OCR A-Level Media Studies (H409): how the theoretical framework, the two written papers, the set products and the NEA fit together

OCR A-Level Media Studies (specification H409) is a linear A-level assessed by two written examinations and a Non-Examined Assessment (NEA). Everything is built on a single theoretical framework of four areas, applied to a set list of products across nine media forms and studied in relation to contexts. This page explains how the parts fit together and how the site is organised. Each module has a matching dot-point cluster, a deep-dive guide and a quiz.

The three components

Component 01: Media Messages (35%)

A 2 hour paper worth 70 marks. Section A, News and Online Media, is a comparative study of The Guardian and the Daily Mail across print, websites and social media. Section B, Media Language and Representation, covers advertising and marketing, music video and magazines. The paper rewards close analysis using media language and representation theory.

Component 02: Evolving Media (35%)

A 2 hour paper worth 70 marks. Section A, Media Industries and Audiences, covers radio (the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show), video games (Minecraft) and film (a Disney pairing, studied for industry only). Section B is a comparative study of one English-language and one non-English-language long form television drama. The paper rewards industry and audience theory and synoptic argument.

Component 03/04: Making Media (30%)

The NEA: an individual cross-media production in two linked media forms, made to one OCR-set brief and introduced by a Statement of Intent. It is assessed mostly on AO3 (practical skill), with AO1 and AO2 in the Statement.

The theoretical framework

• Media language. How products use forms, codes, conventions and techniques to make meaning.
• Representation. How the media re-present events, issues, people and social groups, and the values and ideologies that carries.
• Media industries. Production, distribution, circulation, ownership, conglomeration, convergence and regulation.
• Audiences. How products target, reach and address audiences, how audiences interpret and use them, and how audiences become producers.

Every set product is read through all four areas, in relation to social, cultural, economic, political and historical contexts.

The assessment objectives

• AO1. Knowledge and understanding of the framework and contexts.
• AO2. Analysis of products using the framework and contexts, and application of that knowledge (including to production).
• AO3. The practical skill of creating media products to a brief for a target audience (the NEA).

What this site covers

• Media language: semiotics (Barthes), genre (Neale), narrative (Todorov, Propp, Levi-Strauss), and the technical codes of analysis.
• Representation: constructing representation (Hall), stereotypes and social groups, gender (van Zoonen, bell hooks), ethnicity (Gilroy) and identity (Gauntlett).
• Media industries: production, distribution and circulation; ownership and power (Curran and Seaton); cultural industries (Hesmondhalgh); and regulation (Livingstone and Lunt).
• Audiences: targeting and categorising audiences, media effects (Bandura, Gerbner), reception (Hall) and participatory culture (Jenkins, Shirky).
• Media contexts: social and cultural, economic and political, and historical contexts.
• Theoretical perspectives: the named academic theories grouped and rehearsed for application in the higher-tariff essays.
• Set products analysis: the news, advertising, music video, magazine, radio, video game, film and television set products.
• The cross-media production (NEA): the brief, the Statement of Intent, applying the framework, and how it is assessed.

How to revise an essay-and-production A-level

Treat the four framework areas as the analytical questions you ask of every product, and attach the named theories to the area they belong to. Build a fact file per set product (language, representation, industry, audience, context). Drill the question types separately: shorter explain and analyse questions, and the higher-tariff extended essays marked by levels of response, where naming and applying a theory and reaching a judgement reaches the top band. Keep the NEA brief in view from the start.