What distinguishes a tabloid from a broadsheet in the UK press?

The terms describe differences in page size, and by extension in style and readership, with tabloids using larger headlines, shorter articles and more images than the traditionally denser broadsheets.

What is a masthead and what does it communicate?

The title block at the top of the front page, whose typography and colour establish the paper's identity and signal its character before any content is read.

What is the splash in newspaper terminology?

The main front-page story, given the largest headline and image, which the paper is presenting as the most important news of the day.

How does a newspaper's front page function as a marketing device?

It must attract buyers at the point of sale, so headline, image and layout are constructed to compel attention as much as to inform.

How does a newspaper's political allegiance affect its coverage?

It shapes which stories are given prominence, how figures and policies are characterised and which perspectives are presented as reasonable.

AQA A-Level Media Studies 7572

Media Language

Topic overview Codes and conventions Constructing meaning through media language Genre, hybridity and intertextuality Viewpoints, ideology and audience interpretation Semiotics: signs and their types Semiotics: paradigm, syntagm and anchorage Barthes: denotation, connotation and myth Narratology: narrative codes and diegesis Todorov: equilibrium, disruption and new equilibrium Genre theory as summarised by Neale Structuralism: binary oppositions and mythemes Structuralism: ideological reading and deconstruction Postmodernism: pastiche, bricolage and implosion Baudrillard: simulacra, simulation and hyperreality

Media Representation

Topic overview Constructing representations Why producers make the representational choices they do Social and cultural context in representation Stereotypes: positive and negative use Under-representation and misrepresentation Representation, realism and the values it carries Industry contexts and representational choice Discourse, ideology and audience positioning Theories of representation: stereotypes and countertypes Theories of representation: misrepresentation and selective representation Theories of representation: ideology, hegemony and constructed reality Hall on representation: encoding and decoding Theories of identity as summarised by Gauntlett Feminist theories: the male gaze and patriarchy Feminist theories: van Zoonen and hooks Theories of gender performativity Theories around ethnicity and postcolonial theory

Media Industries

Topic overview Production, distribution and circulation Ownership and control Economics and funding of media industries Marketing and maintaining audiences Regulation of media in the UK Digital convergence and the individual producer Regulation in global production and circulation Curran and Seaton: regulation, deregulation and the free market Curran and Seaton: concentration, conglomerates and public service broadcasting Curran and Seaton: neo-liberalism, surveillance and privacy Curran and Seaton: the central argument Livingstone and Lunt: the public sphere and governance Livingstone and Lunt: media literacy Livingstone and Lunt: power, value and globalisation Cultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh

Media Audiences

Topic overview Grouping and categorising audiences Targeting, attracting, reaching and addressing audiences Media technologies and patterns of consumption Mass and specialised audiences Niche and fan audiences Audience interpretation and its circumstances Media effects: uses and gratifications Media effects: hypodermic needle and moral panic Media effects: media literacy Bandura: social learning and imitation Cultivation theory: socialisation and the bardic function Gerbner: cultivation differential, mainstreaming and resonance Reception theory: agenda setting, framing and myth making Hall on reception: the three reading positions Fandom 'End of audience' theories

Contexts of the Media

Topic overview Social context Cultural context Economic context Political context Historical context Analysing media products in context

Media Forms and Products

Topic overview Advertising and marketing Music video Radio Newspapers Film as an industry Television Magazines Online, social and participatory media Video games

The Cross-Media Production and Assessment

Topic overview Close study products and how they are used The NEA brief and its requirements The Statement of Intent Applying the theoretical framework in production Producing across platforms for a specified audience Extended response and synopticity

Media Forms and Products

Newspapers

3 things to know
Media One and Media Two

Overview

Tabloid and broadsheet, masthead and splash, news values, political allegiance, IPSO self-regulation, and the collapse of print revenue.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

What are news values?

Key term

How does a newspaper front page work?

Key term

How does press regulation differ from broadcast regulation?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What distinguishes a tabloid from a broadsheet in the UK press?
Model answer
The terms describe differences in page size, and by extension in style and readership, with tabloids using larger headlines, shorter articles and more images than the traditionally denser broadsheets.
2
What is a masthead and what does it communicate?
Model answer
The title block at the top of the front page, whose typography and colour establish the paper's identity and signal its character before any content is read.
3
What is the splash in newspaper terminology?
Model answer
The main front-page story, given the largest headline and image, which the paper is presenting as the most important news of the day.
4
How does a newspaper's front page function as a marketing device?
Model answer
It must attract buyers at the point of sale, so headline, image and layout are constructed to compel attention as much as to inform.
5
What are news values?
Model answer
The criteria by which journalists judge what makes a story worth covering, including immediacy, scale, proximity, conflict, prominence of those involved and unexpectedness.
6
How does a newspaper's political allegiance affect its coverage?
Model answer
It shapes which stories are given prominence, how figures and policies are characterised and which perspectives are presented as reasonable.

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Media Language

Media Representation

Media Industries

Media Audiences

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

Postmodernism holds that the hierarchy has .

collapsedstrengthenedwidened

Blank Blitz makes facts automatic

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AAccessing media forms the first component.

BUnderstanding media content forms the second.

CCritically evaluating content forms the third.

Build It gets the exam shape right

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Denotation means the literal, common-sense meaning of a sign.

TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

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Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

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