Television and promoting media (Component 01): complete overview - OCR GCSE Media Studies

Component 01, Television and Promoting Media, is a 1 hour 45 minute written exam worth 70 marks (35 per cent), including 30 minutes of viewing time for a television extract. Section A is an in-depth study of one television crime drama across two set products, a historic and a contemporary episode, answered across the whole framework and their contexts. Section B studies promoting media from one global conglomerate, the marketing of a film franchise across a poster, a trailer and a tie-in video game. This overview maps the six dot points in this module and how to study them. Always confirm the current set products with OCR.

The six dot points

• The television crime drama set products. The historic and contemporary pairing, studied across the framework, showing the genre developing. See the television crime drama set products.
• Analysing television media language. Reading the screened extract: technical codes, audio codes and mise-en-scene. See analysing television media language.
• Representation in television. How the dramas represent gender, age, ethnicity and place, and how this has changed across eras. See representation in television.
• Television industries and contexts. The broadcasters, regulation, audiences and the contexts that shaped the dramas. See television industries and contexts.
• The promoting media set products. The film poster, trailer and tie-in game from one global conglomerate, studied across the framework. See the promoting media set products.
• Convergence and cross-media promotion. How synergy and convergence let a conglomerate promote one property across forms. See convergence and cross-media promotion.

Section A: the television crime drama

Section A studies a historic and a contemporary crime drama episode across the whole framework. The exam screens a 30-minute extract, so the media language skill is reading an effectively unseen clip: technical codes, audio codes and mise-en-scene. Representation (gender, age, ethnicity, place) and context are heavily examined, and the comparison of the two eras is designed to show how the genre and representation develop over time. The industries and audiences of the dramas (public service versus commercial broadcasters, Ofcom regulation, target audiences) complete the framework.

Section B: promoting media

Section B studies the marketing of a film franchise from one global conglomerate: a poster, a trailer and a tie-in video game. The focus is media language (the conventions of posters and trailers and how they appeal), industry (the conglomerate, synergy) and audience. The defining idea is cross-media promotion: the products work together to promote one property across forms, an example of synergy and convergence. The skill is explaining how the products work together, not describing each alone.

How the framework runs through the component

Both sections are studied through the whole framework, but with different emphases. Section A foregrounds media language (the screened extract), representation and context; Section B foregrounds media language, industry (synergy and convergence) and audience. In both, the marks come from anchoring every point in specific detail and moving from a feature to its meaning and effect.

How to study Component 01

1. Build fact files. A full-framework fact file on each television set product and on the promoting media products.
2. Drill the screened extract. Practise reading codes and explaining meaning on any crime drama clip, since the exact extract is unseen.
3. Compare across eras. Show how genre and representation develop between the historic and contemporary dramas, tied to context.
4. Explain synergy. For promoting media, explain how the products work together to promote one property (synergy, convergence).
5. Practise with OCR past papers and confirm the current set products with OCR.

For the official specification

OCR publishes the specification (J200), past papers, mark schemes and the set product list at ocr.org.uk. Always revise from the current specification and OCR's own past papers, because question wording, set products and mark schemes are board-specific.