Media Term Thursday #42
/Authority figure
A character ‘type’ used in media narratives and advertising who the viewer/consumer is positioned to relate to positively and ’look up to’.
Examples include doctors or scientists in advertisements, standing in their white coats in a laboratory setting, endorsing a particular shampoo and the hours of research behind its production. We believe in the authority of that person.
Others would be newsreaders, experts, religious leaders and long-established/ much-loved characters in a television drama.
