Media Culture and Society FINAL

Terrorgram Collective

A decentralized network of far-right extremists on Telegram that spreads propaganda encouraging violence and terrorism.

Militant Accelerationism

An ideology that promotes speeding up societal collapse through violence to create a new political order.

The relationship between “lone wolves,” online platforms, and violent radicalization? Use the details from the Christchurch Attack revealed in TRAFOT as an example

Individuals who commit violence alone but are influenced and radicalized by online communities, propaganda, and platforms.

Third space

A social environment separate from home (first space) and work/school (second space) where people build community.

Mats Steen

A Norwegian gamer whose life showed how online worlds like World of Warcraft can foster deep, real social connections.

Empirical question

A question that can be answered with observable evidence and data.

Mainstreaming effect

The result of heavy TV viewing leading to similar beliefs across different social groups.

Social location

A person’s position in society, defined by factors like class, race, and gender, which shapes their perspective.

Polysemy

The concept that media texts have multiple possible meanings.

Encoding/Decoding

Stuart Hall's theory that creators encode messages with specific meanings, while audiences interpret or decode them in different ways.

Open text

A media text that allows for many different interpretations.

Closed text

A media text that has one clear intended meaning.

Preferred reading

A state where the audience interprets the message exactly as intended by the creator.

Negotiated reading

A state where the audience partly accepts the intended meaning but modifies it based on their own context.

Oppositional reading

A state where the audience rejects the intended meaning of a media text entirely.

Discursive resources

The cultural knowledge and experiences people use to interpret media.

Cultural capital

Knowledge, tastes, and skills that signal social status and distinguish social groups.

Habitus

Deeply ingrained habits and preferences shaped by a person's upbringing.

Taste for freedom

An upper-class preference for variety and experimentation in cultural consumption.

Taste for necessity

A working-class preference shaped by practicality due to economic constraints.

Taste for pretension

The middle-class tendency to imitate elite tastes.

Omnivores

Individuals who consume both high and low culture.

Snobivores

Individuals who claim openness to all culture but still reject what they consider "low" culture.

Intellectualizing discourse

Talking about media in complex, analytical ways to signal sophistication and status.

Slumming (Lena)

Consuming "low status" culture for amusement while maintaining a symbolic distance from it.

Advertising

The specific act of promoting products to a target audience.

Marketing

A broad strategy encompassing research, targeting, and branding to sell products.

Mise-en-scène

The visual arrangement in marketing used to influence perception and desirability.

Pretty good problem

The challenge where consumers are overwhelmed by many decent options, forcing marketers to use branding and emotion to differentiate products.

Bliss point

The optimal level of sugar, salt, or fat identified by food science to maximize consumer craving.

Market-Driven Voice Profiling

Using voice data to infer personal traits like age, gender, or emotion for marketing targeting.

Nudge

A subtle design choice that guides users toward a specific action without restricting their options.

Sludge

Friction in design that makes it harder for users to perform beneficial actions.

Dark patterns

Deceptive design techniques used to manipulate users into unwanted actions, such as forced continuity or disguised ads.

The evolution of the thought of video games as third spaces

Initially seen as isolating but now understood as social spaces where players form meaningful relationships.