IB ELA

Denotation

The literal, objective, dictionary definition of a word or the explicit visual element in an image without emotional interpretation.

Connotation

• The emotional, cultural, or social associations attached to a word, symbol, or image.

Anchorage

Text (slogan, caption, headline) paired with a visual image to pin down, direct, or limit its potential interpretations.

Ideology

A shared set of values, beliefs, or cultural assumptions that govern how a society or group understands power, identity, and truth.

Framing

• The visual or textual placement of information, camera angles, or evidence to manipulate audience focus and construct bias.

Ethos / Pathos / Logos:

• Ethos: Appeals to authority, moral character, expertise, or credibility.

• Pathos: Appeals to emotion, sympathy, urgency, or fear.

• Logos: Appeals to logic, facts, statistics, historical data, and cause-and-effect reasoning.

Greenwashing:

• A marketing strategy where corporate advertising uses green imagery, natural landscapes, and vague environmental language to construct false environmental responsibility.

Satire

• The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and critique human folly, social injustice, or political corruption.

Caricature

• Visual distortion or exaggeration of a person's physical features or behavioral traits to poke fun at them or critique their power.

Direct Gaze

• Subject looks straight into the camera lens, demanding audience attention, power, and authority.

Averted Gaze

Subject looks away from the camera, signaling passivity, introspection, reflection, or vulnerability

Visual Hierarchy:

• The arrangement and size of elements (typography, images, layout) to guide the reader's eye in order of importance.

Multimodal Texts

 Texts that combine two or more semiotic systems (e.g., written words, static graphics, audio, interactive swipes, video cuts) to construct meaning.

Loaded Diction:

 High-connotation word choice intended to elicit a strong positive or negative emotional reaction.

Subtext

• The underlying, implicit message or assumption that is not directly stated in a text.

Gatekeeping

• The process by which media editors, directors, or institutions select, filter, and decide which perspectives are published and which are omitted.

Communication

• How strategic linguistic and visual choices transfer ideas, anchor meaning, and persuade target audiences.

Power

How non-literary texts reflect, reinforce, or subvert existing institutional, corporate, and political power

structures.

Representation

Representation: How real-world people, social groups, environments, and crises are reconstructed through media

lenses rather than shown as neutral reality.

Perspective

Perspective: How an author's, artist's, or publisher's background and implicit bias shape the framing of an issue.

Context text type

Context & Text Type: Identify the text type, publisher/creator, title/headline, and date or socio-cultural context.

Target audience

2. Target Audience & Purpose: State who the text targets (demographics, values) and what reaction or action the

author/creator intends to

Primary argument

3. Primary Argument / Stance: State the central message or representation constructed

Thesis

Thesis Statement: Combine 2–3 specific stylistic/visual techniques with the author's purpose and IB core concept.

Template: "Through the strategic implementation of [Technique 1], [Technique 2], and [Technique 3], the [Text Type]

constructs [Subject] as [Representation], ultimately persuading the intended audience to [Purpose/Action].

Anchorage identified

. Anchorage Identification: If a print advertisement features a photo of an empty, barren landscape paired with the

bold slogan "Our Legacy for 2050,

" how does the text anchor the visual meaning?