Society: analysing how media texts reflect, shape and respond to the values, beliefs, issues and context of the society they are produced in, as a key aspect of media literacy.

What this dot point is asking

Society is the key aspect of media literacy that deals with the relationship between a media text and the society it belongs to: how texts reflect the values, beliefs and concerns of their society, and how they can shape them in return. Media is not made in a vacuum; it draws on its social and historical context and feeds back into it. A question on society asks you to analyse this relationship for a specific text. This dot point sets out what to analyse under society and how to connect a text to its context in both directions.

The answer

To analyse society, examine the social and historical context of a text and explain how it reflects, reinforces or challenges the values, beliefs and concerns of that society, and how it might in turn shape them. The relationship is two-way: texts draw on the society they are made in, and they can influence attitudes, set agendas and shape how audiences understand issues. Analysing society means connecting specific features of the text (its representations, its themes, its emphases) to the social context, and explaining the influence in both directions. The decisive habit is linking text to context and back, not describing society in general or the text in isolation.

Texts reflect their society

Media texts are shaped by the time and place they are made in: the values, beliefs, anxieties and events of their society leave marks on their content. A text made during a period of social change may reflect that change in its themes, settings and characters. Analysing reflection means identifying the social context and showing where the text draws on it, using specific features rather than vague generalisation.

Texts shape their society

Media does not only mirror society; it can influence it. Repeated representations can reinforce or change how a society views a group or issue; coverage can set the agenda for what audiences think about; texts can promote or question values. Analysing this direction means explaining how a text might influence its audience's attitudes and, over time, the wider society.

Social and historical context informs meaning

A text's meaning is fuller when read against its context. The same image or theme can mean different things in different societies or moments. Analysing society means using the social and historical context to deepen the reading: explaining why a text emphasises what it does, and what its choices say about the concerns of its time and place.

Examples in context

Take a studied film made during a period of economic anxiety. Analysing society, you might explain that the film reflects that anxiety through a setting of decline and characters struggling for security, drawing directly on the concerns of its society. You might then analyse the other direction: by representing certain responses to hardship as admirable and others as not, the film promotes a value and could shape how its audience judges such situations. The analysis ties specific features to context and explains influence both ways.

Take a studied advertisement that draws on a current social value (sustainability, say). The text reflects the rising importance of that value in its society, and by associating the product with it, the advert also reinforces and circulates the value. Each point connects a feature of the text to the social context in both directions.

Try this

Q1. What does it mean to say the relationship between media and society is two-way? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. Texts both reflect the values and concerns of their society and can shape them by influencing attitudes, agendas and how audiences understand issues.

Q2. How can a text reflect its social context? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. By drawing on the values, beliefs, anxieties or events of its time and place in its themes, settings, representations and emphases.

Q3. Why is describing society in general not enough for full marks? [2 marks]

• What the marker wants. Because analysis must connect specific features of the text to the social context and explain the relationship, not describe society or the text in isolation.

A note on sources

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The key aspect of society follows SQA's Higher Media course specification; verify current detail against the SQA Higher Media documents at sqa.org.uk.