AQA GCSE Media Studies key terms

A narrative that presents events in chronological order.

A computer-generated visual style using relatively few polygons, giving objects simplified, angular shapes.

A way of representing women primarily as objects of visual pleasure for an assumed heterosexual male viewer.

Activities that promote a media product and encourage audiences to pay for or engage with it.

A large audience whose members may have varied backgrounds and interests.

The publication’s title displayed on a magazine cover or newspaper page.

The people who consume or engage with a media product.

The circumstances surrounding media production and consumption, including social relationships, cultural values, historical developments and political conditions.

The organisations, people and processes involved in producing, distributing and marketing media products.

The choices of words, images, sounds and techniques through which a media product communicates meaning.

The recurring ways people choose, consume, discuss, share or create media.

Rules and processes intended to maintain standards in media and protect audiences or individuals from harm.

The filtering of reality through media production choices to communicate a particular version of it.

The form or means through which a message is communicated, such as television, a newspaper or a video game.

The joining of two or more companies to form one company.

The media product communicated by a sender to a receiver; the term can also refer to the ideas it conveys.

The elements arranged within an image to create meaning, including setting, lighting, costume, props and performance.

A misleading or distorted portrayal of a social group, individual or issue.

Technology enabling portable devices such as smartphones to communicate and access networked media.

The way a media product addresses its audience, for example through a direct gaze, personal pronouns or an impersonal caption.

The process of generating income from a product, service or audience activity.

A narrative with several connected storylines involving different characters.

The way a story is organised and communicated, including the order of events, information revealed and roles of characters.

Restrictions on the amount of commercially released recorded music a broadcaster could play.

An audience interpretation that accepts some of a product’s intended meaning but modifies or rejects other parts.

A company that supplies the digital network through which media content travels, such as EE or Sky Broadband.

The criteria used by news producers to judge which events are newsworthy and how much prominence they deserve.

The judgements used to decide which events are newsworthy and how much attention they receive.