Realism

All media construct the illusion of reality by means of "codes": the rules governing how we expect the shape of reality to be (humans have two arms rather than three, etc.).

Different media use different means of constructing the illusion of reality. They can thus produce different effects. Following are some the means by which different media produce effects such as realist effects:

Literature:
choice of subject (person, place, thing, event)

narrator’s point of view (unlimited, limited to what a single person could
know, personal (adopts point of view or consciousness of a character in story))
description (constructs illusion of pictorial, photographic, or continuous
cinematic image of background or foreground (through five senses), or illusion of unperceivable traits of character or society)

narrative (constructs illusion of physical (cinematic) or mental

action/event/transformation, such as "real" experience)

dialogue

Cinema:

choice of subject (person, place, thing, event)

camera images (editing: continuity/discontinuity of images, angle, framing, lighting, composition

sound (dialogue, music, etc. from: a) a space on screen; b) a space off
screen; c) no space (background or voice-over narrator))

For "Notes on Realism," see Realist vs. Non-Realist Tendencies