Key terms

Question	Answer
Prose	A way of writing that is quite lengthy rather than in bite-size chunks. It is written in full sentences and can be in quite long sections like a book.
Publication	A printed text which is published like a magazine, or newspaper
Puff	words and phrases that appear on the front of a magazine that make the magazine seem important or exciting
Pun	A play on words, often humourous
Racial Stereotype	An exaggerated, old fashioned view of a particular ethnic group based on often incorrect assumptions people have made. For example a common racial stereotype is that black people are associated with crime.
Readership	The number of people who actually read / use a text
Reader Profile	A detailed description of the typical reader of a text. This might include things like their age, gender, race, hobbies, interests, style, personality, financial status, etc
Retweet	When someone reposts a message from another Twitter user
Rollover	A portion of a website which changes if the user hovers the mouse over the top of it.
Sans Serif Font	a style of font / typeface that does not have any fancy elements and is very simple in style eg Calibri / Arial
Scrolling Text	a portion of text on a website that is in a box, and can be scrolled through
Serif Font	a style of font / typeface that has some fancy elements eg curly ends, squiggles, small marks on the stems of the letters eg. Script and engravers
Social Networking Sites / Social Media	websites where people can connect with other people, making friends with them, and following them in some way eg Facebook, Twitter.
Standfirst	A small written introduction to an article that normally appears at the top of an article, slightly separate to the main body of text and in a bolder font.
Strapline	A small sentence, found underneath the headline of an article, giving some more information about an article, often in a contrasting colour
Subgenre	Like a genre (a type of something) but smaller and more individual. For example Rock is a genre. But with “rock” there are subgenres including soft rock, heavy rock, alternative rock, glam rock, punk rock etc.
Skyline	A strip of colour or text at the top of a magazine front cover that advertises something inside
Synergy	The use of multiple media platforms to advertise something. For example film companies use synergy to advertise their films as they have trailers, websites, apps, games etc
Tags	way of categorising pages on a website or blog. So the writer could tag an article with words such as pop and news and then users could sort the articles by tag and only view the articles featuring the word pop.
Thumbnail	Refers to a small image. Often when these are found on a website, they act as hyperlinks to other pages or a full size image.
Trending	Topics that fans are getting excited about. Used on Twitter a lot based on what people are putting in their hashtags. For example, Justin Bieber is often “trending” on twitter.
Typeface	Another word for font
Unique Selling Point	Something about the product which is unique / special and would make people want to read the magazine
Updateable page	a web page which can have its content changed regularly
User Generated Content	Anything which has been submitted by a reader / user themselves eg a letter, a photo, a comment, a video etc
Web Banners	a rectangular shaped advertisement on a website, normally at the top or side of a page and often advertising something from a different website. Eg you might be on a film website for James Bond and see a web banner for watches.
House Style	a type of design that is particular to that magazine / website and is used regularly. It can be recognisable to a reader / user. For example Kerrang magazine uses the house style of black and red throughout, along with aggressive, informal language, and a large bold typeface.
Hyperlinks	Clickable portions of a website that take the user to another page either of the same website or a different one. Could be words or pictures.
Iconography	images and objects associated with particular genres.
Ideologies	a set of beliefs or values that are held by a company, person or product. For example the ideologies in one magazine might suggest that money and power are important aspects of a person’s life. Another magazine might have ideologies that suggest that life should be about being unique and individual etc
Incentive	Something that makes someone want to do something. Magazines offer incentives to audiences to buy magazines, click on different pages.. It could be anything such as a free gift, a powerful word, the suggestion that they will be getting something exclusive etc
Jargon	language which is quite technical or specialist and is often only understand by people who specialise in that subject
Label	A music company that represents singers / bands. For example Sony, Universal etc
Layout	The way the magazine / website is designed and set out
Letters Page	A page on a magazine or website where readers can send in their own letters asking questions, pointing out mistakes, discussing issues etc
Low Production Values	Something which doesn’t seem as though it cost much money. It might be made using cheap materials, have low quality pictures, poor printing etc..
Mainstream	Something which is aimed at a large audience
Market research	Research done into readers / users to find out more about what they want
Masthead	the title of a magazine
Matt paper	a type of paper that is not shiny, like the paper used in a newspaper.
Merger	Where two companies combine into one
Mise-En-Scene	Includes visual elements in an image such as costumes, props, lighting, locations, colours, facial expressions, body language etc
Mode of Address	the tone the magazine / website takes in its articles. What way does it speak to its readers? Does it have an informal mode of address? An aggressive mode of address? A fun, lighthearted one?
Navigation Bar	A bar either at the top or the side of a website, with different tabs / buttons, that allows users to find their way around the main sections of a website.
Niche	Something that is aimed at a small, unique audience rather than a large mainstream audience
Nostalgic	Looking back at something in the past in a fond way
Opinion Leaders	People who are looked up to in society by others, people’s whose opinions are valued eg celebrities, etc
Papped Imaged	a photo where the subject is not posing, and often does not know the photo was being taken
Pin-up	Someone who is attractive, and whom people will want to have on posters to put on their walls so they can idolise them
Posed Image	a photo where the subject has posed for the camera
Amateur	something that is made by a normal person, not a professional
Alliteration	The use of one constant letter repeated several times in a phrase eg. ''Richard Rocks Rio!'
Banner	a strip of colour containing text or pictures that appears at the bottom of the magazine front cover to advertise something inside
Banner Advert	A rectangular shaped box on a website, normally filled with an advert
Boxout	a coloured shape used to separate some text from the rest, often to make it stand out
Byline	The name of the journalist that appears somewhere on the article page
Captions	words that accompany a picture to make it clear what it is of, who is in it etc. Same as anchorage.
Circulation	the number of magazines that are sold per week, fortnight or month (depending on how often the magazine comes out)
Column	writing which is in narrow vertical text boxes, placed next to each other
Connotation	Another word for “hidden meaning” of something. For example, the connotation of the colour red is danger and passion.
Contents Page	a page normally near the beginning of the magazine that lists all the things that are in the magazine along with their page numbers so people can find them easily.
Controversial	when something has caused lots of disagreements or arguments
Conventions	common features. For example the conventions of rock music are guitars, and the colours black and red.
Convergence	The recent process of technologies developing further and further so we can do more things with one piece of equipment. Eg on my iphone I can call people, message people, email, video, take photos, shop, etc
Coverlines	Refers to the titles of articles that are often put on the front cover of the magazine to entice and audience into buying the magazine
Covermount	A free gift attached to the front of the magazine
Cover Price	The price of the printed magazine
Cross Media Ownership	When a company owns other types of media platforms such as a magazine company also owning a tv station.
Cross Media Promotion	when a company that owns other types of media platforms uses them to promote / advertise one of their products. For example Kerrang magazine might be advertised on Kerrang TV.
Demographic	The type of audience for a product. For example the demographic for one magazine might be 16-24 year olds, mostly male, with an interest in mainstream rock.
Distribution	The process of getting a media product from the company to the audience. This includes things like advertising, promotion, sending it to shops etc
Early Adopters	Audiences who are eager to try the newest thing. They can be relied upon to use your website / product first and will spread the word about it to others.
Editors	The people who are in charge of checking the final versions of articles / pages and making any last minute changes before it gets printed / published
Editorial	an article that is based on opinion of the journalist. For example an article about Lady Gaga and how fabulous her fashion sense is, would be an editorial as it is based on someone else’s opinions rather than facts or interviews etc..
Emotive	Something that is designed to make the audience / reader feel emotion.
Exclusives	Something that cannot be found in any other magazine. For example a magazine might have an exclusive story about a band breaking up that no other magazine has found out about. It makes the magazine seem special.
Feature Story	a lengthy article, that is not just news, but a more in depth story. Often the main article of a magazine
Flash	A coloured shape on the front of a magazine such as a circle or a star used to highlight important information
Flash Elements	animation or moving graphics on a website
Forum	a section of a website where users can come together to having online conversations about different topics (threads)
Freebies	Free gifts offered to readers on the front of a magazine such as a free CD etc. Also known as a covermount
Freezine	a magazine that is free
Gender Stereotype	An exaggerated, old fashioned view of women or men based on often incorrect assumptions people have made. For example a popular gender stereotype is that men should be aggressive and powerful, and enjoy past times such as football and drinking beer.
Genre Iconography	things that signify a particular genre. For example, guitars and tattoos / piercings are genre iconography of rock and metal music.
Gig	A concert or performance that a band / artist gives in public
Glossy paper	paper that is shiny and used quite often in magazines
Hashtag	something used to identify what your Tweet is about. For example you might tweet about Justin Bieber and then add the hashtag #BieberFever
Hierarchy	an arrangement of people where some are clearly more important than others. For example in a magazine, it might become clear that there is a hierarchy of celebrities where some are given much more space than others for stories
Highbrow	A media product that is judged to be educational, intellectual, and special
High Production Values	omething which seems like it might have cost quite a bit of money to make. For example it might be produced on high quality glossy paper, with high quality pictures etc
Hit rate	the counter on a website that records how many people have visited the site

Next up

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by sinulienka almost 11 years ago