Key Concepts

There are a number of key concepts which the exam board have specified.

 These are ideally used as frameworks with which to address questions set.

It is up to you to select the frameworks, the ways of thinking, which are best suited to the question set.

Codes: meaning systems consisting of signs. Signs are anything that has the potential to generate meaning, to signify. When a sign has generated meaning, it is said to have achieved signification. This is fundamental to the semiotic approach to the study of communication.

Communication: a process through which meanings are exchanged.

Context: the situation within which communication takes place.

Culture: a particular way of life which expresses certain meanings and values.

Identity: the sense we have of ourselves, which we then ‘represent’ ‘elsewhere’: a person’s social meaning.

Power: control and influence over other people and their actions.

Representation: refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.

Value: the worth, importance, or usefulness of something to somebody.