Anchorage: Text or captions that help explain the meaning of an image or video.
Paradigm: A set of options or choices, like types of characters or scenes that can be used in a media text.
Syntagm: A sequence or arrangement of elements (like images or words) that work together to create meaning.
Diegesis: The world of the story in media — everything that exists in the narrative, whether we see it or not.
Causality: The relationship where one thing causes another to happen, like in a story when one event leads to the next.
Genres of order and integration: Media genres (like news or drama) that keep society stable and orderly.
‘Genre as cultural category’: Thinking of genres as ways to express the values and beliefs of a culture.
Cultural codes: Symbols or signs (like colors or gestures) that have specific meanings in a culture.
Ideological reading: Interpreting media to see what beliefs or ideas it promotes.
Pastiche: Copying or mixing different styles in a playful or humorous way, like a parody.
Bricolage: Using different cultural things (like images, music, or fashion) to create something new.
Countertypes: Media representations that go against stereotypes, offering a different view of a group.
Hegemony: When one group or idea becomes the dominant or accepted way of thinking in society.
Voyeurism: Getting pleasure from watching others, especially in a private or personal way, like in reality TV.
Imagined communities: Media can make people feel connected to a larger group, even if they don’t know everyone in that group.
Marginalisation: When certain groups or voices are pushed out or ignored in media.
Orientalism: The way Western media often portrays the East (Asia, the Middle East) as exotic, mysterious, or backward.
Otherness: Representing people or cultures as different or strange, often to highlight a sense of superiority over them.
Diaspora: The movement of a group of people from their original homeland to different parts of the world, and the media they create around that experience.
Gender as discourse: The idea that gender is created through language, culture, and media, rather than being something fixed or biological.
Conglomerates: Large media companies that own a variety of different types of businesses or media outlets.
Neo-liberalism: An economic and political belief that promotes free markets, privatization, and reducing government control, often reflected in media content.
Governance: How media helps shape or control the rules and actions in society.
Transnational culture: Culture that crosses national boundaries, often spread through global media and the internet.
Commodification: Turning something (like a culture or idea) into something that can be bought or sold in the market.
Convergence: The coming together of different types of media, like when TV, internet, and social media work together.
Cultural imperialism: When one culture (usually Western) dominates and influences other cultures through media.
Cumulation: The gradual building up of certain messages or ideas over time in media content.
Standardisation: The process of making things similar or uniform, often seen in mass-produced media content.
Enculturation: The process of learning and adopting the values, customs, and norms of one’s culture through media.
Bardic function: The role of media in telling stories that preserve cultural history and values.
Cultivation differential: The difference in how people who watch a lot of television view the world compared to those who watch less.
Resonance: When a media message matches a person’s real-life experiences or feelings, making it feel more impactful.
Mean World Index: A measure of how much people believe the world is dangerous or violent, often influenced by media portrayals.
Agenda setting: The idea that media decides which issues are important by giving them more attention.
Conditions of consumption: The circumstances under which people watch or consume media (e.g., time, place, mood).
Encoding/decoding: The process of creating (encoding) and interpreting (decoding) media messages. Producers encode messages with certain meanings, and audiences decode them in different ways.
Hegemonic/negotiated/oppositional: Different ways audiences interpret media messages:
Hegemonic: Accepting the message as intended.
Negotiated: Partly accepting and partly disagreeing with the message.
Oppositional: Rejecting the message entirely.
Prosumer: A person who both creates and consumes media content.
Interactivity: The ability of the audience to actively engage with media, such as voting, commenting, or choosing story paths.
