En células transfectadas establemente

math-ematics, lexicon of literary terms, etc.); 2. total stock of words, phrases, and expressions in a language

LIBeL libel 1. false and malicious statement that damages a person’s reputation;

2. published or broadcast statement that unjustifiably exposes someone to ridicule or derision

libertarianism philosophy asserting that good and rational people can tell right from wrong if presented with all the facts. for this reason any form of censorship is seen to be unnecessary.

Libertarians maintain that control of the media does not belong to the government but to the people whom the media serve.

libido in psychoanalysis, the energy associated with the instincts that motivate a large part of behavior.

The term was coined by sigmund

freud, who posited that the libido develops in stages: in the oral stage, the infant gets pleasure from activi-ties such as breast suckling; in the anal phase, the child gets pleasure from being able to control bowel movements; in the genital phase, which starts at around puberty, sexual urges dominate the libido.

This notion has been used occasion-ally in advertising studies to explain how some kinds of ads are designed to stimulate the libido.

library music music for films or television shows that is available for a fee from a specialized library license 1. permission to engage in a business or other regulated activity;

2. permission to operate a specific radio frequency

Liebes, Tamar (1943–) often- quoted scholar on the effects of media on audiences and on the processes involved in the decoding of media texts. Among her most influential works are Media, Ritual, and Identity (as editor, with James Curran, 1998) and The Export of Meaning (with elihu Katz, 1990).

lifestyle segmentation way of group-ing audiences accordgroup-ing to their hab-its, the kinds of music they like, etc.

light viewer in media research parlance, a person who watches very little television

lighting equipment and techniques used for lighting a play, a movie set, or a television set. As such, it is part of the overall film text, being used to bring out various meanings, empha-ses, nuances, etc., that the text is designed to produce.

limited effects theory view that the effects of media on people are limited by variables such as class, education, cultural background, and age. essen-tially, the theory argues that the mass media have relatively few effects on people.

line producer member of a film production team responsible for the daily operations, such as procur-ing technical help and ensurprocur-ing that maintenance is carried out

linear perspective art technique by which the perception of depth and

LINGUISTIC reLATIVITY HYPoTHeSIS

distance on a surface is produced by parallel lines that converge on the ho-rizon. The technique simulates visual perception by showing images in the same perspective as we see them in the real world—in visual perception, distant objects appear smaller and less distinct than near objects.

lines speech or dialogue that an actor has to deliver

linguistic competence abstract knowledge of language. This term was coined by the American linguist noam chomsky, who defined it as the innate knowledge that people employ unconsciously to generate and comprehend sentences, most of which they have never heard previ-ously. Chomsky proposed a system of analysis, which he called transfor-mational-generative grammar, that would allow the linguist to identify and describe the general properties of linguistic competence, sifting them out from those that apply only to par-ticular languages. The former, called universal principles, are purported to be part of a species-specific language

faculty that has genetic information built into it about what languages in general must be like; the latter, known as parameters, are said to constrain the universal principles to produce the specific language gram-mar to which the child is exposed.

Although Chomsky assigns some role to cultural and experiential factors, he maintains that the primary role of linguistics must be to understand the universal principles that make up the speech faculty.

linguistic relativity hypothesis a claim that language shapes world-view. The hypothesis has a long history, going back to the ancient world. It was in the eighteenth century, however, that it came to be discussed and debated formally by language scientists and philoso-phers, such as Johann von Herder, who claimed that there was an intrinsic link between language and ethnic character, and wilhelm von Humboldt, who argued that the grammar and vocabulary of a specific language shaped the thought and behavior of the people born into it. In the first part of the twentieth century, anthropologist edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee whorf researched native American languages to test the validity of the hypothesis, coming to the conclu-sion that languages do indeed seem to guide how people think and act.

Given the importance of their work, the hypothesis is now also known as whorf hypothesis. The Sapir-whorf version of linguistic

relativ-Box in linear perspective

LINGUISTICS ity claims that the grammar and

vocabulary of a particular language provide the cognitive strategies for interpreting reality, since they make available words and structures for certain specific events, while ignoring others. This does not block understanding among speakers of different languages, as translation and paraphrases demonstrate. But it does show that there is diversity in human language that reflects diver-sity in cultural and psychological experiences.

linguistics the science of language.

Linguists study the formal aspects of language (sound systems, grammar, vocabulary, and so on), its uses in communication, its relation to cogni-tion, and its interrelation with culture and society.

links speech excerpts that introduce the next item in radio and television programming

linotype older technology that was used to carry out the mechanical setting of print type (rather than manual)

lip-sync [full form: lip synchro-nization] technique of mouthing a recorded statement or a song without actually speaking or singing, giving the illusion that one is performing it live

listenership number and type of people who listen to a radio broad-cast or station

listening share share of total radio audience that is faithful to a specific radio station

listings information on what a spec-tacle or event will contain (venue of performance, times, admission prices, contact details)

listserv Internet discussion group whose members use e-mail or instant messaging to exchange messages among themselves and/or with other groups

literacy 1. ability to read and write