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

affordances

agenda setting media n. a way of referring to how the news media set the topics and the terms of public debate. Agenda setting is partly a matter of how topics get selected but also a question of the degree of salience which is accorded to them. By setting the agenda, news media not only frame issues for public attention and debate but by implication help shape the contours of public opinion. mmo

agent media n. a professional intermediary who advises an author on the prospective salability of publishing projects, sometimes also on matters of audience, content and style, and represents their interests in financial and other negotiations with publishers and media organizations. Agents are increasingly providing management of the author as a client, for example in ensuring that the agreed date for delivery of a contracted text is honored, thus easing what can be a problematic load on publishers and media organizations. Equally, in placing book projects with suitable publishers, the agent is acting in part on behalf of the publisher, as well as of the author. mmo

Article 19 media n. an article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that declares the following: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the right includes freedom to hold opinions without hindrance and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers” mmo

attribution theory media n. ****

audience media n. those for whom a public mode of communication is designed. Traditionally the term would apply most easily to those present at and addressed by speeches, theatrical performance and various kinds of public entertainment. The term, however, has a special resonance in media studies where it denotes the multiple and collective addressee particularly of print and broadcast communication. Indeed, the notion of the audience has become a special object of study in its right with competing notions of active and passive audience. mmo