: The plural form of medium. This term has come to mean all the industrial forms of mass communication combined.

MORAL PANIC: a media term used to describe any event which creates a mass response in ‘the court of public opinion´ - it usually refers to an event which has been exaggerated beyond its actual real effect.

MULTIPLEX: Modern Cinema (Theater in American) which holds many screens, often block-booked for big summer releases.

NARRATIVE: The telling of a plot or story. In a media text, narrative is the coherent sequencing of events across time and space.

NEGOTIATE: (negotiated reading): The process by which members of the audience individually or collectively interpret, deconstruct and find meaning within a media text.

NICHE AUDIENCE: An audience targeted for a less mainstream film, appealing to a smaller audience, an example of which is This is England.

OPPOSITIONAL: A critical position that is in opposition to the values and ideology intended by the creators of a media text.

PREFERRED READING: The intended meanings or messages placed in a text by authors. This is often vastly different to the NEGOTIATED READING of an audiences’ actual interpretations.

PRE-SOLD ELEMENTS: These are elements that entice an institution to make a film because they already know it has an audience. For example, The Dark Knight featured pre-sold elements such as its comic book history, the previous batman franchise and the fact that there had been a prequel called Batman begins in 2005.

PRODUCTION: The industrial process of creating media texts as well as the people who are engaged in this process.

PRODUCTION VALUES: Describes the quality of a media production—which is generally proportional to the money and technology expended on it.

PSYCHOGRAPHICS: A more sophisticated form of DEMOGRAPHICS that includes information about the psychological and sociological characteristics of media consumers, such as attitudes, values, emotional responses and ideological beliefs.

REPRESENTATION: The process by which a CONSTRUCTED MEDIA TEXT stands for, symbolises, describes or REPRESENTS people, places, events or ideas that are real and have an existence outside the text. It is an INTERPRETATION of REALITY.

RELEASE WINDOW: Time in which a product is available for the consumer – often a 3-6 month release window at the cinema, before release on DVD but this will vary with different product.

SATURATION ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN: An intensive national advertising campaign designed to make the film as widely seen as possible by the largest possible audience. Features include viral advertising, teaser trailers, tie-ins with fast-food chains and the more traditional print media.

SIGNIFIER: see also denotation. A symbol or sign which the audience reads or de-codes to understand the SIGNIFIED. Ferdinand de Saussure developed ideas around language as a interpretative process (the word, and then its meaning)

SIGNIFIED: The meaning which the audience interprets (often subconsciously) and from which develops ideological messages. A jacket is a signifier – the fact that it is black leather carries meaning to the audience (Leather = tough, Black = Evil)

SYNERGY: The relationship between media products that cross promote each other. For example, there is SYNERGY between the James Bond franchise and the video games (Goldeneye and Nightfire). The games are saleable because the audience is attracted to elements they recognise from the films, while the games act as an advertisement for the films. Effectively, both products advertise and cross-promote each other. This is also applicable to toys, clothing, Music videos and any other product tied to a film.

TECHNOLOGY: The machinery, tools and materials required to produce a media text. In media literacy terms, technology greatly impacts upon the construction and connotation of a text.

TEXT: The individual results of media production: a movie, a TV episode, a book, an issue of a magazine or newspaper, an advertisement, an album, a CD, etc.

USES & GRATIFICATIONS: This is one of many audience theories recognized in the media. The basic theme of uses and gratifications is the idea that people use the media to get specific gratifications. This is in opposition to the hypodermic needle model that claims consumers have no say in how the media influences them. The main idea of the Uses and Gratifications model is that people are not helpless victims of all powerful media, but use media to fulfill their various needs. These needs serve as motivations for using media. Jay G. Blumler and Elihu Katz devised their uses and gratifications model in 1974 to highlight five areas of gratification in media texts for audiences.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION: Owning all the stages in the production, distribution and consumption of a product. This means the company own the studio, the films distributor and the cinema(s) in which the film is shown. Today this can also refer to the HOME VIDEO/DVD label as well.