AQA A-Level Media Studies products: a complete overview of the media forms and Close Study Products

What studying media products actually demands

Studying media products is where the four areas of the theoretical framework come together on real texts. AQA prescribes nine media forms and sets specific Close Study Products within them. The examiners test your ability to apply media language, representation, industries and audiences to set products, and to place those products in their social, cultural, political and historical contexts.

This guide walks through the six topics of this area, then sets out the exam patterns AQA repeats. Each topic has a matching dot-point page with practice questions; this overview ties them together.

The forms and Close Study Products

AQA studies nine media forms: advertising and marketing, music video, newspapers, magazines, film, radio, video games, and online, social and participatory media. A Close Study Product (CSP) is a specific text set for in-depth study. The set list is updated periodically, so always use the current AQA specification, and always connect frameworks and contexts.

Advertising and marketing

Advertising persuades through media language: slogans, imagery, colour and aspirational connotations build a brand identity and a preferred reading. Adverts construct representations, often relying on stereotypes that date sharply, which makes historical adverts revealing about context. They target audiences by demographics and psychographics.

Music video and radio

Music video has distinctive conventions (the relationship between lyrics, music and visuals, performance and narrative, star image, intertextuality) and constructs strong representations of gender, ethnicity and lifestyle. Radio is studied as both a public service form and a commercial form, with sound-based media language and its own industry and audience contexts.

Newspapers and magazines

Newspapers use print media language and news values to select and construct news, with bias shaping representation. The press is studied through ownership, self-regulation by IPSO and the decline of print. Magazines target niche and lifestyle audiences and construct strong representations of identity and aspiration.

Film and video games

At A-Level, film is studied mainly as an industry: ownership, vertical integration, distribution, the global market and regulation. Video games are studied through media language, representation (often debated around gender and violence) and especially interactivity, which makes the active audience literal.

Online, social and participatory media

Online media depend on user-generated content and the prosumer, blurring producer and audience through convergence. They allow identity to be constructed and performed, and they are hard to regulate because content crosses borders and anyone can publish.

How this area is examined

A typical AQA profile for studying media products:

• Framework application. Analysing a CSP through media language, representation, industries or audiences.
• Comparison. Comparing two products, often from different periods or forms.
• Context. Explaining how social, cultural, political or historical context shaped a product.
• Extended answers. Connecting frameworks, for example how industry context shapes representation and audience positioning.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and application questions covering studying media products. Attempt them under timed conditions, then check against the solutions.

1. Define a Close Study Product. (2 marks)
2. Explain how an advert builds a brand identity. (4 marks)
3. Identify two conventions of music video. (2 marks)
4. Explain how radio can be both a public service and a commercial form. (3 marks)
5. Explain how news values shape what becomes news. (4 marks)
6. How is film studied differently from other forms at A-Level? (3 marks)
7. Why are video games a strong example of the active audience? (3 marks)
8. Why are online media difficult to regulate? (3 marks)