VCE Media flashcards
VCE Media · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Representation
- The constructed portrayal of people, places or ideas in media, produced through selection, omission and organisation of material rather than direct reflection of reality.
- Preferred reading
- The meaning a producer intends audiences to take from a text, reinforced through anchoring devices such as music, captions, framing and narrative resolution.
- Oppositional reading
- An interpretation in which an audience rejects the preferred meaning of a text and reads it against the grain, often drawing on different values or experiences.
- Narrative equilibrium
- A five-stage pattern in which an initial balance is disrupted, recognised, repaired, and replaced by a new equilibrium that reflects change.
- Enigma code
- A narrative device that poses unanswered questions, sustaining audience curiosity and driving engagement until the mystery is resolved.
- Mise-en-scène
- Everything placed within the frame, including setting, lighting, costume, props, makeup, performance and composition, all contributing to meaning.
- 180-degree rule
- An editing convention keeping the camera on one side of an imaginary line between characters, preserving consistent screen direction and spatial orientation.
- Diegetic sound
- Audio whose source exists within the story world, such as dialogue, footsteps or a radio playing in the scene.
- Non-diegetic sound
- Audio added in post-production that characters cannot hear, including voice-over narration, mood music and sound effects outside the story world.
- Technical codes
- Production techniques that create meaning, including camera angle, shot size, focus, movement, lighting, editing pace and sound mixing.
- Symbolic codes
- Elements within a scene that carry cultural meaning, such as colour, costume, setting, props, gesture and body language.
- Genre convention
- A repeated, expected pattern within a genre that audiences recognise and producers use to signal category, guide expectations and structure meaning.
- Media convergence
- The merging of previously separate media technologies, industries and practices, enabling content to be produced once and distributed across multiple platforms.
- Distribution versus exhibition
- Distribution moves a media product to outlets and platforms, while exhibition is the point at which audiences actually consume the product.
- Post-production
- The stage after shooting or recording in which footage and audio are edited, mixed, colour graded and finished for distribution.
- Agenda-setting
- The theory that media influence what audiences think about by determining which issues receive prominence and salience in coverage.
- Cultivation theory
- The proposition that repeated long-term exposure to media, particularly television, gradually shapes heavy viewers' perceptions of social reality.
- Two-step flow
- A model in which media messages reach opinion leaders first, who then interpret and relay them to others within their social networks.
- Uses and gratifications
- An audience-centred theory holding that people actively select media to meet needs for information, identity, social interaction and entertainment.
- Encoding and decoding
- A model in which producers encode a preferred meaning into a text and audiences decode it through preferred, negotiated or oppositional readings.
- Framing
- The selection and emphasis of certain aspects of an issue, making them salient and shaping how audiences interpret and evaluate it.
- Moral panic
- Disproportionate public concern about a perceived social threat, amplified through media coverage and moralising commentary.
- Semiotics
- The study of signs and meaning-making, analysing how signifiers combine with signified concepts to produce denotation and connotation.
- Intertextuality
- The referencing of other media texts within a product, through parody, pastiche or homage, shaping meaning through audience recognition.
- Gatekeeping
- The process by which editors, broadcasters or algorithms decide which content reaches audiences and which is excluded.
- Public service broadcasting
- Broadcasting funded and mandated to serve citizens with diverse, educational and local content rather than to maximise advertising revenue.
- Copyright clearance
- Obtaining permission to use protected material such as music, footage, images or fonts, documented before a production is released.
- Informed consent
- Voluntary agreement by participants to appear in media, given after understanding the purpose, use and potential consequences of their involvement.
- Countertype
- A representation that deliberately challenges and complicates a prevailing stereotype by showing complexity, agency and diversity within a group.
- Audience segmentation
- Dividing an audience into groups using demographic, psychographic or behavioural variables to target content and messages effectively.
- Transmedia storytelling
- A narrative distributed across multiple platforms, with each part contributing distinct content that extends the overall story world.
- Formative evaluation
- Research conducted during production to test audience understanding and response, allowing revisions before the product is finalised.