*Conventions of form and content tailored to a mass audience and widely employed in popular media forms (not restricted to the broadcasting media). In contrast to narrowcast codes, they are simpler—employing standardized conventions and ‘formulas’ in a repetitive and predictable way that tends to generate clichés and stereotypes. They are associated with entertainment rather than aesthetics. These codes are learned informally through experience rather than deliberately or institutionally. Following Bernstein, they are controversially described by Fiske as restricted codes. See also overcoding.
Subjects: Media Studies.