Media Term Thursday #42

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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.

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Media Term Thursday #30

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XTML

Excel Table Mark-up Language. If you have data in a Microsoft Excel table, XTML is a program that can convert the data into a table ready to be included on a website. You can use normal excel formatting commands and XTML will convert the data to HTML.

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Media Term Thursday #29

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Soap Opera

Soap operas are narratives without a resolution (as opposed to television dramas). Continuing stories with many interwoven plots.

Soap operas are about the everyday lives of a group of people living in a close-knit community. They have a very defined formula, multiple story lines, catchy theme songs, cliffhanger endings, down-to-earth characters, informal language and themes of love, infidelity, jealousy, moral dilemmas and betrayal.

Structural features include short scenes from previous episodes to remind viewers what is happening, high points that happen just before each commercial break and a preview of tomorrow’s episode at the end.

Soap operas started as radio serials before television came about. They are so named because the soap manufacturer, Procter and Gamble were the major sponsors of these early shows.

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Media Term Thursday #28

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Intellectual property

A product of the intellect that is intangible such as ideas, patents, business methods, songs, literature, graphic designs or other artistic works that might have commercial value. These ideas need to be legally registered so that the originator gets financial and personal recognition.”

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Media Term Thursday #25

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Explicit Meaning

The main idea and overall theme of the film – the obvious message being put across irrespective of any minor issues that might be implicit.

For example, the main idea is clearly stated in the first scene of The Notebook (2004) when the main character Noah, an old man, says in voice-over, “I am no one special…but I have succeeded…I have loved another with all my heart and soul and for me that has always been enough.”

Or at the end of Wizard of Oz (1939) when Dorothy returns to Kansas she says to her dog Toto, “There’s no place like home.”

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Media Term Thursday #23

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Horror film

Popular film genre designed to frighten the audience using explicit violence and supernatural creatures such as vampires, zombies, aliens or deranged people with chainsaws. Sometimes called ‘slasher’ films, as opposed to Thrillers which are more subtle and psychological, creating the horror in the viewer’s mind.

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Media Term Thursday #21

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Cult Film

Non-mainstream, eccentric films which avoid using traditional narrative and technical conventions. They appeal to a small but passionate audience who enjoy their controversial subject matter, oddball characters and highly stylised design. Some do achieve commercial success and some mainstream films acquire a certain ‘cult status’ but most cult films are usually too outrageous or contrived for most audiences.

They range from such movies as Freaks (1932), Reefer Madness (1936), Little Shop of Horrors (1960) and any film by director Ed Wood; to such mainstream films as Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Two for the Road (1967) and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010).

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Media Term Thursday #20

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Over Exposed

Too much light has reached the film or photographic paper to produce a correctly exposed image.

Whilst taking the photograph, the light meter will register above the line (the aperture is set too high or the shutter speed too slow to allowing too much light to hit the film), resulting in an overexposed negative.

In the darkroom, the photographic paper may be exposed for too long, resulting in an overexposed print.

Overexposed images appear as being too light.

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Media Term Thursday #19

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Verisimilitude

Appearing to be true or real.

Most viewers tend to respond to the content of media presentations as though they are very close approximations of real life situations or experiences. A high degree of verisimilitude means that the work is very believable and realistic. Verisimilitude relies on credibility, plausibility, probability, actuality and/ or truthfulness.

The willingness to suspend one’s disbelief. When the intensity of the story or interest in the characters overrides our need to believe that things are scientifically correct.

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