The Cross-Media Production and Assessment

What The Cross-Media Production and Assessment covers

The cross-media production is the non-exam assessment, worth 60 marks and 30% of the A-level. This topic also covers how close study products are used, and what the written papers expect from an extended, synoptic response.

The 6 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Close study products and how they are usedWhat a close study product is, why the focus is the framework rather than the product, and the required spread across forms.Open →
• The NEA brief and its requirementsSix briefs released each March, what the board specifies, the eight available forms, and the rules on individual work.Open →
• The Statement of IntentThe 500-word limit, the April deadline, and what separates explaining intent from describing a production.Open →
• Applying the theoretical framework in productionHow media language, representation, industries and audiences inform production decisions, and why research comes first.Open →
• Producing across platforms for a specified audienceDigital convergence, what makes a cross-media production coherent, and why duplicating one product across platforms fails.Open →
• Extended response and synopticitySustaining an argument, drawing the four areas together, and using close study products as evidence rather than description.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take The Cross-Media Production and Assessment further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Statement of Intent vs Candidate Record Form

  Statement of Intent: a written account of how the framework informed the production. Candidate Record Form: the form recording what unassessed participants contributed and how.

• Synopticity vs Extended response

  Synopticity: drawing together knowledge from across the whole course. Extended response: answering at length with a sustained and developed argument.

• Close study product vs Cross-media production

  Close study product: a set product studied in depth against the theoretical framework. Cross-media production: the student's own work made in response to a set brief.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is a close study product?

   Model answer

   A media product set by the board for detailed study in relation to the theoretical framework and the relevant contexts, rather than as an end in itself.

2. 2

   Why does the specification state that the focus of study is not the products themselves?

   Model answer

   Because the products are the material through which the theoretical framework is learned, so what is being assessed is the ability to apply that framework rather than knowledge of particular texts.

3. 3

   How often is the list of close study products revised?

   Model answer

   It is reviewed annually, with the list published each June for the following course, and newspaper products updated each year.

4. 4

   What minimum range of forms must a student's in-depth close study cover?

   Model answer

   At least one audio-visual product, at least one print product, and at least one online, social and participatory product.

5. 5

   Why does the board require close study products across audio-visual, print and online forms?

   Model answer

   Because each form uses media language differently and raises different industry and audience questions, so studying across all three prevents an understanding built on one kind of product.

6. 6

   What does studying a product in depth involve beyond describing it?

   Model answer

   Analysing how it constructs meaning through media language, what it represents and how, the industry conditions that produced it, the audiences it addresses, and the contexts bearing on it.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

The Cross-Media Production and Assessment revision questions

What does The Cross-Media Production and Assessment cover in AQA A-Level Media Studies?

6 subtopics: 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 and extended response and synopticity. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is The Cross-Media Production and Assessment organised?

By the AQA 7572 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.