I don't claim ownership of this presentation and can't remember where I got it from, but it's useful for revision purposes.

1. TMEDIA
TERMINOLOGY
key terms in media analysis

2. CODESAll media texts are
encoded. The codes
themselves are
symbolic, technical,
or written. The
technical code used
depends on the
platform
J

3. ENCODING
/DECODING
meanings are encoded
by producers and
decoded by the audience

4. D
POSITIONING
media texts attempt to
place the audience in a
position whereby they
hold a point of view, or
feel a particular emotion
(in other words, we’re
talking about
manipulation)

5. PREFERRED/
DOMINANT
A preferred meaning is one
that might be put in place
by the producers, or by the
dominant values of society

6. g
RESISTANT/
ABERRANTAn aberrant reading
takes place when the
audience is resistant to
the dominant values
of society and instead
negotiates* or resists
the intended meaning
*see reception theory

7. QNARRATIVEThe media trains us to see the
world in terms of narrative:
beginning (equilibrium), middle
(disruption and conflict), & end
(new equilibrium). All media
texts have a narrative structure

8. O
GENRE
a category of texts with
common conventions of
style, narrative, and
structure

9. ICONOGRAPHY
particular visual
signs associated
with certain genres.
“The iconography of this
text includes a deserted
house and a sinister
clown, both evocative of
the horror genre”

10. MEDIATION
anything we
experience
through the
media (as
opposed to
directly) is
mediated.

11. MISE-EN-SCÈNE
whatever appears
within the frame –
setting, lighting,
characters, props
“The director uses the mise-
en-scène to create a sense of
loneliness by framing the
character against an
enormous, empty landscape.”

12. C
REGULATION
Laws, rules, guidelines which define and
restrict the parameters within which the
media work.
Self-regulation – within the industry (e.g.
press complaints commission)
Government regulation: often operated by
QANGOs! (Quasi-Autonomous Non-
Governmental Organisations - like
OFCOM)

13. q
DISMEMBERMENT
in advertising
especially,
women’s bodies
are cropped/
masked in order
to emphasise
sexualised body
parts.

14. NEWSVALUES
criteria applied to
determine what is
newsworthy.
“News values determine the
prominence given to news
stories, their order, and
whether they are included or
excluded from the news
agenda.”

15. c
STEREOTYPE
An oversimplified,
sometimes humorous,
representation which
is used to categorise
and evaluate
members of a
particular group

16. bVOYEURISM
The practice of
gaining pleasure from
looking at other
people whilst
remaining
anonymous.

17. AUDIENCE
there are
main ways
of looking
at
audiences
3
1. Hypodermic
model
2. Uses &
Gratifications
model
3. Reception
model

18. HYPODERMIC
the media is powerful
and influential, able to
inject ideas &
behaviours directly
into the audience —
which must be
protected from its
power.

19. z
USES&GRATIFICATIONS
Theory of audience
which emphasises
the range of needs/
pleasures fulfilled
by consumption of
the media.

20. RECEPTION
Theory of audience that
emphasises the range
of ways in which
audiences receive and
respond to media texts
– including resistant or
negotiated readings