Who controls the media, how are social groups represented, what effects do the media have on audiences, and how has new media changed society?
Mass media (Component 1, Section C option): ownership and control of the media; the selection and presentation of news (agenda setting, gatekeeping, moral panics); representations of class, gender, ethnicity and age; media effects and models of the audience; new media and the digital age; and perspectives on the media.
The WJEC A-Level Sociology Component 1 option on the mass media: ownership and control, the social construction of the news through agenda setting, gatekeeping and moral panics, representations of class, gender, ethnicity and age, models of media effects and the audience, the rise of new and digital media, and pluralist, Marxist, feminist and postmodernist perspectives.
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What this dot point is asking
Mass media is one of the three options in Component 1, Section C. You need to understand ownership and control, how the news is selected and constructed (agenda setting, gatekeeping, moral panics), how social groups are represented, the debate over media effects and audiences, the impact of new and digital media, and the relevant perspectives.
The answer
Ownership and control
The social construction of news
The news is selected and constructed, not simply reported.
- Agenda setting - the media decide which issues are presented as important, shaping what audiences think about.
- Gatekeeping - editors filter which stories pass through and which are excluded.
- News values - the criteria (drama, immediacy, negativity, reference to elites) that make an event "newsworthy".
- Moral panics - the media can amplify the deviance of a group into a panic, labelling folk devils and triggering a deviancy amplification spiral.
Representations
Media effects and audiences
The effects debate moves from passive to active models of the audience.
- Hypodermic syringe model - messages are "injected" into a passive audience that responds directly; underlies fears about media violence and copycat effects.
- Two-step flow - influence passes through opinion leaders rather than directly.
- Uses and gratifications - audiences are active, choosing media to meet their own needs.
- Reception theory - audiences decode messages in preferred, negotiated or oppositional ways, so meaning is not fixed by the producer.
New media and the digital age
New (digital) media are interactive, convergent and participatory. They have widened access and let audiences create content, but raise concerns about the digital divide (unequal access), surveillance, the concentrated ownership of major platforms, and the spread of misinformation. Postmodernists argue the media now create a hyperreal, image-saturated world in which media images and reality blur.
Examples in context
From passive target to active decoder. The hypodermic syringe model imagines the audience as a passive target: a violent image is "injected" and directly produces violent behaviour. Reception theory overturns this: faced with the same content, one viewer accepts the preferred meaning, another negotiates it, and a third reads it in an oppositional way, depending on their social position and experience. A strong essay uses this contrast to argue that the direct-effect model is too simple, while conceding that the media still set the agenda and frame representations even if they do not dictate audience responses. This balanced judgement is what separates the top band from a one-sided account.
Try this
Q1. What is meant by agenda setting? [4 marks]
- Cue. The media's power to decide which issues are presented as important, shaping what audiences think about.
Q2. Explain the difference between the hypodermic syringe model and uses and gratifications. [6 marks]
- What the marker wants. The syringe model assumes a passive, directly affected audience; uses and gratifications assumes an active audience choosing media to meet its needs.
Q3. Evaluate the Marxist view that media content reflects the interests of the powerful. [16 marks]
- What the marker wants. Concentrated ownership and dominant ideology weighed against pluralism and active audiences, with a supported judgement.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of WJEC exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
WJEC specimen (30)Evaluate the view that the media have a powerful and direct effect on their audiences. [30 marks]Show worked answer →
A high-tariff essay, so contrast models of media effects and reach a judgement on how powerful and direct the influence is.
For the view, explain the hypodermic syringe model: messages are "injected" into a passive audience that responds directly, supporting concerns about media violence and copycat behaviour. The two-step flow model modifies this by adding opinion leaders.
Against the view, explain active-audience models: uses and gratifications (audiences choose media for their own purposes) and reception theory (audiences decode messages in preferred, negotiated or oppositional ways). These show the audience is not a passive target.
Conclude with a judgement: the direct-effect model is too simple, and the weight of evidence supports a more active, selective audience, though the media still shape the agenda and representations.
WJEC specimen16 marksEvaluate the pluralist view of ownership and control of the media.Show worked answer →
Set out the pluralist case, then test it against the Marxist view before judging.
Explain pluralism: ownership is diverse, the media give audiences what they want, and competition and consumer choice prevent any one group dominating, so content reflects a range of views.
Evaluate with Marxism: ownership is concentrated in a few powerful companies, and owners and editors transmit a dominant ideology that serves the ruling class, narrowing the range of views (the manipulative and hegemonic approaches). New media may widen access but ownership of major platforms is still concentrated.
Conclude that pluralism captures choice and competition, but the Marxist emphasis on concentrated ownership and ideological influence offers a stronger account of whose interests the media serve.
Related dot points
- The main sociological perspectives applied across all components: functionalism (consensus, value consensus), Marxism (class conflict, ideology), feminism (patriarchy, its strands), interactionism (meanings, labelling), postmodernism (diversity, choice) and the New Right; structure versus action and consensus versus conflict.
The core sociological perspectives required across every component of WJEC A-Level Sociology: functionalism and value consensus, Marxism and class conflict, feminism and its strands (liberal, Marxist, radical), interactionism and labelling, postmodernism and the New Right, plus the underlying structure versus action and consensus versus conflict debates.
- Key concepts and processes of cultural transmission (Component 1, Section A): culture, norms, values, roles and status; the nature versus nurture debate; primary and secondary socialisation; agencies of socialisation and social control; and the acquisition of identity by class, gender, ethnicity, age and nationality.
The compulsory Section A content of WJEC A-Level Sociology Component 1: culture, norms, values, roles and status; the nature versus nurture debate; primary and secondary socialisation; the agencies of socialisation and social control (family, education, peers, media, religion, work); and how identity is acquired by class, gender, ethnicity, age and nationality.
- Youth cultures (Component 1, Section B option): youth as a social construction; the emergence of youth and youth subcultures; spectacular and other subcultures; class, gender and ethnic dimensions of youth culture; youth, deviance and the media (moral panics); and perspectives on youth subcultures.
The WJEC A-Level Sociology Component 1 option on youth cultures: youth as a social construction, the emergence of youth subcultures, spectacular subcultures and the class, gender and ethnic dimensions of youth culture, the link between youth, deviance and the media through moral panics, and functionalist, Marxist, subcultural and postmodernist perspectives on youth.
- Education (Component 1, Section C option): the role and functions of education; differential educational achievement by social class, gender and ethnicity (home and school factors); processes within schools (labelling, the hidden curriculum, subcultures); educational policy; and perspectives on education (functionalist, Marxist, feminist, interactionist, New Right).
The WJEC A-Level Sociology Component 1 option on education: the role and functions of education, differential achievement by social class, gender and ethnicity through home and school factors, in-school processes such as labelling, the hidden curriculum and pupil subcultures, education policy, and functionalist, Marxist, feminist, interactionist and New Right perspectives.
- Religion (Component 1, Section C option): the role and functions of religion (conservative force versus force for change); types of religious organisation (church, sect, denomination, cult, new religious and new age movements); religiosity by social group (class, gender, ethnicity, age); the secularisation debate; and perspectives on religion.
The WJEC A-Level Sociology Component 1 option on religion: the role and functions of religion as a conservative force or a force for social change, types of religious organisation (church, sect, denomination, cult and new religious movements), patterns of religiosity by class, gender, ethnicity and age, the secularisation debate, and functionalist, Marxist, feminist and other perspectives.
- Social differentiation and stratification (Component 3, Section A): systems of stratification; dimensions of inequality (social class, gender, ethnicity and age); theories of stratification (functionalist, Marxist, Weberian and feminist); social mobility and life chances; and the changing class structure.
The compulsory Section A content of WJEC A-Level Sociology Component 3: systems of stratification, inequality by social class, gender, ethnicity and age, functionalist, Marxist, Weberian and feminist theories of stratification, social mobility and life chances, and debates about the changing class structure.
Sources & how we know this
- WJEC GCE AS and A Level in Sociology specification — WJEC (2015)