New Media Terminology

Analytical/Narrative/General/Mise en Scene

Censorship – Control over the content of a media text – sometimes by the government, but usually by a regulatory body like the British Board of Film censors. This can often cause a lot of tension and frustration when some films receive what the main audience of the product may assume to be unnecessary censorship or when films that people think require it do not receive it.

Consumer – purchaser, listener, viewer or reader of media products.

Conventions – the widely recognised way of doing things in particular genre. 

Code – a sign or convention through which the media communicates meaning to us because we have learned to read it.

Technical codes – all to do with the way a text is technically constructed – camera angles, framing, typography, lighting etc. 

Visual codes – codes that are decoded on a mainly connotational level – things that draw on our experience and understanding of other media texts, this includes Iconography.

Iconography – concerned with the use of visual images and how they trigger the audiences expectations of a particular genre, such as a knife in slasher horror films. 

Indexical sign – a sign which has a direct relationship with something it signifies, such as smoke signifies fire.

Post Modernism – Anything that challenges the traditional way of doing things, rejecting boundaries between high and low forms of art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody, intertextuality, irony, and playfulness. Postmodernism favours reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in narrative structures), ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the destructured, decentered, dehumanized subjects. There are many examples of this, such as post apocalyptic tales 'The Road', 'Dredd' or modern phycological dystopian 'Fight Club'.

Hegemony – Traditionally this describes the predominance of one social class over another, in media terms this is how the controllers of the media may use the media to pursue their own political interest (such as in the Hillsborough disaster, also used in the film 'Spartacus').

Catharsis – the idea that violent and and sexual content in media texts serves the function of releasing ‘pent up’ tension aggression/desire in audiences. eg. it could be argued that the later part of the Primeval clip we watched in class could contain elements of catharsis when the woman is victimised and thrown onto the floor.

Ideology – A set of ideas or beliefs which are held to be acceptable by the creators of the media text, maybe in line with those of the dominant ruling social groups in society, or alternative ideologies such as feminist ideology. 

Preferred Reading - the interpretation of a media product that was intended by the maker or which is dictated by the ideology of the society in which it is viewed. 

Oppositional Reading – an interpretation of a text by a reader whose social position puts them into direct conflict with its preferred reading. 

Negotiated Reading – the ‘compromise’ that is reached between the preferred reading offered by a text and the reader’s own assumptions and interpretations

Hypodermic Needle Theory – the idea that the media can ‘inject’ ideas and messages straight into the passive audience. This passive audience is immediately affected by these messages. Used in advertising and propoganda, led to moral panics about effect of violent video and computer games. 

Enigma – A question in a text that is not immediately answered and creates interest for the audience – a puzzle that the audience has to solve. 

Narrative code – The way a story is put together within a text, traditionally equilibrium- disequilibrium, new equilibrium, but some text are fractured or non liner, eg Pulp Fiction, 500 Days of Summer.
Gaze – the idea that the way we look at something, and the way somebody looks at you, is structured by the way we view the world. Feminists may view a film set in Elizabethan times differently to the way a Machist would view it.

Intertextuality – the idea that within popular culture producers borrow other texts to create interest to the audience who like to share the ‘in’ joke. Often used in shows like The Simpsons or Big Bang Theory.

Rule of Thirds - placing the subject of the shot on one of the 'thirds' of the frame.

Editing

Multi-media – computer technology that allows text, sound, graphic and video images to be combined into one programme. 

SFX – special effects or devices to create visual illusions. 

Montage – putting together of visual images to form a sequence.

Continuity Editing -creates action that flows smoothly across shots and scenes without jarring visual inconsistencies. Establishes a sense of story for the viewer.
Errors of Continuity - disruptions in the flow of a scene, such as a failure to match action or the placement of props across shots.

Cross Cutting - cutting back and forth quickly between two or more lines of action, indicating they are happening simultaneously.

Eyeline Match - matching of eyelines between two or more characters. For example, if Sam looks to the right in shot A, Jean will look to the left in shot B.

Jump Cut - creates a lack of continuity by leaving out parts of the action.

Matched Cut - joining two shots whose compositional elements match, helping to establish strong continuity of action.

Sequence Shot - a long take that extends for an entire scene or sequence. It is composed of only one shot with no editing.

Shot Reverse Shot Cutting - usually used for conversation scenes, this technique alternates between over-the-shoulder shots showing each character speaking.

Sound/Sound Relationships

Ambient Audio - background noise present in a scene or recording location.

Sound Effects - added to film in post-production, they may be used to build up ambience or reinforce action.

Empathetic sound - music or sound effects whose mood matches the mood of the action

Sound Bridge - Film and TV editing technique in which visual cuts are deliberately not matched with audio cuts. For example, the editor may cut to a completely new scene, but allow sound from the preceding scene to run on for a short time. Alternatively, we may hear the sound of the next scene before we see it.

Asynchronous Sound - does not appear to arise directly from the scene, such as soundtrack music or voiceover .
Synchronous Sound - directly matched to a moving image. The term is used in two ways in different sources:

Contrapuntal Sound - does not easily match the images they are accompanying, or even go against them. This can have a disorientating effect upon the audience and make them question what they are seeing.

Camera Shots/Camera Movement

Two Shot - a shot which includes two characters.

Extreme Close up - can sometimes be used to create discomfort in the audience or reflect this from the character. Can sometimes be a POV shot.

Tracking Shot - the camera moves backwards of forwards, towards or away from the subject of the shot.

Sideways Tracking Shot/Crab Shot - camera moves sideways, following the the subject.

Tilt Shot - up and down movement, can sometimes be POV of someone first seeing someone/something.

Zoom - the camera closes in on or zoom away from the subject, when used properly can be used to imitate a tracking shot.

Arc Shot - the camera moves in a full or semi-circle around the subject.

Crane Shot - the camera is lifted up on a crane in order to create vertical movement.

Panning - The camera, whilst in a locked position, turns left and right. Can sometimes be a POV shot also.