Media

What Media covers

Media is examined on component 01 of OCR Sociology, Socialisation, culture and identity. It is one of the three Section B options on that paper, of which a student sits one. 62 recall questions across 5 subtopics.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gazeRecall questions on media representations of ethnicity, including van Dijk's news analysis and Hall's stereotypes of black people, changing representations of minority ethnic groups, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English identity and newer immigrant groups, and Tuchman's symbolic annihilation and Mulvey's male gaze.Open →
• Representations of gender, social class and young peopleRecall questions on changing media representations of femininity and masculinity, hegemonic masculinity, representations of the upper, middle and working class, Jones on the demonising of the working class, the underclass in welfare coverage and Marxist views of benefits television, and the two dominant representations of young people.Open →
• Representations of older people and theories of media representationRecall questions on stereotypes of older people in the media and why they are changing, and Marxist, neo-Marxist, pluralist, liberal and radical feminist and postmodern explanations of media representations, including Baudrillard's hyperreality and consensus and conflict views of representations and social order.Open →
• Direct and indirect media effects modelsRecall questions on direct-effects theories, the hypodermic syringe model and Bandura's Bobo doll experiment, desensitisation and catharsis, indirect effects and Katz and Lazarsfeld's two-step flow model, the neo-Marxist cultural effects model, Hall's three readings of a media text, and Gerbner's cultivation theory and mean world syndrome.Open →
• Active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panicsRecall questions on the active audience, Blumler and McQuail's uses and gratifications model, Klapper's selective filtering, deviance amplification, Cohen's moral panics and folk devils in his study of the Mods and Rockers, moral panics as self-fulfilling prophecies, Hall on the mugging panic, and McRobbie and Thornton's critique.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Media further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What did van Dijk's analysis of news reporting find about the portrayal of black people?

   Model answer

   He found black people appeared within a narrow set of negative news frames, above all crime, conflict and immigration, so that they were presented as a problem for white society rather than as ordinary citizens.

2. 2

   Identify the recurring stereotypes of black people that Hall found in Western media.

   Model answer

   He identified base images inherited from the colonial era, the servile slave figure, the exotic native and the clown or entertainer, each of which confines black people to a limited role.

3. 3

   How far are representations of minority ethnic groups said to be changing?

   Model answer

   Minority ethnic actors and presenters now appear far more often in mainstream drama, soaps and news, but critics argue casting is frequently tokenistic and that crime and terrorism still dominate factual coverage.

4. 4

   How has the media treatment of Irish people in Britain been criticised?

   Model answer

   Critics point to a long tradition of portraying Irish people as unintelligent or comic, and to coverage during the Troubles that attached terrorism to a whole nationality rather than to a small group.

5. 5

   What stereotypes are commonly attached to Scottish, Welsh and English identity in UK media?

   Model answer

   Scots are often shown as mean with money, tartan-clad or aggressive, the Welsh as rural and parochial, and Englishness is treated as the unmarked norm against which the others are measured.

6. 6

   How does press coverage of newer immigrant groups differ from coverage of long-established minority ethnic communities?

   Model answer

   Newer arrivals such as recent European migrants and asylum seekers are covered mainly as a question of numbers, borders and welfare cost, while established communities appear more often in ordinary domestic, comic and entertainment roles.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Media revision questions

What does Media cover in OCR A-Level Sociology?

5 subtopics: representations of ethnicity and nationality, symbolic annihilation and the male gaze, representations of gender, social class and young people, representations of older people and theories of media representation, direct and indirect media effects models and active audience models, deviance amplification and moral panics. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Media organised?

By the OCR H580 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.