Key term
OCR A-Level Media Studies H409
Contexts of Media
Topic overviewThe five media contexts: social, cultural, political, economic and historicalSocial context: attitudes, norms and social issuesCultural context, taste and the global circulation of mediaPolitical context, ideology and public service broadcastingHistorical context and the reflection of past eventsEconomic context: funding, ownership and financial constraintTechnological context: production, distribution and audience devicesReflecting attitudes and constructing attitudesMedia products as agents of social and political changeIntertextuality as a trace of context
Media Language
Topic overviewSigns, codes and conventions in media languageAudio-visual media language: camera, mise-en-scène, editing and soundPrint media language: layout, typography and imageAudio and online media languageCombination and selection: how elements work together to make meaningDeveloping technologies and the changing language of the mediaBarthes, semiotics and the making of mythTodorov, narratology and narrative structureNeale, genre theory and the intertextual relayGenre as dynamic and historically relativeHybridity and the subversion of genre conventionsLévi-Strauss, structuralism and binary oppositionIntertextuality: pastiche, parody and the varieties of referenceBaudrillard, postmodernism and hyperrealityMedia language, viewpoints and ideologyHow audiences interpret media language
Media Representations
Topic overviewSelection, combination and the construction of realityMediation, verisimilitude and claims about realismStereotypes, countertypes and their usesUnder-representation and misrepresentation of social groupsProducers' choices and the process of representationIndustry context and the economics of representationSocial and cultural context in representationHistorical context and changing representationsValues, attitudes and beliefs, and their reinforcementDiscourse, ideology and the positioning of audiencesAudience response and interpretation of representationsSelf-representation, social identity and the curated selfHall and the constructionist approach to representationGauntlett, identity and the pick-and-mix audiencevan Zoonen, the patriarchal gaze and gender as performancebell hooks, intersectionality and the oppositional gazeButler, gender performativity and gender troubleGilroy, the Black Atlantic and postcolonial melancholia
Media Industries
Topic overviewProduction, distribution and circulation in a global contextThe specialised and institutionalised nature of media productionConglomerate ownership and vertical integrationHorizontal integration, diversification and synergyCurran and Seaton: concentration of ownership and pluralityCurran and Seaton on the internet and the news oligarchyHesmondhalgh: risk, public goods and the reliance on big hitsHesmondhalgh: repetition, copyright and digital labourCommercial funding: advertising, subscription and freemium modelsPublic service broadcasting and not-for-profit fundingMarketing and the maintenance of national and global audiencesTechnological change and the shift to digital distributionOfcom and the UK regulatory frameworkPress, advertising and age classification in the UKLivingstone and Lunt: the citizen and the consumerIndividual producers, convergence and the limits of regulation
Media Audiences
Topic overviewDemographics, social grade and audience profilingPsychographics, lifestyle and taste categoriesTargeting, mode of address and the constructed audienceMarketing, distribution and circulation as routes to the audienceMass and specialised audiences, nationally and globallyNiche and fan audiences and their value to media organisationsMedia technologies and changing patterns of consumptionUses and gratifications, identity and cultural capitalThe effects tradition, the hypodermic model and moral panicsBandura, social learning and media modellingGerbner, cultivation and mean world syndromeHall, encoding, decoding and the three reader positionsJenkins, textual poaching and participatory cultureShirky, the end of audience and cognitive surplusDifferent readings and their social, cultural and historical circumstancesUser-generated content, citizen journalism and the audience as producer
News, Online and Participatory Media
Topic overviewThe Daily Mail as a mid-market tabloidThe Guardian, the Scott Trust and the liberal broadsheet traditionFront page construction and the language of the printed news pageNews values, gatekeeping and the setting of the agendaIdeology, discourse and the positioning of the news readerRepresentation of social groups in news coverageMail Online and the Guardian website as digital productsSocial and participatory media feedsDigital convergence and the changing newsroomOwnership, plurality and the concentration of the pressPaywalls, subscriptions and online monetisationNews audiences: targeting, reception and interpretationPress regulation from the PCC to IPSO and the online challenge
Advertising, Marketing and Magazines
Topic overviewCodes and conventions of print advertisingDove, Real Beauty and the Beautifully Real Moms campaignMedia language in the Dove advertRepresentations of motherhood and the maternal body in the Dove advertRiver Island and the Labels are for Clothes campaignMedia language in the River Island advertRepresentations of diversity, disability and self-expression at River IslandShelter, charity advertising and the direct call to actionMedia language in the Shelter advertRepresentations of homelessness and housing insecurity in the Shelter advertSocial and cultural contexts of the three advertising campaignsThe Big Issue, the street paper model and its market positionMedia language of a Big Issue front coverAlternative representations in The Big IssueSocial, cultural and political contexts of The Big Issue
Music Video
Topic overviewMusic video as a form: performance, narrative and conceptPromotion, platforms and the star imageMedia language in music video: camera, mise-en-scène, editing and soundRepresentation in music video: stereotypes, countertypes and self-representationArtist-present and artist-absent music videoCorinne Bailey Rae – Stop Where You AreLil Nas X – SUN GOES DOWNEmeli Sandé – HeavenSufjan Stevens – SugarRadiohead – Burn the WitchDavid Guetta ft. Sia – Titanium
Film, Radio and Video Games
Topic overviewDisney from Snow White to global conglomerateVertical integration and the structure of the film industryFinancing, risk and the franchise model in filmTechnological change in film production and exhibitionDistribution, release windows and home entertainmentMarketing a global blockbusterFilm certification and regulationPublic service broadcasting and the Radio 1 Breakfast ShowFunding, ownership and competition in the radio industryRadio technology, platforms and convergent distributionReaching and constructing the Radio 1 Breakfast Show audienceNintendo, ownership and the global games industryProducing and distributing Animal Crossing: New HorizonsThe Animal Crossing audience: targeting, play and participationRegulation and the social context of video games
Long Form Television Drama
Topic overviewMr Robot and the unreliable narratorKilling Eve and the gendered spy thrillerAtypical and the representation of neurodiversityStranger Things, nostalgia and the Netflix franchiseLupin, disguise and postcolonial ParisMoney Heist and the second life of a national dramaTrapped, Nordic noir and the Icelandic industryDeutschland 83, the Cold War and the export of German dramaThe streaming economy and the funding of long form dramaGlobal distribution and the travel of non-English language dramaGenre hybridity, intertextuality and multiple narrative strandsMedia language and representation in long form television dramaAudiences, fandom and the regulation of on-demand drama
Long Form Television Drama
Stranger Things, nostalgia and the Netflix franchise
- 3 things to know
- Component 02
Overview
Recall questions on Stranger Things: its 1983 Hawkins setting and opening disappearance, the Dungeons and Dragons scene, the Upside Down, its debts to Spielberg, King and others, the title sequence, Cold War anxiety, Joyce Byers, Baudrillard, Todorov and Neale applied to it, its ensemble strands and value to Netflix.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Numbers
Where and when is Stranger Things set?
Process
How does the opening Dungeons and Dragons scene work in Stranger Things?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Where and when is Stranger Things set?
Model answer
The small town of Hawkins, Indiana, in 1983.
- 2
What event begins the story in the first episode of Stranger Things?
Model answer
Twelve-year-old Will Byers vanishes on his way home, on the same night that a girl escapes from the government laboratory outside the town.
- 3
How does the opening Dungeons and Dragons scene work in Stranger Things?
Model answer
The boys' game names the Demogorgon and the idea of a creature arriving from somewhere else, so the game supplies the vocabulary the real plot will use.
- 4
Explain the significance of the Upside Down in Stranger Things.
Model answer
It is a dark mirror of Hawkins occupying the same space, which allows the drama to place horror directly underneath ordinary suburban life.
- 5
Identify the film-makers and authors Stranger Things draws on, and state what it takes from each.
Model answer
Steven Spielberg, for suburban children meeting the extraordinary; Stephen King, for small-town dread and children with powers; and John Carpenter, for the synthesiser-driven score.
- 6
How does the title sequence of Stranger Things signal its period?
Model answer
A heavy red serif typeface assembles letter by letter over an analogue synthesiser theme, imitating the paperback covers and film titles of the early 1980s.
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