Media Glossary

Anchorage: The way words anchor the meaning of an image in a

particular way.

Arbitrary signifier: A signifier that communicates meaning through

being learned, such as words in a language. They have no
resemblance to what they represent, unlike iconic signifiers.

Audience: Those who use a media text, whether watching, listening or

reading.

Binary Opposition: The idea that media texts and narratives work
through opposing elements in conflict such as Youth and Age or Culture
and Nature, a theory developed by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss.
Code: A set of conventions through which we make sense of a media
text. Various codes include visual, technical, auditory and written.

Connotations: The ideas and feelings associated with a text- more

personal than denotation.

Conventions: Expected elements of a media text because of its genre.

Cut: The usual way of going from one shot to another in a film or
television text.

Denotation: What is actually shown in an image.

Determinant: A Media Determinant is a factor that influences the

shaping of a media text. These include institutional, audience and
social determinants.

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Diegetic Sound: Sound that arises from what is being screened (Non-
diegetic sound includes super-imposed sound sources such as music
and voice-overs).

Effects Theory: A theory of Media Audiences that suggests the media

can have a harmful effect on people’s behaviour, especially young
people and children. This is a Passive Theory of Audience.

Frame: The edges or border of an image, where the producer of the

image has decided to set its limits. (Note that each single image in a
film is also called a frame)

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Genre: The categories in which we put media texts, such as Western,
Comedy, and Science Fiction.
Graphic Match: When a transition is enhanced by matching elements
of one shot with the next, such as a globe cutting or dissolving to
another round object taking up the same amount of space in the frame.

High Key Lighting: Film and Television lighting that eliminates

shadows by the use of a Key Light.

Hypodermic Needle Theory: A Passive Audience Theory that suggests

audiences passively take in what the media produce- linked to Effects
Theory.

Iconic signifier: A signifier that communicates through visually

resembling what it signifies, such as an image or an icon.

Iconography: The visual conventions of a genre, such as space

ships and futuristic weapons in a science fiction film.
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Ideology: A system of beliefs that frame and influence behaviour. A
society’s Dominant Ideologies will often be re-enforced by the
mainstream media and subverted by more radical media institutions.

Image: A visual representation.

Indexical signifier: A signifier that communicates through indicating

what it represents, such as a smile indicating happiness.

Institution: A media institution is an organisation, and we need to be

aware of issues such as how an institution is funded, controlled and
regulated.

Intertextuality: Aspects of a media text that can only be fully

understood by reference to a different text, such as when an advert
deliberately refers to a film.

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Low Key Lighting: Sometimes called “Chiaroscuro” lighting (Literally
Bright/Dark lighting), when the key light is deliberately not used in order
to create strong shadows and dark corners, as first used in Film Noir in
the 1940s.

Media Text: Any one media product that can be analysed and
deconstructed by media students, such as an advert, a soap opera
advert, a film or a newspaper. It does not have to be written or contain
writing, though often will.

Mise-en-scène: How a scene is organised, lit and framed for the

camera, literally “placed in scene”. – Setting, Props, Costume, Colour,
Décor, Hair & Makeup

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Narrative: Almost interchangeable with story, but emphasising the
construction and structure of a text that tells a story. Elements of
narrative structure include Enigma (raising questions), Complication,
Climax and Resolution. Todorov’s theory of narrative includes the idea
of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium, so a narrative will only begin when
an equilibrium is disrupted, and ends when the equilibrium is restored or
changed. Propp’s theory is based on the idea that all stories are based
on a limited number of characters and their functions within the
narrative.

Primary Use: This is when an audience member is giving 100%

attention to a media text. There is also Secondary Use, such as doing
homework in front of the television, and Tertiary Use, when you are
aware of a text but not consciously using it, such as a radio on in the
next room. Cinema can be called a primary medium for this reason, and
radio a secondary medium.

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Representation: The act of communicating through the use of symbols
or codes standing for things, people or events. In Media Studies we
need to realise that a representation is different from the reality
represented, and that representations are controlled by media
institutions.

Semiology: Or Semiotics, the study of signs and how they signify or

represent reality.

Shot: A single take of a film or television camera between transitions.

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Sign: A combination of Signifier (the symbol or code used to represent
something) and Signified (or what is represented).

Stereotype: Easily identifiable character often based on a history of

clichéd and usually negative representations of a social group.

Sub-genre: A development from and within a major genre, so that

“Slasher” movies form a sub-genre of the Horror genre.

Technical Codes: Codes that result from the way in which a media text
has been constructed, and would include lighting, editing, transitions,
special effects etc.

Transitions: The ways in which a film or television text move from one
shot to another. The most common transition is the cut, but there is also
the dissolve (when one shot merges with the next), the fade (when a
shot gradually goes to black and the next shot emerges from the black)
and the wipe (when a shot is replaced by the next shot using a moving
line or graphic).
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Visual Codes: It is important to recognise the various visual codes that
are at work when denoting an image, including Dress Codes, Object
Codes, Background Codes, Position Codes, Expression Codes and
Gesture Codes.

Voice-over: Speech added to film and television images after shooting

in the form of a commentary.

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