The Dictionary for Understanding

the American Demographic

Library
Agency: The ability to act independently in the world.
Alternative: Existing or functioning outside the established culture, social or economic
system or on the edge of the mainstream. Examples: hippies and punks.
Angle: The viewpoint from which a story is told. May relate to the interests of the target
audience, or simply the ideologies of the author. For example, different newspapers may tell
the same stories from either a left wing or right wing angle.
Audience: The people who read a media text; traditionally the consumers of media. When
you create a work, you usually target at a specific audience.
Balance: Means that differing viewpoints are represented.
Bias: A tendency to believe that some people, ideas, etc., are better than others that
usually results in treating some people unfairly.
Binary Opposition: In critical theory, a binary opposition is a pair of related terms or
concepts that are opposite in meaning. It is the system by which, in language and thought,
two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another.
Binary System: Is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.
Codes: Are systems of signs, which create meaning. Codes can be divided into two
categories - technical and symbolic.
Technical Codes: Are all the ways in which equipment is used to tell the story in a
media text. Example: the camera work in a film.
Symbolic Codes: What is beneath the surface of what we see. Example: a
character's actions show you how the character is feeling.
Color Blindness: Treating people of different skin colors equally :not affected by racial
prejudice. But declaring we live in a post-racial society or rejecting the idea of systemic
(institutionalized) racism is harmful and another form of privilege.
Connotation: Meaning created through association. Example: Wall Street literally means
a street situated in Lower Manhattan but connotatively it refers to wealth and power.
Conventions: Are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general
conventions in any medium but conventions are also genre specific. Example: the use of
interviewee quotes in a print article.
Discrimination: Is action that denies social participation or human rights to categories of
people based on prejudice.

Diversity: The inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures)
in a group or organization.
Equitable: Just or fair; dealing fairly and equally with everyone.
Explicit Meaning: Means clearly expressed or readily observable.
Ethnicity: A social group that has a common or cultural tradition. Common cultural
characteristics: history, language, traditions, religion.
Fact: Information that is true or demonstrable.
Feminism: The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic
equality to men.
Gender: Is the social meanings, obligations, and expectations ascribed to male and female
bodies. It is a social construct. Children often come to embody the gender that society
assigns to their sex.
Gender Roles: Are cultural and personal. They determine how males and females should
think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. Learning plays a role in this
process of shaping gender roles. These gender roles are deeply embedded frameworks
regarding what defines masculine and feminine.
Feminine: Relating to, or constituting the gender that ordinarily includes most
forms referring to females . The norms for femininity include nurturing (warm, soft,
comforting, quiet), emotional (love, gentle, sensitive, selflessness, compassion,
empathy), and cooperative (togetherness, community, sharing).
Masculine: Relating to, or constituting the gender that ordinarily includes most
forms referring to males. The norms for masculinity include strength (emotional
toughness, courage, self-reliance, rationality), honor (duty, loyalty, responsibility,
integrity), and action (competitiveness, ambition, risk-taking, agency, volition).
Hierarchy: A system in which people or things are placed in a series of levels with different
importance or status.
Ideology: The values or beliefs which the producers of a text hold. These are often very
obvious in the text. Example: C.S. Lewis Christianity in The Chronicles of Narnia. An
ideology can be held by an individual, a group or a society. Reading a text which conflicts
with ones own ideology can provoke an aberrant reading.
Implicit Meaning: means implied or expressed indirectly.
Institutions: Customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular
formal organizations of the government and public services. Examples: Marriage, family,
military, education, religion, legal system, prisons, media.
Institutional Racism: Is a pattern of social institutions giving negative treatment to a
group of people based on their race. Examples: governmental organizations, schools, banks,
and courts of law.
Internalized Racism: The acceptance by the stigmatized race of negative messages about
their abilities and intrinsic worth. Self-devaluation is often common. Also, internalized racism
creates resignation and helplessness. Individuals will often engage in self-destructive health
behaviors.
Invisibility: The exclusion of groups or communities from the media. It is the lack of
representation.

Jargon: Specialized technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject. Examples:

Film critics use terms like mise-en-scene and montage to discuss films.
Matriarchy: A system of society or government ruled by a woman or women.

Minority Group: A group of people who have been socially disadvantaged. This does not
always mean a minority in actual numbers. In Chicago, African Americans are the majority
population even though they are a minority group.
Misandry: Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against men.
Misogyny: Dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women.
Neutral: Not aligned with, supporting, or favoring either side in a war, dispute, or contest.
Norms: Something (such as a behavior or way of doing something) that is usual or
expected.
Normative: based on what is considered to be the usual or correct way of doing something.
Opinion: Expressions of personal attitude or belief offered without supporting material.
Objective: Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing
facts.
Patriarchy: A system of society or government in which men hold the power and women
are largely excluded from it.
Personally Mediated Racism: Characterized by differentiated assumptions about the
abilities, motives, and intents of others according to race. Prejudice and discrimination are
part of this category of racism. Examples: Ku Klux Klan, most every comment section on the
internet.
Perspective: A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something.
Point of View: Is a reflection of the opinion an individual.
Power Structure: A group of people who have control of a government, organization, etc.,
or the way in which those people are organized. The power works in one direction. There is
no such thing as reverse isms.
Prejudice: An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge,
thought, or reason.
Privilege: A right or benefit that is given to some people and not others
Propaganda: A text that aims to alter the ideology of its audience, turning it into something
resembling the ideology of the creator of that text, who is known as the propagandist.
Propaganda is common in war time.
Othering: Any action by which an individual or group becomes mentally classified in
somebodys mind as not one of us.
Race: A socially constructed category (just like gender) based on appearances and ancestry.
Most biologists and anthropologists do not recognize race as a biologically valid
classification. There are more genetic variations within groups than between them.
Racism: The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific

to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race(s).

Representation: Is the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities,
experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective.
Sex: Either the man (boy) or woman (girl) division of a species, especially as differentiated
with reference to the reproductive function. Sex is the biological assignment of man/woman.
Social Construct: A perception of an individual, group, or idea that is made through
cultural or social practice.
Stereotype: A simplified idea or image about members of a group.
Stereotype Threat: A situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be
at risk of confirming negative stereotypes about their social group. Example: Girls are bad at
math.
Subjective: Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
Taboo: Banned on grounds of morality or taste. Example: cannibalism
Tokenism: The practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular
thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in
order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality. Minority groups are
underrepresented in media and when they are it is usually in a supporting role. They are cast
in subplots. They have no power. They are one-dimensional characters. They are static and
rarely evolve throughout the series. They usually reinforce stereotypes.
Whitewashing: Is a cheap white paint or coating of chalked lime used to quickly give a
uniform clean appearance to a wide variety of surfaces. The term is used to describe the
exclusion of minorities from history and a lack of representation in the media today. In TV
and movies it can also mean white actors playing the role of minority characters. It was a
fairly common practice and we still see it happen today, though not as often.