Mass Media Vocabulary

Introduction

From traditional newspapers to modern digital platforms, mass media vocabulary encompasses a wide range of formats and terms. This blog post aims to introduce you to essential words associated with mass media, providing clear definitions and context for each term.

Let’s start with understanding what mass media are!

Vocabulary – Mass Media

Mass media are the various means of communication that reach large audiences quickly and effectively. This includes traditional platforms like newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, as well as digital platforms such as websites, blogs, and social media.

Mass: Refers to a large number of people or things, indicating a collective or aggregate.

Media: The plural form of “medium,” it refers to the channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data.

Etymology:

Mass: Derived from the Latin word “massa,” meaning “lump” or “bulk.”
Media: Originates from the Latin word “medium,” meaning “middle” or “means of communication.”

Mass media disseminate news, entertainment, education, and advertising to the public, playing a crucial role in shaping public opinion and culture.

Now, let’s explore some essential vocabulary of mass media!

Media Vocabulary List

Aerial

A radio antenna, especially one suspended in or extending into the air.

Advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of “brand image” and “brand loyalty.”

Blog

A blog (a contraction of the term “Weblog”) is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries.

Blogosphere

The blogosphere is a collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network.

Broadcast

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults. Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable, often both simultaneously.

Column

A column is a recurring piece or article in a newspaper, magazine, or other publication. Columns are written by columnists. What differentiates a column from other forms of journalism is that it meets each of the following criteria:

It is a regular feature in a publication
It is personality-driven by the author
It explicitly contains an opinion or point of view

Editorial

An editorial, leader (US), or leading article (UK) is an article in a newspaper or magazine that expresses the opinion of the editor, editorial board, or publisher.

The editorial board is a group of editors, usually at a print publication, who dictate the tone and direction that the publication’s editorials will take. In much of the English-speaking world, editorials are typically not written by the regular reporters of the news organization but are instead collectively authored by a group of individuals.

High-tech Politics

The current American political system in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers, as well as the political agenda itself, is increasingly shaped by technology.

Investigative Journalism

The use of detective-like reporting methods to unearth scandals.

Journalism

Journalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material, and comments via a widening spectrum of media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the Internet, and, more recently, the cellphone.

Journalists, be they writers, editors, photographers, broadcast presenters, or producers serve as the chief purveyors of information and opinion in contemporary mass society. “News is what the consensus of journalists determines it to be.”

Journalist

A journalist (also sometimes called a newspaperman) is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for an unbiased viewpoint.

Reporters are one type of journalist. They create reports as a profession for broadcast or publication in mass media such as newspapers, television, radio, magazines, documentary film, and the Internet. Reporters find sources for their work; their reports can be either spoken or written, and they are often expected to report in the most objective and unbiased way to serve the public good.

A columnist is a journalist who writes pieces that appear regularly in newspapers or magazines.

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies, or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three. They are published weekly, biweekly, monthly…

Mass Media

Mass media includes all the “tools” we have for communicating with large numbers of people, including television, radio, film, online services, magazines, and newspapers. All carry messages that reach masses of people, in contrast to letters, telephone calls, and one-to-one conversations known as interpersonal media.

Media Bias

Media bias is a term used to describe a real or perceived bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media, in the selection of which events will be reported and how they are covered.

The term “media bias” usually refers to a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries are widely disputed, although its causes are both practical and theoretical.

Media Events

An event that is staged primarily for the purpose of simply being covered.

News

News is any new information or information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience. News involves the reporting of current information on television and radio, and in newspapers and magazines.

Newspaper

A newspaper is a written publication containing news, information, and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint.

General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society, and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns that express the personal opinions of writers. Supplementary sections may contain advertising, comics, coupons, and other printed media.

Newspapers are most often published on a daily or weekly basis, and they usually focus on one particular geographic area where most of their readers live. Despite recent setbacks in circulation and profits, newspapers are still the most iconic outlet for news and other types of written journalism.

Press Conferences

Meetings where a prominent person gives interviews to journalists to make announcements or answer questions.

Press – “the press”

This refers to the media that includes television, radio, newspapers, magazines, wire services, and online services, among others.

Print Media

This refers to that portion of the mass media which includes newspapers and magazines.

Propaganda

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense presents information in order to influence its audience.

Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the cognitive narrative of the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.

Trial Balloons

Information leaked for the purpose of determining what the political reaction will be.

Talking Heads

A shot of a person’s face talking directly to the camera.

Linkage Institutions

The channels or access points through which issues and people’s policy preferences get on the government’s policy agenda.

Television

Television (TV) is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic (“black and white”) or color, usually accompanied by sound. “Television” may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming, or television transmission.

The word is derived from mixed Latin and Greek roots, meaning “far sight”: Greek tele (τηλε), far, and Latin visio, sight (from video, vis- to see, or to view in the first person).

Tabloids

A tabloid is a newspaper of small format giving the news in condensed form, usually with illustrated, often sensational material.

Yellow Journalism

The term is used to describe sensational news reporting.

Commonly Used Mass Media Phrases

Breaking news
Live broadcast
Media coverage
Press release
On the air
News anchor
Media outlet
Public relations
Editorial board
News cycle
Press conference
Investigative report
Sound bite
Media bias
Social media platform
Digital footprint
Viral content
Public service announcement (PSA)
Front page news
Exclusive interview
Media blitz
Advertising campaign
Op-ed (opinion editorial)
Feature story
Ratings and viewership
Subscription model
News bulletin
Print edition
Online streaming
Content creator