MDIA 101 Test

Two Step Flow:

Media messages reach audiences through opinion leaders first, who interpret and pass them on.

When should Two Step Flow be discussed?

discussing influencers, creators, classmates, or other people who shape how an audience receives a message.

Reception Theory:

Audiences are active and may read the same text in different ways.

When should Reception Theory be discussed?

when you want to explain that different people can interpret the same post, video, or image differently.

Who proposed Reception Theory?

Stuart Hall

Hegemony:

The dominant group’s values become accepted as “normal” or “common sense.”

When should Hegemony be discussed?

when a media text makes a certain worldview seem natural, especially around gender, class, race, or consumerism.

Ideology:

The beliefs and values that shape how people understand the world.

When should Ideology be discussed?

Use this when a text clearly promotes a particular way of thinking or supports a social norm.

Discourse:

Repeated ways of talking and representing ideas in media and society.

When should Discourse be discussed?

when a text uses familiar language, visual codes, or stereotypes to shape meaning.

Media Effects:

The idea that media can influence attitudes, behaviour, or beliefs.

When should Media Effects be discussed?

Use this when a text may normalise ideas, shape opinions, or affect audiences over time.

Interpellation:

A text “hails” the viewer into a subject position, making them feel addressed or included.

When should Interpellation be discussed?

when a media text speaks directly to a type of person or invites the audience to identify with a role.

Identity:

How a person or group is represented and understood.

When should Identity be discussed?

Use this when a text shows how people are constructed through style, behaviour, culture, or social roles.

Decolonisation:

Challenging colonial power and centring Indigenous voices and knowledge.

When should Decolonisation be discussed?

Use this when discussing representation of Māori or other Indigenous peoples, especially if the text speaks for them without their involvement.

Semiotics:

The study of signs and how they create meaning.

When should Semiotics be discussed?

Use this when analysing colours, clothing, facial expressions, props, text, or symbols in an image.

Affect and intensity:

The feelings or atmosphere a text produces in the body and mind.

When should Affect and Intensity be discussed?

Use this when the image creates excitement, tension, sadness, warmth, or urgency.

Folklore and legendry:

Traditional stories, myths, and shared cultural narratives.

When should Folklore and Legendry be discussed?

Use this when a text draws on hero journeys, myths, cultural stories, or legendary figures.

TV Genre:

The category or style a television text belongs to.

When should TV Genre be discussed?

Use this when discussing how audiences recognise and expect certain formats, such as reality TV, drama, news, or soap opera.

Encoding/decoding:

Encoding is creating a media message with intended meanings; decoding is how audiences interpret it.

Opinion Leaders:

Trusted Individuals (e.g. actors, influencers, …)

How should we understand media within MDIA101

As channels and technologies of communication

What are our approached to studying media?

Critical, analytical, and reflexive

Why is the concept of prosumers important in Media101

It highlights that people both consume and produce media, helping them understand the processes and choices involved in creating media texts

When talking about signs and meaning in week 2, it was important to remember that:

culture gives signs meaning

Why is looking at how media makes meaning important?

Because meaning has material, real-world consequences and results

When it comes to ideological influences in a media text, what are we looking for?

What is absent from the text and how those absenses create meaning

Why is hegemony important to undertsand when looking at media texts?

It helps us identify the processes by which a dominant group is trying to legitimise its ideas

What should we consider when looking at media effects models?

How they conceive the flow of information and the role of the audience

Medoa texts can promote politics of decolonisation when they:

Promote Indigenous ways of thinking

What should you consider when deciding which media effect models might be more useful than others?

How it accounts for the social and cultural content in which media is consumed

Why does what counts as folklore differ from one culture to the next?

Every culture has a different perceived limit on what might be real and what turns into fiction

What role does music play in identity?

Music is an important tool for mapping out personal space

Which statement helps us understand interpellation from week 8?

Interpellation acts as a mediator between systems of power and individuals,

According to the week 9 lecture, what does it mean to “vibe”?

To shape time into pleasure

Why does ‘genre’ classification function differently in television than it does in feature films or novels?

Because television involves a wide range of TV forms and shows being offered to TV audiences, these traditionally juxtaposed in daily schedules, has made it necessary to deploy genre as a means to distinguish them.