Media Studies key terms

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.

The ideas and expectations associated with being male, which media products can reinforce or challenge.

A large audience reached by a media product, usually extending beyond a narrow specialist interest.

The name and logo of a newspaper or magazine.

The people who consume or engage with a media product.

An organisation that owns companies operating in different areas of the media industry.

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

The connections between media forms, technologies and platforms, allowing content and users to move between them.

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

The images, words, sounds and other features through which media products communicate meaning.

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

The people, organisations and processes involved in creating media products.

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

The process through which reality is filtered and shaped by media production and communication, creating particular meanings.

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.

A purchase of an item or service within a game, often involving a relatively small payment.

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

Prejudice against, contempt for or hostility towards women.

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.

A fictional programme that imitates documentary conventions, often for comic purposes.

The way a media product communicates with its audience, including its tone, level of formality and use of direct or indirect address.

Monitoring and responding to users’ content or behaviour to enforce rules, such as rules against bullying.