Media Term Thursday #33

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Censorship

When a government body or someone else not involved in a media production decides that some elements of the production must be changed or removed so it doesn’t offend a particular group’s values or break the law.

In Australia, The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) regulates television and radio while the Classification Board oversees films, DVDs, computer games and print media.

Self-censorship occurs during production when the selection process takes into account these external constraints.

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Media Term Thursday #32

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Nickelodeon

One of the first cinemas opening in 1905 in Pittsburgh, USA by Harry Davis. It was a makeshift establishment and charged patrons a nickel (hence the name) to see a short, single reel film combined with a vaudeville act. Ninety-six people crammed into a storefront on wooden chairs.

Soon there were hundreds of Nickelodeon’s around the country and foreshadowed the mass viewing and money making potential of cinema. A cable television network that screens programs primarily for children and teenagers. This channel started in the US but now has channels in several countries. This was the first cable channel in the world to devote all of their programming to children/youth.

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Media Term Thursday #31

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Stereotype

A generalised way of grouping people together by the way they look and/or behave. How the stereotype is represented will depend upon the values the community holds about the group. Therefore, stereotypes can be positive and negative.

Stereotypes can be based on occupation, gender, nationality, subcultures etc.

In order to identify a stereotype, you must be able to recognise the symbols and understand their meaning. Symbols may be items of clothing, physical appearance, facial expressions, gestures, speech, objects, setting and behaviours.

The instantly recognisable nature of stereotypes means that they are a very effective way of communicating to an audience. The mass media rely on this recognition as a shortcut for the development of characters.

Stereotypes are continually modified (and new ones created) by the mass media to suit the changing audiences and current value systems.

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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 #27

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Uses and Gratifications Theory

This suggests that audiences have power over their media consumption due to them being active participants who will only seek out and consume those media that they find useful and which gratify their needs. These needs, from entertainment, information, news, education, are many and varied and the media ‘supplier’ needs to follow the needs of the ‘consumer’ or they won’t ‘buy’ the product.

This is why ratings are important to media institutions – if a television program doesn’t rate or a movie doesn’t rate at the box office, the institution loses money. Therefore, media producers spent vast amounts of money on audience research, demographics and surveys to give the self-aware audience what they want.

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Media Term Thursday #26

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Thriller

A film genre that uses action and suspense and is frequently related to the crime genre. The narrative concentrates on mystery and suspense to build tension and keep the audience engaged (on the edge of their seats).

The film maker utilises presence beyond the frame to create the horror in the mind of the viewer rather than explicit images.

Jaws (1975), Rear Window (1954).”

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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 #24

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Blacklisting

Refers to the list of workers in the film, television, media and arts industries in the 1950s in the United States who were either formally or informally prevented from working due to their personal, political, religious or social beliefs. This was a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee set up by the anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy.

This committee was formed during the Cold War when the West (Democracy) was in a superpower struggle and stalemate with the Eastern Bloc and U.S.S.R (Communism). Because both blocs were nuclear powers and mutual destruction would have occurred had these two enemies gone to war, each side became paranoid that the other would use subversive means of conquest.

In the US, the government believed the entertainment industry had a large influence on the population and so movies and other media would be ideal for the enemy to infiltrate and present anti-American, communist ideas. Because of this belief the FBI were ordered to hunt down "spies, subversives and others working in Hollywood, television and other media and who might be a threat.

Consequently, many actors, directors, scriptwriters and others lost their jobs and were prevented from working in the industry for many years - they were put on the blacklist

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