Useful Terminology

Catharsis – the idea that violent and and sexual content in media texts serves the function of releasing ‘pent up’ tension aggression/desire in audiences.
Consumer – purchaser, listener, viewer or reader of media products.
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.
Feminism – the struggle by women to obtain equal rights in society
Hegemony – Traditionally this describes the predominance of one social class over another, in media terms this is how the controllers of the media may on the one hand use the media to pursue their own political interest, but on the other hand the media is a place where people who are critical of the establishment can air their views.

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.

Mode of Address – The way a media product ‘speaks’ to it’s audience. In order to communicate, a producer of any text must make some assumptions about an intended audience; reflections of such assumptions may be discerned in the text (advertisements offer particularly clear examples of this).
Moral Panic – is the intensity of feeling stirred up by the media  about an issue that appears to threaten the social order, such as against Muslims after 9/11, or against immigrants, or against ‘video nasties’  following the Jamie Bulger murder.
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
Popular Culture – the study of cultural artefacts of the mass media such as cinema, TV, advertising.
Stereotype – representation of people or groups of people by a few characteristics eg hoodies, blondes
Sub-genre – a genre within a genre.
Two Step Flow theory - the idea that ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.
Uses and Gratifications – ideas about how people use the media and what gratification they get from it. It assumes that members of the audience are not passive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives.