Component 1
Media Products, Industries and Audiences
- Advertising and Marketing
- Music Video
- Newspapers
- Film Industries and Marketing
- Radio
- Video Games
2 hours 15 minutes90 marks35%
Eduqas A-Level Media Studies, memorised fast.
Long notes are boring. Brain-hack the whole A680QS specification with active recall and actually remember it.
- Spec A680QS
- 14 topics
- 186 subtopics
Eduqas A-Level Media Studies A680QS
Media Language
Topic overviewThe language of media analysis: signs, codes and modesDenotation and connotationBarthes, signification and mythCamerawork, framing and editingMise-en-scène, colour and lightingSound and music as media languageLayout, typography and print designCodes and conventions of genreNeale on repetition, difference and genre changeNarrative structure and TodorovNarrative devices: enigma, character and point of viewLévi-Strauss, structuralism and binary oppositionsBaudrillard, simulation and hyperrealityIntertextuality, parody and pasticheMedia language, ideology and developing technology
Media Representations
Topic overviewRepresentation, selection and constructionHall and representation as the production of meaningCodes, concepts and shared conceptual mapsHall on stereotyping, power and otheringPositive and negative uses of stereotypesUnder-representation, misrepresentation and symbolic annihilationRealism, verisimilitude and claims about realitySocial, cultural and historical context in representationGauntlett, identity and pick-and-mix media resourcesvan Zoonen, gender as discourse and the body as spectaclebell hooks: feminism, race and classButler and gender performativityGilroy, race, civilisationism and postcolonial theoryRepresentations of sexuality, class and disabilityDiscourse, ideology and audience readings of representations
Media Industries
Topic overviewProduction, distribution and circulationOwnership models and patterns of controlConglomerates, vertical and horizontal integrationCurran and Seaton on power and media ownershipHesmondhalgh and the cultural industriesFunding: commercial, subscription and public moneyPublic service broadcasting and the BBCRegulation and the UK regulatorsLivingstone and Lunt on citizens and consumersRegulation in a global and digital ageConvergence, digital technology and distributionMarketing, promotion and maintaining audiencesIndividual producers and the independent sectorGlobalisation and the international media market
Media Audiences
Topic overviewHow audiences are grouped and categorisedPsychographics, lifestyle and cultural capitalTargeting mass and specialised audiencesAttracting, reaching and constructing audiencesMode of address and audience positioningPassive audience models and the effects debateBandura and social learning theoryGerbner and cultivation theoryActive audiences and uses and gratificationsHall and reception theoryJenkins, fandom and participatory cultureShirky and the end of the audienceConsumption, technology and audience measurementAudience interpretation, identity and social context
Contexts of Media
Topic overviewWhat media contexts are and why they matterSocial contexts: values, attitudes and beliefsCultural contexts and cultural changeRepresenting minority groups and products made by themEconomic contexts: ownership and fundingProduction outside the commercial mainstreamPolitical contexts: ideology and powerRegulation and the stateHistorical contexts: genre conventions as historically relativeHistorical change in representationTechnological change, production, distribution and circulationGlobal contexts and non-English-language media
Newspapers
Topic overviewNewspaper front pages: masthead, splash and layoutTabloid and quality press: codes, conventions and registerSemiotics, structuralism and ideology in newspaper languageNews values, selection and the construction of realityRepresentation of events, individuals and social groups in newspapersThe Daily Mirror as an evolving productThe Times as an evolving productNewspaper ownership, conglomerates and controlFunding, paywalls and the decline of print circulationPress regulation, IPSO and the Leveson aftermathNewspapers online: convergence and digital distributionNewspaper audiences: categorisation, targeting and addressAudience responses, reception theory and the end of audience
Advertising and Marketing
Topic overviewAdvertising media language: codes and conventionsSemiotics and structuralism in advertisingIntertextuality, genre and persuasion in advertisingThe Tide print advertisement (1950s)Gender representation in 1950s advertisingThe Kiss of the Vampire film poster (1963)Representation and gender in the Kiss of the Vampire posterSuper. Human. and the language of the Paralympic filmDisability representation in Super. Human.Historical contexts: sixty years of advertising changeAdvertising audiences: grouping, targeting and addressAudience interpretation and reception in advertisingMarketing, branding and cross-media campaigns
Music Video
Topic overviewMusic video as a form: conventions, functions and developmentCamerawork, editing and mise-en-scène in music videoNarrative, intertextuality and postmodernism in music videoSemiotics, myth and ideology in music videoRepresentation, stereotyping and identity in music videoGender, objectification and performativity in music videoEthnicity, race and postcolonial readings in music videoFormation, Beyoncé (2016)Turntables, Janelle Monáe (2020)Underdog, Alicia Keys (2020)Riptide, Vance Joy (2013)Seventeen Going Under, Sam Fender (2021)Little Bit of Love, Tom Grennan (2021)
Radio
Topic overviewRadio as a form: its history, formats and the listening experiencePublic service broadcasting and the BBC's missionFunding radio: the licence fee, advertising and sponsorshipRegulating radio: Ofcom, the BBC Charter and impartialityOwnership and concentration in the commercial radio industryPodcasting and the on-demand audio economyDigital technology, convergence and BBC SoundsRadio audiences: reach, targeting and measurementAudience theory applied to radioWoman's HourHave You Heard George's Podcast (BBC Sounds)
Video Games
Topic overviewVideo games as a media formThe Assassin's Creed franchiseUbisoft: ownership, structure and global productionMaking a major game: budgets, teams and working conditionsDistribution, platforms and monetisationMarketing, regulation and the debate about effectsGame audiences: who plays and how they are reachedGames and historical context: representing the pastGlobal markets, localisation and cultural adaptationConvergence and the franchise across mediaHardware cycles, technology and accessGames, society and contemporary debate
Film Industries and Marketing
Topic overviewProduction in the film industryDistribution and release strategiesExhibition, box office and the cinema audienceFilm funding, budgets and public subsidyConglomerate ownership, integration and diversificationThe independent and specialised film sectorFilm marketing across convergent platformsRegulation, classification and the film industryBlack Panther: production and the Marvel blockbuster modelMarketing and distributing Black PantherI, Daniel Blake: independent production and fundingMarketing and distributing I, Daniel Blake
Television in the Global Age
Topic overviewTelevision in the global age: transnational production and co-productionPublic service broadcasting in a global marketplaceStreaming services and the changing distribution of televisionOwnership, funding and the economics of television dramaRegulation of television in the UK and across bordersMarketing television drama and targeting audiences nationally and globallyFandom, niche audiences and how audiences interpret television dramaGenre, narrative and media language in television dramaRepresentation, identity and ideology in television dramaPeaky Blinders (BBC Two, 2013)The Bridge (Denmark/Sweden, 2015)Black Mirror: 'San Junipero' (Netflix, 2016)The Returned (France, 2012)Killing Eve (BBC America/BBC Three, 2018)Tehran (Israel, 2020)
Magazines: Mainstream and Alternative
Topic overviewMagazine cover codes, layout and designSemiotics, structuralism and ideology in magazine languageGenre conventions and the historically relative magazineGender representation in magazines and feminist theoryStereotyping, ideology and under-represented groupsMagazine industries: ownership, funding and circulationMagazine audiences: targeting, niche and specialised readersAudience reception, interpretation and cultivationWoman (23–29 August 1964)Adbusters (May/June 2016)Woman's Realm (7–13 February 1965)Huck (February/March 2016)Vogue (July 1965)The Big Issue (17–23 October 2016)
Media in the Online Age
Topic overviewMedia language of the home page and the YouTube channelConvergence, participatory culture and user-generated contentSelf-representation and identity onlineRepresenting under-represented groups onlineOnline media industries: production, distribution and circulationInfluencers, monetisation and the economics of vloggingAlgorithms, curation and the attention economyRegulating online contentOnline audiences: fandom, niche reach and the end of audienceZoe Sugg's YouTube channelJJ Olatunji (KSI) and his YouTube channelThiiird online magazineAttitude magazine and website
What Eduqas A-Level Media Studies covers
Eduqas A-Level Media Studies (specification A680QS) is two written papers and a cross-media production. Component 1 spends 2 hours 15 minutes on media language, representation, industries and audiences across advertising and marketing, music video, newspapers, film, radio and video games; Component 2 spends 2 hours 30 minutes in depth on television in the global age, magazines, and media in the online age; Component 3 is the non-examined production, worth 30%. The course is built on the theoretical framework — media language, representation, media industries and audiences — together with the social, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts, and applies it to a list of set products WJEC publishes and periodically changes. This guide is cut by that framework and by media form rather than by product, so it holds whichever set texts your centre chose: every optioned television drama, magazine and online product has its own page.
WJEC Eduqas Level 3 Advanced GCE in Media Studies A680QS, version 13. First teaching 2017. Read the WJEC Eduqas specification ↗
How it is assessed
Component 2
Media Forms and Products in Depth
- Television in the Global Age
- Magazines: Mainstream and Alternative
- Media in the Online Age
2 hours 30 minutes90 marks35%
Component 3
Cross-Media Production
Non-examined assessment60 marks30%
The full specification
14 topics, 186 subtopics. Open any topic to see what is inside it.
01Media Language15 subtopicsOpen topic
- The language of media analysis: signs, codes and modes
- Denotation and connotation
- Barthes, signification and myth
- Camerawork, framing and editing
- Mise-en-scène, colour and lighting
- Sound and music as media language
- Layout, typography and print design
- Codes and conventions of genre
- Neale on repetition, difference and genre change
- Narrative structure and Todorov
- Narrative devices: enigma, character and point of view
- Lévi-Strauss, structuralism and binary oppositions
- Baudrillard, simulation and hyperreality
- Intertextuality, parody and pastiche
- Media language, ideology and developing technology
02Media Representations15 subtopicsOpen topic
- Representation, selection and construction
- Hall and representation as the production of meaning
- Codes, concepts and shared conceptual maps
- Hall on stereotyping, power and othering
- Positive and negative uses of stereotypes
- Under-representation, misrepresentation and symbolic annihilation
- Realism, verisimilitude and claims about reality
- Social, cultural and historical context in representation
- Gauntlett, identity and pick-and-mix media resources
- van Zoonen, gender as discourse and the body as spectacle
- bell hooks: feminism, race and class
- Butler and gender performativity
- Gilroy, race, civilisationism and postcolonial theory
- Representations of sexuality, class and disability
- Discourse, ideology and audience readings of representations
03Media Industries14 subtopicsOpen topic
- Production, distribution and circulation
- Ownership models and patterns of control
- Conglomerates, vertical and horizontal integration
- Curran and Seaton on power and media ownership
- Hesmondhalgh and the cultural industries
- Funding: commercial, subscription and public money
- Public service broadcasting and the BBC
- Regulation and the UK regulators
- Livingstone and Lunt on citizens and consumers
- Regulation in a global and digital age
- Convergence, digital technology and distribution
- Marketing, promotion and maintaining audiences
- Individual producers and the independent sector
- Globalisation and the international media market
04Media Audiences14 subtopicsOpen topic
- How audiences are grouped and categorised
- Psychographics, lifestyle and cultural capital
- Targeting mass and specialised audiences
- Attracting, reaching and constructing audiences
- Mode of address and audience positioning
- Passive audience models and the effects debate
- Bandura and social learning theory
- Gerbner and cultivation theory
- Active audiences and uses and gratifications
- Hall and reception theory
- Jenkins, fandom and participatory culture
- Shirky and the end of the audience
- Consumption, technology and audience measurement
- Audience interpretation, identity and social context
05Contexts of Media12 subtopicsOpen topic
- What media contexts are and why they matter
- Social contexts: values, attitudes and beliefs
- Cultural contexts and cultural change
- Representing minority groups and products made by them
- Economic contexts: ownership and funding
- Production outside the commercial mainstream
- Political contexts: ideology and power
- Regulation and the state
- Historical contexts: genre conventions as historically relative
- Historical change in representation
- Technological change, production, distribution and circulation
- Global contexts and non-English-language media
06Newspapers13 subtopicsOpen topic
- Newspaper front pages: masthead, splash and layout
- Tabloid and quality press: codes, conventions and register
- Semiotics, structuralism and ideology in newspaper language
- News values, selection and the construction of reality
- Representation of events, individuals and social groups in newspapers
- The Daily Mirror as an evolving product
- The Times as an evolving product
- Newspaper ownership, conglomerates and control
- Funding, paywalls and the decline of print circulation
- Press regulation, IPSO and the Leveson aftermath
- Newspapers online: convergence and digital distribution
- Newspaper audiences: categorisation, targeting and address
- Audience responses, reception theory and the end of audience
07Advertising and Marketing13 subtopicsOpen topic
- Advertising media language: codes and conventions
- Semiotics and structuralism in advertising
- Intertextuality, genre and persuasion in advertising
- The Tide print advertisement (1950s)
- Gender representation in 1950s advertising
- The Kiss of the Vampire film poster (1963)
- Representation and gender in the Kiss of the Vampire poster
- Super. Human. and the language of the Paralympic film
- Disability representation in Super. Human.
- Historical contexts: sixty years of advertising change
- Advertising audiences: grouping, targeting and address
- Audience interpretation and reception in advertising
- Marketing, branding and cross-media campaigns
08Music Video13 subtopicsOpen topic
- Music video as a form: conventions, functions and development
- Camerawork, editing and mise-en-scène in music video
- Narrative, intertextuality and postmodernism in music video
- Semiotics, myth and ideology in music video
- Representation, stereotyping and identity in music video
- Gender, objectification and performativity in music video
- Ethnicity, race and postcolonial readings in music video
- Formation, Beyoncé (2016)
- Turntables, Janelle Monáe (2020)
- Underdog, Alicia Keys (2020)
- Riptide, Vance Joy (2013)
- Seventeen Going Under, Sam Fender (2021)
- Little Bit of Love, Tom Grennan (2021)
09Radio11 subtopicsOpen topic
- Radio as a form: its history, formats and the listening experience
- Public service broadcasting and the BBC's mission
- Funding radio: the licence fee, advertising and sponsorship
- Regulating radio: Ofcom, the BBC Charter and impartiality
- Ownership and concentration in the commercial radio industry
- Podcasting and the on-demand audio economy
- Digital technology, convergence and BBC Sounds
- Radio audiences: reach, targeting and measurement
- Audience theory applied to radio
- Woman's Hour
- Have You Heard George's Podcast (BBC Sounds)
10Video Games12 subtopicsOpen topic
- Video games as a media form
- The Assassin's Creed franchise
- Ubisoft: ownership, structure and global production
- Making a major game: budgets, teams and working conditions
- Distribution, platforms and monetisation
- Marketing, regulation and the debate about effects
- Game audiences: who plays and how they are reached
- Games and historical context: representing the past
- Global markets, localisation and cultural adaptation
- Convergence and the franchise across media
- Hardware cycles, technology and access
- Games, society and contemporary debate
11Film Industries and Marketing12 subtopicsOpen topic
- Production in the film industry
- Distribution and release strategies
- Exhibition, box office and the cinema audience
- Film funding, budgets and public subsidy
- Conglomerate ownership, integration and diversification
- The independent and specialised film sector
- Film marketing across convergent platforms
- Regulation, classification and the film industry
- Black Panther: production and the Marvel blockbuster model
- Marketing and distributing Black Panther
- I, Daniel Blake: independent production and funding
- Marketing and distributing I, Daniel Blake
12Television in the Global Age15 subtopicsOpen topic
- Television in the global age: transnational production and co-production
- Public service broadcasting in a global marketplace
- Streaming services and the changing distribution of television
- Ownership, funding and the economics of television drama
- Regulation of television in the UK and across borders
- Marketing television drama and targeting audiences nationally and globally
- Fandom, niche audiences and how audiences interpret television drama
- Genre, narrative and media language in television drama
- Representation, identity and ideology in television drama
- Peaky Blinders (BBC Two, 2013)
- The Bridge (Denmark/Sweden, 2015)
- Black Mirror: 'San Junipero' (Netflix, 2016)
- The Returned (France, 2012)
- Killing Eve (BBC America/BBC Three, 2018)
- Tehran (Israel, 2020)
13Magazines: Mainstream and Alternative14 subtopicsOpen topic
- Magazine cover codes, layout and design
- Semiotics, structuralism and ideology in magazine language
- Genre conventions and the historically relative magazine
- Gender representation in magazines and feminist theory
- Stereotyping, ideology and under-represented groups
- Magazine industries: ownership, funding and circulation
- Magazine audiences: targeting, niche and specialised readers
- Audience reception, interpretation and cultivation
- Woman (23–29 August 1964)
- Adbusters (May/June 2016)
- Woman's Realm (7–13 February 1965)
- Huck (February/March 2016)
- Vogue (July 1965)
- The Big Issue (17–23 October 2016)
14Media in the Online Age13 subtopicsOpen topic
- Media language of the home page and the YouTube channel
- Convergence, participatory culture and user-generated content
- Self-representation and identity online
- Representing under-represented groups online
- Online media industries: production, distribution and circulation
- Influencers, monetisation and the economics of vlogging
- Algorithms, curation and the attention economy
- Regulating online content
- Online audiences: fandom, niche reach and the end of audience
- Zoe Sugg's YouTube channel
- JJ Olatunji (KSI) and his YouTube channel
- Thiiird online magazine
- Attitude magazine and website
How you work through it
Pick the mode that fits the time you have.
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Set out the two levels of meaning a sign carries, and name the theorist who described them.
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What does framing control, and what is the effect of an establishing shot and of an extreme close-up?
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Define the states a narrative moves between in Todorov's model, and say what he claimed about the way it resolves.
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What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material
Media Studies revision questions
Common questions about revising Eduqas A-Level Media Studies. Tap any to open it.
How do you memorise Eduqas A-Level Media Studies?
By testing yourself, not rereading. Active recall, pulling each answer from memory then checking it, builds far stronger memory than highlighting notes. Levo runs the method for you across all 14 Media Studies topics and brings each one back on a spaced schedule so it stays memorised.
What is the fastest way to revise Media Studies for Eduqas?
Skip the long notes and go straight to retrieval. Levo turns the A680QS specification into short questions you drill with rapid recall, cram whole papers in one sitting, and a readiness score tells you exactly what is left to learn.
What topics are on Eduqas A-Level Media Studies (A680QS)?
There are 14 topics, split across 186 subtopics, from Media Language, Media Representations, Media Industries and more. Every topic is listed above, and each one opens to the subtopics inside it.
What do you get inside Levo for Media Studies?
Six ways to work the same material. The 3-step method for learning a set, Cram for sorting a whole paper into what you know and what you do not, Blank Blitz for making key facts automatic, Build It for assembling full-mark answers, Test It for catching misconceptions, and Brain Breaks between sessions. A readiness score tracks how much of the subject you have memorised.
Is active recall better than rereading your notes for Media Studies?
Consistently, yes. Rereading feels productive but fades quickly. Retrieving an answer from memory, the way Levo tests you, is what actually forms durable memory, and it shows you honestly what you do and do not know.
Does Levo cover the whole Eduqas Media Studies specification?
Every topic on the A680QS specification is covered, written from the published subject content. The full list is above, and each topic opens to its subtopics so you can see exactly what is there before you subscribe.
How can you encourage your teenager to revise?
Make it short, structured and low-pressure. Levo gives a clear daily plan, quick sessions rather than marathon ones, streaks that reward showing up, and an honest readiness score, so revision feels like progress instead of a chore. Parents can add an account and follow along.
Can you revise Media Studies the night before an exam?
Yes. Cram mode is built for exactly that: fly through a whole paper, sort every topic into red, amber and green, then drill just the reds and ambers you do not know yet. It is the honest version of a last-minute session.
Every question in Media Studies, 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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