Week 6

1. Audience: The group of consumers for whom the media text was constructed as well as anyone else who is exposed to the text.

2. Connotation: A description of value, meaning or ideology associated with a media text.

3. Construct or Construction: As a verb, the process by which a media text is shaped and given meaning. This process is subject to a variety of decisions and is designed to keep the audience interested in the text.

As a noun, a fictional or documentary text that appears to be "natural" or a "reflection of reality" but is, in fact, shaped and given meaning through the process already described.

4. Critical: A reflective position on the meaning, biases or value messages of a text.

5. Critical Viewing is the ability to use critical thinking skills to view, question, analyze and understand issues presented overtly and covertly in movies, videos, television and other visual media.

6. Deconstruct: To take apart, analyze, or break down a media text into its component parts in order to understand how and why it was created.

7. Demographics: Recognizable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, education and income level.

8. Denotation: A description of a media text indicating its common sense, obvious meaning.

9. Docudrama: A filmed dramatization based on fact that combines documentary and fictional elements. In the production process, "based on" allows the creators of the text wide creative latitude. At its best, a docudrama can be a skillful representation of a real person or event.

10. Genre: A category of media texts characterized by a particular style, form or content.

1. Boles, Derek. "The Language of Media Literacy: A Glossary of Terms." Teacher Backgrounder. Media Awareness Network, 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. <http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/educational/teaching_backgrounders/media_literacy/glossary_media_literacy.cfm>. Source: Reprinted, with permission, from Mediacy, the newsletter of Ontario's Association for Media Literacy, Volume 16, Number 3, Summer 1994.