EthnicA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWthe implications of a corporation’s activities
for access to and distribution of information;
and the nature of the legal environment and its
potential impact on the corporation’s behaviour.
Establishing shot Opening shot or sequence
showing the location of a fi lm scene or a juxta-
position of characters who will be involved in the
subsequent narrative.
Establishment Th e elite in society, comprising
people who because of wealth, birth or position
in government are able to exercise considerable
power and infl uence. Th e term is often associ-
ated with a study of power in Britain in the 1960s
conducted by Anthony Sampson and entitled
Anatomy of Britain (1962). Sampson pursued
this study until the early 2000s and published
a number of updated versions of his original
analyses.
The relationship between members of the
establishment and elected politicians has been
the focus of some debate. The latest and last
version of Sampson’s study is to be found in
Who Runs Th is Place?: Th e Anatomy of Britain
in the 21st Century (John Murray, 2005). Here
he argues that since his series of studies began,
power has shifted signifi cantly in favour of the
Prime Minister.
Certainly those who own and manage the
various media organizations within society
could be considered to fi gure among such an
establishment. Th ey may not necessarily be in or
act in agreement, however, with those in power-
ful positions in other institutions of society, for
example the City, large corporations, the Civil
Service, the Law Courts, the Police, the Intelli-
gence services, the Armed Forces, the Monarchy,
and the Universities. However, the nature of the
relationship between the mass media and other
key institutions is the subject of much research.
See hegemony; power elite.
▶Tom Lodge, Ship that Rocked the World: How Radio
Caroline Defied the Establishment, Launched the
British Invasion and Made the Planet Safe for Rock
& Roll (Bartleby Press, 2010); Garrick Alder, Diana:
Unfi nished Business – Th e Princess of Wales Versus
the British Establishment (Picnic Publishing Ltd,
2011).
Ethnic Term used in the social sciences to refer
to a community of people possessing its own
culture. Th e characteristics that identify an
ethnic group may include a common language,
common customs, faith and beliefs, and a
cultural tradition. A society may contain several
ethnic groups, some of whom, but not all, may
also be racial groups. The UK contains many
ethnic groups: for example, Caribbean, Chinese,well in mind. The meaning of a message is
something the receiver assigns in the act of
decoding, which is itself part of an interaction
with the encoder.
A glance at the andersch, staats and
bostrom’s model of communication, 1969
helps here. Th is emphasizes the stages through
which the act of encoding passes. There is a
stimulus to a message, which is structured – put
together – and evaluated for its possible eff ect
on the receiver before it is transmitted. The
same process occurs on the part of the receiver:
the message is registered; it is reconstructed
according to the decoder’s perception of the
message and of the encoder who has delivered
the message; the response is then evaluated prior
to transmission.
This is only the beginning of a continuing
circle of sending and receiving, encoding and
decoding. Contributory to the perceptions of
encoder and decoder in the process of commu-
nication are such factors as previous experience,
the current and future context of the interaction,
and the feelings, opinions, assumptions and
values of the encoder and decoder. Th e terms
encipher and decipher are sometimes used
instead of encode and decode. See deep struc-
ture; elaborated and restricted codes.
Encrypt To ‘scramble’ signals – for satellite TV,
for example, so that non-subscribers cannot
tune into programmes.
Enculturation Th e process by which individuals
acquire the values, language, skills, ways of
thinking and behavioural patterns of a particular
culture that enable them to function effec-
tively within it. See acculturation, decul-
turation; intercultural communication;
m-time, p-time; sapir-whorf linguistic
relativity hypothesis.
Enigma code See codes of narrative.
Entropy See redundancy.
Ephemera In communications terms, publica-
tions such as cigarette cards, picture post-
cards, and posters produced for the moment,
conveying information for immediate use. Ironi-
cally such ephemera are now collectors’ items,
illuminating records of our past. See cigarette
cards: cultural indicators.
EPISTLE Developed from a well-used technique
called pest analysis, epistle is a technique for
analysing the context in which a corporation
operates. In addition to analysing the political,
economic, social and technological aspects of
the context, attention should be given to the
following: the environment and green issues
that might arise from a corporation’s operations;