Language and Media Dictionary of Key Terms (April 2016) Martin Montgomery

Thaumatrope => persistence of vision.

thought balloon => speech balloon.

transculturation media n. the transformation of culture through processes of influx, merging, loss and alteration of cultural elements. In contrast to acculturation, which refers to the process of assimilating a different culture, or deculturation, which describes the phenomenon of losing a culture, transculturation involves the sense of producing a new culture or cultural elements from the fusion of previously discrete ones. SJ

transgression media n. the act of crossing a social, moral, or legal boundary, or infringing upon established standards or norms of behaviour. SJ

truth media n. that which corresponds to reality; a claim which can survive empirical, logical, ethical, or religious tests of its validity. Truth, especially in terms of objective truth, operates as a touchstone of value in criticisms of media bias or of the media as purveyors of propaganda. mmo

universality media n. the notion that something is applicable to every case or individual in a class or category. For example, in linguistics, universality implies the existence of a grammatical rule or a linguistic feature that is found in all languages. The notion of universality informs schools of thought in the disciplines of philosophy, ethics, logic, and mathematics. SJ

verbal devices media n. ways of using language for rhetorical effect, especially in order to gain or facilitate applause. The occasions where applause occurs during public speeches have been linked to particular kinds of verbal pattern or device such as the use of pairs of propositions or lists where the third or subsequent item clearly culminates the pattern. These are sometimes referred to as ‘clap-traps’, following extensive studies of political speeches by the British sociologist, J. Maxwell Atkinson. mmo

viral media n. adopted from the medical terminology that relates to the manner in which a virus spreads through patterns of contagion, the use of viral in social, cultural, and commercial contexts refers to the ways in which a phenomenon, such as a video, a marketing campaign, a computer virus, spreads through virtual social networks. SJ