Process
AQA A-Level Media Studies 7572
Media Language
Topic overviewCodes and conventionsConstructing meaning through media languageGenre, hybridity and intertextualityViewpoints, ideology and audience interpretationSemiotics: signs and their typesSemiotics: paradigm, syntagm and anchorageBarthes: denotation, connotation and mythNarratology: narrative codes and diegesisTodorov: equilibrium, disruption and new equilibriumGenre theory as summarised by NealeStructuralism: binary oppositions and mythemesStructuralism: ideological reading and deconstructionPostmodernism: pastiche, bricolage and implosionBaudrillard: simulacra, simulation and hyperreality
Media Representation
Topic overviewConstructing representationsWhy producers make the representational choices they doSocial and cultural context in representationStereotypes: positive and negative useUnder-representation and misrepresentationRepresentation, realism and the values it carriesIndustry contexts and representational choiceDiscourse, ideology and audience positioningTheories of representation: stereotypes and countertypesTheories of representation: misrepresentation and selective representationTheories of representation: ideology, hegemony and constructed realityHall on representation: encoding and decodingTheories of identity as summarised by GauntlettFeminist theories: the male gaze and patriarchyFeminist theories: van Zoonen and hooksTheories of gender performativityTheories around ethnicity and postcolonial theory
Media Industries
Topic overviewProduction, distribution and circulationOwnership and controlEconomics and funding of media industriesMarketing and maintaining audiencesRegulation of media in the UKDigital convergence and the individual producerRegulation in global production and circulationCurran and Seaton: regulation, deregulation and the free marketCurran and Seaton: concentration, conglomerates and public service broadcastingCurran and Seaton: neo-liberalism, surveillance and privacyCurran and Seaton: the central argumentLivingstone and Lunt: the public sphere and governanceLivingstone and Lunt: media literacyLivingstone and Lunt: power, value and globalisationCultural industries as summarised by Hesmondhalgh
Media Audiences
Topic overviewGrouping and categorising audiencesTargeting, attracting, reaching and addressing audiencesMedia technologies and patterns of consumptionMass and specialised audiencesNiche and fan audiencesAudience interpretation and its circumstancesMedia effects: uses and gratificationsMedia effects: hypodermic needle and moral panicMedia effects: media literacyBandura: social learning and imitationCultivation theory: socialisation and the bardic functionGerbner: cultivation differential, mainstreaming and resonanceReception theory: agenda setting, framing and myth makingHall on reception: the three reading positionsFandom'End of audience' theories
Contexts of the Media
Media Forms and Products
Media Industries
- 15 subtopics
- 36 things to know
- Media One and Media Two
What Media Industries covers
Media industries is examined on both Media One and Media Two. It covers production, distribution and circulation, patterns of ownership, funding and the UK regulatory framework, together with Curran and Seaton on power, Livingstone and Lunt on regulation, and Hesmondhalgh on the cultural industries.
Where it is assessed
Media One and Media Two
Both written papers examine the whole theoretical framework.
Check the AQA specification ↗The 15 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Production, distribution and circulationThe three processes, why production is specialised and institutionalised, and how technological change has altered each.Open →
- Ownership and controlConglomerate ownership, vertical and horizontal integration, synergy, diversification and cross-media ownership.Open →
- Economics and funding of media industriesCommercial and public funding, the licence fee, subscription against advertising, freemium and crowdfunding, and why first-copy costs dominate.Open →
- Marketing and maintaining audiencesTeaser campaigns, trailers, viral strategies, brand identity, and how release strategy differs between cinema and streaming.Open →
- Regulation of media in the UKOfcom and the Broadcasting Code, the watershed, IPSO and press self-regulation, the BBFC, the ASA, PEGI and the Online Safety Act 2023.Open →
- Digital convergence and the individual producerConvergent platforms, lowered barriers to entry, platforms as algorithmic gatekeepers, and the creator economy.Open →
- Regulation in global production and circulationWhy national regulators struggle with services hosted abroad, co-production treaties, content quotas, geo-blocking and territorial rights.Open →
- Curran and Seaton: regulation, deregulation and the free marketRegulation, deregulation and the free market, why more outlets is not more diversity, and the idea of market failure.Open →
- Curran and Seaton: concentration, conglomerates and public service broadcastingMedia concentration as a democratic problem, conglomerate ownership, globalisation, and the case for public service broadcasting.Open →
- Curran and Seaton: neo-liberalism, surveillance and privacyNeo-liberalism and ownership, surveillance as a question of power, and the tension between personalisation and privacy.Open →
- Curran and Seaton: the central argumentWho controls the media and in whose interest, the mixed system they defend, and the criticisms of their emphasis on ownership.Open →
- Livingstone and Lunt: the public sphere and governanceHabermas and the public sphere, the citizen and consumer tension, governance against regulation, and co-regulation.Open →
- Livingstone and Lunt: media literacyThe four components of media literacy, and why shifting protection onto audience skill leaves the least resourced least protected.Open →
- Livingstone and Lunt: power, value and globalisationPower shifting to transnational corporations, measuring media value culturally rather than economically, and the limits of national regulation.Open →
- Cultural industries as summarised by HesmondhalghCultural industries as high risk, commodification, convergence, diversity, innovation, conglomeration, vertical integration and cultural imperialism.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Why is media production described as specialised and institutionalised?
Key term
What is vertical integration?
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What is horizontal integration?
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What is a media conglomerate?
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What is synergy in a media conglomerate?
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What is diversification?
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What are the main funding models in media industries?
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Why are media production costs concentrated at the outset?
Process
How do media organisations market their products?
Key term
Which body regulates broadcasting in the UK, and under what code?
Key term
How is the UK press regulated?
Key term
Which body regulates advertising in the UK?
Numbers
What did the Online Safety Act 2023 change?
Key term
What are digitally convergent media platforms?
Key term
What is meant by lowered barriers to entry?
Evaluation
Why do platforms remain gatekeepers despite open publishing?
Process
How do content quotas affect what circulates in a national market?
Process
How does data protection law affect global media organisations?
Process
How does GDPR affect global media companies?
Key term
What is deregulation?
Evaluation
Why do Curran and Seaton reject the free market as a guarantee of media freedom?
Key term
What is media concentration?
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What is Public Service Broadcasting?
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What is neo-liberalism?
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What does surveillance mean in media industries?
Evaluation
What is Curran and Seaton's central argument?
Key term
What is the public sphere?
Evaluation
What tension do Livingstone and Lunt identify in media regulation?
Key term
How does governance differ from regulation?
Key term
What four abilities make up media literacy for Livingstone and Lunt?
Evaluation
What risk follows from relying on media literacy instead of regulation?
Evaluation
What do Livingstone and Lunt argue about power and value?
Who and when
How does Hesmondhalgh characterise the cultural industries?
Key term
What is commodification?
Evaluation
How do large corporations respond to the risk in cultural production?
Take Media Industries further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Vertical integration vs Horizontal integration
Vertical integration: ownership of successive stages from production through to exhibition. Horizontal integration: ownership of several operations at the same stage of the process.
Regulation vs Deregulation
Regulation: official control over media ownership, content and distribution. Deregulation: the removal or reduction of those official controls.
Public Service Broadcasting vs Commercial broadcasting
Public Service Broadcasting: provision with a remit to serve all citizens regardless of profitability. Commercial broadcasting: provision funded by advertising or subscription and selected by profitability.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What does media production involve in terms of who creates content?
Model answer
Media production involves the creation of content by organisations, groups and individuals.
- 2
In what geographical context does media production operate?
Model answer
Media production operates within a global context.
- 3
What is media distribution?
Model answer
Media distribution refers to the methods and channels through which media products are delivered to audiences.
- 4
Define media circulation.
Model answer
Media circulation describes how media content spreads and moves through society and across platforms.
- 5
Why is media production described as specialised?
Model answer
Because it requires specific technical skills, equipment and professional expertise.
- 6
What does it mean to say media production is institutionalised?
Model answer
It means media production operates through established organisations with formal structures, practices and conventions.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Media Industries revision questions
- What does Media Industries cover in AQA A-Level Media Studies?
- 15 subtopics: 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 and cultural industries as summarised by hesmondhalgh. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Media Industries organised?
- By the AQA 7572 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Media Industries, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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