Media Audience and Consumption

ACTION CODE

Something that happens in the narrative that tells the audience action will follow.

ANCHORAGE

The words that accompany an image (still or moving) give the meaning associated with that image.

ASPIRATIONAL

One that encourages the audience to want more money, upmarket consumer items, and a higher social position.

ATTRACT

The way in which products attract and interest an audience.

AUDIENCE

The way in which audiences engage with media products.

ACTIVE AUDIENCE

Audiences who actively engage in selecting media products.

APPEAL

How media producers appeal to audiences to encourage them to consume the product.

BRAND IDENTITY

The association the audience makes with the brand, built up over time and reinforced by advertising campaigns.

BROADSHEET

A larger newspaper that publishes more serious news.

CAPTION

Words that accompany an image that explain its meaning.

CHANNEL IDENTITY

The aspects which make the channel recognizable to audiences and different from any other channel.

CIRCULATION

The dissemination of media products.

COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE

Conversational language that is less formal than written speech.

COMMERCIAL CHANNELS

Channels that raise money through advertising.

CONNOTATION

The suggested meanings attached to a sign.

CONVENTIONS

What the audience expects to see in a particular media text.

CONVERGENCE

The coming together of previously separate media industries and/or platforms.

COVER LINES

These suggest the content to the reader and often contain teasers and rhetorical questions.

CROSS-PLATFORM MARKETING

A text that is distributed and exhibited across a range of media formats or platforms.

DEMOGRAPHIC CATEGORY

A group in which consumers are placed according to their age, sex, income, profession, etc.

DENOTATION

The description of what you can see/hear in a media text.

DIEGETIC SOUND

Sound that comes from the fictional world and can be seen.

DISRUPTION

What changes the balance in the story world.

DISTRIBUTION

The methods by which media products are delivered to audiences.

DIVERSIFICATION

Where media organizations move into producing content across a range of forms.

ENCODING AND DECODING

Messages and meanings in products that are decoded or interpreted by audiences.

ENIGMA CODE

A narrative device that increases tension and audience interest by only releasing bits of information.

EQUILIBRIUM

In relation to narrative, a state of balance or stability.

FAN

An enthusiast or aficionado of a particular media form or product.

FEATURE

In magazine terms, the main or one of the main stories in an edition.

FOUR Cs

Channels, content, consumers, and commerce.

FRANCHISE

The entire series of something like a film

GENRE

A group of media that all share the same conventions

GLOBAL

worldwide

HOUSE STYLE

The aspects that make a magazine recognisable to its readers every issue. e.g the choice of colour, the layout and design, the font style, the content

HYBRID GENRE

A mix of different genres, for example, a romantic comedy.

Cross Cultural Consumer Characteristics

Groups consumers based on motivational needs

Gatekeepers

Decide stories for newspapers based on paper's ideology

Iconography

Symbols and visual codes in media

Independent Film

Made outside major film company control

Independent Record Label

Operates without major label funding

Intellectual Property

Legal rights for creations of the mind

Intertextual Reference

One text referencing another within it

Layout and Design

Page design to attract target audience

Linear Narrative

Narrative unfolds chronologically

Mainstream

Most popular media products at the time

Marketing

Ways organizations promote products

Masculinity

Perceived characteristics defining manhood

Mass Audience

Traditional idea of a large, homogenous audience

Masthead

Title and design of a magazine

Media Conglomerate

Company owning various media platforms

Media Forms

Types of media products like TV, newspapers

Media Language

Elements communicating meanings to audiences

Media Platform

Different ways of communicating with audiences

Mediation

Construction of media text to represent reality

Mise-en-Scene

Composition of elements in a media frame

Misrepresentation

Inappropriate portrayal not based on reality

Mode of address

The way in which a media text 'speaks to' its target audience. For example, teenage magazines have a chatty informal mode of address; the news has a more formal mode of address.

Narrative

The story told by the media text

News Agenda

The list of stories that may appear in a particular paper. The items on the news agenda will reflect the style and ethos of the paper.

Niche Audience

A relatively small audience with specialised interests, tastes, and backgrounds.

non-diegetic sound

Sound that is out of the shot, for example a voiceover or romantic mood music.

Non-linear narrative

Here the narrative manipulates time and space. It may begin in the middle and then include flashbacks and other narrative devices.

opinion leaders

People who affect the way others interpret the media text e.g a celebrity/endorser recommending a product in an ad

Passive Audience

The idea (now widely regarded as outdated) that audiences do not actively engage with media products, but passively consume and accept the messages that producers communicate.

Persona

image or personality that someone like a celebrity presents to the audience

personal identity

can relate to a text because it had happened to you

Political bias

newspaper show support for political party through its choice of stories subtle/explicit

PRIVILEGED SPECTATOR POSITION

Where the camera places the audience in a superior position within the narrative. The audience can then anticipate what will follow.

Production

The process of which media products are constructed

Production Values

The elements of the text that tell the audience how much it cost to make