MATSEC SEC Media Literacy Education cheat sheet

A media text is any constructed product (film, poster, article, post) read through its codes; meaning is produced by selection, not found in reality.

Technical codes: camera angle, framing, lighting, sound, editing pace. Symbolic codes: colour, costume, gesture, setting, object. Written codes: language, typography, captions.

Genre is a set of conventions repeated across texts and recognised by audiences; it works as a contract setting expectations that a text can confirm, mix or subvert.

Convention types: narrative (equilibrium-disruption-resolution), visual (high-key lighting in comedy), aural (sting in horror), casting and setting.

Denotation is the literal, descriptive level of a sign; connotation is the associated, cultural level. Analysis requires both levels stated separately.

Anchorage is text that fixes the meaning of an ambiguous image (a caption, voiceover); relay is text that adds to the image rather than pinning it.

Intertextuality is reference to another text; parody imitates to mock, pastiche imitates neutrally, homage imitates to praise.

Mise-en-scène covers everything in frame: setting, props, costume, makeup, lighting, figure placement and performance.

Public service broadcasting is funded collectively (licence fee or state grant) and carries universality, diversity and impartiality obligations rather than profit maximisation.

Commercial media are funded by advertising, subscription or pay-per-view; revenue source predicts content pressure (reach maximisation, retention, or purchase conversion).

Concentration of ownership reduces the number of independent voices; cross-media ownership means one firm controls press, broadcast and online outlets in one market.

Horizontal integration is merger at the same production stage (two newspapers); vertical integration is control of supply and distribution (studio owning a cinema chain).

Conglomeration spreads risk across unrelated businesses; synergy is the coordinated promotion of one product across several owned platforms.

Regulation types: statutory (law-backed, e.g. broadcasting standards), co-regulation (industry code backed by a regulator), self-regulation (press or advertising codes run by the industry).

Media pluralism means diversity of owners, viewpoints and content; it is measured separately from mere audience choice, since many channels can share one owner.

In Malta, the Broadcasting Authority regulates broadcast content and political balance, the Malta Communications Authority regulates networks and spectrum, and the Information and Data Protection Commissioner enforces data protection.

Hypodermic needle model: media messages are injected into a passive mass audience with direct, uniform effects; it is now treated as historically superseded.

Two-step flow: opinion leaders filter media content for others, so influence travels via interpersonal networks rather than directly.

Uses and gratifications: audiences actively select media for information, personal identity, integration and social interaction, and entertainment.

Encoding/decoding (Hall): producers encode a preferred reading; audiences take a dominant, negotiated or oppositional position depending on social position.

Cultivation theory: repeated long-term television exposure shapes perceptions of social reality, especially fear and crime estimates, rather than single-programme effects.

Agenda-setting: media tell audiences what to think about (issue salience), not what to think. Framing extends this by selecting attributes that make some considerations salient.

Audience measurement uses panels, set-top box data and platform analytics; ratings are estimates with margins of error, not exact counts.

Reception analysis distinguishes the text's intended meaning, the audience's interpretation and the measured behaviour (sharing, purchase, complaint).

Representation is the re-presentation of groups through selection and omission; any representation is one version among possible versions.

Stereotype: a fixed, simplified generalisation applied to all members of a group. Countertype: a deliberate reversal that challenges the stereotype.

Tokenism is inclusion of a small number of a minority group to signal diversity without changing the text's dominant norms.

Ideology is a system of values presented as natural or common sense; analysis asks whose interests a text's assumptions serve.

Hegemony is the maintenance of dominant ideas through consent (media, education) rather than force.

Underrepresentation and misrepresentation are separate problems: absence of a group differs analytically from distorted presence.

Intersectionality holds that identities (gender, class, ethnicity, disability, age) interact, so representation must be analysed as combined rather than one axis at a time.

Gaze theory examines whose viewpoint the camera adopts; the male gaze structures images for a presumed heterosexual male spectator.

Verification order: check the original source, the publication date, the author's credentials, corroborating independent reports, and the primary document or image.

Misinformation is false content shared without intent to deceive; disinformation is false content created or spread deliberately to deceive; malinformation is genuine information weaponised to harm.

Lateral reading: leave the page and check what other independent sources say about the site or claim, rather than evaluating the page's internal design.

SIFT: Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace claims to the original context.

Reverse image search identifies where an image appeared before; a real photo reused with a false caption is miscontextualisation, not a fabricated image.

A deepfake is synthetic audio, video or image generated or altered by AI; detection cues are unreliable, so provenance and independent confirmation take priority.

Fabricated expertise indicators: no named author, no verifiable institution, emotive headline, missing date, and a claim that cites only itself.

Confirmation bias leads audiences to accept claims matching prior beliefs; a balanced check requires actively seeking the strongest counter-evidence.

Engagement-based ranking optimises predicted interaction (clicks, watch time, shares); content that provokes strong emotion is therefore structurally advantaged.

Filter bubble: personalisation narrows exposure to like-minded content. Echo chamber: a social group reinforces shared beliefs. The two mechanisms are distinct.

Recommender systems use collaborative filtering (similar users) and content-based filtering (similar items); both learn from past behaviour, producing feedback loops.

Personal data categories: provided (typed by user), observed (behaviour logs, location), inferred (predicted interests, risk scores).

Data protection principles: lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality, accountability.

A cookie is a small file stored by a browser; first-party cookies come from the visited site, third-party cookies from embedded domains and are central to cross-site tracking.

Dark pattern: interface design that manipulates choice, e.g. pre-ticked consent boxes, confirmshaming, or hidden unsubscribe routes.

Algorithmic amplification means a platform's ranking choices are editorial acts, even when no human reviews each item.

AIDA model: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action - a sequence describing the intended stages of a persuasive message.

Ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), logos (reason) are the three classical modes of persuasion; ads usually combine them unequally.

Unique selling proposition states one differentiating benefit; a slogan is a short repeated phrase building recognition rather than argument.

Testimonial uses a user's endorsement; celebrity endorsement borrows authority or attractiveness; both transfer meaning from person to product.

Native advertising matches editorial form and is legal only where clearly labelled; failure to disclose is a misleading commercial practice.

Product placement embeds a brand inside editorial content; disclosure rules apply where the placement is paid and persuasive.

Targeting matches a message to a defined segment; measurement metrics differ: reach (people), frequency (exposures per person), conversion (desired action).

Regulatory test in the EU: an advert must be identifiable as such, must not mislead, and comparative claims must compare like with like and be verifiable.

Production stages: pre-production (research, scripting, storyboard, permissions), production (shooting or recording), post-production (editing, sound, colour, graphics), distribution.

A storyboard is a shot-by-shot visual plan; a shot list is an ordered checklist of required shots with location and timing.

Shot size scale: extreme wide, wide, medium, close-up, extreme close-up. Camera angle scale: high, eye-level, low, Dutch tilt.

The 180-degree rule keeps camera positions on one side of an axis so screen direction stays consistent; crossing it disorients the viewer.

Continuity editing preserves temporal and spatial logic (shot-reverse-shot, match on action); montage editing builds meaning through juxtaposition of unrelated shots.

Three-point lighting: key (main source), fill (softens shadows), back (separates subject from background).

Sound categories: diegetic (source visible or implied in the story world) versus non-diegetic (score, narration); synchronous versus asynchronous.

Critical evaluation requires a stated criterion (clarity, accuracy, originality, audience fit), evidence from the text, and a judgement tied to that criterion.

Defamation requires a published statement, referring to an identifiable person, that lowers reputation and is false; truth and fair comment are common defences.

Copyright protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself; protection is automatic on creation, and fair dealing or quotation exceptions are narrow and attributed.

Privacy and data protection are distinct: privacy protects the person's private sphere, data protection governs processing of personal data.

Consent in image use must be informed, specific and revocable; consent from a minor requires a parent or guardian.

Ethical principles for journalists: accuracy, independence, humanity, accountability and transparency.

Conflict of interest exists where a personal interest could bias output; disclosure or withdrawal is the standard remedy.

Hate speech targets a protected group; harassment targets an individual. Legal thresholds vary, and platform community standards are usually stricter than the law.

Attribution rule: quote the source, link the original, and distinguish reported fact from the outlet's own comment.

Analysis sequence: identify the text type and purpose, describe codes, interpret connotations, then evaluate the effect on a specified audience.

Binary opposition (Levi-Strauss) structures meaning through paired opposites (good/evil, nature/technology); identifying them reveals the text's value system.

Propp's character functions (hero, donor, helper, villain) describe recurring narrative roles in many popular genres.

Todorov's narrative structure: equilibrium, disruption, recognition, repair, new equilibrium.

Barthes' five codes include the enigma code (a puzzle driving the reader forward) and the action code (behaviour that advances the plot).

Genre hybridity mixes conventions (horror-comedy, docudrama); genre evolution moves from convention, through refinement, to parody or subversion.

Mode of address is how a text speaks to its audience (direct, informal, authoritative); it positions the reader in a relationship with the producer.

A preferred reading is the interpretation the text's codes most strongly support; it is an analytical claim, not a guarantee of audience response.

Media products have high first-copy cost and near-zero marginal cost, so profitability depends on scale and on rights exploitation across windows.

Distribution windows sequence release (cinema, streaming, broadcast, physical), each with its own revenue model and audience.

Advertising-funded media sell audience attention to advertisers; the audience is the product being traded, not the customer.

Subscription media optimise retention and churn reduction; metrics such as monthly churn and lifetime value drive editorial choices.

Public funding models (licence fee, direct grant) insulate content from advertiser pressure but expose it to political scrutiny.

Platformisation shifts power to intermediaries that set rules, take a commission and control discoverability through ranking.

A media monopoly in one market can coexist with apparent abundance if all outlets share one owner or one wire service.

Independent production quotas require broadcasters to commission a share of content from companies they do not own.

Correlation is not causation: a rise in media use alongside a social trend does not establish that media caused the trend.

Laboratory experiments control exposure but have low ecological validity; field studies have realism but weak control.

Longitudinal panel studies track the same people over time and can better support causal ordering than one-off surveys.

Self-report measures of media use are affected by recall error and social desirability; passive meter data avoids recall but raises consent issues.

Effect size matters more than statistical significance; a significant but tiny effect may be practically irrelevant.

Moral panic describes disproportionate public alarm about a new medium, typically blaming it for youth behaviour.

The third-person effect: people believe media affect others more than themselves, which shapes support for censorship.

A representative sample requires a defined population and a random or probabilistic selection method; an online poll of self-selected respondents is not representative.

Saussure's sign = signifier (the form: word, image, sound) + signified (the concept). The relation between them is conventional, not natural.

Peirce's sign types: icon (resembles), index (causally connected, e.g. smoke for fire), symbol (arbitrary convention).

Paradigm is the set of alternatives available at a point in a text; syntagm is the actual combination chosen and its order.

A code is a system of conventions shared by producers and audiences; without shared codes interpretation fails.

Polysemy means a text carries multiple possible meanings; anchorage and context limit which reading dominates.

Non-verbal codes include proxemics (use of space), kinesics (body movement), haptics (touch) and paralanguage (tone, pace).

Colour connotations are culturally variable; analysis should state the culture and context assumed rather than assert universal meanings.

Typography carries meaning: serif type signals tradition or authority, sans-serif signals modernity or clarity, in a given design context.

The watchdog role: media scrutinise power holders; this function depends on access to information and protection for sources.

The fourth estate claim is normative, not descriptive; it describes an expected function, not a guaranteed outcome.

Media freedom indicators measure legal, political, economic and safety constraints on journalists, not the quality of content.

Source protection and whistleblower channels enable accountability reporting; legal shield provisions vary by jurisdiction.

Editorial independence requires separation between commercial management and editorial decisions; undeclared advertiser influence breaches it.

Media literacy policy aims at critical understanding, not just technical access; access, skills and critical evaluation are distinct dimensions.

Public interest is a legal and ethical test: information the public needs for informed decisions, weighed against harm to individuals.

Ownership transparency registers let audiences and researchers identify who ultimately controls an outlet.

Cyberbullying is repeated intentional harm through digital channels; a single hostile message may be harassment but not automatically bullying.

Sexting by minors raises distinct legal and safeguarding issues; sharing intimate images without consent is a criminal offence in many jurisdictions.

Doxxing is publishing private identifying information to expose or intimidate a person.

Phishing relies on urgency, authority and fear; legitimate organisations do not request passwords or payment by unsolicited message.

Account security basics: unique passwords, multi-factor authentication, and checking the sender domain rather than the display name.

Screenshot permanence: content shared privately can be copied, so expectations of privacy online should assume possible redistribution.

Reporting routes: platform reporting tools, national cybercrime units, and school safeguarding leads for minors.

Digital footprint: data posted publicly persists and can be indexed, archived or scraped even after deletion from the original account.

Content analysis quantifies manifest content using a coding frame; inter-coder reliability must be reported to show the frame is applied consistently.

Semiotic analysis interprets latent meaning; it is qualitative and should acknowledge the analyst's own position.

Focus groups reveal shared interpretive repertoires but risk groupthink; individual interviews capture private reasoning.

Sampling choices must be stated: random, stratified, purposive or convenience - each supports different claims.

Triangulation combines methods or sources so that a finding does not depend on one instrument.

Referencing media texts requires title, producer or author, year and platform or publication, so the object of analysis is traceable.

A literature review states what is already established and identifies the gap the study addresses; it is not a list of summaries.

Ethical research with audiences requires informed consent, right to withdraw, anonymity and secure data storage.

Brand identity is the producer's intended meaning; brand image is the audience's actual perception; the gap between them is the strategic problem.

Segmentation variables: demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural; a message is designed for the segment it targets.

Persuasion techniques to recognise: bandwagon, testimonial, transfer, glittering generality, plain folks, fear appeal, card stacking.

Price framing (was/now, per-day cost) alters perceived value without changing the product; compare the total cost over the full term.

Influencer marketing requires clear disclosure of paid partnerships; a hidden advert breaches consumer protection rules.

Sponsorship and advertorial blur editorial and commercial content; the identification test is whether a reasonable viewer recognises the persuasion.

Dark patterns in commerce include drip pricing, false scarcity countdowns and pre-selected add-ons.

Children's advertising faces stricter rules because young audiences cannot reliably distinguish persuasion from information.

The public interest defence requires a proportionality test: is the harm to an individual justified by the public benefit of publication?

Doorstepping and covert recording are justified only where the story cannot be obtained by open means and the public interest is demonstrable.

Graphic images require a warning and a justification; the ethical question is whether the image adds necessary understanding.

Corrections should be prompt, prominent and placed where the original error appeared.

Anonymity for sources is a promise that must be kept; it should be granted only when the information cannot otherwise be obtained.

Payments to sources risk creating incentives to fabricate; they require editorial approval and disclosure.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure covers gifts, travel, shares and family ties relevant to the story.

Ethical decision framework: identify stakeholders, the duties owed, the harms and benefits, then the least harmful action that serves the public interest.

Defamation elements: a defamatory statement, published to a third party, identifying the claimant, causing or likely to cause serious reputational harm.

Defences commonly available: truth (justification), honest opinion, publication on a matter of public interest, and privilege for court reporting.

Copyright duration in the EU is generally the life of the author plus 70 years; the term varies by jurisdiction and work type.

Fair dealing or quotation exceptions require sufficient acknowledgement and no more use than necessary for the purpose.

Moral rights include attribution and integrity; they are separate from economic rights and may not be waivable in some jurisdictions.

Privacy claims can rest on misuse of private information, breach of confidence or data protection law, depending on the facts.

Public figures retain privacy rights; a public role lowers but does not remove the expectation of privacy.

Jurisdiction matters: online publication can be accessible in many countries, so the applicable law must be identified before publication.

News values (Galtung and Ruge): threshold, proximity, negativity, recency, prominence, conflict, human interest, novelty.

Agenda-setting operates at three levels: issue salience, attribute salience and network association between issues.

Framing devices include headlines, images, source selection, statistics and the omission of context.

Balance is not the same as false equivalence: presenting a fringe claim beside a scientific consensus can distort rather than balance.

Source hierarchy: official and institutional sources dominate routine news, which can privilege established power.

Embedded reporting and press releases reduce independence when used without verification or disclosure.

Corrections and right of reply are accountability mechanisms; their absence weakens a claim to accuracy.

A paywall or platform distribution decision affects which stories reach which audiences, shaping the public agenda indirectly.

Common tactics: fabricated content, manipulated images, imposter sites, false context, cherry-picked statistics and coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

A bot is an automated account; a troll is a human posting provocatively; a sock puppet is a fake identity. Coordinated networks combine all three.

Reverse image search plus date and location checks establish whether an image's caption matches its origin.

Metadata and geolocation evidence (shadows, signage, language) can verify a video's claimed location.

Statistical manipulation: absolute versus relative risk, truncated axes, and a base rate omitted from a percentage claim.

A claim that only cites a screenshot of another post has no traceable primary source and should be treated as unverified.

Prebunking teaches audiences the manipulation technique in advance; debunking corrects a specific false claim after exposure.

Verification is a process, not a verdict: state what is confirmed, what is unverified, and what evidence would change the assessment.

Content moderation modes: removal, downranking, labelling, age-gating, demonetisation and account suspension.

Notice-and-action regimes require platforms to act on flagged illegal content within set deadlines.

Terms of service are contractual rules set by the platform, not law; they can be stricter than legal minimums.

Transparency reporting publishes volumes of flagged content, action rates and appeal outcomes; absence of data limits accountability.

Automated moderation scales but produces both false positives and false negatives; human review is the usual appeal layer.

Over-removal chills legitimate speech; under-removal permits harm. Governance design must weigh both error types explicitly.

Appeals processes should state the ground of the decision and allow the user to respond.

The DSA in the EU imposes due-diligence, transparency and risk-assessment duties on very large platforms.

Media systems differ in funding, regulation and professional norms; importing one country's assumptions into another distorts analysis.

Local media provide proximity and community accountability that global platforms rarely supply.

Language policy affects access: minority-language media sustain identity but often face smaller advertising markets.

Glocalisation adapts a global format to local culture (local versions of international formats) rather than exporting one version unchanged.

Media imperialism describes dominance of global content flows; the counter-argument points to active local adaptation and hybridity.

Small-state media markets have fewer independent outlets, higher concentration risk and greater sensitivity to political pressure.

Public service remits often include minority-language and regional programming that commercial markets underprovide.

Comparative analysis should state the compared units, the criteria and the period before drawing conclusions.

Core concepts for analysis: media languages, representation, institutions, audiences, and production/distribution.

Conceptual understanding is assessed by applying a concept to an unseen text, not by reciting a definition.

A critical response states a claim, supports it with specific textual evidence, and evaluates alternative readings.

Practical production is assessed on technical control, intentional use of codes, and the justification of choices, not polish alone.

Media literacy dimensions: access, analysis, evaluation, creation and reflection/action.

Assessment criteria should be shared with learners in advance so that judgement is transparent and consistent.

Reflective writing links production decisions to audience effect and to the concept the work was designed to demonstrate.

Ethical use of found material in student work requires attribution and respect for copyright exceptions for education.

Evaluation criteria must be named before judgement: clarity of message, accuracy, originality, technical control, audience fit, ethical conduct.

Separate description (what is there), analysis (how codes work), interpretation (what it means) and evaluation (how well it achieves its purpose).

Evidence standard: every evaluative claim should cite a specific element (a shot, a phrase, a statistic, a source).

Audience fit is judged against the stated target audience, not the critic's personal preference.

Identify the text's purpose (inform, persuade, entertain, sell) because the same technique can be effective in one purpose and manipulative in another.

Consider omissions: what is absent from the text is often as significant as what is present.

Acknowledge the context of production (budget, deadline, platform constraints) when judging technical quality.

A balanced judgement names strengths, weaknesses and the conditions under which the verdict would change.

Attention economy: where content is free, the scarce resource traded is audience attention and the data describing it.

Programmatic advertising auctions impressions in real time using audience data; the advertiser often cannot verify placement precisely.

Ad fraud (bots, domain spoofing) inflates measured reach and wastes spend; verification vendors and whitelists are countermeasures.

Subscription fatigue and churn drive bundling strategies and annual-plan incentives.

Winner-takes-most dynamics arise where network effects reward the largest platform, concentrating market power.

Public value tests assess whether a merger or new service serves pluralism beyond consumer choice.

Freemium converts a small share of free users to paying subscribers; conversion rate and retention determine viability.

Rights windows and territorial licensing shape what content is legally available in a given country.

Lawful basis for processing includes consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interest, public task and legitimate interest.

Special category data (health, ethnicity, religion, political opinion, sexual orientation, biometrics) requires a higher legal basis.

Data subject rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection, and rights relating to automated decision-making.

A data protection impact assessment is required where processing is likely to result in high risk to individuals.

Profiling builds a category from observed data; automated decision-making acts on it without human involvement.

Algorithmic bias arises from biased training data, biased labelling, proxy variables or biased optimisation targets.

Explainability and audit rights are accountability tools; a system that cannot be explained is harder to challenge.

Dark patterns in consent include pre-ticked boxes, bundled consent and interfaces that make refusal harder than acceptance.

Symbolic annihilation describes the absence, trivialisation or condemnation of a group in media content.

The Bechdel test is a coarse indicator (two named women discussing something other than a man); passing does not prove good representation.

Racial stereotyping often operates through repeated roles (criminal, servant, exotic other) rather than explicit statements.

Disability representation frequently frames impairment as tragedy or inspiration, centring the non-disabled response.

Casting and voice: who speaks, who is spoken for, and who is absent are distinct representational questions.

Representation changes with production context: who writes, directs and commissions shapes which versions reach audiences.

Audience reception of representation differs; the same image can be read as empowering or as reinforcing a stereotype.

Counting representation (screen time, speaking roles) is a starting point; qualitative analysis of roles and agency is still required.

Documentary modes: expository (voice-of-God narration), observational, participatory, reflexive, performative and poetic.

Voice-of-God narration anchors meaning and claims authority; its absence shifts interpretive work to the viewer.

Reconstruction and dramatisation in documentary must be labelled so the audience does not mistake them for recorded fact.

Interview framing (angle, eyeline, cutaways) positions the interviewee as authoritative, defensive or evasive.

Headline conventions: nominalisation, active versus passive voice, and quotation marks signal stance and attribute claims.

Statistics in news require a base, a time frame and a comparison; a bare percentage is not evidence.

Sound in documentary (ambient sound, music, silence) shapes emotional response and can imply judgement.

Editing rhythm and juxtaposition (Kuleshov effect) create meaning between shots that neither shot contains alone.

Information disorder taxonomy: misinformation (false, not intended to harm), disinformation (false, intended), malinformation (true, intended to harm).

Coordinated inauthentic behaviour is detected through account creation patterns, posting synchrony and shared content fingerprints.

Platform amplification of outrage is a structural incentive, not proof of deliberate political bias.

Cross-language disinformation travels through translation and localisation; checking only one language misses the campaign.

Fact-checking labels can backfire if they repeat the false claim without a clear correction; the truth sandwich places the fact first and last.

Media literacy interventions should be evaluated for effect size, not just satisfaction ratings.

Regulatory responses range from transparency duties to mandated risk assessments and crisis protocols.

Resilience is measured by the audience's ability to identify the technique, not by agreement with a preferred conclusion.

Fan culture produces participatory texts (fan fiction, edits, commentary) that reinterpret the original.

Interpretive community: a group sharing reading strategies, so meaning is negotiated socially rather than individually.

Subculture and scene describe groups with distinct norms, language and hierarchy around media.

Participatory culture lowers barriers to creation but raises questions of credit, consent and copyright.

Anti-fandom and hate-watching are forms of engaged reception, not absence of audience interest.

Identity work: audiences use media to explore and express identity, which is a uses-and-gratifications function.

Spoiler culture and shared viewing norms show how audiences regulate each other's experience.

Platform metrics (likes, shares) are not equivalent to cultural significance; engagement can be driven by controversy.

Location permissions, releases and public liability are pre-production legal requirements, not optional courtesies.

Music clearance requires both the composition and the recording rights; a licence for one does not cover the other.

Contributor consent must state the purpose, the platforms, the duration and the right to withdraw.

Vulnerable contributors (minors, trauma survivors) require safeguarding assessment and aftercare.

Factual programming must distinguish reconstruction from actuality and must not fabricate evidence.

Hidden recording is justified only where open methods would fail and the public interest is proportionate.

Data protection applies to production files: contributor data must be stored securely and deleted when no longer needed.

Errors should be corrected in the same channel and with comparable prominence to the original publication.

Competency framework: access, analyse, evaluate, create and act/reflect.

Analysis competency is demonstrated by identifying codes and conventions in an unseen text.

Evaluation competency is demonstrated by judging credibility and purpose with stated criteria.

Creation competency is demonstrated by intentional technical and generic choices, documented in a rationale.

Reflection competency is demonstrated by linking one's own media use to wider institutional and ethical questions.

Assessment should use authentic tasks (analyse a real feed, produce a short item) rather than recall tests only.

Differentiation: scaffold analysis with a code checklist for beginners, remove scaffolds for advanced learners.

Media literacy outcomes are measured by transfer to new texts and contexts, not by performance on the taught example.

Political advertising rules typically require identification of the sponsor and impose balance or spending limits.

Broadcast impartiality rules usually apply to news and current affairs, not to drama or entertainment.

Spin and framing: press officers select words and timing to shape interpretation; the audience should ask who benefits.

Horse-race coverage prioritises polling and strategy over policy substance, shaping what voters learn.

Microtargeting of political ads uses inferred attributes; transparency registers exist in some jurisdictions to reveal spend and targeting.

State media are funded and controlled by the state; public service media are publicly funded but editorially independent.

Soundbite politics compresses argument into short quotable fragments, reducing policy detail in coverage.

Election silence rules restrict campaigning in a defined period before voting in some countries.

Convergence means the merging of previously separate media functions (text, audio, video, telephony) into one digital network.

Media convergence has three dimensions: technological, economic (cross-media ownership) and cultural (participatory audiences).

Digitisation converts analogue signals to binary data, allowing perfect copying and easy editing.

Interactivity shifts the audience from receiver to participant; the distinction is the degree of control over the text.

Second screening describes simultaneous use of a device while watching broadcast content, fragmenting attention.

Algorithmic personalisation changes the distribution model from broadcast (one-to-many) to narrowcast (many versions to segments).

Bandwidth and device constraints shape content format: vertical short video is a technical and economic product, not just a style.

Archiving and link rot affect research: sources cited online may disappear, so stable archives should be recorded.

Integrated analysis links text, institution, audience and representation rather than treating them as separate boxes.

A strong question drives the analysis: what does this text do, for whom, and with what effect?

Evidence hierarchy: primary text evidence > documented institutional facts > audience data > the analyst's assertion.

Alternative readings must be considered and then rejected or accepted with reasons.

Ethical evaluation asks about harm, consent, fairness and public interest alongside effectiveness.

Comparative judgement requires the same criteria applied to both texts.

Conclusions should state the limits of the analysis: what was not examined and what could change the finding.

Clear structure (claim, evidence, analysis, evaluation) is itself a media literacy skill in written criticism.