A2 Terminology

Homogenous Group: A group that all have the same characteristics

Mediation: The selection and construction of material in how it is given over to audiences via editing and point of view

Hegemony: Traditional stereotypes that are reinforced and circulated as common sense to audiences

Marginisalisation: How stereotyping can lead to someone or a social group being ‘placed’ on the outside of accepted cultural norms

Ideology: An overarching set of ideas often uses as a form of social control

Moral Panics: Issues in society that often lead to the blaming, and marginalisation of a scapegoat

Deviancy Amplification: Associated with moral panics, this explains how the media exaggerate a negative representation to ensure a dominant shared reading

Liberalisation: A more diverse, tolerant, equally acceptable approach

Pluralism: Again, more liberal suggesting and range of different, challenging representations

Web 2.0: Interactive internet media e.g. blogs and social networking

Manifest: Obvious, on the surface meaning

Cultural Stereotyping: The stereotyping of social groups in society by the media

Prosumer: A producer and consumer of media

Passive Audiences: Audiences that accept and do not challenge representations

Iconic: Well known and respected

Aspiration: Looking up to something or somebody

Encoding/Decoding: Putting meaning in, taking meaning out

Dominant, Negotiated and Oppositional Readings: The intended meaning of a text, where meaning is uncertain or where audience have decoded a completely different reading

Anchorage: How meaning is made more definite

Binary Oppositions: Where representations are deliberately different to construct further  meaning

Latent Meaning: Less obvious meaning

Memes: Internet ‘stars’