Key definitions

DECODING = understanding a media text.  

CODES can be visual (you can see them) or aural (you can hear them). Codes have symbolic value. For example in our society wearing a pair of glasses (glasses are the code) symbolises, or connotates, that you are clever. TV drama, magazines and videogames use these symbolic codes to generate character types and character archetypes.

•A stereotype may be defined as a popular belief about specific social/ethnic groups or types of individuals and it is broadly standardized or simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions.

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•The stereotypes sometimes can have negative or positive impacts on individuals.