Key Words

Key Words

Technical Codes - layout, design, positioning, house style, font, size/quality of photographs, cropping choices, anchorage

Visual Codes - images, mise en scene, costume, colour palette, masthead

Genre - what type of newspaper it is, narrative, mode of address, headlines

House Style - a company's preferred manner of presentation and layout of written material

Main Image - Dominant picture, often filling much of the front cover

Masthead - Title of the newspaper displayed on the front page

Caption - Brief text underneath an image describing the photograph or graphic

Byline - Where the name of the reporter is included at the beginning of the article

Stand First - Block of text that introduces the story, normally in a different style to the body text and headline

Standalone - Picture story that can exist on its own or on a front page leading to a story inside

Splash - The main story

Cross-head - Subheadings that appear in the text of the article

Plug - Usually at top left and right hand corners of page displaying promotions, special offers or price of newspapers

Ideology - A system of ideas and ideal, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Discourse - Written or spoken communication or debate.

Ideological Discourse - Communication that upholds a particular ideology/set of ideologies. Discourse that serves to sustain or challenge social positions.

Dominant Ideology - Dominant ideologies are ideologies or beliefs that we live by in our day-to-day lives and often do not question - they have become 'natural, common sense' things to do. This effectively dissuades people from rebelling against these beliefs, and keeps a sense of stability in society. Dominant ideologies include beliefs about gender roles, about the economy, about social institutions.

Hegemony (Gramsci) - Leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others. In media this can often be seen through the reinforcement of capitalist systems and Eurocentric values and perspectives.