Contexts of Media

What Contexts of Media covers

Contexts of Media is examined in both written papers — the theoretical framework and the media contexts run through every section of the course and are applied to whichever set products a centre has chosen. It covers 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 and global contexts and non-English-language media.

The 12 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• What media contexts are and why they matterContext of a media product, five contexts the specification requires and product whose meaning changes once its date is known.Open →
• Social contexts: values, attitudes and beliefsSocial context of a media product, values in the analysis of a media product and social attitude that has changed sharply within living memory.Open →
• Cultural contexts and cultural changeCultural context of a media product, cultural appropriation and cultural capital.Open →
• Representing minority groups and products made by themUnder-representation, symbolic annihilation, counter-types and tokenism; who controls a group's own image, what niche publishing and online distribution changed, and how audiences resist.Open →
• Economic contexts: ownership and fundingEconomic context of a media product, four ways a media product can be funded and media monopoly.Open →
• Production outside the commercial mainstreamProduction outside the commercial mainstream, three kinds of producer working outside the commercial mainstream and two constraints an alternative producer faces.Open →
• Political contexts: ideology and powerPolitical context of a media product, dominant ideology and gatekeeper in news production.Open →
• Regulation and the stateRegulator of broadcasting in the United Kingdom, leveson Inquiry and online Safety Act.Open →
• Historical contexts: genre conventions as historically relativeGenre convention that has changed markedly, hybrid genre and genre cycle.Open →
• Historical change in representationCriticism made of inspirational portrayals of disabled people and period's structure of feeling.Open →
• Technological change, production, distribution and circulationThree stages of a media product's life the specification identifies, circulation in a digital context and one way technological change has harmed media producers.Open →
• Global contexts and non-English-language mediaTransnational media product, nordic noir and global audience.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Contexts of Media further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Context of production vs Context of reception

  Context of production: the conditions under which a product was made. Context of reception: the conditions under which an audience meets it, possibly decades later.

• Agenda setting vs Framing

  Agenda setting: deciding which issues are discussed. Framing: deciding how each issue is presented.

• A stereotype vs A representation

  A stereotype: a simplified repeated portrayal reducing a group to fixed traits. A representation: any constructed portrayal at all.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by the context of a media product?

   Model answer

   Context is the set of circumstances in which a product was made and received. Social, cultural, economic, political and historical conditions all form part of it.

2. 2

   Name the five contexts the specification requires.

   Model answer

   The five are social, cultural, economic, political and historical contexts. Each shapes the product in a different way.

3. 3

   Why can a media product not be fully understood without its context?

   Model answer

   A product carries the assumptions of the moment that produced it. A reader who does not know those assumptions mistakes them for neutral or timeless.

4. 4

   Give an example of a product whose meaning changes once its date is known.

   Model answer

   A 1950s washing powder advertisement showing a woman alone in a kitchen looks absurd today. Read against 1950s expectations of a housewife, the advertisement is entirely conventional.

5. 5

   Distinguish the context of production from the context of reception.

   Model answer

   The context of production is the conditions under which a product was made. The context of reception is the conditions under which an audience encounters it, which may be decades later.

6. 6

   Why does the same product carry different meanings for different audiences?

   Model answer

   Audiences bring their own social position, culture and experience to a product. The differences between them change which readings feel obvious and which feel strained.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Contexts of Media revision questions

What does Contexts of Media cover in Eduqas A-Level Media Studies?

12 subtopics: 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 and global contexts and non-english-language media. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Contexts of Media organised?

By the Eduqas A680QS specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.