GLOSSARY 🗊

GLOSSARY

• Media studies: the study of the relationship between media producers and audiences
  
  
• Media language: the way in which the meaning (conventions) of a media text is conveyed to the audience through media codes (signs and symbols) suggested by the way a scene is set up and filmed
  
  
• Media texts: the usage of words, graphics, sounds, and/or images, in print, oral, visual, or electronic form to communicate information and ideas to their audience
  
  
• Codes: a system of signs or symbols which are used to communicate meaning
  
  
• Convention: the 'ingredients' of a form or genre; a way of doing things that are widely accepted and followed, or, the commonly accepted meaning created by the codes

• Encode: to create a message or meaning, to convert it into a coded form

• Decode: to interpret the meaning/importance of the message from the coded form
  
  
• Encoding: putting a message into a written, verbal, or symbolic form that can be recognised and understood by the receiver
  
  
• Decoding: to interpret and try to make sense of a message
  
  

• Mise-en-scène: 'everything within the frame'; all of the elements placed in front of the camera to be photographed, elements include: set design, costume, props, and staging and composition (the 4 elements of mise-en-scène)
  
  
• Set design: how the setting is being presented
  
  
• Realistic set design: represents how it looks like in real life (building of sets or shooting on location)
• Stylistic set design: calls attention to itself for the audience to notice (typically in narrative genres)
  
  
• Costume: the wardrobe choices and make-up that are used to convey a character's status or personality; signifying the setting or era of the narrative, play important roles in the plot of the film, draw the eye to a specific character or help point out the difference between characters or the setting
  
  
• Props: (short for 'property') when an object in the setting has a function within the ongoing action that is often closely linked to the plot of the narrative, or a casual relationship, where if a prop is repeated throughout the narrative, it may become a motif, and connected to a theme or moral of the story
  
  
• Staging and composition: how elements within the frame have been arranged for a particular effect, including their position within the frame and their relationship with other elements (that can include characters of props) within the frame
  
  
• Tone: the mood or atmosphere of a scene or film, e.g. dramatic, scary, funny, romantic, to perhaps tell the audience how to feel
  
  
• Colour: to set the overall tone of the film, identify character traits and show the evolution of a character or story. For example, purple creates a sense of fantasy, or such that a greedy businessman wears green
  
  
• Lighting: the direction, quality, source, or colour of light, where the different elements work together to guide our attention, create texture or visual impact, and create an atmosphere
  
  
• Acting: an activity in which a story is told by means of its enactment by an actor or an actress who adopts a character
  
  
• Facial expression: an aspect of an actor's craft to create a performance
• Body language: a range of nonverbal signals used to convey meaning in a narrative context
• Vocal qualities: speech variations that change the way a voice sounds
  
  
  
• Camera: a device for recording visual images in the form of photographs, film, or video signals
  
  
• Camera shot: the view that is seen or filmed through a camera's viewfinder; the composition of key elements within a frame used to support the story or idea indicated in a storyboard
  
  
• Establishing shot: to show setting, and time (often at the beginning) and to avoid confusion when the story shifts
  
  
• Extreme long shot: to show the subject from a distance, or the area in which the scene is taking place to establish a scene in terms of time and place (the character doesn't have to be viewable in this shot)
  
  
• Long shot (or wide shot): shows the subject from top to bottom
  
  
• Full shot: frames the character from head to toes, with the subject roughly filling the frame
  
  
• Medium shot: shows part of the subject in more detail (typically frames them from about the waist up)
  
  
• Medium close-up: falls between a medium shot and a close-up, framing the subject from chest or shoulder up
  
  
• Close-up: fills the screen with part of the subject, such as a person's head/face (the emotions and reaction of a character dominate the scene)
  
  
• Extreme close-up: emphasizes a small area or detail of the subject, such as the eye(s) or mouth
  
  
• Camera angles: the angle of view on the subject as established by the position of the camera to imply meaning, e.g. high angle means that the camera is "looking down" on the subject, low angle means that the camera is "looking up" at the subject
  
  
• Overshot: when the camera is directly above the action (usually used in an establishing shot, but not always)
  
  
• High angle shot: to make the subjects look smaller, often indicating a lack of power
  
  
• Eye-level: gives the audience a sense of realism as we see the characters on a 'regular' level (most commonly used)
  
  
• Low angle: to make a character appear larger and more powerful (the camera is positioned lower to make things seem bigger)
  
  
• Undershot: when the camera is placed underneath the subject, often matched with POV shots if a character is looking up at something
  
  
• Point of view (POV) shot: to show something from the character's perspective
  
  
• Camera movement: a technique that describes how a camera moves about to enhance a story
  
  
• Track/tracking: when the camera is following the subject
  
  
• Pan: when the camera moves horizontally to reveal more information about the setting or surroundings, sometimes used to establish a scene
  that can not all fit within one shot
  
  
• Tilt: (opposite to 'pan'); when the camera tilts vertically to reveal more information about the setting, it can often be used to give the viewer more information about the objects or characteristics or outfits of the
  character
  
  
• Crane: a type of machine that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally
  
  
• Crane shot: a shot taken by a camera on a moving crane or jib
  
  
• Dolly: a wheeled cart, usually one that runs on rail tracks
  
  
• Dolly shot: the camera movement when a camera is mounted on a dolly. It requires the actual physical movement of a camera
• Dolly in: when the camera moves closer to a subject
• Dolly out: when the camera moves further away from the subject
  
  
• Zoom: when the zoom (camera feature) moves in on a character or object, to show more detail. A zoom shot requires an adjustment in the lens' focal length
  
  
• Reverse zoom: (the opposite of 'zoom'); more commonly known as zoom out
  
  
  
• Sound: something that you can hear or that can be heard
  
  
• Diegetic sound: the sound that could logically be heard by characters in the film, sound that would occur in the scene
• Non-diegetic sound: the sound that cannot be heard by the characters but is designed for audience reaction only, e.g. ominous music for foreshadowing, voice-over, etc.
• Ambient sound: the background sounds which are present in a (particular) scene or location, e.g. rain, the ocean, a crowd, an office, or traffic
• Sound effect: an artificially created or enhanced sound presented to make a specific storytelling or creative point without the use of dialogue or music
• Dialogue: a written or spoken exchange of words between one or more characters
  
  
  
• Editing: techniques used by film editors to tell stories using video content through importing film footage, organizing shots by scenes and takes, and assembling the pieces to create a compelling story
  
  
• Cut: transition from one shot into another
• Cross-cutting: a technique that gives the appearance that two storylines are happening simultaneously
• Dissolve: occurs when the beginning of one shot gradually overlaps the end of another
• Reverse shot: a film technique that involves two characters in the same scene who are filmed separately using different camera angles
• Iris: a transition that involves a circle that increases then decreases in size
• Flashback: a transition that is used to interrupt the present storyline for a brief return to past events
• Fade: where visual and audio elements gradually disappear as new ones take over to suggest a new setting or time
  
  
  
• Connotation: an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning. For example, the connotations of the word 'snake' could include evil or danger

• Denotation: the literal or primary meaning of a word, is the "dictionary definition", in contrast to the feelings or ideas that the word suggests. For example, if you look up the word 'snake' in the dictionary, you will discover that it means "any of numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous."

• Hypodermic Needle Theory: a model of communication suggesting that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver
  
  
• Desensitisation: occurs when an audience is repeatedly exposed to shocking or violent content, where repeated experience numbs the effect
  
  
  
• Audience: a group of people assembled in which a text is designed and created for
  
  
• Passive audience: audiences that accept the messages encoded in a media and do not challenge representations, therefore, more likely to be directly affected by the messages (Hypodermic Needle Theory and Desensitisation)
• Active audience: audiences that engage, interpret and respond to a media text in different ways and are capable of challenging the ideas encoded in it (Uses and Gratification Theory and Reception Theory)
  
  
  
• Reception Theory: Stuart Hall explored how people make sense of media texts and claimed audiences were active, not passive
  
  
  
• Uses and Gratification Theory: actively using the media to satisfy our base social needs including diversion, personal identity, social relationships, and surveillance
  
  
• Diversion: a form of escapism from the stress and strain of everyday life
• Personal identity: the media supplies us with role models and ways of us understanding our own place in society, where some audiences like to watch or read media texts so they can compare their life experiences with those represented in it
• Social relationships: people make personal connections with the performers they see on screen and are able to build their own relationships by discussing media with friends
• Surveillance: people use the media to inform themselves about the world around them and to keep up to date with entertainment or fashion trends to satisfy their curiosity
  
  
  
• Preferred reading: the audience decodes the text exactly as the producer intended, perhaps due to having the same ideological position
  
  
• Negotiated reading: the audience understands the meaning and connotations of a text, but they may reject certain elements too
  
  
• Oppositional reading: the audience rejects the text meaning (might not even engage with the text)
  
  
• Demographics: the very blunt division of people into broad and easily measurable segments (age, gender, social class, ethnicity/race, income, location, political learnings, star appeal)
  
  
• Psychographics: the study of consumers/audiences based on their activities and psychological attributes of traits in humans (personality, behaviour (passive/active), values, interests, spending habits)
  
  
  
• Genre: a way to categorise media products by grouping them together via their shared characteristics (codes and conventions). Genre creates restrictions, but it also creates templates for media producers to follow. The style or category of a particular piece of art (media)
  
  
• Sub-genre: a subcategory within a particular genre, taking the categorization of media a step further (it goes beyond the generalization of the genre)
• Hybrid genre: blends themes and elements from two or more different genres
• Genre convention: the different elements that are commonly found in a particular genre