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Media Theory Final
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70
Medieval Studies
Undergraduate 3
04/25/2012

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Term
Post-Structuralism
Definition
Develops & challenges structuralist approaches; Take into account context audiences can produce meaning of.
Term
Polysemy
Definition
Sign that has many possible meanings
Term
Point of View
Definition
Positions cameras take, and whose viewpoint they show the viewer
Term
Pluralism
Definition
A liberal pluralist society is one that includes groups with different viewpoint that should all have the liberty & opportunity to speak out
Term
Narrative
Definition
A sequence of events taking place over a given period of time that are linked; cause and effect
Term
Mode of Address
Definition
Refers to the way a text speaks to or addresses its audience
Term
Karl Marx
Definition
Communism
Term
Intertextuality
Definition
The process of knowingly referring to other texts
Term
Interpellation
Definition
A process in which we internalise ideologies as a response to being addressed
Term
Incorporation
Definition
The process by which rebellious and radical ideas are made acceptable by incorporating them
Term
Symbolic Signs
Definition
The relationship between the signifier and the signified has no natural link and is based on culture, context, and convention
Term
Indexical Sign
Definition
The relationship between the signifier is one of indication, direction or measurement, sequence or causation
Term
Iconic Signs
Definition
The relationship between the signified and the signifier is based on likeness or resemblance
Term
Hybridization
Definition
Generic hybrids are texts that blend the codes and conventions of two or more genres to produce a new combination
Term
Homogenization
Definition
Financial pressures and other forces lead all media products to become similar, standard, and uniform
Term
Hegemony
Definition
Power and leadership maintained through processes of struggle and negotiation
Term
Stuart Hall
Definition
British cultural theorist and sociologist. Known for encoding/decoding
Term
Antonio Gramsci
Definition
Italian writer, politician, political philosopher and linguist. Known for cultural hegemony
Term
Globalization
Definition
International community influenced by technological development and economical, political, and military interests. Increase in interdependence and inter connectivity
Term
Genre
Definition
Groups of texts that share a set of conventional characteristics such as content, narrative structure, and visual style
Term
Gender in Narrative Structures
Definition
Men - Identity, control, main character, active, strong, known
Women - Objects, spectacle, passive, emotions, weak, home, unknown
Term
Michel Foucault
Definition
French philosopher, social theorist, and historian of ideals
Term
False Consciousness
Definition
When the proletariat or subordinate class internalizes and accepts the ideas of the ruling class
Term
Discourse
Definition
Paradigms or ways of understanding that are communicated through texts and language use, and that organize knowledge and social power
Term
Digital Divide
Definition
The increasing gap between those who have and who don't have access to technology, content, ICT skills and money to pay for digital services
Term
Connotation
Definition
The emotions, values, and associations that a sign gives to the reader, viewer, or listener
Term
Denotation
Definition
The most obvious level on which a sign communicates
Term
Cultural Imperialism
Definition
Imperial domination of the world maintained partly through dissemination of cultural projects
Term
Cultural Jamming
Definition
A form of media activism that subverts and reworks the intended meaning of existing media texts, or parodies major corporations, public figures and their media images
Term
Counter-Hegemony
Definition
A world view or activity that is in opposition to a challenges the dominant world view
Term
Conventions
Definition
Methods of organizing signs to communicate meaning in ways that become habituated and widely shared over time
Term
Extratextual Meaning
Definition
Meaning taken from sources external to the production
Term
Contextual Meaning
Definition
Interpreting meaning through who filmed, wrote, as well as who produced it and the conditions of the production; who it's aimed for. What financial or political constraints; whose paying for it.
Term
Constructionist Theory of Language
Definition
Language doesn't describe a pre-existing world. It constructs the world through naming it
Term
Codes
Definition
Standardized formulae for communicating meaning
Term
Characters as Elements of Structure
Definition
The villain; The donor; The helper; The Princess; The dispatcher; The hero; The false hero
Term
Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey
Definition
Stages:
1. Departure (call to adventure)
2. Initiation (Road of Trials)
3. Return (Freedom to Live)
Term
Joseph Campbell
Definition
American mythologist, writer, and lecturer. Hero's Journey
Term
binary Oppositions
Definition
A means of cultural classifications that splits the world into sets of dualistic opposing categories, such as male & female, black & white, good & evil, etc.
Term
Base/Superstructure
Definition
-Base is the economic foundations of society
-Superstructure is the social, political, and legal relations built upon the base
Term
Roland Barthes
Definition
A French literal theorist, philosopher, critic, & semiotician.
Ideas include structuralism, semiotics, social theory, anthropology, and post-structuralism
Term
Inscribed Audience
Definition
An ideal reader who is constructed by the text, or who is imagined/intended by the producers of the text
Term
Louis Althusser
Definition
French Marxist philosopher. RSAs and ISAs
Term
Text (Media as)
Definition
The process of interpreting and analyzing any media text
Term
Textual Meaning
Definition
Within the text
Term
Subjectivity
Definition
Pertains to an individual's personal thoughts and experiences
Term
Structuralism
Definition
A method of analysis that involved looking for and examining the underlying structures of meaning and language
Term
Signification
Definition
Signifier/Signified
Term
Todorov's Narrative Pattern (Dramatic Triangle)
Definition
Equilibrium -> Problem -> Solution -> Equilibrium
Middle
/ \
Begin - End
Term
Semiotics
Definition
Study of signs and sign processes
Term
Ferdinand de Saussure
Definition
Founder of semiology (science of signs)
Term
ISA (Ideological State Apparatus)
Definition
The institutions of socialization and persuasion that societies use to control people.
- Religion
- Family
- Media
Term
RSA (Repressive State Apparatus)
Definition
The institutions of force that society uses to control people
- Army
- Police
Term
Emergent Discourses
Definition
New ideas and beliefs held by a few people at first and then gradually becoming more accepted
Term
Dominant Discourse
Definition
Contemporary ideas and beliefs shared by a majority of people
Term
Residual Discourse
Definition
Sets of ideas and beliefs from the past that are still accepted by some people
Term
Representation
Definition
- To stand in for someone
- To look like or resemble
- To present a second time
Term
Reflective Theory of Language
Definition
Suggests that language simply describes the world
Term
Vladimir Propp
Definition
Propp's Characters:
- Hero
- Villain
- Princess
- Assistant
- Magical Helper
Term
Alternative Reading
Definition
Audiences interpret the text completely against the preferred reading
Term
Negotiated Reading
Definition
Audiences only accept some of what is being presented to them
Term
Preferred Reading
Definition
Audiences accept what is being presented without questioning the meaning intended by the media producers
Term
Characters as Archetypes
Definition
James Dean and Tupac are 'Rebels.'
Other examples are the unwilling hero, mentor, trickster, cowboy, etc.
Term
Encoding/Decoding
Definition
Encoding: The meaning the creators of the media put into their work.
Decoding: The meaning the audience takes away from the work.
Term
Media: Definition and Characteristics
Definition
Technologically developed communication industries, normally making money, which can transmit information and entertainment across time and space to individuals and/or large groups of people; they are literally in the middle of this process, the means for communication.
Characteristics:
- Communications systems
- Utilizes industrialized technology
- Aim to reach large audiences or to be used by many people
- Facilitate communication across distance/time
- The middle chain; hence, the term 'media'
- Potentially highly profitable
Term
Media: Determinants
Definition
Things that shape how media work:
- Technology: Necessary for media
- Economics: All media costs money
- Creativity: Media are a way to express creativity
- Social Controls: There are organizations/people who want to control what media we can consume/have access to
- Audiences: Do audiences shape the content?
Term
Media Studies: Pro and Con Views of the Media
Definition
For:
- Contributes to development of popular knowledge
- Can inspire and develop us
- Help us explore and develop our understanding of sex and violence.
- Media are truthful and informative
- Media allow all people a voice
- Enable free thought and speech
- Create a global village
- Give space to voices of different groups and cultures
- Agents of social change

Against:
- Repetitive diet of worthless trivia
- Make us passive observers
- Corrupt and pervert our children and us
- Media are a series of false constructions serving minority political interests.
- Serve commercial interests
- They want to control our consciousness
- Make us all the same
- A form of cultural imperialism
- Media maintain the status quo
Term
New Media: Characteristics
Definition
New media is horizontal
Many to many
Networked media, not mass media
From us to us
Moving 'their' stuff through our distribution system
New media generally refers to digital media
Term
New Media: Democratization
Definition
Increased access to information and participation in communication. Nearly anyone can produce new media, and it can be accessed worldwide
Term
Social vs. Psychological Problems in Narrative
Definition
Social: Narrative revolving around social issues and problems (hunger, poverty, bad economic system, etc.)

Psychological: Narrative's problems revolve around flaws in character (mistrustful, lazy, cowardly, etc.)
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