Media language overview quiz - AQA GCSE Media Studies quiz

Codes are simply the rules of a particular genre, while conventions are only the camera shots that a director chooses to use

Codes apply strictly to moving-image film products, while conventions apply strictly to printed products such as magazines

Codes are sign systems that carry meaning; conventions are the expected features of a form or genre

There is genuinely no difference at all between the two, because the terms simply mean exactly the same thing

Costume

Lighting

Setting

Editing

The literal, surface meaning of a sign

The deeper cultural meaning associated with a sign

The way a written caption fixes the meaning of an image

The dramatic conflict between two opposing forces in a story

Denotation

Connotation

Anchorage

Equilibrium

The first stable equilibrium state found at the very start of a media narrative

The central conflict between the forces of good and evil

Words, often a caption, that fix the preferred meaning of an image

A recurring stock character type within a story, such as the hero

Disruption, equilibrium, new equilibrium

New equilibrium, disruption, equilibrium

Equilibrium, resolution, disruption

Equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium

Propp

Todorov

Barthes

Hall

When a single genre stays exactly the same and never changes over time

When a product combines the conventions of two or more genres

When a product deliberately breaks every single one of its conventions

When two separate products happen to share exactly the same title

The overall pace and rhythm of the editing across a whole moving-image sequence

The non-diegetic background soundtrack and the music score added on top of a finished product

Everything arranged within the frame, such as costume, lighting, colour, props and setting

The chronological order in which the main story events are shown to the audience

Because the close-up shot is never used in any of the AQA set media products at all, ever

Because close-ups are a convention, not a code

Because examiners only reward written codes

Because you must also explain the meaning it creates and how it positions the audience