EuraStudy
RevisionRevision / N11UK · A-Levels
Media Studies
A-Level Media Studies is the analytical study of media products and processes, set against the Department for Education GCE AS and A level subject content and delivered here through the dominant AQA 7572 specification. It is built on the theoretical framework of media - the four interlocking analytical areas of Media Language, Media Representation, Media Industries and Media Audiences - which is applied across a required range of media forms (television, film, radio, newspapers, magazines, advertising and marketing, online, social and participatory media, video games and music video) and to a set of prescribed Close Study Products in their social, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts. Learning is anchored by a set body of named academic theories and theorists (semiotics and Barthes, narratology and Todorov, genre and Neale, structuralism and Levi-Strauss, postmodernism and Baudrillard; representation and Hall, identity and Gauntlett, feminist theory and van Zoonen and hooks, gender performativity and Butler, ethnicity and post-colonial theory and Gilroy; power and industries and Curran and Seaton, cultural industries and Hesmondhalgh, regulation and Livingstone and Lunt; media effects and Bandura, cultivation and Gerbner, reception and Hall, fandom and Jenkins, and end-of-audience and Shirky), and it culminates in an individual cross-media Non-Exam Assessment production. Throughout, knowledge and understanding of the framework, theories and contexts (AO1) is applied to analyse products, make judgements, evaluate the academic theories and make connections (AO2), and, in the production, used to create media for an intended audience (AO3).
0/86 Texts15 Chapters~311 min total
AQA 7572 theoretical frameworkDfE GCE Media Studies subject contentAQA 7572 academic theoriesAQA 7572/1-2AQA 7572 Media LanguageAQA 7572 Media Language - semiotics+28 moreFoundationStandardAdvanced
Table of contents · 15 ChaptersT·15
- Codes, conventions and mode of addressText L·064 min
- Semiotics: Roland BarthesText L·074 min
- Narratology: Todorov and ProppText L·084 min
- Genre theory: Steve NealeText L·094 min
- Structuralism: Claude Levi-StraussText L·103 min
- Postmodernism: Jean BaudrillardText L·114 min
- Worked media-language analysisText L·124 min
- Representation, mediation and constructionText L·134 min
- Stereotyping and power: Stuart HallText L·144 min
- Theories of identity: David GauntlettText L·154 min
- Feminist theory: van Zoonen and bell hooksText L·164 min
- Gender performativity: Judith ButlerText L·174 min
- Ethnicity and post-colonial theory: Paul GilroyText L·184 min
- Worked representation analysisText L·194 min
- Production, distribution and circulationText L·204 min
- Ownership, funding and integrationText L·214 min
- Power and media industries: Curran and SeatonText L·224 min
- The cultural industries and risk: David HesmondhalghText L·234 min
- Regulation: Livingstone and LuntText L·244 min
- Worked industry analysisText L·253 min
- The Theoretical Framework of Media
- Media Language
- Media Representation
- Media Industries
- Media Audiences
- Media Theories and Theorists
- Contexts of the Media
- Media Forms and Platforms
- Close Study Products (CSPs)
- Television in the Global Age
- Magazines: Mainstream and Alternative Media
- Media in the Online Age
- Extended Response and Synopticity
- Cross-Media Study (NEA Foundation)
- Non-Exam Assessment: Media Production
- Paper 1 - Media One (AQA 7572/1)
- Written exam, 2 hours 15 minutes, 84 marks, 35% of the A-Level. Section A assesses Media Language and Media Representations; Section B assesses Media Industries and Media Audiences. Questions draw on the full range of media forms and the Close Study Products, apply the relevant academic theories, and include an unseen source (an unseen product supplied in the exam) alongside the studied products. Item types range from shorter analysis questions to extended-response, evaluative essays. Assesses AO1 (knowledge and understanding of the framework and contexts) and AO2 (application - analysis, judgement, evaluating theories and making connections).
- Paper 2 - Media Two (AQA 7572/2)
- Written exam, 2 hours 15 minutes, 84 marks, 35% of the A-Level. An in-depth study of three forms - television, magazines and online media - each analysed across ALL FOUR areas of the theoretical framework and in their contexts, engaging fully with the set academic theories. The paper is dominated by extended-response, synoptic essays that draw connections across the framework and evaluate the theories. Assesses AO1 and AO2.
- Non-Exam Assessment - Media Production (AQA 7572/C)
- Non-exam assessment, 60 marks, 30% of the A-Level, marked by the centre and moderated by AQA. Students produce an individual CROSS-MEDIA production (working across two media forms) for an intended audience in response to ONE of a choice of briefs set annually by AQA, applying knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework to communicate meaning. It is preceded by a Statement of Intent. This is the only component assessing AO3 (create media products for an intended audience by applying the framework).
- Assessment objectives and grading
- Across the whole A-Level the marks are distributed over three assessment objectives: AO1 knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework and of contexts (approximately 30%); AO2 applying that knowledge and understanding to analyse media products, make judgements and draw conclusions, evaluate the academic theories, and make connections between the framework areas (approximately 40%, and disproportionately decisive in the extended-response essays); and AO3 creating media products for an intended audience by applying the framework (approximately 30%, assessed only in the NEA production). The A-Level is linear, with both written papers sat at the end of the course and the NEA completed under supervision, and is graded A*-E (U below E).