1. TV Drama Definitions
TV Drama – A television drama is scripted content which is usually fictional which follows the
line of a traditional drama. By convention, television dramas are generally not used for
situation comedy or soap opera.
Representation – The action of speaking or acting on behalf of someone or the state of being
so represented.
Mediation / mediated –
Stereotype – A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of
person or thing.
Hegemonic norm – The processes by which dominant culture maintains its dominant
position:
Ideology – A system of ideas and ideals.
Semiotics – The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.
Connotation – An idea or feeling that a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or
primary meaning.
Signifies – Be a symbol of; have as meaning.
Types of signifier –
· Iconic - signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a picture.
· Indexical - signs where the signifier is caused by the signified, e.g., smoke signifies fire.
· Symbolic - signs where the relation between signifier and signified is purely conventional and
culturally specific, e.g., most words.
Binary opposites – The contrast between two mutually exclusive concepts or things that
creates conflict and drives a narrative. For example, good/evil, day/night, male/female,
presence/absence, old/young
Mode of address –Proposes that media texts address its intended audience in a particular
way, establishing a relationship between the producer of the text and the media’s audience.
For example, direct mode of address using ‘you’, ‘you’re’.
Anchoring – Fixing of meaning.For example, the copy text anchors (fixes to one spot) the
meaning of an image (for instance, a single rose that could be used for an ad for anything
from a dating agency to a funeral home) in a print advertisement.
Conventions – The widely recognised way of doing something- this has to do with content,
style and form. For example, the conventions of a music video or magazine.