The Battlefield 4 Award ribbons can give you the different types of that will need to unlock to get your medals.
Battlefield 4 awards ribbons are prizes in the game that your are awarded as players to perform certain tasks in a round. For example, a ribbon of Battlefield 4 could be awarded when a player receives a certain amount of kills with a particular weapon, or when capturing a certain amount of flags, etc. When enough of these ribbons are collected, players will receive Battlefield 4 medals as an additional reward.
Overall, Battlefield 4 ribbons are much easier to obtain than the medals in the game. While taking some time medals dozens if not hundreds of hours to win, tapes can be obtained in a single round of play. They are also typically the medal ribbons in the game. Ribbons and prizes can be tracked on Battlelog.
Battlefield 4 has 45 different ribbons, of course, not all ribbons are available immediately, as some come with new extensions and new Battlefield 4 DLC. We will be updating this list as more and more bands are revealed.