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By David T. Z. Mindich
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Abacus – A calculating tool that was in use in various cultures and popularized most notably in China.
Above the fold – Traditional large-format newspapers are folded in half before they are distributed; stories above the fold on the front page are given more prominence and tend to have more impact.
Actual malice – When a publication operates with knowledge that it knew was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) – An early packet-switching network, based on the TCP/IP protocol; with TCP/IP, laid the groundwork for the Internet.
Agenda setting – The idea that the media may not sway people’s opinions or influence our attitudes but tell them what is important.
Algorithm – A set of rules about how to solve a class of problems; can perform calculations and process and sort data.
AM (amplitude modulation) – Radio waves created by varying the amplitude (signal strength) of the carrier wave in proportion to that of the message signal being transmitted.
Anonymous source – A source for a news story who supplies information but asks that his or her name be withheld for publication.
Appropriation – Using the sounds and traditions of another culture to further one’s own career.
Arbitrage – The practice of buying cheaply in one place and selling in a more expensive market.
Archetype – An original model of a person or a thing that is subsequently copied
Authority bias – A built-in bias toward figures of authority; right wing.
Avatar – In video games, an avatar is a visual representation of a player.
Balance – Effort by journalists to fairly present two or more sides to news consumers so that they can hear a range of views and draw their own conclusions.
Balance bias – The tendency to believe that news stories should be balanced, even if it is not warranted.
Behaviorist – A psychologist who emphasizes how certain stimuli trigger certain actions.
Bias – A slanted view in favor of or against a person, group, place, or thing.
Big-city bias – A cultural bias that favors urban sensibilities; culturally progressive.
Bill of Rights – The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution; written in 1789 and ratified in 1791, these amendments offer rights that had not been explicitly noted in the Constitution.
Black Twitter – A group of activists who took to X/Twitter and other social media to express their concern about society’s violence and injustice directed toward people of color.
Blacklisted – In the context of the 1950s, many Americans were ostracized or prevented from working because of their alleged left-wing views or activities.
Blockbuster – A film that is widely successful at the box office; oftentimes, but not always, made with a large budget and well-known cast.
Bollywood – Motion pictures that are made in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay).
Brain drain – The practice of recruiting the best and brightest of the developing world and bringing them to developed countries, which can help perpetuate digital and financial inequities.
British Broadcasting Company (the BBC) – Britain’s public radio (and TV) service, founded in 1922, which broadcasts within Britain and all around the world.
British Invasion – The success in America, beginning in the 1960s, of a number of British bands, notably the Beatles, that began to play American-inspired rock and roll songs.
Broadcasting – Distributing media content to the widest possible audience.
Cable television – In contrast to traditional broadcast television (also known as terrestrial television), which sends images via radio waves in the air, cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via cables.
Calotype – A system of photography pioneered by William Henry Fox Talbot that reduced exposure time and allowed reproduction.
Camera obscura – A darkened room or box with a pinhole light source for projecting an external image onto a screen.
Catalog – A booklet that is sent to customers and potential customers.
Censorship – The suppression or prohibition of content that is deemed unacceptable by those who have the power to do so.
Centrist bias – The tendency of journalists to embrace the political center and to seek out balancing views on the right and left of the political spectrum.
Change bias – A bias toward promoting change; left wing.
Channel One – A leading source of news for teenagers that is broadcast until 2018 to high schools across the United States free of charge.
Chat rooms – A form of online conferencing in which users can communicate via text with a group; in some formats, chat room users are anonymous.
Chilling effect – When one journalist is beaten or killed, that act can make others scared and less willing to do hard-hitting journalism.
Cinematographe – A device invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere that shot, developed, and projected a short motion picture.
Classical conditioning – A type of learning procedure. In the case of Pavlov’s experiment, a food source (an unconditioned stimulus) solicits salivation (an unconditioned response); introducing a bell (a conditioned stimulus) creates a conditioned response, salivation, to the sound of the bell alone.
Classified ads – Small advertisements placed in a newspaper and organized in categories; before Craigslist and other online sources crippled this kind of advertisement, classifieds were one of the biggest sources of revenue for print publications.
Cliché – Overused scenes, ideas, and phrases such as “ring in the New Year.”
Click-through – The act of clicking on a hypertext link that sends a consumer to a website. The effectiveness of this practice is often measured by its click-through rate.
Cold media – Telephones and 1960s televisions are low intensity but “high participation” media that are less complete in terms of the vibrancy of the media message.
Collateral learning – The enduring lessons learned beyond the subject being taught.
Compact disk (CD) – A digital replacement for vinyl records.
Corporate bias – Corporations that have “interlocking” relationships tend to be politically conservative and journalists that work for these corporations may find themselves under pressure to conform to their parent company’s political bent.
CPM – Standard advertising measure of cost per thousand; CPM stands for Cost Per Mille; mille is Latin for thousand.
Creative execution – Creating a quality advertisement.
Creative idea – A concept that furthers the overall strategy of the marketing.
Crossover – When an artist has a hit in more than one genre.
Cultivation effect – The idea that media can condition us to see the world in certain ways over the long term and as a whole.
Cultural proximity – Favoritism based on cultural factors.
Daguerreotype – An early form of photography that captured images on silverplated copper sheets; in the late 1830s, the exposure time was about 10 minutes.
Damage control – Steps taken by public relations firms to limit the damaging effects of an action that hurts the reputation of an individual or organization.
Databases – Structured collections of data that are easily retrievable, allowing for specific and personalized analysis
Demand creation – Modern marketing that is not only about filling existing needs but also aims to convince consumers to buy things they never knew that they needed.
Deregulation – The relaxation of the rules and expectations that govern radio and television, such as the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
Difference engine – An automatic mechanical calculator designed by Charles Babbage; its design predated modern computers.
Digital divide – The gulf between those who have access to computers and the Internet and those who do not; has also come to refer to the quality of computing.
Direct mail advertising – Mail that is sent, unsolicited, to homes and businesses.
Direct-effects model – The idea that media impact people powerfully and directly, particularly in terms of behavior.
Disk jockeys – People who choose and play songs, and generally talk before and after songs are played. They are also called announcers or deejays.
Dissent – Opinion offered by one or more Supreme Court Justices that disagrees with the majority opinion; are part of the permanent record of the court and are often influential for years to come.
Documentary – Film that seeks to depict reality and often exposes audiences to problems that need solving.
Easter Egg – Any aspect of a software program or video game that is not officially publicized, often requiring certain keystrokes or maneuvers to be revealed. It often contains an inside joke, cameo, or background detail included in a movie or TV show for serious fans to discover.
Electronic numerical integrator and computer (ENIAC) – Built in the final years of the Second World War (1939–1945), ENIAC was the first large-scale non-mechanical computer.
Exploitation – Using the music of musicians of color without proper compensation or even attribution.
Fairness Doctrine – A policy that compelled broadcasters to present both sides of controversial issues.
Fantasy – Depiction of a fictional universe and/or people with otherworldly powers.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – The agency charged with overseeing American broadcasters.
Feeding frenzy – Term commonly applied to an episode in which the media swarm around a story, much like when sharks surround their prey; tends to be more pronounced when the stories confirm preexisting notions.
Femvertising – Advertising that is empowering and non-objectifying of women.
Fiction – A prose story that describes imaginary events and people.
First Amendment – An amendment contained in the Bill of Rights that includes five rights: Freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
FM (frequency modulation) – Encoding of information in a carrier wave by varying the instantaneous frequency of the wave.
Format radio – The practice of adopting an identity for a particular station, such as news, soul, or rock and roll.
Fourth Estate – The news media, which is a separate entity that stands apart from other parts of society and holds everyone in check.
Free file sharing – The practice of transmitting files from one computer to another over the Internet without paying for it.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) – A federal law that requires the disclosure of previously unreleased information controlled by the United States government upon request by journalists or other interested parties.
Gatekeepers – Role of journalists deciding who and what are covered; traditionally, journalists stand at the metaphoric gate and decide who and what gets through to the public.
Genre – A category or style that is clearly identified as separate from others; in film, examples include comedies, musicals, and Westerns.
GPS – The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides users with details about their location. Developed and run by the U.S. government, it uses satellites to determine mapping and other information.
Ham radio – A hobby long enjoyed by millions of enthusiasts that, unlike the mass media model, involves many people engaging in individual and group discussions over radio waves; also called amateur radio.
Heliographs – An early form of photography that preceded the daguerreotype pioneered by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.
Hierarchy of needs – A theory in psychology constructed by Abraham Maslow; the basic needs include food, water, and safety; higher-level needs include belongingness, ego, and “self-actualization, the realization of one’s best self.
Hieroglyphics – A system of pictures of objects representing words, as found most notably in ancient Egypt.
Hollywood Ten – A group of ten men — mainly screenwriters and directors — who were called before HUAC and subsequently blacklisted by the Hollywood studios.
Horse race bias – A bias that is concerned with the political fortunes of the candidates—who is up, who is down—rather than their policies.
Hot media – Movies, stereos, and all those that are intense enough to overwhelm the audience, paradoxically creating passivity or “low participation.”
House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) – A committee that sought to expose and punish left-wing Americans.
Hyperlocal – News organizations that deeply cover a small geographic area.
Internal immigration – The tendency to retreat into one’s home and consume media there rather than confront the problems of one’s neighborhood, town, or country.
Internet – An interconnected computer network spanning the world that uses standardized protocols to allow computers to communicate with one another.
Internet Protocol (IP) addresses – A unique set of numbers and periods that identifies each computer.
Interpretation – A way to explain the aims, values, and ideologies of complex worlds to broader publics.
Intertextual analysis – The practice of engaging with other texts; engagement among books, articles, and other written or printed material can resemble a conversation across generations.
Inverted pyramid – A style of newswriting that places the most important elements in the first paragraphs.
Jazz – A music genre that originated in New Orleans and other American cities; hallmarks are improvisation and the mixing of fresh musical elements.
Kinetoscope – A device developed by Edison and his team of inventors in the early 1890s that displayed motion pictures through a peephole.
Language – The method of human communication — whether spoken, written, or signed — consisting of the use of words in a way that follows certain linguistic rules.
Libel – A written or published defamatory statement.
Licensing – A rule requiring the advance permission to publish certain content.
Linear – Media that follow a set chronological path.
Linear – A clear plotline that begins at the beginning and moves in a straight line.
Linguistic relativity – The theory that the structure of our language affects our perception of the world.
Literacy – A person’s or a society’s use and understanding of writing.
Literate culture – A society that communicates via spoken and written means.
Long tail model – A medium that can make money by delivering niche items to smaller groups. For example, Amazon and Netflix can sell small quantities of items to many individuals.
Love story – A movie in which love is a central theme. The more lighthearted films of this genre are called romantic comedies.
Lowest common denominator – Appealing to the broadest audience because of fear of controversy and offending advertisers; pandering to base tastes.
Magazine – A collection of stories and pictures fastened together in a glossy periodical with a recognizable format.
Majority – At least five of the nine Supreme Court justices; writes a decision that becomes binding, and in many cases sets the precedent for future laws.
Market research – Gathering information about consumers’ needs and preferences.
Mass media – Media that reach large audiences; examples include newspapers, movies, radio, and television.
Mass media model – A medium that carries messages to a large group of people.
Mass private – A paradox of the modern world: while the “public” consumes content, they often do it in private, either in the their homes or on their phones; emerged with the printing press, which made media cheaper and easy to purchase and consume privately.
Mass public – A group of people consuming the same content.
Massification – An attempt to appeal to great masses of people.
Media – The means of communicating to individuals and groups.
Media effects theories – Theories that seek to understand how the media impact our vision of the world.
Media literacy – A movement aiming to educate people—particularly young people—to be more discerning consumers of entertainment and news media. Also, a way of thinking critically about the media, how their messages impact us, and how we can resist these messages.
Memex – A device for storing and cross-listing information; short for memory extender.
Microblogging – An activity that involves making short posts to a public forum; in 2017, micro-blogging site Twitter doubled its character limit from 140 to 280.
Minimal effects model – The idea that people react to media in different ways, depending on a range of factors
MMORPG – Massively multiplayer online role-playing games.
Moore’s Law – The idea that the number of components held on a single chip will double every two years.
Morse code – System that uses two different signals called dots and dashes, each corresponding to a letter, number, or punctuation mark.
Movable type – A system of printing technology that uses movable parts, such as individual letters and numbers, that are assembled and reassembled to create whole documents.
Movement – The ability to hear a sentence and rearrange its word order to ask a question or frame a statement differently.
Muckraking journalism – Investigative journalism that exposes wrongdoing and inequality.
Muckraking photography – Use of photography to shine a spotlight on poverty, corruption, and injustice.
Multi-user domains (MUDs) – A multiplayer real-time virtual world, historically text-based, but increasingly accompanied by graphics.
Multitasking – Attempts to work on two or more things at once; usually refers to different simultaneous interactions with multiple media.
Narcotizing dysfunction – The tendency for some people to become immobilized by media through information overload.
Narrowcasting – Distributing media content to a narrow audience.
National Public Radio (NPR) – An American media organization with more than 1,000 member stations that is based in Washington, D.C. and was established by an act of Congress in 1970.
Nature-deficit disorder – The idea that people are spiritually poorer and sadder and more prone to various maladies because of the tendency to be shut inside in front of screens.
Net neutrality – The idea that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data that travels over their networks fairly, without favoring particular apps or websites.
News – New or noteworthy information, supplied by individuals, groups, or media sources.
Newspaper – A publication that is publicly available, published on a regular basis, contains a variety of items in each issue, and has a consistent title or format.
Nickelodeon – An arcade-type space dedicated to showing projected motion pictures. The theaters charged five cents for admission.
Nonfiction – A prose story that is factual.
Nonlinear – Media that do not follow a set order or path.
Nonlinear storytelling – A hodgepodge of images that defy logical order and depart from the normal theatrical experience.
Normative – Referring to or promoting a common set of ideas of beliefs.
Objectivity – The aim to tell stories free of bias; elements include detachment, nonpartisanship, the inverted pyramid style of newswriting, a reverence for facts, and balance.
On the record – When a person speaks to a reporter and is willing to be named and quoted in the publication.
Oral communication – Expressing thoughts or feelings by word of mouth.
Oral culture – A society that relies solely on spoken communication.
Orality – Thought and expression in a society in which writing does not exist or is unknown to most of its population.
Out-of-home advertising – The many signs and advertisements that are displayed in public, from roadside billboards to stadium signage to big-city ads on the sides of buildings, like the ones that light up Times Square in New York City.
Packaging – Often the final advertisement before a purchase, packaging is one last attempt to get you to buy. It often echoes the themes of previous advertisements that the consumer has seen.
Packet switching – A system of grouping data that is transmitted over a digital network into packets, which are directed to their correct destinations.
Panopticon – A prison structure designed by the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in which all prisoners can be seen by guards; has come to serve as a metaphor for surveillance culture in general.
Paper – A thin unwoven material made from plant fibers; invented in China in A.D. 105, it would later aid the wide distribution of printed material around the world.
Papyrus – A paper-like sheet made from plants primarily grown in Egypt and used for writing or painting.
Parasocial relationships – One-sided relationships between audience members and celebrities based on illusion of intimacy created through exposure to celebrities through mass media.
Party line – A setup in which three or more people can talk simultaneously on the same call.
Party press – Newspapers that were financially supported by political parties. In return, editors would publish articles favorable to their party patrons.
Patriotic bias – A bias in favor of one’s own country, often at the expense of others.
Payola – The practice by record executives of bribing local deejays to play songs.
Paywalls – A system of charging customers for access to a website and denying such access to others.
Penny press – Newspapers that abandoned the partisan press model by raising revenue through street sales, subscriptions, and advertising; often politically independent, and often charged a penny for a copy.
Pentagon Papers – Officially entitled “Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force,” this secret, 47-volume study outlined the causes and present conditions of the Vietnam War.
Persistence of vision – An optical illusion caused by stringing together still images in rapid succession; the eye is tricked into seeing the succession of still images as moving.
Photographic realism – An unsentimental and accurate visual picture of the world.
Pitch – A proposal to convey an idea or feeling about a product.
Precedent – A ruling that sets a standard for similar decisions in the future
Precision – One of the central features of the printing press; print not only provides exact replicas of content, it also engenders a culture based on exactness.
Preliterate mindset – The idea that people in oral cultures and written cultures see the world in profoundly different ways.
Press release – A written or recorded communication sent to the news media in order to publicize information or an event.
Prior restraint – The practice of censoring printed material before publication.
Product placement – A mention of a product within a movie or show; in exchange for the product placement, the company being advertised will usually offset some of the show’s budget.
Progressive differentiation – An attempt to find a niche audience.
Propaganda – Information, especially of a biased nature, used to persuade the public
PRSA code of ethics – The code is designed to be a useful guide for PRSA members as they carry out ethical responsibilities.
Pseudo-environment – An interpretation of reality that is often very different than reality itself.
Pseudo-event – An event orchestrated primarily to generate publicity.
Public domain – Works and ideas that are free from the constraints of intellectual property rights.
Public opinion polling – A survey that measures the public’s views regarding a particular topic or series of topics.
Public relations (PR) – Efforts to promote goals, products, images, and ideas with the aim of creating favorable public opinion.
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) – The largest trade association for public relations professionals in the United States.
Public television – A television system funded in part or wholly by the government; in the United States, it is funded through a combination of sources, including federal, state, and local contributions and corporate and individual donations.
Quipu – A string-and-bead counting system employed by Incas.
Radio deregulation – Loosening of regulations, which requires a diversity of station ownership.
Radio telephony – A service for which anyone could pay for airtime on a radio station.
Realism – A 19th-century movement in the arts and literature that was inspired by strides in science and medicine and sought to portray the world in an unflinching, “realistic” way.
Red Channels – A pamphlet published by a right-wing newsletter called Counterattack.
Red scare – The period of anticommunism during the late 1940s and 1950s.
Right to know – In an open democracy, the right of the public to information required to vote and make other informed decisions.
Rock and roll – An outgrowth of jazz, blues, gospel, and other American genres.
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis – The idea that language shapes social thought.
Satellite radio – Radio broadcast via satellite rather than over the airwaves like traditional radio; used primarily by motorists.
Scientific method – An empirical method of knowledge acquisition that seeks to prove certain facts about the physical world.
Secondary orality – According to Ong, orality that is dependent on literate culture.
Seditious libel – The idea that truth is no defense if the government does not want information printed.
Semaphore – Visual systems of signaling, often from towers
Sensationalism – The use of exciting or shocking elements in a story, sometimes resulting in distortions.
Slander – A defamation, usually spoken, but can refer to published words as well.
Social capital – The extent to which we talk to one another, connect with each other, participate in politics, and gather in public.
Social media – Social media are the web pages and apps—such as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and X/Twitter—that connect (and divide) people through conversation, common interests, links, and user-created content.
Space-based medium – Medium that is not built to last but can be easily transported over great distances; writing on papyrus is space-based.
Spaghetti westerns – Italian-made films that were inspired by American Westerns.
Spin doctors – A disparaging term for public relations workers.
Spin room bias – Massaging a message in a partisan way to give one side an advantage.
Standard-setting public relations – Public relations that puts forth aims or values for businesses or politicians.
Stereotype – Historically, a printing term for a plate that duplicates original type and illustrations put together by typesetters; in contemporary use, characterizations based on national background, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and other factors; includes blanket statements about the world like “all ________ are ________” and can include positive images as well, such as a brave warrior, a nurturing mother, and a kindly grandmother.
Strategy – An advertising plan that maps out a strategic vision for the product or company.
Surrealism – A reality-stretching genre that overtly suspends reality and takes the audience on a journey to a world in which normal rules do not apply.
Synergy – The interaction of two or more organizations to combine forces in order to improve a business arrangement.
Tabula rasa – A Latin phrase meaning “blank slate,” used by philosopher John Locke to argue that humans are born with nothing, and our senses and experiences completely shape our world.
Talkies – Motion pictures with sound and spoken dialogue.
Telecommunications Act of 1996 – Amending the Communications Act of 1934, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 reduced rules on ownership and content. The Act allowed the marketplace to set the rules.
Telegraph – A system for transmitting messages from one place to another via electric charges traveling along a wire.
Telemarketing – Calling via the telephone to solicit business.
Time-based medium – Medium that is not easily transported but can last for many years; writing on stone is time-based.
Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) – A system used to connect computer systems to one another.
Universal grammar – Noam Chomsky’s theory that human languages share the same abstract template.
Urban – Adjective often used as a code word for music by and for African Americans.
Uses and gratifications model – The idea that the relationship between media and people is less of a one-way model (with information flowing from media to people) and more of a give and take (with people using media strategically, for instance, to satisfy certain needs).
Vacuum tube – A device that controls electric current flow in a vacuum.
Vast wasteland – The idea that, despite a few quality shows, television is mainly awful.
Vertical integration – The consolidation in one organization of two or more stages of production.
Viral – Shared rapidly on social media platforms and seen by millions of people.
Voice of America – The official news agency of the United States.
WikiLeaks – An international nonprofit organization founded by Julian Assange that publishes secret and classified information, generally by anonymous sources.
World music – Traditional music from the developing world and other non-Western areas.
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