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Media industries and audiences

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do audiences interpret and respond to media products, and do the media affect them?

Media audiences: how audiences interpret and respond to media products, the difference between passive and active audience models, the idea of media effects, and how different audiences can read the same product in different ways (Hall's preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings).
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to audience effects and reception: passive versus active audience models, the idea of media effects, and how different audiences read the same product differently (Hall's preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings).
9 min answer →

Who owns and funds media products, and how does ownership and funding shape what is made?

Media industries: who owns media companies (including conglomerates and concentrated ownership), how products are funded (advertising, subscription, licence fee, public funding), and how ownership and funding models shape the products that are made and who they serve.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to ownership and funding in the media industries framework: conglomerates and concentrated ownership, the main funding models (advertising, subscription, licence fee, public funding), and how they shape the products made.
9 min answer →

How are media products produced, distributed and regulated?

Media industries: the processes of production, distribution and circulation, the role of regulation and regulators (such as the BBFC, Ofcom and the press regulators), and why regulation exists to protect audiences and uphold standards.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to production, distribution and regulation in the media industries framework: the processes that bring products to audiences, the main regulators (BBFC, Ofcom, press regulation), and why regulation exists.
9 min answer →

How do media producers identify, categorise and target their audiences?

Media audiences: how producers identify, categorise and target audiences (by demographics such as age, gender and social class, and by psychographics such as lifestyle and values), and how products are constructed to appeal to and reach a target audience.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to targeting and categorising audiences in the framework: demographics and psychographics, how producers identify a target audience, and how products are constructed to appeal to and reach that audience.
9 min answer →

How have digital technology and convergence changed how the media are produced and consumed?

Media industries: how digital technology and convergence have changed production, distribution and consumption, including cross-media and synergistic production, participatory and user-generated content, and how convergence reshapes the relationship between producers and audiences.
An OCR GCSE Media Studies guide to technology and convergence in the media industries framework: what convergence is, how digital technology has changed production, distribution and consumption, and how cross-media and participatory culture reshape the producer-audience relationship.
9 min answer →