Vocabulary

Audience: The recipients of a media text, or the people who are intended to read or watch or play or listen to it. A great deal of media studies work is concerned with the effects a text may have on an audience.

Representation: Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.

Narrative: Narrative is the media term for story telling. Narrative is the way the different elements in a story are organised to make a meaningful story. Some of these elements can be facts as in a documentary, or characters and action as in a drama. 3.

Genre: The word 'genre' comes from the French word meaning 'type' or 'class'. Media genres appear within a medium (film, television) such as the "horror" film or the television "situation comedy". A genre can be recognised by its common set of distinguishing features (see discussion on codes and conventions).

Media language: Is the way in which the meaning of a media text is conveyed to the audience. One of the ways Media Language works is to convey meaning through signs and symbols suggested by the way a scene is set up and filmed.