Notes · Media StudiesUK · A-Levels

Close Study Products (CSPs)

Close Study Products are the prescribed media texts, set by the awarding body, that students study in depth as the basis for applying the theoretical framework in the exams. This topic explains what CSPs are, how to study one across the four framework areas in its contexts, the distinction between in-depth and focused CSPs, and how CSPs and the unseen product are assessed.

5 sections~18 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

T·0999 / 15

Exam profile

AO1 · Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the set products and their contextsAO2 · Analyse Close Study Products across the framework, evaluate theories in relation to them, and make connections

Operators:analyseexplaincompareapplyevaluateto what extent

basic level

AS-Level expects secure knowledge of the set products and the ability to apply the relevant framework areas to them.

higher level

The full A-Level requires in-depth analysis of the set products across all four areas, with the academic theories and contexts, and comparison between them.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Close Study Products (CSPs)

What a Close Study Product is and why#

FoundationAQA 7572 Close Study ProductsDfE GCE Media Studies subject content

What a Close Study Product is

Fig. 1A CSP is a board-set product studied in depth across the framework, theories and contexts - the concrete basis of the exam.

A Close Study Product (CSP) is a specific media text prescribed by the awarding body for detailed study, and the set of CSPs is the shared body of examples on which the exams draw. Rather than leaving students to analyse any products they like, the specification sets a defined list - published by the board and revised periodically - so that everyone studies the same texts in depth and the exam can ask precise questions about them. Because the list changes over time, students must always work from their board's current published CSP list.

The purpose of CSPs is to anchor the theoretical framework in concrete, thoroughly known examples. It is one thing to understand media language, representation, industry and audience in the abstract; it is another to apply them in detail to a real, specific product in its context. CSPs provide the depth of knowledge that lets students apply the framework and the academic theories precisely and with evidence, and they ensure a common standard of rigour across the whole cohort.

The CSPs are chosen to cover the required range of forms and to include both historical and contemporary products, so that students study, for example, older and newer advertisements, print and online products, and audiovisual and interactive texts. The inclusion of historical CSPs is deliberate: it forces the contextual reading skills developed earlier - reading a product in its period and across time - and prevents the subject from becoming purely presentist. Together the CSPs give a structured tour of the media landscape.

CSPs are studied to a much greater depth than the wider examples used to illustrate the forms. For a CSP a student is expected to know its media language, representations, industrial context and audience, the relevant theories and the social, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts, and to be able to deploy this knowledge in analysis, comparison and evaluation. This is 'close' study in the full sense: the CSP is not skimmed but mastered, so that it can be discussed with precision under exam conditions.

Because the exam questions are built around the CSPs (and, in some questions, around an unseen product), secure CSP knowledge is the practical foundation of exam success. A student who knows the CSPs deeply can apply the framework and theories to them fluently, compare them, and use them as evidence in extended responses; a student who knows them only vaguely cannot. Organising revision around the CSPs - one thorough, framework-structured set of notes per product - is therefore among the most important tasks in the course.

Worked example

Planning CSP mastery

Plan the depth of knowledge needed to master a set advertising CSP.

Media language
Know the advert's codes and conventions and the meanings they construct, ready to apply Barthes.
Representation
Know how it represents groups and what values it encodes, ready to apply Hall and the relevant representation theorists.
Industry and audience
Know its producer, funding and distribution, and its target audience and likely readings.
Contexts
Know the social, cultural and historical context of its making and how it reads now.

Result: A CSP is mastered when the framework, theories and contexts are all secure - the standard of 'close' study the exam requires.

Typical mistakes

Studying CSPs superficially rather than in the full depth (framework, theories and contexts) the exam demands.
Relying on an out-of-date CSP list rather than the board's current set products.

Active revision

For one Close Study Product you are studying, list the framework knowledge, theories and contexts you would need to master it.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for media studies (Department for Education)

Studying a CSP across the four areas#

StandardAQA 7572 Close Study ProductsDfE GCE Media Studies subject content

A CSP across the four areas

Fig. 2Studying a CSP means running the whole framework across it, with theories and contexts, into an integrated reading.

Studying a CSP means running the full theoretical framework across a single product, so that it is known from every angle. The disciplined approach is to analyse the product's media language (how it constructs meaning), its representations (how it portrays the world and whose values it encodes), its industry (how it was produced, funded, distributed and regulated) and its audience (who it targets and how they receive it), and to bring the relevant academic theories and contexts to bear at each stage. This produces a rounded, framework-structured knowledge of the product.

Media language and representation analysis of a CSP should be anchored in specific textual detail - actual codes, conventions, narrative moves and representations you can point to - with the relevant theories (Barthes, Neale, Hall, van Zoonen, and so on) applied to explain what you find. This is where CSP knowledge is most detailed, because the exam can ask precise questions about the product's construction and its representations, and a vague memory of the product will not support a precise answer.

Industry and audience analysis of a CSP locates it in its conditions of production and reception. Know who made and owns it, how it was funded and distributed, and how it is regulated (applying Curran and Seaton, Hesmondhalgh and Livingstone and Lunt where relevant); and know its target audience, its mode of address, and how different audiences might receive it (applying uses and gratifications, Hall's readings, and the participatory theories where relevant). For some forms (film, radio, games) this industry-and-audience knowledge is the main focus.

Contexts must be integrated throughout, not treated separately. The CSP's social, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts should explain its language, representations, industrial form and audience - and, for historical CSPs, the shift in its meaning over time should be part of the analysis. A CSP is fully known when its framework analysis and its contextual analysis are woven together, so that the product is understood as a document of its moment as well as a construction to be decoded.

The pay-off of this thorough, framework-and-context study is flexibility in the exam. A CSP known across all four areas, with the theories and contexts, can be deployed to answer whatever the question asks - a language question, a representation question, an industry or audience question, a comparison, or an extended evaluation - because the knowledge is already organised the way the exam thinks. Studying every CSP this way is the single most efficient exam preparation in the subject.

Worked example

Framework study of a set music video

Outline a framework study of a set music-video CSP.

Media language
Analyse its dense visual codes, editing and any narrative or performance mode, applying Barthes and (where relevant) Baudrillard on intertextuality.
Representation
Analyse its representations of gender, race and identity, applying Hall, van Zoonen, hooks, Butler or Gilroy as relevant.
Industry and audience
Locate it in the music and screen industries and its promotional function, and identify its target audience and fan culture (Jenkins).
Context
Read it in its social and political context and, if historical, across time.

Result: The music-video CSP is known across the whole framework with theories and context - ready for any question the exam asks about it.

Typical mistakes

Knowing a CSP for one area (usually media language) but not across the whole framework.
Treating a CSP's context as a separate fact rather than integrating it into the framework analysis.

Active revision

Take one CSP and write a paragraph on each framework area, applying one theory and one context to each.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Media Studies (7572) specification (AQA)

In-depth and focused CSPs#

StandardAQA 7572 Close Study ProductsDfE GCE Media Studies subject content

In-depth and focused CSPs

Fig. 3CSPs are studied in depth (all four areas, Paper 2 forms) or for a focused subset of the framework, matching how each form is set.

Not every CSP is studied to the same extent: the specification distinguishes products studied in depth across all four framework areas from products studied for a subset of the framework. Knowing which CSP is studied for which areas is essential, both to focus revision efficiently and to avoid answering with framework areas a product is not set for. The distinction reflects the different questions the papers ask and the different character of the forms.

The in-depth forms - television, magazines and online media - are studied across all four framework areas and are the basis of the in-depth Paper 2. For these CSPs a student needs the fullest possible knowledge: media language, representation, industry and audience, all the relevant theories, and the contexts, because the extended-response questions on these forms can require any or all of the framework, deployed synoptically. These are the CSPs that repay the deepest study.

Other CSPs are studied for a subset of the framework, matching how their forms are set. Advertising, music video and newspapers are typically studied across the framework in Paper 1, while film is studied only as an industry (industries and audiences), and radio and video games are studied chiefly for their industries and audiences. For these CSPs, revision should concentrate on the areas actually set - detailed industry and audience knowledge for film, for example - rather than spreading effort evenly across areas that will not be examined.

This depth/breadth structure maps onto the exam papers. Paper 1 (Media One) draws on CSPs across the range of forms to assess media language and representation (Section A) and media industries and audiences (Section B), and includes an unseen product; Paper 2 (Media Two) assesses the three in-depth forms across the whole framework in extended responses. Understanding this mapping lets a student see exactly what depth of knowledge each CSP requires and where it will be examined.

The practical upshot is targeted, structured revision. Rather than treating every CSP identically, a student should know the in-depth CSPs across the full framework and the focused CSPs for their set areas, and should organise revision notes accordingly. This matches effort to assessment and ensures that the deepest knowledge is concentrated where the extended-response marks - and the greatest synoptic demands - lie.

Worked example

Targeting revision by depth

Decide how to revise a television CSP and a film CSP differently.

Television CSP
Revise across all four areas with theories and contexts, ready for a synoptic Paper 2 extended response.
Film CSP
Concentrate on Media Industries and Audiences - production, distribution, funding, marketing, audiences - since film is set as an industry.
Avoid the trap
Do not prepare a media-language analysis of the film CSP, which will not be examined, at the expense of its industry knowledge.
Match to the paper
Know where each CSP is examined so the depth of revision matches the demand.

Result: Revision is targeted to what each CSP is set for - full framework for television, industry-and-audience for film - matching effort to assessment.

Typical mistakes

Studying every CSP to the same depth regardless of which areas it is set for, wasting effort.
Answering an in-depth Paper 2 question with only partial framework coverage.

Active revision

Map your CSPs to the framework areas each is studied for and to the paper on which each is examined.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for media studies (Department for Education)

CSPs in the exam and the unseen product#

AdvancedAQA 7572/1-2DfE GCE Media Studies subject content

Comparing two CSPs

Fig. 4Comparing CSPs means juxtaposing them across the framework and drawing out the significance of their similarities and differences.

In the exam, CSPs are used in several ways: as the direct subject of questions ('analyse the representation in [the set product]'), as evidence in broader questions about a form or a theory, and as one side of a comparison. Secure, framework-structured CSP knowledge lets a student do all three - discuss a named CSP in detail, use CSPs as examples in a wider argument, and compare CSPs - so the depth of study pays off directly in the flexibility of the exam response.

Comparison of CSPs is a particular demand, especially for the in-depth forms and in the magazines study (a mainstream and an alternative title). Comparing CSPs means juxtaposing them systematically across the framework - how each constructs meaning, represents, operates industrially and engages audiences - and drawing out the significance of their similarities and differences, often in relation to context (for example a historical and a contemporary product, or a mainstream and an alternative one). The comparison is in the structured juxtaposition, not in describing each in turn.

Paper 1 also includes an unseen product - a product students meet for the first time in the exam, to be analysed on the spot for media language and/or representation. The unseen tests whether students can apply the framework and theories to any product, not just their memorised CSPs, so it rewards a well-drilled analytical routine (read the codes, decode connotations, identify representations, apply the relevant theory) rather than recall. Preparing for the unseen means practising analysis on unfamiliar products until the routine is automatic.

The unseen and the CSPs work together: the unseen tests the transferable skill, and the CSPs supply the deep, comparative knowledge, but both draw on the same framework and theories. A common exam design pairs an unseen product with a set CSP for comparison, so students must both analyse the unseen and bring their CSP knowledge to bear - exactly the combination of transferable skill and deep knowledge the course is built to develop.

For analysis under exam conditions, the key is to let the question dictate which CSP knowledge and which framework areas to deploy, and to answer precisely rather than emptying everything known about a CSP onto the page. A strong response selects the relevant CSP detail, applies the relevant theory, and shapes it to the exact question - the disciplined selectivity that, combined with deep CSP knowledge and a reliable unseen routine, characterises top-band work.

Worked example

An unseen analysis routine

Analyse an unseen print advertisement under exam conditions.

Read the codes
Systematically note layout, image, colour, typography and copy, moving from denotation to connotation.
Identify representation
Identify how any people or groups are represented and what values the construction encodes.
Apply a theory
Apply Barthes (connotation, myth) and, if a group is represented, a representation theorist - anchored in the evidence.
Shape to the question
Answer the exact question (language, representation or both) selectively, not everything at once.

Result: The routine analyses an unfamiliar product methodically and to the question - the transferable skill the unseen tests, complementing deep CSP knowledge.

Typical mistakes

Emptying everything known about a CSP onto the page rather than selecting the detail the question needs.
Neglecting to practise the unseen and relying only on memorised CSP analysis.

Active revision

Practise an unseen analysis: take an unfamiliar advertisement and analyse its media language and representation in twenty minutes.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Media Studies (7572) specification (AQA)

Worked CSP analysis#

AdvancedAQA 7572 Close Study ProductsDfE GCE Media Studies subject content

The CSP analysis method

Fig. 5The CSP analysis method: start from the question, select the relevant framework areas and detail, apply and evaluate theory, integrate context, judge.

A model CSP analysis demonstrates the whole method on a single product: it runs the framework across the CSP, applies and evaluates the relevant theories, integrates the contexts, and is shaped to a specific question. Because the actual set products change with each specification cycle, the worked example that follows uses a representative product to model the method - students should apply exactly this method to their own current CSPs, from their board's published list.

The analysis should begin from the question and select the relevant framework areas and CSP knowledge, rather than reciting everything known. If the question is about representation, lead with the representation analysis and the relevant theorists, using industry and context to explain the representation and audience to complete it; if the question is about industry, lead there. The framework and the CSP knowledge are the resources; the question determines how they are deployed.

Within the analysis, every claim about the CSP should be anchored in specific detail and pushed on into evaluation. It is not enough to assert that a CSP represents a group in a certain way; the analysis should point to the codes that construct the representation, name the theory that explains it, and evaluate how far the theory fits and what the representation achieves. This detail-plus-theory-plus-evaluation texture is what distinguishes a strong CSP answer from a plot or content summary.

Context and connection should run through the analysis. The CSP's contexts should explain its choices and, for historical products, the shift in its meaning; and the framework areas should be connected (the representation traced to an industrial pressure, the audience reading tested against the encoded meaning) so that the analysis is synoptic. This integration is exactly what the in-depth Paper 2 questions on the set forms are designed to reward.

The worked example below models this integrated CSP analysis on a representative product and question. It is the template for every CSP answer, and it demonstrates the pay-off of close study: a product known across the whole framework, with its theories and contexts, can be analysed with a precision, an evaluative depth and a synoptic reach that no amount of general knowledge about the media could supply - which is the whole reason the specification sets Close Study Products.

Worked example

Integrated analysis of a representative CSP

Analyse how a set advertising CSP represents its subject, applying and evaluating a theory. (Use the method on your own current CSP.)

Lead with representation
Identify how the advert represents its subject through specific codes (setting, costume, framing, copy), establishing the construction with evidence.
Apply and evaluate theory
Apply Hall (stereotyping and power) and Barthes (myth); evaluate how well they fit and what the representation naturalises.
Integrate context
Explain the representation through the social and historical context of the advert, and how it reads now if it is historical.
Connect and judge
Trace the representation to the advert's commercial purpose and target audience, and judge how far it reinforces or challenges the values of its context.

Result: The analysis runs the method - question-led selection, evidenced representation analysis, applied and evaluated theory, integrated context, connection and judgement - the template to apply to any current CSP.

Typical mistakes

Reciting a general account of a CSP rather than shaping the analysis to the specific question.
Summarising the CSP's content instead of analysing its construction with theory, evaluation and context.

Active revision

Write an integrated analysis of one of your current CSPs in response to a representation or industry question, applying and evaluating a theory.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for media studies (Department for Education)

References & sources

Sources

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for media studies

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Media Studies (7572) specification

Close Study Products (CSPs)

5 sections~18 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

Close Study Products (CSPs)

Key points

Planning CSP mastery

Key points

Framework study of a set music video

Key points

Targeting revision by depth

Key points

An unseen analysis routine

Key points

Integrated analysis of a representative CSP

Sources

Close Study Products (CSPs)

Key points

Planning CSP mastery

Key points

Framework study of a set music video

Key points

Targeting revision by depth

Key points

An unseen analysis routine

Key points

Integrated analysis of a representative CSP

Sources