Key term
WJEC AS-Level Media Studies 603-1976-8
Contexts of Media
Topic overviewThe conceptual framework and its four inter-related areasThe map of critical perspectives across the frameworkOwnership, funding and regulation as industry contextIndustry context, messages and ideologiesHistorical context and its effect on representationsThe time a product is made in and the time it is set inSocial and cultural contexts and the discourses of a productCultural influences: genres, styles, movements and other producersWhy the same product is read differently in different placesWales as a media context: social, economic and industry factorsS4C and Welsh-language broadcastingThe global dimension and media beyond the US and UK
Media Language
Topic overviewWhat media language isTechnical, visual and audio codesPrint design and layout conventionsCamerawork and mise-en-scèneEditing and soundOnline media language and design conventionsMode of addressSemiotics and Roland BarthesNarrative and Tzvetan TodorovGenre theory and Steve NealeStructuralism and Claude Lévi-StraussPostmodernism and Jean BaudrillardIntertextuality and hybridityViewpoints, values and ideology in media languageHow developing technologies change media language
Media Representations
Topic overviewWhat representation meansStereotypes and their usesRepresentations of genderRepresentations of ethnicity and Stuart HallRepresentations of ageRepresentations of place, region and nationRepresentations of Wales and Welsh identityRepresentations of issues and eventsIdentity and David GauntlettPositioning the audienceContext and its effect on representationAnalysing and evaluating representationsRepresentations of social classRepresentation and the global mediaReinforcement of representations across productsConstructing a representation in your own production
Media Industries
Topic overviewWhat a media industry isOwnership and controlFunding modelsRegulation of the mediaPublic service broadcastingProduction, commissioning and financeDistribution, marketing and exhibitionTechnological change and convergenceGlobalisation of the media industriesThe media industries in WalesNews industries and their economicsBrands, intellectual property and franchisesEntering and working in the media industriesIndustry context and its effect on contentAnalysing a product's industry
Media Audiences
Topic overviewWhat an audience isGrouping and categorising audiencesTargeting, attracting and reaching an audienceMedia effects and Albert BanduraCultivation theory and George GerbnerReception theory and Stuart HallThe end of audience and Clay ShirkyFandom and Henry JenkinsUses and gratificationsInteraction, participation and specialised audiencesRegulation, protection and audience harmResearching and measuring audiencesAudience positioning and preferred readingsAudiences and social and cultural circumstanceAudiences and media technologyAnalysing an audience for a product
Advertising, Marketing and Music Video
Topic overviewPrint advertising: layout, typography and design codesAudio-visual advertising: camerawork, editing and soundOnline advertising and its design conventionsCharity and public information campaignsCommercial advertising for consumer goodsHistorical advertising before 1980Barthes, semiotics and the meanings of an advertisementRepresentations of gender in advertising and music videoRepresentations of ethnicity and age, and Stuart Hall on representationGauntlett, identity and the audience as pick-and-mixMusic video: performance, narrative and conceptMusic video before 2000 and the changing formMarketing, audience categories and targetingAudience response, reception theory and media effects
News in the Online Age
Topic overviewDesign and language conventions of print and online newsThe Guardian in print and onlineThe Daily Mirror in print and onlineThe Times in print and onlineBBC News Online and public service newsThe Huffington Post and digital-native newsWales Online and news for a Welsh audienceRadio news conventions and Today on BBC Radio 4Radio Wales Drive and Post PrynhawnNews values and the construction of a news eventRepresentation, ideology and re-presenting reality in newsOwnership, control and public service in newsTechnology, convergence and the circulation of newsNews audiences, citizen journalism and the end of audience
Film Industries: From Wales to Hollywood
Topic overviewFilm language: camerawork, mise-en-scène, editing and soundGenre codes, iconography and Neale's repertoire of elementsNarrative construction and Todorov's equilibriumFilm production and funding in WalesCo-productions, festivals and national cinemaHollywood ownership, vertical integration and diversificationDistribution, marketing and exhibition in a digital ageRegulation of film in the United Kingdom and the BBFCFilm audiences: targeting, positioning and receptionDon't Knock Twice and Drag Me To HellSubmarine and CluelessThe Machine and Blade RunnerY Llyfrgell/The Library Suicides and Shutter IslandYr Ymadawiad/The Passing and The Village
Creating Media Productions
Topic overviewResearching the codes and conventions of a formAudience research and defining a target audienceAnalysing comparable products: genre and competitor researchInvestigative research and the development outlineTreatments, storyboards, scripts and flat plansSchedules, shot lists and risk assessmentProduction in audio-visual, print and online formWorking to a briefApplying media language to construct a representationOriginal material, copyright and ethicsIndependent, collaborative and cross-media productionReflective and critical analysis
Media Representations
- 16 subtopics
- 45 things to know
- AS Unit 1 and A2 Unit 3
What Media Representations covers
Media Representations is assessed in Sections A and B of Unit 1 at AS, on advertising and music video and on news, but not in Section C on film. In Unit 3 at A2 each section assesses a different area of the conceptual framework. It covers what representation means, stereotypes and their uses, representations of gender, representations of ethnicity and Stuart Hall, representations of age, representations of place, region and nation, representations of Wales and Welsh identity, representations of issues and events, identity and David Gauntlett, positioning the audience, context and its effect on representation, analysing and evaluating representations, representations of social class, representation and the global media, reinforcement of representations across products and constructing a representation in your own production.
Where it is assessed
AS Unit 1 and A2 Unit 3
The conceptual framework, applied in every section of both written units.
Check the WJEC specification ↗The 16 subtopics
Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Media Studies students sit this topic in the first year.
- What representation meansRepresentation, in media study, three processes by which a representation is constructed and selection in representation.Open →
- Stereotypes and their usesStereotype being a shorthand, stereotype being naturalised and symbolic annihilation.Open →
- Representations of genderGender representation, male gaze and hegemonic masculinity.Open →
- Representations of ethnicity and Stuart HallRepresentation of ethnicity, stuart Hall's central claim about representation and burden of representation.Open →
- Representations of ageYouth being constructed as a market rather than a group, age group being under-represented in the media workforce and balanced conclusion about representations of age.Open →
- Representations of place, region and nationRepresentation of place, regional stereotype and metropolitan bias in media representation.Open →
- Representations of Wales and Welsh identityTwo long-standing stereotypes of Wales in UK media, bilingual production and independently distributed film.Open →
- Representations of issues and eventsRepresentation of an issue, two frames on one issue and agenda setting.Open →
- Identity and David GauntlettGauntlett's central claim about the media and identity, identity being negotiated and balanced conclusion about media and identity.Open →
- Positioning the audienceAudience being positioned by a representation, text inviting identification and reading a representation is built to encourage called.Open →
- Context and its effect on representationReading a historical product against the grain, funding shaping representation and representation changing meaning over time.Open →
- Analysing and evaluating representationsFirst step in analysing a representation, third question in a representational analysis and range of representations being the proper unit of judgement.Open →
- Representations of social classClass being made invisible and balanced conclusion about representations of class.Open →
- Representation and the global mediaGlobalisation of representation, cultural imperialism, as a claim about representation and risk of making a product for a global audience.Open →
- Reinforcement of representations across productsRepresentation being reinforced across products, intertextual chain of representation and needed for a representation to change.Open →
- Constructing a representation in your own productionFirst representational decision in planning a production, unintended connotation and balanced conclusion about producing representations.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
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What does it mean to say an audience is positioned, how is that done, and can it be refused?
Evaluation
What is the cultural imperialism argument, what answers it, and how does a global format reach a local audience?
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What is representation, in media study?
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What is meant by gender representation?
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What is meant by the representation of ethnicity?
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Why is age treated as a category of representation alongside gender and ethnicity?
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What is meant by the representation of place?
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Name two long-standing stereotypes of Wales in UK media.
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What is meant by the representation of an issue?
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What does Gauntlett mean by a pick and mix approach to identity?
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Why does the same subject get represented differently in different periods?
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What is the first step in analysing a representation?
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Why is social class a category of media representation?
Process
Why is repetition the mechanism by which a representation gains authority?
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Why does making a media product change how representation is understood?
Process
Name the three processes by which a representation is constructed.
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What is a stereotype?
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What does Liesbet van Zoonen argue about gender in the media?
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What is Stuart Hall's central claim about representation?
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Give two common negative representations of young people.
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How does landscape carry meaning in a crime drama?
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What is meant by a bilingual production?
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What is framing?
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Why does Gauntlett describe identity as constructed rather than given?
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What is meant by an audience being positioned by a representation?
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Give an example of funding shaping representation.
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Why must description come before interpretation?
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How is a character's class signalled visually?
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What is meant by the globalisation of representation?
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How does convergence increase reinforcement?
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What is the first representational decision in planning a production?
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What is meant by selection in representation?
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What is meant by a stereotype being a shorthand?
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What does van Zoonen say about the display of the female body?
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What does Hall mean by the fixing of difference?
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Give a common positive representation of young people.
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What is meant by a regional stereotype?
Evaluation
Give one production advantage of shooting bilingual versions.
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What is meant by agenda setting?
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What does Gauntlett say about the range of representations available today?
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How does point of view position an audience?
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How does regulation affect representation?
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In analysing a representation, what question follows the description?
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How does accent function as a class marker?
Take Media Representations further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Representation vs A stereotype
Representation: any constructed version of a subject. A stereotype: a simplified, repeated version of a whole group.
Under-representation vs Misrepresentation
Under-representation: a group appearing far less often than its share of the population. Misrepresentation: a group appearing regularly but only in a narrow set of roles.
Symbolic annihilation vs Othering
Symbolic annihilation: denying a group presence through absence or trivialisation. Othering: constructing it as fundamentally different from an assumed norm.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is representation, in media study?
Model answer
The process by which the media construct and present versions of people, places, events and ideas to an audience.
- 2
Why is the term re-presentation useful?
Model answer
It stresses that the media present something a second time, in a form shaped by choices, rather than showing it directly.
- 3
Name the three processes by which a representation is constructed.
Model answer
Selection, combination and, in a wider sense, omission of what is not shown.
- 4
What is meant by selection in representation?
Model answer
Choosing which people, moments and details to include out of everything that could have been included.
- 5
What is meant by combination in representation?
Model answer
Placing the selected elements together so that they comment on and modify each other.
- 6
Why is omission as significant as inclusion?
Model answer
What is absent cannot be noticed by an audience seeing only the product, so it shapes the reading invisibly.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Media Representations revision questions
- Is Media Representations examined at AS in WJEC Media Studies?
- Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1 and A2 Unit 3, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.
- What does Media Representations cover in WJEC AS-Level Media Studies?
- 16 subtopics: what representation means, stereotypes and their uses, representations of gender, representations of ethnicity and stuart hall, representations of age, representations of place, region and nation, representations of wales and welsh identity, representations of issues and events, identity and david gauntlett, positioning the audience, context and its effect on representation, analysing and evaluating representations, representations of social class, representation and the global media, reinforcement of representations across products and constructing a representation in your own production. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Media Representations organised?
- By the WJEC 603-1976-8 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Media Representations, 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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