Media syllabus, dot point by dot point

The contexts of the media: how social, cultural, historical and political (including economic) contexts shape the production of media products and how audiences interpret them, and how to use context to deepen analysis across all four frameworks.

The non-exam assessment (Component 3): creating a media product in response to one of the AQA-set briefs, writing a statement of intent that applies the theoretical framework, and how the NEA is marked by the school and moderated by AQA. The NEA is not examined in the written papers.

The active audience debate, the uses and gratifications theory (Blumler and Katz), how audiences use media for their own purposes, and how audiences interact with and respond to media products.

Media effects theories including the hypodermic needle model, the two-step flow, cultivation theory and moral panics, and the debate about how much influence the media has on audiences.

How producers identify, target and categorise audiences using demographics, psychographics and lifestyle, the difference between mass and niche audiences, and how products are tailored to reach them.

Media ownership (conglomerates, vertical and horizontal integration), the difference between public service and commercial media, and the main funding models (advertising, subscription, licence fee and sales).

The processes of production, distribution and exhibition, the role of marketing and promotion, how products reach audiences across platforms, and the difference between mainstream and independent producers.

Media regulation and self-regulation, the role of bodies such as Ofcom, the BBFC, IPSO and the ASA, age classification and the debates about freedom of expression versus protecting audiences.

How digital technology, convergence and the rise of online platforms have changed how media products are produced, distributed and consumed, including user-generated content and the impact on traditional industries.

How the codes and conventions of media language (technical, visual, audio, written and genre conventions) communicate meaning, and how genres develop, hybridise and follow audience expectations.

Narrative theory (Todorov's equilibrium, Propp's character types, binary opposition) and genre theory, including how products use, develop and hybridise genre conventions to meet audience expectations.

Semiotics: the work of theorists such as Roland Barthes, the difference between denotation and connotation, signifier and signified, and how anchorage and myth shape the meaning audiences take from media products.

Technical codes (camera shots, angles, movement, editing and sound) and visual codes (mise-en-scene including costume, lighting, colour, props and setting), and how they position the audience and construct meaning.

Stuart Hall's reception theory (preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings), how audiences respond to representations differently, and how identity and experience shape interpretation.

How media products construct a point of view through selection and construction, the difference between fact and opinion, bias and balance, and how producers position audiences to accept a preferred reading.

How media products construct representations through selection, combination and editing, the role of stereotypes, and how representations reflect, reinforce or challenge values, attitudes and beliefs.

How the media represents gender, ethnicity, age, sexuality, social class, ability and region, the theories of Stuart Hall and bell hooks, and how representations of identity have changed over time.

Analysing advertising, marketing and music video set products through the four frameworks, including persuasive techniques, brand identity, the conventions of music video, and how these forms target and position audiences.

Analysing film through the media industries framework only, including production, distribution and marketing, conglomerate ownership and vertical integration, regulation by the BBFC, and how cross-media convergence and synergy promote a film to its audience.

Analysing magazine and newspaper set products through the four frameworks, including layout and design conventions, mode of address, the difference between tabloid and broadsheet, and how print products construct representation and target audiences.

Analysing radio set products through the four framework areas, including the audio codes and conventions of speech and music radio, mode of address, public service broadcasting and the BBC, and how radio targets and reaches its audience across broadcast and online platforms.

Analysing television set products across the four framework areas, applying media language, representation, industry and audience to genre, scheduling, narrative and the way television targets and engages audiences.

Analysing video game, online, social and participatory media set products through the four frameworks, including interactivity, user-generated content, the games industry, and how online media engages and targets audiences.