MEDIA LITERACY TERMS
Advertisement: something (such as a short film or a written notice) that is shown or presented to the public to help sell a product or to make an announcement.
Agenda: The often hidden purpose of advertising: To make the consumer feel the need to purchase a product or service. Also, the reason why a poster, film, or article is written: to convince the audience of something or to provide information that the producer wants the audience to view.
Bias: an inclination of temperament or outlook; especially a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgement / prejudice; an instance of such prejudice. Presenting a slanted or one-sided perspective.
Blog: a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also the contents of such a site.
Brochure: A pamphlet or booklet containing advertising or descriptive material.
Caption: The explanatory comment that accompanies a picture. In newspapers, the caption occurs under the picture.
Commercial: A message aimed at large audiences, designed to sell a product or service or to provide important information.
Deconstruct: to take apart or examine in order to reveal the basis or composition, often with the intention of exposing biases, flaws, or inconsistencies. To take apart an image, ad, poster, or other media to understand its components and its agenda.
Demographic: the statistical characteristics of human populations (as age or
income) used especially to identify markets; a market or segment of the population identified by demographics.
Endorsement: In media, a product or service recommendation, often made by a celebrity or person with authority or credibility.
Format: The arrangement, organization, plan, or make-up of a piece of media.
Form: The type of media, as in poster, photograph, painting, blog, advertisement.
Headline: a head of a newspaper story or article, usually printed in large type
and giving the gist of the story or article that follows.
Icon: a graphic symbol on a computer display screen that usually suggests the type of object represented or the purpose of an available function; a pictorial representation of something.
Image: A visual representation of something.
Intent: Purpose for doing something; in media, the aim of a campaign or project.
Lead: In a news article, it is the first sentence or two of a story where the compressed facts lead the reader to want to continue reading.
Logo: a symbol that is used to identify a company and that is used on its products.
Mass media: the radio stations, television stations, magazines, and newspapers through which information is communicated to the general public; readily available to all people no matter what their status.
Media: people who work as news reporters, publishers, and broadcasters: members of the media; radio stations, magazines, newspapers, television...
Medium: The materials or form used to convey a message, Example: A newspaper article is one medium. A print ad is another medium. A television show is yet another.
Message: the idea, concept, or information that media imparts to the audience.
Motive: The reason why a message is presented to its audience. It can be to sell
a product, change ways of thinking, and so forth.
Poster: a usually large printed notice often having a picture on it that is put in a
public place to advertise something or to impart a message.
Product: That which is being sold or promoted by media.
Product placement: Product placement, or embedded marketing is a form of advertising, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. Traditionally the product placement is not disclosed at the time that the good or service is featured.
Propaganda: a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes.
Subliminal message: Subliminal messages are hidden words, images, or sounds that might appear in television or radio commercials, TV shows or movies, print ads or recorded music. Usually when subliminal messages are seen or heard, they’re not recognized for what they are. In fact they may be ignored by the conscious brain and be beyond the level of conscious perception.
Subtext: The implicit, unstated meaning of a message.
Target audience: The group at which a message is aimed.
Web page: A document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device.
Whitespace: Portions of a page left unmarked or unfilled.
MEDIA STRATEGIES
BANDWAGON: The bandwagon appeal is an advertising technique that makes the claim that a product is desirable because it is being used by lots of desirable people -- therefore encouraging the consumer to “jump on the bandwagon." This appeal is commonly used in products that are sold to children and teenagers, but "keeping up with the Jones" snob appeals are used to sell products to adults as well, especially cars and luxury goods.
CARTOON/CUTE CHARACTERS: Usually used in ads aimed at
children, often used to promote toys, sugary cereals, junk food, and other products aimed at children.
CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT: A form or brand of advertising campaign that involves a well known person using their fame to help promote a product or service. Manufacturers of perfumes and clothing are some of the most common business users of classic celebrity endorsement techniques, such as television ads and launch event appearances, in the marketing of their products.
EMOTIONAL APPEAL: Promotional activity aimed at highlighting emotional factors (such as looks, status value, popularity) of a product, instead of the logical or practical factors.
FACTS AND FIGURES: Using statistics, scientific facts, and other cold, hard data to back up or bolster a claim. Facts and figures are impressive to the target audiences of advertisers, as they seem to represent the “truth”.
GENDER/SEX APPEAL: Getting the attention of the target audience by using sexuality and attractiveness.
NAME CALLING: This advertising appeal makes use of direct or indirect attack on the products in competition with the product being advertised. Direct name-calling involves making a direct attack on the opponent while indirect name-calling makes use of sarcasm to demean products of competitors.
PLAIN FOLKS: This advertising appeal aims at attracting the masses by using common people to advertise a product. Bombastic words may not
always appeal to the common folks. They can rather be attracted by communicating with them in their language. The use of homey words, as they are called, and purposeful errors while speaking to give a natural feel to the speech, is characteristic to this advertising appeal.
SHOCK APPEAL: Shock advertising or “shockvertising” is a method of advertising that purposely offends and startles its viewers in an attempt to “gain attention, encourage cognitive processing, and have an immediate impact on behaviour.
SNOB APPEAL: Snob appeal is an exact reverse of the bandwagon technique. In this advertising appeal, people are induced to buy a certain product so that they can stand out from the crowd. It is often indicated that buying that product will make them look different from the rest. It is indicated that the product is not affordable for common people. A sense of exclusivity is attached to the products.
TESTIMONIALS: Testimonials from satisfied customers can come in the form of letters that appear in printed advertisements. The letters, often from long time users, praise the product or service and explain how it changed their lives for the better. In general, each comment focuses on one specific benefit the product or service offers, such as saving time or money, ease of use, low cost or speed of results.