Contexts of Media

What Contexts of Media covers

Contexts of Media is examined in both written papers — the four areas of the theoretical framework and the contexts run through every section of the course, and are applied to whichever set products a centre has chosen. It covers the five media contexts (social, cultural, political, economic and historical) one by one: attitudes, norms and social issues; taste and the global circulation of media; ideology and public service broadcasting; the reflection of past events; funding, ownership and financial constraint; and the technology of production, distribution and audience devices. It also covers how products reflect and construct attitudes, media products as agents of social and political change, and intertextuality as a trace of context.

The 10 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• The five media contexts: social, cultural, political, economic and historicalRecall questions on what the context of a media product means, definitions of the social, cultural, political, economic and historical contexts, and how production and consumption contexts differ and act on each other.Open →
• Social context: attitudes, norms and social issuesRecall questions on what counts as social context, changing attitudes to body image in Dove and River Island advertising, moral panics, how a product normalises an attitude, and how lockdown changed the meaning of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.Open →
• Cultural context, taste and the global circulation of mediaRecall questions on cultural context and cultural capital, glocalisation and cultural imperialism, dubbing and subtitled streaming drama, and how a strongly national setting or tradition travels to a global audience.Open →
• Political context, ideology and public service broadcastingRecall questions on ideology, hegemony and agenda setting, how a newspaper's politics shows on its front page, the public service remit and licence-fee funding, and the political readings invited by Money Heist and Mr Robot.Open →
• Historical context and the reflection of past eventsRecall questions on the two senses of historical context, why a product's own moment shows through it, and how a text set in the past reflects a real issue rather than inventing one.Open →
• Economic context: funding, ownership and financial constraintRecall questions on how media producers are funded, conglomerate ownership and franchise risk, licence-fee, advertising and not-for-profit models, the budgets of streaming drama, and economic opportunities and constraints.Open →
• Technological context: production, distribution and audience devicesRecall questions on the three stages technology acts on, the multiplane camera and Technicolor, digital effects, and what owning a streaming service does to release strategy.Open →
• Reflecting attitudes and constructing attitudesRecall questions on the difference between a product reflecting and constructing an attitude, how selection, combination and repetition build a viewpoint, and how products signal values they never state.Open →
• Media products as agents of social and political changeRecall questions on what is claimed when a product is called an agent of change, why the claim is hedged, and how a campaign can make an issue visible or give a group a voice.Open →
• Intertextuality as a trace of contextRecall questions on intertextuality, how a reference dates and places a product, and the difference between pastiche, parody and homage.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.

• Social context vs Cultural context

  Social context: the prevailing attitudes, norms and public problems of the time a product is made and read, such as expectations about gender, class, family or health. Cultural context: The shared traditions, tastes and references a group holds in common and that a product can assume its audience already knows.

• Context of production vs Context of consumption

  Context of production: the circumstances the makers were working in at the time the text was created. Context of consumption: The circumstances of the audience reading the text, which can be decades and continents away from where it was made.

• Economic context vs Technological context

  Economic context: how a product was paid for, who owns the producer, and the financial return the product has to deliver. Technological context: The equipment available for making a product, the systems that carry it to an audience, and the devices that audience receives it on.

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

   It is the set of circumstances surrounding a product's making, circulation and reception, which shape both what it contains and how audiences understand it.

2. 2

   Name the five contexts used to situate a media product.

   Model answer

   The five contexts are social, cultural, political, economic and historical.

3. 3

   Define social context.

   Model answer

   Social context is the attitudes, norms and issues current in a society at the time a product is made and read, such as expectations about family, gender, class or health.

4. 4

   What does the cultural context of a product refer to?

   Model answer

   It refers to the shared values, tastes, traditions and cultural knowledge of the group a product comes from and speaks to.

5. 5

   Define political context.

   Model answer

   Political context is the distribution of power, the arguments over public policy and the ideological positions in play around a product at the time it is made.

6. 6

   What does the economic context of a product cover?

   Model answer

   It covers how the product was paid for, who owns the producer and what financial and technological resources or limits shaped it.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Contexts of Media revision questions

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

10 subtopics: the five media contexts: social, cultural, political, economic and historical, social context: attitudes, norms and social issues, cultural context, taste and the global circulation of media, political context, ideology and public service broadcasting, historical context and the reflection of past events, economic context: funding, ownership and financial constraint, technological context: production, distribution and audience devices, reflecting attitudes and constructing attitudes, media products as agents of social and political change and intertextuality as a trace of context. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Contexts of Media organised?

By the OCR H409 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.